The sun has set on the first day of competition at the Kingsport tour stop, setting the tone for the remaining divisions. The morning started with the Senior competitors taking the tee as the sun broke through the morning haze. Top senior competitors including Eddie Fernandes, Jeff Gavin, Antony Livingston and Ryan Reisbeck were at the top of the leaderboard with consistent performances across their sets.
It proved to be a game of numbers as the top competitors led in different categories. Ryan Reisbeck, in his second senior competition of the season gained the most yards in the semifinals and earned the most points. Despite not advancing into the quarterfinals, Antony Livingston remained consistent with the most balls in the grid and longest distance in a set, 15 balls in and 1578 yds, respectively. Eddie Fernandes hit the longest ball of the senior competition at 379 yards.
The final match-up was a head to head battle between the pack leaders, Eddie Fernandes and Ryan Riesbeck. Ryan was the first to get a ball in the grid with his second shot landing in boundsl at 340 yards, followed by Eddie with ball number five at 348 yards. The second and final in-grid ball for Ryan landed at 368 yards with two balls remaining for Eddie. Eddie closed out the set with his final ball at 374 yards to clench the Senior Division title. This is Eddie’s fifth tour win this season, the most of any competitors across all divisions.
The Amateur division kicked off at 1 p.m. with the field of 32. Fan favorites Jack Abbott and Bud Weidner did not advance past the first round and left the world champion title up for grabs. The race was on against the players and weather, as forecasts called for rain. Once the quarterfinals began, the gap in the field tightened and left no room for error as consistent sets left small margins among the final four.
The semifinals set the division leaders, Andrew Eigner and Kauner Kay apart from the field. They advanced to the final with only one yard difference between their longest drives, Andrew with 389 yds and Kauner with 387 yds. Kauner Kay set the tone in the final set with his second ball landing at 370 yards. Andrew didn’t land a ball in-bounds until his fourth swing that sent the ball 366 yards. Kauner failed to land another ball in-bounds and put the pressure on Andrew to respond. Andrew Eigner had an MVP performance with his sixth and final ball, as it reached 384 yards and secured his title as World Long Drive 2023 Amateur World Champion. Although this is Andrews fourth win of the season, it is not his last competition. He will return to the tee in Oceanside and Atlanta World Championships as an Open division competitor.
The competition will resume tomorrow at 8 a.m. with the first round of the Open Division. Round one of the Women’s Division will begin at 4:30 p.m.. Betting is now live for the women’s and open division in Tennessee, Arizona, Wyoming and Colorado. All of Sunday’s events will be streamed on the World Long Drive Youtube Channel. Follow us on social @worldlongdrive for behind the scenes content with your favorite athletes.
Golf Channel
On Monday, August 28th, the quarterfinals -finals of the Open and Women’s division will be aired on the Golf Channel, starting with the Women at 8pm followed by the Open at 9pm.