April 10^th 2016, St. Andrews.- The Swedish Andreas Persson won the Scotland LDET Championship beating Dan Konyk with a best hit of 362 yards after playing three sets in the final. In the first tournament of the season, held at the Fairmont St. Andrews, almost 30 hitters from all over Europe participated.

Long Drive at the home of golf

For the first time, Scotland has hosted one of the championships on the tour. Not surprisingly, it´s the homeland of the golf. As we expected, the day started with rain and cold weather and grey skies. The low temperature conditioned the earlier hits of the players who have not exceeded 350 yards. In the afternoon, hitters reached the 404 yards, the longest ball of the day sponsored by Williams Racing Golf, and achieved by the Scotsman John McSloy. In addition, 17-hole golf course Kittocks added an extra challenge for the talent of the long drivers.

The Scottish John McSloy with a blast of 329 yards highlighted group 1. He was follow by Edbald Markus (SWE, 307 and), Marko Mustonen (FIN, 305y) and Thomas Morel (FRA). The English Joe Miller returned to a championship of the LDET and he did not disappoint. He made a mark of 337y far from he is used to do. Other marks were:  M. Rogalski (SCO, 317y), Alex Cerdervall (SWE) and Timo Petrasch (ALE, 319y). However, Miller fell in the second round defeated by the Swiss Benaglio by two sets to zero. Miller was unbeaten in Europe since 2012 by Mr Konyk. After almost four years Benaglio beat him in a long drive championship.

In the third group, the best was Emil Rosberg (SWE, 350y), followed by Matthew Nicolle (ENG, 349y), Dan Konyk (345y) and Mauro Benaglio (CH, 338y). And in the last frame, Persson was first (344y) and after him: the Finnish Aleksi Kivini (334y), Tanguy Marionex (BEL, 332y) and the Serbian Ilija Djurdjevic (331y).

A final with big names

The road to the first title of the season was not easy for Andreas Persson. He left back the rookie Thomas Morel (FRA), Edblad Markus (SWE) and John McSloy (SCO). In the other hand, Dan Konyk signed a great championship after eliminate Martin Rogalski (SCO), Emil Rosberg (SWE) and Matthew Nicolle (ENG).

In the final battle, the spectators at Fairmont St. Andrews enjoyed the performance of Persson (350, 347, 362) and Konyk (348, 349, 355), two of the most experimented long drivers, who played three sets. The rookie Matthew Nicolle finished third.

Best bombings in sight

The long drivers play with the balls provided by Volvik. The sponsor of the circuit works to get better distances in their performances and premiered a new model of ball called MAGMA, which was tested by Persson and Konyk. Both showed their power and reached spectacular marks of 373 and 374 yards. LDET RANKING 

2 days for the Scotland LDET Championship. Today during the afternoon we will do the draw of the tournament.

More info: Pairings & Schedule

Start your visit in our exhibition, exploring the history of the name Kingsbarns and stepping into the Doocot, where the first cask filled at Kingsbarns rests. Your guide will then explain our distillation methods inside the distillery and then take you into one of our tasting rooms to try our new make spirit and a dram of Wemyss Malts whisky. A shop and cafe await you at the end of the tour and your ticket price includes a £2 voucher redeemable in the shop against a 70cl bottle of whisky or gin. Price of the tour: £10 (1hour tour with 2 drinks at the end). Book your tour:  doug@kingsbarnsdistillery.com

Tour times: Thursday 7th April at 5pm or Friday 8th at 11.30am

REMINDER: Next 15^th March is the last day to register for the Scotland LDET Championship.

The players that haven´t registered yet, do it as soon as possible because after that day we will not accept any registrations.

Championship information and registrations:

www.europeanlongdrivers.com/tournaments/scotland-ldet