Inside Golf profiled seven-time Canadian Long Drive Golf Champion Lisa “Longball” Vlooswyk in their Spring 2018 issue, discussing her journey to the top and the hurdles she experienced breaking into a traditionally male-dominated sport.
Lisa went from being a high-handicap recreational golfer to a professional player who hits farther than most men. She entered the world of Long Drive in 2001 and has since won seven consecutive National Long Drive Championship titles and is currently ranked fifth in the world. She was the first woman to hit a golf ball over the length of three and a half NFL Football fields and currently holds the Canadian Women’s Long Drive Record at 350 yards, 2 feet, 2 inches.
As a child, her father “dragged” her to the golf course for her first lesson where she was placed at the end of the range so she wouldn’t get in the way of the boys. She said “…in the 1980s there weren’t a lot of strong girls’ golf programs like there are now.” It wasn’t until 2001 that she returned to the game of golf with renewed commitment, quitting her day job and focusing on becoming the best. From the article:
Lisa had an innate ability to launch a golf ball tremendous distances once she understood the mechanics of the swing. Even thought she figured that part of the game out, she still had huge barriers to overcome on her climb to the top of the nation as the biggest female hitter and a runner-up in the World Long Drive Championships. While the public’s vision toward the female side of the game is changing, it’s been a long, tough climb.
To that end, Lisa has strapped on her spikes and swung into action by not only contributing big tee shots at corporate golf outings but conducting pre-tourney clinics, hosting seminars at a major Canadian golf retailer’s stores and starting up her own women-only golf schools. All that, plus more, appears to be paying big dividends.
“Golf is definitely a male-dominated sport,” she noted about breaking new ground for women in the game. “In corporate tournaments, 75 to 80 per cent of the attendees are men. Where are the women? Back in the office doing the work while the men are doing the networking. That’s where my passion came from. I was a woman in a man’s world but now I try to train women to be corporate and charity golf ready.”
Lisa knows the keys to achieving peak performance and is committed to sharing them along with her love of golf. She is especially passionate about helping women in golf and now runs her own women-only golf schools in both Canada and the United States. Read more about Lisa’s inspiring journey and success story from the Spring 2018 issue of Inside Golf here.
