Fore! Zack Holton tees off professional career

It’s a rare feat to jump into a new activity on a whim and become one of the best in the world practically overnight. However, that is exactly what Oak Mountain area resident Zack Holton managed to achieve. 

At the time of this writing, Holton was ranked No. 5 in the   Drive, the globe’s premier professional golf long drive competition. He has also managed to rack up an impressive list of awards and accomplishments during his short career, including Rookie of the Year 2021 and a top 5 finish in the Professional Long Drive Association World Championships. 

However, after capturing his first victory on a tour stop in La Salle, Colorado, in June, Holton’s name is now being mentioned among the sport’s elite. The tournament was held on a course at an elevation of 4,800 feet and, Holton said, the ball was flying off his club throughout the tournament.

“It isn’t quite a mile high, but still the altitude is a huge factor and the ball travels further, so the numbers can get pretty wild,” Holton said. “I was hitting it well that day.”

“Hitting it well” is an understatement. After rolling through his first two matches, Holton smashed a personal-best 473-yard drive, helping him land a spot in the final. There, he faced Martin Borgmeier, currently ranked No. 1 on the World Long Drive Championship Tour and considered to be one of, if not the, top performer in the sport. 

Unintimidated, Holton had one of the best sets in the history of the tour, landing five of his six shots in bounds, all of which traveled between 463 and 468 yards. Had his sixth and final shot landed in bounds, Holton would have broken a world record for the longest set in long drive history, equivalent to 1.7 miles.

“It was by far the best set of my career and it was the perfect time to do it,” he said. 

Holton said even though he is a relative newcomer to the sport, the tour victory was a significant milestone in his development as a professional long driver. Since joining the tour as a professional in 2021, Holton has finished in second place three times, so getting that first victory was vital and exhilarating.

“I was pretty fired up after I won,” he said. “I haven’t been competing very long but I’ve had a lot of high finishes. … So being able to push past that barrier and get into the winner’s circle, I was really thrilled with myself. I’m just trying to do it again.”

Born and raised in the Oak Mountain community, Holton played on the golf teams at Oak Mountain High School and at Birmingham-Southern College. His father, Richard, shared a flier promoting a long-drive competition during Holton’s freshman year of college in 2017.

“At the time, they were putting these events on the Golf Channel and my dad sent it to me kind of as a halfway joke,” he said. “I was a freshman in college and had no idea what I wanted to do yet, but it looked like a lot of fun just from everything I’ve seen on TV.”

Holton decided to give it a shot.

“We literally bought a driver off the internet,” he said, “and went up to the qualifier in Memphis.”

While Holton admits he didn’t make much noise at that first tournament, he enjoyed the experience and made a decision to return to long drive competition after college. When he came back to it in 2019, he found early success on the amateur level, finishing second in his first tournament and winning his next two events. 

After the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour relaunched in 2021 under its new name, World Long Drive. Holton turned professional that year, at a time when the sport reached a new level of popularity and competitiveness. 

“Right now, long drive competitors are at a level now that it’s never been at before. There are probably 20 different guys that can go out and win the World Championship whereas in previous years, there were only maybe four or five,” Holton said. “The talent level has grown exponentially, but I’m proud to say that I’m part of that group pushing the bar even further.”

When not competing on the World Long Drive tour, Holton is an associate underwriter at AmWINS Group, a specialty insurance company based in Birmingham. Learn more about the World Long Drive tour at worldlongdrive.com.