Power ... and tempo

POST FALLS — Phillis Meti and Brittany Bomar met some five years ago, when they were paired together at the New Zealand Open, an ladies Australian Tour event in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Bomar’s side saddle putting stroke — something she picked up from her father — was something that caught Meti’s eye.

“We were on the putting green,” the New Zealand-born Meti recalled, noting Bomar’s putting stroke, “and I thought, ‘This girl must be joking.’”

“I get that a lot,” Brittany interjected, “’til I start making them.”

“We get to the first green and she’s got like a 50-foot putt, and (I’m like), ‘get a piece of this,’” Meti said. “But maybe that’s the way she putts. So we waited, like three holes, and she’s still putting the same.”

Meti had her own unique trait — the ability to pound the golf ball a long way.

She won the 2006 women’s long drive championship at age 19, and was runner-up the next two years.

Meti took a break from long drive competitions to focus on her playing career, until returning to the long drive circuit a few years ago.

She won the 2016 women’s long drive championship, and holds the women’s world record with a drive of 406 yards.

On Tuesday evening, that ability brought her — and her good friend Brittany (both are 30) — to Prairie Falls, where Meti put on a long-drive exhibition/clinic in front of neary 100 curious souls. Bomar’s father, Billy, is co-owner of Prairie Falls.

Despite a crosswind that was slightly into her, Meti smoothly belted a “warmup ball” 317 yards, and the other drives carried between 300 and 315 yards.

“To me, tempo and timing is everything,” Meti said. “When I time it well, obviously I get it out there a long way. But I’m also quite naturally strong, and I know how to use my angles.”

When she was growing up, her dad, Raz, noticed she was longer off the tee that other girls her age. Her first long drive competition was the New Zealand championships, which she said she “won by about 35 meters.”

The organizer of that event thought Phillis might do well at the world long drive championships. She did more than do well — she was the only woman to hit it farther than 300 yards, winning with a drive of 326 yards.

“It was fantastic,” Meti said. “It opened up a lot of doors in the golfing industry that I’d never ever thought of (like exhibitions and clinics).

She also played other sports growing up — she threw the shot put and discus, she dabbled in outrigger canoeing, and played a sport called netball, “which is kinda like basketball, but you don’t dribble the ball, and you shoot to a hoop that doesn’t have a backboard,” she explained.

Meti says she averages 117, 118 mph in clubhead speed. By comparison, the top male long drivers reach 140, 150 mph, and the average male has a clubhead speed of 90-95 mph.

During Tuesday’s exhibition, once she got warmed up, Meti’s long drive swing looked like a normal tee shot swing — plus a few degrees of “oomph” on the downswing.

“It’s really hard to put both swings on demand,” Meti said. “When you need to hit the ball long, you hit the ball long. When you need to hit the fairway, you need to hit the fairway. You just have to change your mindset. I’m struggling, which is why I picked one that I’m good at, and that’s long drive.”

Brittany Bomar grew up in Alaska, and played golf at the University of Hawaii. She moved to Australia in 2011, learned about the Australian Tour from a college teammate who was from Sydney. She played part-time on the tour in 2012, then full-time the next five years.

The Australian Tour consists of roughly a half-dozen tournaments per season, during the summer Down Under (when it’s winter here). Some of the Australian Tour events are now also LPGA Tour events — like the Australian Open and the New Zealand Open.

“It’s like a second home for me now,” Bomar said.

The past four summers, since the family moved down here from Alaska, she has worked in the shop at her dad’s course.

She says she’s “taking a break” from the tour, and is looking to become a PGA teaching pro, possibly landing a job in the Portland/Seattle area.

Brittany said her dad “has always been my golfing mentor. I’ve watched and followed his game my entire life. Obviously he’s helped me tremendously.

“In terms of coaching, it took a long time for me to take advice from him, and absorb it — the father/daughter dynamic is not always that easy. So I was a bit stubborn and hard-headed, but he’s definitely helped me along the way. He’s a great player, so there’s a lot to learn. He knows how to win, and that’s not easy to teach.”

Like her father, Brittany says she’s putted side saddle basically her entire golfing career.

“My putting has always been the strongest part of my game, so I’ve never thought to change,” she said. “Even when the anchoring ban came into affect, I just changed my setup, and my stats stayed the same, if not better.”

Meti, meanwhile won a long-drive event a month ago in the Phoenix area with a drive of 380 yards. Next up is this year’s world long drive championships in late August.

“The idea is to help grow the sport (of golf),” Meti said. “Right now, long drive has a place in the golfing industry. If it puts people on the driving range, it may put them on the golf course.”