is for Hank Kuehne
THE AMERICAN BOASTS THE LONGEST EVER DRIVING AVERAGE IN PGA TOUR HISTORY.
When Hank Kuehne was 11, he won a longdrive contest with a 250-metre drive. A year later, he retained the title with a blow of 264 metres. He won the 1998 US Amateur aged 22. And when he was 28, he burst onto the PGA Tour. That season, armed with a 140mph clubhead speed and 180mph ball speed, Kuehne usurped John Daly as the longest hitter in the game by averaging a still-record 321.4 yards (293.9 metres) from the tee.
“The other pros are amazed,” smiles Kuehne. “When I’m hitting drivers on the range everything kind of stops and all the guys turn around to watch.”
Kuehne wasn’t accurate, sitting 187th in fairways hit, but he didn’t care. “To be honest, I think that stat is kind of skewed, because I’m not necessarily trying to hit the fairway on a lot of holes,” he shrugged. “If a hole is 340 or 350 yards, then I might knock it on the green or in a greenside bunker.”
Not that 340 or 350 was the top of Kuehne’s range. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone hit it that far,” said Arnold Palmer after witnessing Kuehne boom a 370-plus drive, while 11-time PGA Tour winner Andy Bean tells this story about a practice round with Kuehne.
“We were on the 543-yard 6th at Bay Hill and Hank said, ‘I bet I can knock it on’. We gave him three shots at it and bet him dinner he couldn’t. There was a 10mph tailwind. His rst effort came up a few feet short, but the second landed – eight feet on the green. I couldn’t believe what I’d seen.”
Butch Harmon once described Kuehne’s swing as, “A perfect picture of power and balance ... effortless power rather than powerful effort.”
A back injury kept Kuehne out of action for ve years, and he struggled for form on his return. In 2012 and 2013, he played 17 times and missed 12 cuts. Nearing 40, he’s now relying on sponsors’ exemptions to get into events.
Whether or not he makes it back to the big time, Kuehne will always have 2003, a year when he was Mr Power.
I don’t swing hard at it ... it’s all about balance.