Jamie Sadlowski Retires!!!

Graham DeLaet may be the former owner of the best beard in golf, but he's not our favourite Canadian golfer. That honour goes to Jamie Sadlowski, former world Long Drive champion, and the only golfer we’ve ever seen that breaks his wrists twice on the backswing! And last night he announced his retirement from long drive, to take on a new challenge by trying to get his PGA Tour card.

Speaking on the Callaway Live web TV show Sadlowski explains. “I’ve played four web.com events over the years, obviously not practicing and working on my game just a couple of days before each event. I’ve made three out of four cuts. One of two on the Canadian tour. Doing shows has been great and everything, but I think I could be doing more. I have a weapon in my bag that obviously not everybody has, if I use it to my best ability."

Earlier this year Sadlowski won his US Open Local Qualifier, with TV commentator Gary McCord on his bag. “I don’t know how good I can get. It’s a shot in the dark because there are a lot of great players out there. But I’ve never worked on it. Winning the local qualifier with a 65. With McCord on my bag. Which is a miracle! It probably could have been a 60 that day but he's like a five shot penalty as he never shuts up.”

Sadlowski, whose swing speed tops out at 151 MPH, and who has seen his ball speed reach 223 miles per hour, explained how he hits the ball so hard. 

“Violence! I was the youngest child and if I didn’t defend myself my brothers would have killed me! So I learned at a young age that if I had something in my hands I was going to swing it and I was going to swing it fast with the intention to hurt”

He also explained the big differences between the two forms of the game. 

“With Long Drive it (the Wold Championship) happens once year. If you miss a cut, next week you tee it up you’ve got a chance, and that's not the thing with Long Drive. It’s been a stressful part of the job, you get one crack at it. With tour golf obviously the hard part is getting your card, getting status, that's the stressful part. Once you’re out there momentum carries you through a lot of events. 

“In Long Drive your momentum better carry you through those three days, because otherwise there is no momentum because you wait another 12 months to have that redemption. It still pisses me off, I’m still angry about that."

“Doing 60 corporate outings a year, I’d have time to work on my wedge game, but with no future of playing golf  it was kind of pointless. I enjoy playing good golf but I know what butters my toast. Hitting it 400 yards butters my toast.”

The real eye opener was when Sadlowski played the sectional qualifier for the US Open. 

“I played the sectional qualifier with Tony Finau and Troy Merritt, and in my eyes there wan’t much difference, just refining my game and getting the ball in the hole a bit quicker. 

“I’m going to play a couple of Asian Tour events, the Indonesian Masters, and Macau. I’m going to go to Q School here in September. When I step on the tee, I don’t have five more in my pocket, I have one that needs to be found! It’s a different strategy but one I need to get used to. 

Sadolwski cheekily asked “Can I get a loan?" to which Callaway’s Harry Arnett replied "Absolutely. We have a history of people coming out of nowhere. Remember Wes Bryan? No status. People thought he was just a trick shot guy. Battlefield promotion, three wins on the web.com tour. It can happen.”

With Callaway offering their full support, and a real sense of self belief, we would love to see Jamie S lighting it up on the PGA Tour and smoking his drives to places we’ve never seen before.

Who is Wes Bryan?