Former athletes

We are honored that long-drive Hall of Famer Bobby Wilson used our  HOUSE OF FORGED  shafts to become the first competitor to win both the Seniors as well as the Super Seniors Championships on the same night.

During the course of a legendary career in long drive, Bobby has accumulated five world titles; including, two championships in the Seniors Division, one Super Senior title and two Grand Champions titles.

In 1980 Bobby qualified to compete on the U.S. Olympic Handball Team; however, as luck would have it he was unable to play at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, because the USA boycotted those games.

Bobby pivoted and he set his sights on a career in golf.  He had played on the Baylor University Golf Team, and he held conditional PGA Tour status for two years in the early 1980s; however, he fell in love with long-drive.

Bobby demonstrated his golf abilities in 2005 when he teamed up with fellow Hall of Famer Jason Zuback to compete as a two-man scramble team at the 2005 Champions Challenge at the Casablanca Golf Course in Mesquite, Nevada against a number of teams, which included two-man teams with the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Mike Weir, Jim Furyk and other professional golfers.  Johnny Miller apparently made a wise-crack about the long-drivers to the effect that although long drive guys could hit the ball a long way, they couldn’t compete against professional golfers in a round of golf.  These words may have inspired Bobby and JZ, because they proceeded to romp to an easy 14-under-par round of 57 to earn the $100,000.00 first place prize money.

Bobby Wilson is well-known not only for his exhibitions.  He also has produced a number of instructional videos, and he currently operates Bobby Wilson’s Power Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas.

…House of Forged  is honored by the fact that two-time Seniors Champion and long-drive legend Gerry James used our shafts to make the Final Four of the Senior Division on two separate occasion.

The number of athletes who have excelled beyond the college level in multiple sports at the professional level is extremely small to the point of being miniscule in instances where athletes compete at the highest level (and excel) in a multitude of sports.  Gerry James is a unique athlete in terms of having competed successfully in: professional football, weight-lifting/body building, wrestling and golf.

Following his collegiate football career Gerry James began his professional sports career as a player with the Oklahoma Outlaws of the United States Football League.  

Following his football career Gerry began his second professional sports career in weight-lifting / body-building, and in 1990 Gerry was honored to be named as both the heavyweight as well as overall California Body Building Champion.

Gerry built a third professional sports career by becoming a professional wrestler, first as wresting hero Gerry America, and later as the wresting villain Agent Orange.  

In the 1990s Gerry became determined to change his life and he pivoted his athletic endeavors to his fourth professional sports career in golf.  Almost immediately Gerry had positive results in long drive competition, and we was the leading money winner on the 2002 Pinnacle Long Drive Tour.  He followed by earning 2nd Place prize money at the 2003 World Long Drive Championship Open Division competition.  

In 2005 and 2006 Gerry James won first prize payouts for becoming a two-time World Long Drive Senior Division Champion.

Gerry’s professional accomplishments in golf have not been limited to the long drive arena  Gerry is a PGA professional, who was a competitor on the GOLF CHANNEL’s “Big Break, Mesquite” telecasts, and he demonstrated his professional level golfing ability by qualifying and competing in the 2012 PGA U.S. Senior Open.

Gerry’s greatest strength is his ability to provide professional instruction in the golfing field and specifically in the long drive arena.  Gerry has coached number of long-drive champions; including, two-time Women’s Long Drive Champion Stacey Shinnick, former Junior Long Drive Champion Owen Hanson, two-time Open Champion Tim Burke, and of course, Gerry’s son Justin James, the 2017 Open Division World Long Drive Champion.

Gerry has also provided golf instruction to top professional golfers including Davis Love III and Len Mattiace.

Gerry’s focus relates to maximizing physical training and applying it to the sport of golf.  His core philosophy is demonstrated in his “Center Force Golf System,” which is offered on various CD’s.  It is a mixture of power golf and physical fitness.  Gerry also has produced various other instructional videos on putting and other golf areas.  

