Jay Stocki (USA) has officially achieved the world’s longest golf putt (non-tournament) from a distance of 122.3 metres (401.2 ft), breaking the previous record (120.8 m; 396.3 ft) set by Dude Perfect’s Garrett Hilbert earlier this year.
Jay, 55, undertook the challenge alongside seven close friends during their yearly golfing trip to Kohler, Wisconsin.
He missed 237 times over the course of two days before sinking his record-breaking putt.
Beginning on Monday 25 September at The Baths of Blackwolf Run golf course, the friends took turns putting in roughly 15-minute shifts, and their confidence was buoyed by “several close putts” during the first hour.
“Being so close had convinced our team that we were easily going to be able to make the putt in a few hours,” Jay recalls. “We were quite wrong on that assumption.”
They took a lunch break after three and a half hours of non-stop putting, and after continuing throughout the afternoon with no luck, they decided to call it a day.
As everyone had family and work commitments, they could only carve out two days of their calendar for the record attempt, so if they were unsuccessful on Tuesday, they’d have to go home empty handed.
On Tuesday morning, after moving the location of the hole, they began putting again.
Each guy tried a variety of techniques; some preferred something similar to a hockey slapshot, whereas I liked to lower my right hand just slightly and really use my body turn to get the putt to go far enough. - Jay
Throughout the day, several of their strokes hit the flagstick and many others touched the hole’s lip without falling in.
These near misses, coupled with the worsening wet weather, caused morale to get “pretty low,” Jay said.
Their spirits then fell further during the afternoon as two of the group had to leave. “The eight guys had dwindled to six and you could start to feel a bit of sadness in the air,” Jay remembers.
As the friends rotated through their turns, continuing to get close but ultimately failing to make the putt, Jay stepped up to take the final shift of the day.
He proceeded to miss with 19 strokes, and with daylight quickly fading, he lined up to take his final one.
After Jay hit the ball, his friend Dan said, “You got one more,” but Jay immediately replied, “No, it’s over, that’s in,” and walked away from the teeing area.
Amazingly, he was correct! The ball steadily rolled the 401-ft distance over the green and landed straight in the hole.
“Absolute pandemonium ensued,” Jay recalls.
“We were all just so happy that one of us made it. It truly was a fairytale ending. We were so excited that evening that I ended up losing my voice for a few days!
“It's not easy to convince seven knucklehead friends to give up a few days of their lives to help chase a dream. Fortunately, I have good friends in Jeff Bell, Mike Born, Chris Carriveau, Bill Grant, Michael Guerrieri, Tim Radigan, and Dan Roberts, who joined me in making history.”
Besides achieving the world record, Jay says that the best part of the entire process was realizing “how curious people are” about it. “Lots of people asked to attempt the putt,” he revealed.
With this in mind, Jay has decided to organize an annual contest, named the World’s Longest Putt Competition, which anyone in the USA can enter to try and break his record.
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