Tour Edge sent this story out as a press release yesterday, but given the craziness of the event, I decided to feature it today.  Simply put, I love the spirit of this story and the sportsmanship that occurred.  A crazy turn of events led to the GOAT of the Women’s Long Drive game, Phillis Meti, helping out her competitor in the final of the World Long Drive Tennessee Big Shots Event by letting her use one of her Exotics EXS drivers due to said competitor’s clubs not making it to the event.  While Meti went on to lose in the Final to one of her own drivers (!), it’s still a wild story and an unexpected 1-2 finish for Tour Edge.  Check the whole story out below!  It’s a good one.

Golf Channel’s World Long Drive Tennessee Big Shots Event – An All Exotics EXS Final

Phillis Meti Loans Exotics EXS Driver to Opponent whose Luggage was Lost, Only to Lose by Two Yards to Her Own Driver in the Finals

The No. 1 ranked women’s World Long Driver Phillis Meti entered the Tennessee Big Shots event on fire. She had won three of four live events held on the Golf Channel so far this season.

She then put up a near-perfect semi-final round in Tennessee Monday night with six of eight balls in the grid and an unbeatable longest drive of 346 yards with her Tour Edge Exotics EXS Driver.

Meti moved into her fifth finals of the year as the perennial favorite and posted a 326-yard drive in the first round of the finals.

It turns out that the only thing that could beat Meti’s Exotics EXS Driver was another Exotics EXS Driver.

Her opponent in the finals was flying to the event from Milwaukee on Sunday, but got stuck in Charlotte. She hitched a ride from a Golf Channel employee who went through the same delay and got to her hotel on Monday morning at 4 a.m.

Using a borrowed Exotics EXS driver from Meti and competing on four hours sleep, the eventual winner beat the three-time world champion in the finals, when her next-to-last swing produced a drive of 328 yards with the very same driver Meti had won three events with this year.

In the previous event’s finals in Rochester, Meti had beaten her by two feet and seemed to be actually cheering for her opponent’s ball as it approached her yardage line on the Golf Channel telecast.

“This is such a good story,” said Meti. “She had no clubs and no clothes. We all pitched in and she bloody won with one of mine. The Long Drive family is something else. We rallied this morning for her and I am glad it worked out for her.”

The all Exotics EXS Driver finals led to the 4th WLD victory this year for the $299 driver.

“It felt really good to finally have a roll that went my way,” said the Tennessee Big Shots winner.

The winning 328-yard drive with the EXS produced a 116 MPH swing speed and a 172 MPH ball speed with a spin rate of 1653 to Meti’s 326-yarder with a 120 MPH swing speed, 177 MPH ball speed and 2542 RPM spin rate.

Meti’s 346 yard drive in the semi-finals was with a 124 MPH swing at a 178 MPH ball speed and a 2385 spin rate.

Meti uses a 7.5 degree 47” Exotics EXS Driver with a Reve Revolver X shaft. The EXS Driver comes in a 9.5 degree loft designation, but it features an adjustable hosel that Meti has dialed into a 7.5 degree wind-defying, distance machine.

Meti will compete for her 4th World Long Drive Championship Sept. 4th at WinStar Casino and Resort.

In the first event of the 2019 WLD season, Meti won the Ak-Chin Smash in the Sun in Arizona with two world record drives in a row of 408 and 413 yards.

She then was a runner-up at the Ft. Jackson military based event in South Carolina, before winning the next two events in Atlantic City and Rochester.

The three longest drives in the history of the women’s long drive have now been set by Meti and Exotics drivers. On her 413 yarder, she recorded a 127 MPH club head speed and a 182 MPH ball speed with a 117 foot height apex.

“The EXS driver is a $299 driver that has now won numerous awards and that has been put into play on the PGA Tours, but this takes the cake,” said Tour Edge President and Master Club Designer David Glod. “For Phillis to hit 408 and 413 and produce those kinds of ball speed numbers means that she is an extremely great long driver and that the EXS is the perfect fit and the perfect driver for her quest to become the world’s greatest.”

Meti held the previous world record of 406 yards, also set with an Exotics driver. She won the 2018 World Long Drive Championship with an Exotics driver, her 2nd World Long Drive Championship in the last three years playing Exotics. The New Zealander has a strong history with World Long Drive as the World Long Drive Champion (2006, 2016, and 2018), World Long Drive Runner-Up (2007, 2008).

Meti has won the World title three times, finished 2nd twice and finished third once in the six Worlds’ she has competed in since winning in 2006.