Ryan Noll | Special to The News
Mount Airy’s Justin Young hammers a ball off the tee in the ReMax World Long Drive Championship in Las Vegas Wednesday. He reached the final eight and will compete today on national television.
LAS VEGAS — Local golfer Justin Young cranked out several long drives to survive the cut at the ReMax World Long Drive Championship Wednesday.
From 32 participants, Young kept blasting away until he made the elite eight.
The final eight competitors will be telecast live on ESPN3 at 5 p.m. today.
Young has been facing heavy pressure in every round because he has been in the losers’ bracket, noted dad Joe Young.
Groups of eight golfers step up to the tee and launch their best drives. The top four advance, and the bottom four are losers.
Young fell into the bottom four in the first heat, but he was in the top half for each of the following eight rounds.
In the first round Wednesday, Young’s best drive out of three was 393 yards. That just barely beat out the fifth-place golfer at 391 yards. He advanced to the next round by a mere 6 feet.
In the next heat, Young again was fourth with a drive of 396 yards.
He did better in the next round, getting 404 yards. That put him third and eliminated former champion Carl Wolter.
In the final round of the day, Young reached 406 (second longest) and eliminated two more former champions Jason Zuback and Joe Miller.
Father Joe said he is very excited to see Justin on TV today. Because of his schedule, Joe isn’t able to be with his son in person, but he’s kept in contact with Young and Ray Fulk, father of Justin’s girlfriend Hanna Fulk.
Lots of sponsors have gotten to know Young this week and came away impressed with the young man, according to Fulk. Those sponsors could provide him with free equipment, while making the elite eight guarantees Young a share of the prize money.
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