For the seventh straight year, local long driver Jamie Sadlowski will be teeing off as part of the October Eight at the Re/MAX World Long Drive Championships in Las Vegas on Oct. 30.
"There are eight guys left, there are four guys out of the winners bracket who came out on top and four guys who made it in through the losers bracket," said Sadlowski.
For the first time in the Re/MAX World Long Drive Championship history, the finals will be held at the Las Vegas Speedway, and will be broadcasted live for the first time on the Golf Channel.
"It's going to be a way different venue, from the grid, to the fans, they plan on having 10,000 people in the stands rather than the couple thousand they have at worlds," he said. "It's going to be a different experience but the whole deal is the hype of the show . . . This is going to be the first live show. October 9 is when it starts airing all the stuff they shot during prelims and qualifying (on the Golf Channel)."
Sadlowski pointed out that the format for the finals is yet to be determined, but will likely open with either an eight-man shoot-off or paired match ups leading into a two-man showdown.
Sadlowski added that while the name of the game is hitting the longest ball, a different style of play means bringing a different mentality to the tee.
“If it goes head to head then it's a different mentality than if its just eight guys shooting for four spots," he said, adding that the course at the Las Vegas Speedway will provide a new challenge, as it will be narrower than the qualification course in Mesquite, Nevada. "Usually it's just about trying to hit it as far as possible but the way that they have it set up I think that there's going to be an emphasis on hitting it a lot straighter."
Sadlowski said that during his stay in Nevada, he spent some time with a camera crew who got to know him for an upcoming preview special leading into the finals.
“We had cameras follow us around for a night on the town. The way they're going to build it up, it's going to be an actual show where you get to learn about each hitter and where they came from and how the process goes," he said. “It's just neat that people can kind of see the process and people that aren't there are going to be able to see just how hard it is to get one of those eight spots."
The Re/MAX World Long Drive Championship finals will be held on Oct. 30. For more information visit longdrivers.com, and for information regarding air times visit golfchannel.com.
