from Ron Kantowski of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

I met the real Happy Gilmore on Monday afternoon.

His name is Jamie Sadlowski. He’s a 25-year-old former junior hockey player from Alberta, Canada, who can hit a golf ball 475 yards. On Wednesday night, he’ll be trying to win his third RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway....

Sadlowski thinks he can hit a golf ball from here to Saskatoon mostly because he played the point on the power play for the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

He played the off side, so when the Pontiacs reversed the puck, he would crank up these vicious one-timers. Most of the time, they were nowhere close to the net; the most goals he scored in three seasons with the Pontiacs was four in 2006-07.

But sometimes his shots broke the Plexiglas, or the Zamboni, and once in a while they would clang off the post, like missiles. And then the goalies for the Fort McMurray Oil Barons and the Okotoks Oilers wouldn’t be in such a hurry to cut down the angle the next time Bonnyville was on the power play.

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