The bull hitters perfect driving to a tee

Tim Glover meets two golfers whose reputation as the biggest swingers is founded in fact

Mark Glynn was on the practice ground at a course in Bermuda, hitting golf balls into the sea, as you do, when Jack Nicklaus wandered over and asked him if he'd like to play nine holes. "At first I thought he was talking to somebody else," Glynn said. "It was like meeting the Queen."

When Big Jack saw the full extent of Glynn's prodigious hitting, the thought might have crossed his mind that he was playing with King Kong. "If I could have generated that kind of power, I would have won every major I ever entered," Nicklaus said. "I have never seen anyone strike the ball like that."

Even if you credit the word of the Golden Bear with a touch of hyperbole, the fact is that Glynn and his partner Rick Adams are the mightiest hitters of a golf ball in history. It's official. Last summer Glynn and Adams, who are now established as the Titleist Long Drive Team, set a benchmark with a blow of 351 yards at Formby Hall Golf Club in Southport. A few weeks later at Witney in Oxfordshire they increased the distance to 359 yards.

The point about both drives, which were measured by professional surveyors, is that they were all carry, that is the distance to where the ball pitched on landing not to where it came to rest. No wind, no slope, no roll. After meticulous scrutiny, Guinness have just ratified the achievements as world records.

"John Daly?" Glynn said, almost spitting the name out, "either of us would carry the ball 60 yards past him. It is no gimmick, there's no trickery. It's a question of timing, technique, strength and equipment. Everything we use is perfectly legal. Some long hitters, using top spin, measure drives to where the ball finishes. That's crap. With roll we had a drive once at Hill Valley in Shropshire of 457 yards."

Yesterday the two heavyweights (Glynn is 16st 10lb, Adams 16st 1lb, both 6ft 2in) launched their touring show at Stockley Park, a European Tour course near Heathrow. Today they fly to South Africa, followed by Jamaica. Both are professional golfers and are coached by Gavin Christie, the man who looks after the swings of the Ryder Cup players Mark James and Howard Clark.

Glynn, a martial arts expert, used to play rugby league as a teenager for St Helens and Warrington; Adams once played centre-half for Manchester City. "I made 15 appearances in the first team," Adams said, "but at the time City were managed by John Bond and he was never going to drop his son Kevin from the back four. I was an animal."

Apart from their immense forearm strength, one of the keys to their striking is a clubhead velocity approaching 200mph. Daly's is around 160mph, the average player's 110mph. For the technically minded they use titanium Starship or Howitzer drivers, an inch or two shorter than the maximum club length of 47 inches permitted by Guinness for record attempts, and Titleist PTS two-piece balls. "We can clear any obstacle on any golf course," Glynn said. "We are also consistent. Nobody strikes the ball like us. We are everybody's fantasy."

If Glynn (the only player ever to drive the green at The Belfry's famous 18th hole) and Adams are not just bull hitters, why can't they make a handsome living on the pro tour? "It's a question of financial backing," Glynn said. "Until you've stood on the first tee not knowing whether you're going to make a penny you don't know what it's like. It's an unbelievable experience. I know pros who are struggling to buy petrol for their car."

In golf they say drive for show, putt for dough. With Glynn and Adams it's drive for show and dough. As they went through their routine at Stockley Park, Ruud Gullit arrived to play a round. The Chelsea player may be able to show Adams a thing or two about modern football but he wouldn't get within a country mile of him off the tee.