David Micheluzzi on Friday at the Australian Open.
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Our title, by far, tells the biggest story of this article. WATCH: DP World Tour pro hits 139-yard putt, breaks world record. Well done, David Micheluzzi! This is incredible!
But let’s also try to hold you close for a minute. If you look closely enough at the footage released Friday by the DP World Tour and read a bit about the effort, there are other cool items, such as:
— Micheluzzi, a 28-year-old pro from Australia, was not alone in his efforts. Robert MacIntyre gave him a go – and one of his attempts hit a sprinkler head. Matt Wallace hit a ball already on the green. Joost Luiten, Dylan Frittelli and Yannik Paul missed by about 3 feet. Thriston Lawrence and Sean Crocker lost by about 2. Romain Langasque missed by about 18 inches. Dan Bradbury missed by about a foot – after saying he squeezed an earlier attempt.
— Yes, it was staged; no, it didn’t come in the actual tournament game. The putt was recorded on the 7th hole at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi ahead of the DP World Tour’s HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship earlier this month, at a venue deliberately chosen to better the previous Guinness World Records mark of “golf’s longest (not the tournament)” That said, putting at least lends some support to the notion that if you can hit a ball, you hit a ball. Leave the wedge in the bag – or in this case, a short iron. Yas Links fairways must have been clean.
— So why the hell did DP World Tour do this? As far as we can tell, that can be answered with another question: Why the hell not? It’s a pleasure. It’s the content. The tournament also attempted to break Guinness records before. According to their websiteDP World Tour players have set the standard for “fastest hole of golf by a team of four” (24.75 seconds by Crocker, Nicolai Hojgaard, Min Woo Lee AND Wilco Nienaber); “Fastest Hole in Golf by an Individual” (1 minute, 29.62 seconds by Thomas Detry); and “farthest golf putt into a moving car” (303 yards away Marcus Armitage).
But yes, the 139m free throw is still the star here – although there is at least one person who can claim to have hit a longer one.
Micheluzzi’s effort came in his second attempt, DP World Tour said. In the record, he returned his ball to waist level and hit – and after about 2 seconds, he loved it. “That’s it,” he said. “That’s getting there.” His ball dodged the splash head mentioned earlier. Missed another ball. On the green, it started left of the left hole, worked right, then broke left on the bottom and found the middle of the cup. Based on the footage, the ball rolled for 20 seconds – and Micheluzzi lifted his ball after 11. You can watch full video belowand below are multiple angles of record shooting.
