Melbourne’s Chris Andrews qualifies for World Long Drive championships

CHRIS Andrews has hit a golf ball more than twice the length of the MCG — and now the dynamite driver will wield his club against big hitters from around the globe. VIDEO: Watch him in action.

CHRIS Andrews is quite literally getting in the swing of being one of the world’s biggest hitters.

The Sanctuary Lakes golf coach has always been able to hit the ball a long way — now he hopes to make a career out of it.

Andrews, 30, has qualified for the World Long Drive championships, where he will wield his club against big hitters from around the globe.

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Chris Andrews has qualified to represent Australia at the World Longest Drive Championships. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The longest he has hit the ball so far is 350m — more than twice the length of the MCG, just 100m shy of the Flemington straight and 50m taller than the Eureka Tower.

In competition the furthest he has landed the ball is about 340m, a strike that would grab the attention of golfing greats such as Tiger Woods and Greg Norman.

Next month he will take on golfers hitting it even further, and he can hardly wait for the challenge.

“I only started in November, so to make the World Championships, I feel like I need to pinch myself,” he said.

The longest official drive in professional golf was recorded in Las Vegas in 1974 when Mike Austin, then 64, rocketed the ball 472m.

Chris Andrews has hit a golf ball more than twice the length of the MCG. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Woods blasted a 455m monster during a PGA Tour event in Hawaii in 2002.

But long-drive players can average 320m launches in competition and a player at a South African playoff in 2012 belted it 462.9m.

Andrews, who started playing golf aged 12 and turned pro at 20 once his handicap was down to four, said he was proud to fly the flag for Australia at the world championships in Oklahoma.

He uses a specially designed club with a stiffer shaft, lower loft than usual and a reinforced face to withstand the force of his attack.

His swing has been clocked in the US measurement of 140 miles per hour (225kmh) and ball speed measured at 205mph (330kmh).

“To put that in perspective, the ­average on the PGA Tour is about 115 club head speed and the ball speed is about 170 (mph),” he said.

“The key to it is really controlling the speed but also a solid technique, good fundamentals in the golf swing and a lot more rotation in a lot longer swing.”

In his first tilt at the discipline, he finished third at the New Zealand Long Drive Open.

“That kind of made me realise that I could compete,” he said.

Now he is shooting for the stars.

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