Three representatives from Mesquite, Nevada will join disabled ParaLong Drive athletes who were invited to put on a show Tuesday during the Demo Lab at the 24th Annual Spring Conference of the International Network of Golf (ING), in Atlantic City, NJ.
The Mesquite delegation includes Mayor Pro Tem Geno Withelder, Athletic Director Bryan Dangerfield and Golf Mesquite Director Cody Law. They are on the Local Organizing Committee for the Mesquite NV ParaLong Drive Nationals and Worlds events. Law, who is also an ING board member, will introduce the ParaLong Drive delegation to more than 120 individuals in the golf industry and media.
ParaLong Drivers Brendon Jacks of Prescott Valley, Ariz., Vince Biser of Baltimore, and Dean Jarvis, Maryville, Tenn., will simulate a ParaLong Drive competition at the 3 p.m. session of Tuesday’s Demo Lab at the Atlantic City Country Club Driving Range. A dozen equipment and training companies will be exhibiting their equipment for testing during the Demo Lab.
Jacks became the first leg amputee to drive a golf ball over 400 yards with a 401-yard blast at the recent Mesquite NV ParaLong Drive Nationals. Biser is a five-time defending one-armed golfer and finished third in the unassisted division at Nationals with a drive of 297 yards. Jarvis is the founder of the Amputee Long Drive Championship and had a drive of 299 yards in the above-knee amputee division at Nationals.
In a city of only 17,746 people, Mesquite is home to seven spectacular desert-scaped Golf Courses, including Wolf Creek, Conestoga, Falcon Ridge, Oasis (Palmer and Canyons), CasaBlanca and Palms Golf Courses. Mesquite has also become known as the “Home of Long Drive” from extensive TV coverage on ESPN (and now the Golf Channel) for nearly 20 years while hosting the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships.
The Grid at the Mesquite Sports & Event Complex is the world’s finest Long Drive facility. The City of Mesquite built the multi-use facility in 2008 for $22 Million and has since held five World Long Drive Championships, two ParaLong Drive, two Mesquite Senior Games Long Drives and numerous corporate outings and media Long Drive competitions. It is also the site of soccer, rugby, lacrosse, tackle football tournaments.
Next Oct. 16-17, Mesquite will host the ParaLong Drive Worlds with blind, paramobile, leg/arm amputee golfers from eight countries.
For more information, extensive results, bios, photos, video is available on Facebook “Mesquite NV ParaLong Drive” or www.amputeelongdrivechampionship.com.
