Pro achieves rare PGA Tour perfection: ‘Something I’ll be able to say forever’

Adam Long put together one of his best starts in months at the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante last week, and one key reason was because he played every second shot from the short stuff. Yes, every one. Long didn’t miss a fairway all week.

If that sounds preposterous, that’s probably because it is. Long’s 56-for-56 fairway week made him the first player to finish a four-round PGA Tour event with 100 percent driving accuracy since Brian Claar, who accomplished the feat at the 1992 Memorial Tournament. That’s right, 31 years ago!

“If you’re going to be short-to-average length, you need to be pretty accurate to survive out here on Tour,” Long told PGATour.com. “… It is something that I pay attention to and work hard on.”

News

Granted, the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal course has sprawling, forgiving fairways, with an average landing-area width of 60 yards. Some players were perfect hitting every fairway in certain rounds, and Paul Haley and Troy Merritt missed just one fairway each all week. Nearly a dozen more were 54 of 56. But only Long was able to pull off the perfecto.

Long shot 69 on Sunday, good enough for a T23 finish on the week, his best since a T16 at the Barbasol Championship back in July.

His superb week of driving accuracy shouldn’t be a total surprise, though. Long ranked 33rd and 24th, respectively, in driving accuracy the previous two seasons on Tour. He’s 13th in driving accuracy this season — hitting 66.78 percent of his fairways — although one epic 56-for-56 performance certainly boosted that number.

“It’s something I’ll be able to say forever,” Long told PGATour.com. “Some sort of bragging rights or an interesting stat at trivia nights.”

You can check out the 9-degree TaylorMade Stealth 2 driver Long used below.

TaylorMade Stealth 2 Custom Driver

$399.99

NEW 60X CARBON TWIST FACE Building on the speed producing success of the original 60X Carbon TwistFace that optimized energy transfer for fast ball speeds, the new face designin Stealth 2 features an advanced version of Inverted Cone Technology (ICT)to help maintain ball speed on off-center strikes and increase forgiveness.It weighs 24g (2g lighter than the original Stealth face) and is designed to havean expanded COR area for a larger sweet spot and boosted performanceacross the entire face. CARBON REINFORCED COMPOSITE RING The Carbon Reinforced Composite Ring unites the driver head into a singular forceand frees up additional mass that has been strategically placed to deliver moreforgiveness. DESIGNED FOR SPEED AND FORGIVENESS The corrective tendencies of Twist Face™ combined with advanced ICT help maintainball speed and accuracy on off-center strikes. A lighweight full-carbon body allowsengineers to harvest mass and strategically place weight for optimal launch andforgiveness. NANOTEXTURE COVER The 60X Carbon Twist Face is encased by a polyurethane cover, featuring arevolutionary nanotexture technology. The nanotexture cover is used to fine tunelaunch and spin to optimize total distance regardless of playing conditions. ASYMMETRIC INERTIA GENERATOR The Inertia Generator remains the foundational source of refined aerodynamicproperties. The result is a slippery-fast head shape that aids in swing speedgeneration on the downswing for golfers at every level. It is outfitted with a 25g rearweight for incredible MOI and forgiveness. THRU-SLOT SPEED POCKET Our flexible Speed Pocket™ design is engineered to maximize ball speeds andproduce additional forgiveness on low-face strikes.

Buy Now

View Product