World Long Drive Champion - the title of someone who has the amazing strength, technique, and precision to blast a golf ball over 400 yards down a runway. St. Paul’s Jamie Sadlowski is no stranger to this title and the art of crushing a golf ball.
He is a two-time World Long Drive champion, winning back-to-back years in 2008 and 2009.
Athletically, Jamie has been a very active person, also playing three years of Jr. A hockey as a defenseman and Captain for the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the AJHL. An interesting fact about Sadlowski is that he is ambidextrous, shooting golf right handed, but playing hockey with his left, giving him two strong dominant wrists.
Sadlowski is now working with a corporation that does about 60 outings per year. He does a lot of travelling and does not get to practice his game as much as he’d like to. “I do a lot of working and travelling, I spend over 200 days of the year on the road, and the free time that I have I split between St. Paul and Scottsdale, where is where I usually do a little work on my game.”
Sadlowski has now shifted his focus to playing a more complete game of golf, rather than being seen as someone who can just hit a ball really far.
He recently played in a pre-qualifier event, in which he placed in the top five, and is now awaiting the call to find out which sectional event he will attend. At the event, Sadlowski had to move down and use two and three irons for tee off at certain holes because of how far he can drive the ball.
Sadlowski’s driving range makes him able to reach the green with his first shot on most par 4 holes.
The sectional event will be a 36-hole competition, in Columbus, Ohio, Vancouver, Washington, or California. If Sadlowski manages to place high in the sectional event he is assigned to, he could earn himself a berth in the U.S. Open.
Sadlowski says he has never officially made a run at professional golf, since he is busy with work and makes a good living doing what he does. He sees attempting to make the PGA Tour as a risk because it is such a difficult thing to do.
“It’s really a huge commitment, but if I make the U.S. Open, and the opportunity is there, I will definitely make a run to become a regular on the PGA Tour.”
Sadlowski describes his golf game as “okay,” and that golf is such a hard sport that he will have to put in a lot of work to make it happen.
Sadlowski still competes in the annual World Long Drive Championship every fall.
“I’ve been at the crossroads for a while. People always ask me why I don’t try to just play golf. If things line up with this event, I will definitely be seizing that opportunity,” says Sadlowski.
