They say everything’s bigger in Texas – and that even applies to golf clubs now, after a Dallas native set a new world record for the farthest shot with the longest usable driver.
Michael Furrh, 47, a golf professional and entertainer, smashed his 2014 Guinness World Record in spectacular fashion (while donning a proudly American patriotic outfit from Royal & Awesome) hitting the ball a whopping 87 yards with a 22’ 6¾”driver.
Furrh, who builds his own clubs using steel-shaft extensions, said: “Last year, I set the world record with a 19’ 4” driver, hitting it 89 yards, but I had three broken ribs from a car accident just 10 days before. But, as they say, ‘the show must go on’.
“This year, I was 100 per cent and I think that’s the main reason I was able to hit the ball 24 yards farther. I actually consulted with the physics department at the local university, and they told me, mathematically, I shouldn’t be able to hit the ball more than about 45 to 50 yards.
“After hitting it 87 yards I feel great; I was able to do something they said, mathematically, I shouldn’t have been able to do.”
Furrh uses long golf clubs as an entertainment tool in his golf shows and has, over the past three years, managed to raise more than $54,000 for a host of charities.
He added: “The whole idea of hitting the ball with the longest golf club started at one of my golf entertainment shows. We were on a par-five and my boss said to me: ‘I don’t think you have enough club’.
“He then proceeded to hand me an eight-foot driver and I managed to hit the ball about 250 yards. It was kind of a punchline but that’s where it all started.
“There are 112 world records relating to golf. When I was a kid, my grandfather had the Guinness World Records book at his house and I was infatuated with it. Every time I visited that was the only book I was interested in reading and I thought to myself ‘someday, somehow, someway I will be in that book’.”