Meet Jamie Sadlowski… the real-life Happy Gilmore who’s smashing driver miles past other pros
Former ice hockey player can leather the ball more than 400 yards thanks to John Daly-style swing
JAMIE SADLOWSKI is the real-life Happy Gilmore who smashes the ball enormous distances for a living.
The two-time World Long Drive champion travels the world making big cheques for obliterating the ball into orbit.
And even more impressively, unlike Adam Sandler in the cult 1996 film, he achieves the feet from a standing base, without a run-up.
Driving ranges shorter than 400 yards pose a problem for the Canadian - because he can clear them with one of his mammouth clouts.
He drove it 370 yards when he was just 14.
Sadlowski, who played hockey like Gilmore, said: "I remember watching Happy Gilmore when I was a kid and I'm like, 'Man, that guy just hit it 400 yards.
"I'm like, 'There is no effing way a guy can do that!
"Everything I've ever done, my main focus was to shoot it as hard as I could. That was always the mentality.
"I remember denting goalies' masks. When the summer rolled around that was time when I played golf."
Sadlowski won £174,000 ($250,000) for claiming the 2008 World Long Drive championship, won it again the following year, and hasn't looked back since.
His personal record for a long drive is 445 yards.
He told Vice Sports: "I don't know what I'd be doing if I hadn't won in 2008. I'd probably be flipping burgers at McDonalds."
Sadlowski's overswing, similar to John Daly's, produces a clubhead speed of 148mph - 20mph faster than Tiger Woods - and sends the ball off at 215mph.