Tom Fox dethrones 4-time long drive champion

FRANKLIN — Tom Fox’s 284-yard drive was enough to dethrone 4-time Sussex County Long Drive winner Rob Mack, who had qualified with a 332-yard drive but could not keep any of his tee shots in the grid.
Mack vowed “I’ll be back.”
The 8th Annual Sussex County Long Drive Championship was hosted by the Crystal Springs Golf Resort’s Black Bear Golf Club, General Manager Dan Hintzen, Event Coordinator Brian Vinnish and the outstanding Black Bear staff, and held on Friday, Sept. 1, at the Black Bear Golf Club. Competing in the event were golfers from 7 categories who had participated in weekly qualifying events that began in July and who achieved drives long enough to earn a spot in the Championship.
Each competitor was provided with 3 Volvik golf balls to be hit into a long drive grid marked by yardage markers to provide golfers with an indication of how far they hit their drives and whether their drives landed inbounds within the grid. The actual distance of each golfer’s drive was measured electronically by a golf GPS distance measuring device used by Black Bear’s General Manager Dan Hintzen to get an exact measurement of the distance of each of the golfer’s drives.
Other category winners included Dona Wallerius with a drive of 205 yards in the Women’s Division, Michele Richard with a drive of 194 yards in the Senior Women’s Division, Leslie Mozulay won the Super Senior Women’s Division with a drive of 172, Rick Fasano with a drive of 258 in the senior men’s division and Bob Dombroski with a drive of 260 yards to win the Super Senior Men’s Division.
The Men’s and Women’s Division Champions received Crystal Springs Golf Resort 6 Star Weekly Memberships and the Division Champions received a Crystal Springs Golf Resort 8 Flex Pack entitling them to 8 free rounds of golf on the Resort’s outstanding golf courses. All overall and division winners were given a Black Bear Towels and a sleeve of Volvik Golf Balls.
— Story and photos courtesy John Whiting