Mike Austin, 95; golfer could blast drive five football fields

LOS ANGELES -- Mike Austin, the world-record holder for the longest drive in a professional golf tournament, died Tuesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 95.

Dr. Austin, golf's original long driver, was best known for blasting a 515-yard drive during the 1974 US National Senior Open in Las Vegas. He was 64 at the time, and the drive, hit using a steel-shafted persimmon driver and a balata ball with a tail wind of 27 miles per hour, is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.

An account in the Times in 2001 described the moment:

''On the 450-yard, par 4 fifth hole, one of his partners, PGA pro Chandler Harper, told Austin: 'I've never seen anyone hit the ball as far as you. Let's see you really let one go.'

''Austin, a longtime gambler and trick shot artist, took the challenge. Word that Austin was going to go for it was relayed to the foursome on the green ahead. They stood safely to one side. Austin drew back and unleashed a blast that flew more than 400 yards, bounced in front of the green, and came to rest 65 yards beyond the flagstick. . . . Austin recalls that the ball didn't follow a normal parabolic curve. Instead, it went up 20 feet, leveled off, and held its line. Austin's wife, Tanya, who was also at the tournament, said, 'It was like God held it up in the air.' "

Despite advances in club and ball technology, the record still stands. Davis Love III hit a 476-yard drive in 2004 that is second on the list.

Born in the Isle of Guernsey in 1910, Dr. Austin lived in Scotland and in Boston briefly before moving to Atlanta. There, he took tips from Bobby Jones on how to hit for long distances.

He settled in Los Angeles. Dr. Austin had brief stints as a professional golfer, but his short game was an Achilles' heel -- he chipped onto the green and three-putted after his record drive -- and his best finish was a 37th at the 1961 Ontario Open.

''He was so amped up for the big drives and had so much adrenaline that he'd get the yips and putt off the green, sometimes into a water hazard," said Philip Reed, who wrote a biography on Dr. Austin, ''In Search of the Greatest Golf Swing."

Dr. Austin earned bachelor's degrees in physics and engineering at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology and his doctorate in kinesiology at Georgia Tech. He applied his scientific background to develop a swing that relied on efficiency of body movement. The key to his swing was a concept called ''supple quickness," which generated club-head speed by relaxing the muscles.

A lifetime member of the Professional Golfers' Association of America, Dr. Austin, was voted one of the Top 50 Golf Instructors in the United States.

''He is the dean of all golf instruction from the beginning of time, as far as I'm concerned," said Mike Dunaway, who won the 1991 World Super Long Drive title. ''I worked with him for 28 years, and I learned something from him every time I met with him."

His methods were not without controversy, however. A former boxer who had his career ended when doctors found an irregular heartbeat caused by an abundance of adrenaline, Dr. Austin was known as an impatient instructor and often yelled obscenities at students.

''Mike wouldn't tolerate ignorance," Dunaway said. ''But he always said 'a vivid presentation is one you'll remember.' He didn't mince words, but in the end, you'd learn what he had to say."

In his early years, Dr. Austin played with golfing legends such as Sam Snead and Walter Hagen, in addition to Jones.

Reed said that when steels shaft were introduced, Snead received a set of clubs from a manufacturer, but he immediately gave them to Dr. Austin saying, ''You're the only one who swings fast enough to use these."

Dr. Austin also dabbled in opera singing, appearing in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera production of ''Desert Song" in 1947, and acting. He played Judge Lang in the 1983 Michael Douglas crime thriller ''Star Chambers."

Dr. Austin suffered a stroke in 1989 that left him partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Still, he taught golf lessons until about two weeks before his death.