Fernie golfer Caira Sharp shot her way to the top at the World Long Drive in South Carolina last month.
She made third place in her amateur women's division with a score of 186, behind fellow Canadian Melissa Smith in first, and an American competitor in second. Smith won the amateur World Long Drive a previous year.
Hurricane Helene blew across the Eastern U.S during the competition, making the event more challenging than it normally would have been. Two days of golf were combined into one and Sharp played a day early on Sept. 25, in anticipation of bad weather, but the winds were torrential.
"By the time we took our second round, it was full blown. Very nerve-wracking," she said.
"You have to try and keep your ball lower," she added. "The wind is coming right at you, so the ball ends up going too high and coming right back."
Hurricane Helene wrecked havoc across the Eastern U.S in September, destroying homes, flooding streets and scattering debris everywhere. It barrelled into Florida's Big Bend region at 225 kph as a category four hurricane and later moved on towards Georgia, leaving several million people without power and at least 84 people dead across multiple states, and at least 25 dead in South Carolina.
Sharp said one of her Canadian teammates had the roof of her Airbnb cave-in during the competition.
Sharp enjoyed her time at the competition nevertheless. Meeting long drive golfers from across the world was a highlight of her trip.
"The event's an all-day process, so you kind of have a time slot, but you can sit on the stands and mingle," she said. "[Golfers] They all kind of come together and give you pointers and tips on how you should hang your head and how you should lean."
"The whole group stayed together and cheered each other on. Everybody shook hand and wished each other good luck. It was super awesome to see that," she added.
A third place score means that Sharp will not be eligible to compete with the pros this season, but she's got her eye on returning to Worlds next year.
"It's either all or nothing so I'll have to start all over at the beginning and try and win the Canadian division, because then I'll have another opportunity to try out for the Worlds," she said.
She'll start training for next year's events on Nov. 9 in Calgary.
