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Non-golfer swings into record books


IN a frenetic 12-hour spell in Orlando last Wednesday week, Spanish Point man Nigel Mangan hit 8,910 golf balls, 7,721 of which were deemed sufficiently well struck, to help the 34-year-old business man set a Guinness World Record.
Although he has never played a full round of golf, Nigel entered the record books with the help of a golf ball teeing system that supplies a golf ball 1.5 seconds after the last one has been hit.
Mr Mangan owns Cadpo Solutions, a product design company on the Gort Road in Ennis. Egan Golf, which is located in the same industrial estate, came up with the concept before appointing Cadpo Solutions to design the product.
“My engineers are responsible for taking the concept that Les Egan had put together with his father Louis Egan. We took that concept and we made it what it is today,” Nigel explained.
“Les’s father Louis had prostrate cancer and couldn’t bend down to tee a ball. So he came up with this idea so his father could continue to hit balls in his back yard,” Nigel added.
The unit is re-chargeable and delivers 22,000 balls on just one charge. It also has a solar panel that allows it to remain charged indefinitely once left outside, while it holds 20 balls at a time.
Nigel trained for three months at the driving range in Coonagh to prepare for his 12-hour drive-in, which teed off at 6am at Orange County National Golf Club, Orlando.
“We went out there with the intent of hitting 8,000 balls because that’s what I’d trained for. I actually hit 8,910 balls on the day but 7,721 were adjudicated by the Guinness World Records adjudicator as being within bounds on the day,” Nigel told The Clare Champion.
“My hands and my knees are still feeling a little bit of the strain but I’m just about getting myself back together,” he said.
The world record effort coincided with the 57th PGA Merchandise Show attended by hundreds of PGA professionals.
The Guinness World Record attempt was made in a benefit for the Folds of Honour Foundation, which provides scholarships to families of American troops killed or wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now that he holds the world record for the most golf balls hit in 12 hours, Nigel is planning to break the 24-hour record later this year in aid of the Share a Dream Foundation.

 

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