A Swinton-based binman is gearing up to represent Salford in his first long drive European golf tournament and is documenting his journey along the way.
Jack Raymond, 34, only began to take long drive golf seriously at the back end of 2025, and is already preparing to tee off in his first competitive tournament – the 2026 Italy LDET Championship.
Jack, who has lived in Swinton for over 20 years after moving up from London in his youth, is relishing the opportunity to spotlight his Salford roots and has begun a GoFundMe campaign, calling upon his fellow Salfordians to lend a helping hand towards his Italian job.
Jack said: “It’s massive to be representing Salford on a European stage, I know I wasn’t born here, but it’s the place that’s given me life.
“This is where I’ve grown up, where all my friends are, and it’s my home.”
He went on: “The cost is astronomical, I need to buy a specialist driver, which I’ll be purchasing next month, which is costing around £450.
“Then there’s the cost of the gloves, which is about £60 a month, the simulator, which is £125 a month, so it soon mounts up. It would mean the world if people could help or even share anything like that.”
Long drive is a sport similar to golf, where competitors aim to launch a golf ball as far as they can across a gridded plane, measuring around 400 yards long. The world’s best long drivers and amateur players alike come together to compete on the European tour, the biggest stage in the sport.
The Salford dad has administered a respectable social media following since his journey’s inception, generating 60,000 views across his Instagram, TikTok and YouTube platforms, all named ‘@ProjectLongDrive’.
With this in mind, he isn’t going it alone, and has raised £110 of his £300 so far with friends, family and local residents chipping in to support the cause.
The money will be directed towards entry fees, accommodation, training costs and essential equipment for the tournament.
The competition, which is being held at the prestigious Marco Simone Golf and country club, host of the 2023 Ryder Cup, will feature an array of long drive talent spanning from amateurs to seasoned professionals. The biggest stage of long drive golf.
Not only does Jack expect to compete at an experience deficit to his opponents, but also cites a significant physical disadvantage, standing at 5”7in and weighing in at 71kg, in comparison to a conventional player profile.
“The other thing is I’m also at a massive size disadvantage, as I’m only 5 foot 7 and around 71 kilos. The average competitive long driver is 6 foot 2, which is about 215 pounds.
“Most of them are 7,8 inches taller than me and 50 pounds heavier, which really is a disadvantage.”
Despite his short tenure in the sport, the Salford binman has already hit a record drive of just under 320 yards during his training sessions, which he administers completely independently.
His introduction into golf came from an intriguing desire to better his brother, Billy, who took up Golf as a lockdown pastime.
Jack said: “I mean, I’ve hit up to 300, well it’s just under 320 yards.
“It’s an open competition so I’ll be coming up against the best professionals in Europe, effectively.
“During Covid, my brother took up Golf. It never really interested me to be honest. Then he got relatively good and I thought, well, I could probably be better than you, so I literally just took it up to be better than my brother!
“I played a couple of rounds and things just started getting massive drives, and I never really thought much of it and I’ve sort of started playing again probably October, November last year, which has led me to where I’m going.”
The LDET (Long Drivers European Tour) tournament will take place from 10th-11th April this year, and we can expect a real David and Goliath story when Jack takes his swings in the first event of the season in Rome!
Check out Jack Raymond’s GoFundMe page if you would like to lend a helping hand to Salford’s best long driver
