NIKE GOLF CANADA SPONSORS FOUR-TIME CANADIAN LONG DRIVE CHAMPION LISA “LONGBALL” VLOOSWYK

Calgary native belting drives up to 350 yards with Nike 460cc Ignite Driver

TORONTO (June 2, 2005)—Nike Golf Canada is pleased to announce it has signed a sponsorship agreement with four-time Canadian long drive champion Lisa “Longball” Vlooswyk.

Vlooswyk, winner of the 2004 Tour Championship of Long Drivers of America, wields the Nike 460cc Ignite driver made with NexTi Titanium and around the crown construction to hit drives as long as 350 yards in long drive competitions across North America.

“We’re pleased to have Lisa on the Nike Golf Canada team,” says Vitalis Gomes, Marketing Manager for Nike Golf Canada. “Her accomplishments in long ball competitions both in Canada and the United States have been nothing short of amazing.

“We’ve taken real notice of how popular these competitions have become around North America. Lisa is one of the stars of the professional long drive sport.”

Known on tour as Lisa Longball, Vlooswyk says: “With my association with Nike Golf Canada, I’m really excited about competing this season. The Nike 460cc Ignite driver is simply the longest driver today and I’m just smoking the ball with it.”

Vlooswyk, 31, first entered a long drive competition in 2000 and has since won consecutive Canadian Long Drive titles from 2001-2004.

These days, depending on the elevation, her drives average between 310 and 325 yards with her Nike Ignite 460cc. And at 5-foot-7, she’s often besting competitors who are six feet or taller.

She credits her years as a member of the Canadian national trampoline and tumbling team and the University of Calgary’s varsity track and field team with developing the core strength that helps her propel the ball prodigious distances.

“My oblique, lower back and abdominal muscles help me generate my power,” she says.

In 2004 she capped off an impressive season on the Long Drivers of America (LDA) Tour by winning the Tour Championship, her second victory of the season and fifth top-three finish out of six events. She was runner-up for LDA Player of the Year and was second on the tour’s money list.

Besides defending the Canadian Championship and the LDA Tour Championship titles, Vlooswyk is also gunning for the 2005 Women’s World Long Drive Championship title to be held Oct. 18-22 in Mesquite, Nevada. Lisa is one of six women exempt into the World Long Drive Championship.

 

Digital pictures of Lisa are available upon request from Tim O’Connor (see below).

Nike Golf, located in Beaverton, Oregon, is passionately dedicated to honouring and respecting the traditions and heritage of the game, and to providing committed golfers with the absolute best equipment in the game in every product category. For more information on Nike Golf, visit our Web site at www.nikegolf.com. Editors and journalists seeking editorial information and downloadable images, visit www.nikegolf.com/presscenter.

Vitalis Gomes
Nike Golf Canada
905.771.2058
vitalis.gomes@nike.com 

Tim O’Connor
O’Connor Media
519.856.9421
oconnormedia@cogeco.ca