Swinging for the fences

By Sam Adams

For weeks, it was hard for me not to notice Kyler Brady going through intense workouts at 24 Hour Fitness health club in Parker.

One morning, as the 34-year-old was into a series of rigorous backswing-like pull exercises, the curious retired sports journalist within me finally decided to pop the question.

“Hey man — you play golf?” I asked. Brady’s response was “yeah.” He mentioned Long Drive competitions and then went back to work.

I learned later from Brady that he was training for the World Long Drive tour’s ‘Clash In The Canyon’ held in March, on the fabled long drive grounds of Mesquite, Nevada.

In 2019, at a co-worker’s urging, Brady tried a long drive competition for the first time. The event was held in Colorado Springs. “I went out there and got embarrassed,” Brady said.

“But I kind of got the itch. What an adrenaline rush you have with what these guys can do, the feeling of it.”

Brady got serious about long drive competitions in 2024. He entered events as an amateur while working on his body strength and swing speeds to compete as a pro.

Fatigue, Brady said, played a factor in his event finishes.

Every workout for Brady begins with 20 minutes of stretching. From there, it’s all relentless motion. Deadlifts, pulls, pushes, presses, squats, jumps and other assorted exercises … six to eight reps of different power movements paired with various explosive movements, for at least two hours a day.

Brady follows extensive workout programs crafted by his brother-in-law, Morgan Blatnik, a certified strength and conditioning specialist who lists the Colorado School of Mines’ baseball team on his resume.

At 6-1 and 215 pounds, Brady would appear to be bulking up to shatter golf balls. In reality, he’s trying to build swing speed to launch them deep into orbit. The longest drive Brady has hit in competition is 401 yards. His longest in practice is 423 yards.

“You try to train your body’s slow-twitch fibers and fast-twitch fibers,” Brady said. “All within 30 seconds of each other. You have to be strong, you have to be powerful and you have to be fast.

“The ultimate goal is you’re fast. So you have to have a core base to be powerful, strong and fast.”

Brady is all business at the gym. Away from it, he’s the VP of Operations for CarePoint Health.

I finally got Brady to crack a smile after a workout. I told him about my past as a sports writer and that I’d researched his athletic past.

Brady was a standout athlete at Columbine High School (Class of 2008). He played quarterback for the Rebels’ defending state championship football team and was a pitcher for the school’s baseball team.

Baseball was Brady’s first love, and he played in college at Galveston (Tex.) College, McCook(Neb.) Community College and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. His collegiate career was interrupted by Tommy John Surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

Pitchers, Brady says, are a good fit for long drive competition. He compares the mechanics, in particular, the hip actions.

“You’re driving off your back leg and landing on your front leg,” Brady said. “You’re developing force through the ground into your swing, which is no different than when you plant when you’re pitching, and you’re extending off that front leg to get velocity.

“Swinging a baseball bat probably hurts me more than helps me from a golf perspective.”

Justin James is one of the most popular competitors on the Long Drive circuit. He was a minor league pitcher in the Toronto Blue Jays organization.

Durango native Sean Johnson won the World Long Drive tour’s world championship last year. Johnson was a three-sport letter winner at Fountain Valley High in Colorado Springs. He played baseball at Ole Miss and was drafted as a pitcher by the Chicago Cubs.

It must be noted that Colorado resident Monica Lieving won the women’s World Long Drive championship in 2023. The four-time winner on the WLD Tour holds the circuit’s No. 1 ranking.

Later, at The Swing Bays in Parker, Brady arrived clad in ‘Johnny Fairways’ attire from the golf clothing line owned by his longtime friend Jack Elway, John’s son.

His driver only looks like one a regular golfer uses; it’s not.

“The (Cobra Dark Speed LD) head I use is a 6-degree. The lowest you can find at a store is probably like an 8-degree,” he said. “And then I tune it down negative 1.5, so I’m hitting at 4.5 degrees, which is about the loft of a putter. And it’s a 48-inch (TPT) shaft, as well.”

At The Swing Bays, Brady focused less on distance, and more on his mechanics — among them the reads on ball speed, club speed and smash factor. The deadlifts in Brady’s workouts are designed to increase his club speed to 140 MPH or higher. He reached the 140 mark several times on the simulator.

(Good golfers love to tell bad golfers — ‘hey, quit trying to kill the ball.’ I tried to kill one at the simulator. It survived, as I posted a club speed of 88.)

Brady first took notice of Long Drive competitions as a teenager through contact with one of his summer baseball league coaches, Derek Hines.

“I call him one of my mentors — he got me recruited for baseball,” Brady said. “He was pretty modest about everything, and he mentioned he competed in long drive competitions.

“I didn’t really think anything of it. But I flipped on ESPN and saw the RE/MAX long drive competition. Derek’s on, in the top eight, competing for the world title. He was competing with the big dogs in the finals.”

Hines, who placed third in the 2008 World Long Drive championship, passed away last year at age 47.

Brady’s long drive swing coach is Lee Cox, who lives in the UK and works online with several clients. The Internet and social media, Brady said, have helped create many relationships within the long drive community.

“You’re competing against each other, but it’s a brotherhood — and sisterhood,” Brady said. “You have a lot of support from people in different states. We have forums on Instagram. Tips on workouts, new equipment and camps. It’s pretty collegial. I get a lot of advice from the community.”

Home is not the place for Brady to get away from Long Drive preparations. He has a Garmin simulator, and when the loud music cranks up in the basement, Brady’s wife Talia knows what’s about to take place.

The girl dad to Brynnlee (5) and Monroe (2) starts swinging at golf balls and crunching numbers from the launch monitor.

“They watch and definitely get scared,” Brady said. “Brynnlee can get the launch monitor to read every once in a while and gets super excited. She’s only got about 10-20 swings in her and then she gets bored.”

Doesn’t matter if it’s Eminem or AC/DC, the loud music gives Brady the edge he seeks with the driver in his hand. If all his hard work pays off, Brady could be in the field for the WLD

Tour’s World Championships, Sept. 24-28 at Bigfoot Turf Farm in LaSalle, Colo.

“It’s a full-body adrenaline,” Brady said. “I want it all. You want the juice, anything to give you an extra oomph, you’re going for it.”