Golf: Nola's driving ambitions

By CHRIS RATTUE

A visiting greenkeeper at the Aviation Country Club in Mangere had an immediate suspect when a golf ball pinged his car bonnet this year.

He couldn't see the perpetrator, which wasn't surprising since 27-year-old Aucklander Davyn Nola was 310m away with the smoking gun - an elongated driver - in his hands.

But in New Zealand golf, there is one man capable of launching such a long range strike. The bemused greenkeeper rang the clubhouse to have his suspicions confirmed. Given Nola's hitting prowess, it was quicker than trudging up the course to arrange the $150 damage payment.

On another day, Nola's money and the car would have been safe. He once cranked the ball 375m at a long driving competition near Washington. John Daly's average drive on the US PGA Tour this year was 279m.

The car incident was the first mishap in a career that has seen Nola pioneer long driving in this country, where his competition is a fairway back, usually finishing about 50m behind. He takes on the world's best in America, finishing 20th in the world championships near Las Vegas two years ago.

"There's Tiger Woods and John Daly's planet where we can't compete ... their short game is so good," says Nola, who works in a golf shop at the Aviation club but dreams of the $160,000 world title prize and follow-up benefits.

But with a twinkle in the eye, the chirpy Nola says: "If Tiger and those PGA guys come on to my planet they can't compete. They don't have the club head speed."

There are plenty of numbers in this long hitting game.

Nola's driver is 12.5cm longer than the norm, and some long drivers use shafts 10cm longer than that. One season, he discarded 16 fractured club heads, before changing brands. Shafts also break. Sponsors take care of the equipment problems these days.

His clubhead speed has reached 265km/h per hour - Nola guesses Tiger's whirrs around 225 and the PGA tour average is 190. Long drivers propel the ball at more than 320km/h compared with the PGA average of 257.

Nola's shaft flex is triple X, a rod of iron compared to yours and mine. He likes his golf balls as hard as they come, firing them off a 5.5 degree loft club face aided by a Monica Seles-style grunt now and then. For good measure, Nola belts the ball 180m with a wedge when he plays with three old mates at Titirangi.

The 1.9m, 100kg Nola has quit weightlifting and trains simply by smashing 300 to 400 balls a week with guidance from coach Kobus van Rensburg, and doing body stretches. His mum Lorraine - he still lives at home - takes care of his sports psychology, and her cooking is his "secret weapon".

Nola was a three handicapper, playing pennants for Titirangi, and hitting 300m drives when the internet led him to long driving, where you get six balls a round to do your best within a 44m wide fairway.

Two years ago, solo parent Lorraine helped fund Nola's first campaign in America, where his sister lives. You can almost hear the adrenalin flowing when Nola describes memorable moments along the world championship route, including a time when he was on the verge of defeat.

"With my fifth ball I turned to my sister and said, 'I love you' and then I hit it 372 yards (340m). I missed qualifying this year. It just didn't happen. No excuses. I'm not like some sportsmen who say their body was sore."

New Zealand now has a qualifier tournament, which Nola won at Formosa last month, meaning he will be back in the States chasing the world crown next year against legends such as Sean "The Beast" Fister, the tall son of a major league baseballer who, aged 25, drove the green on a 315m hole in his first full round of golf.

Canadian Jason Zuback has hit the ball 653m on an airport runway, and 423m in competition, exploding clubheads, snapping shafts, splitting finger skin, tearing shoulder joints and muscles and encouraging arthritis along the way.

Nola says: "I don't believe long hitting is genetics. It's about working hard. I've looked at videos and books. That's how I've taught myself.

"I get mixed reactions from other golfers here. Some are plain jealous ... They don't want to play with me which is sad. They'd learn a lot.

"Long driving is the biggest buzz in the world to me, perfect human motion. Every now and then it just clicks."