Gerry finds time in his busy schedule to make visits to the prison system where he counsels and ministers to inmates who seek help in order to try and turn their lives around.

HOUSE OF FORGED is honored by the fact that Jeff “Critter” Crittenden used our shafts not only to twice make the TV Finals of the Open Division (including one 2nd Place finish) he also won the Seniors Championship in 2017 and again in 2019.  

“Critter” began his golf career at Millersville College. He developed such a passion for the sport that he decided that he wanted to become a golf professional.  He moved to Florida to learn his craft and during the next six years he played on a number of golf tours; including; the Hooters Tour, the Tommy Armour Tour, and the Moonlight Tour.  

Unfortunately, although he was learning his craft, by 2005 “Critter” wasn’t making enough money to earn a proper living, so he quit the tours and he got his PGA member card to become a teaching golf professional.  “Critter” he worked for a number of top instructors; including, Hank Haney, Fred Griffin, Rick McCord, Ed Bowe, and Dick Farley.

In 2006 “Critter” decided to give long drive a try and he competed in long drive competitions both in the USA, as well as at some international events. In 2007 after beginning work in Greensboro, NC as the Director of Instruction at the North Carolina Golf Academy.  

During the next seven years, while “Critter” had done well in a number of LDA Tour events, as well as getting a win in Mexico, age (43 years) as well as a number of nagging injuries told Jeff that 2014 should be his last year.

Something happened while he was recuperating from an arm injury.  Somehow, somewhere he found yet another gear and at the 2014 world long drive championships in Mesquite, Nevada Jeff cruised through the qualifying rounds to make it to the TV Final Eight rounds, which were to be held a month later at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf and Country Club where he would be matched against the likes to two-time champions Jamie Sadlowski and Joe Miller.

Showing no fear whatsoever Critter took down two-time TV Round finalist Matt Hanger in the quarterfinals, and then he nipped Joe Miller by less than a yard to make the finals where the midnight hour on that bitter cold night proved to be all black for Jeff, as he lost the $250,000.00 first place money by a mere 13-inches to champion Jeff Flagg.

While this experience might have broken lesser men, Critter came right back to make the TV Final Eight again in 2015, and after turning forty-five he won the Masters Division Championship in 2017 and again in 2019.

HOUSE OF FORGED  is honored that Matt “Hangman” Hanger has been using our shafts for the past seventeen years, longer than any other active competitor.  During that time he has made two trips to the Final Eight in the Open Division and in 2022 he won the “Endless Summer Invitational” long drive event.

The “Hangman” embodies the ideals as well as the spirit of HOUSE OF FORGED.  He is a humble, hard-working, blue-collar, All-American guy who has worked as a bartender, a bouncer, a long-haul truck driver, and as a golf club-builder and instructor, as well as his current occupation as a commercial building glasier.

When he first got into long-drive Matt could barely win a small local event, much less qualify for the world championships at a regional competition; however, the desire to achieve higher goals burned bright in the “Hangman” and he slowly but surely crafted a swing that would serve him well in competition.

Following dominating performances the “Hangman” easily rose through the ranks of WLD competition to make the TV Finals in both 20013 and 2014, and if those the finals of those events had been held on the Mesquite grid where he dominated their might have been a different champion; however, in both instances following the competitions in Mesquite the finals were held back for another month and then played out at the Las Vegas Speedway from a 40” platform tee-box and subsequently on the bitterly cold and windy Paiute Golf Course, which proved rather adverse for his chances. 

 In 2022 when most insiders considered him to be past his prime, the “Hangman” came out of the weeds to defeat former WLD Champion Justin James, former Seniors Champion Fast Eddie Fernandez and former European Champion Matt Nicole among several other tom LD competitiors to win Jeff Farleys “Endless Summer Invitational.”

Currently, the “Hangman” has been working with our Seniors Tour Rep Jeff Kempler on their ___________ website, which offers instructional aids to golfers of all abilities.

HOUSE OF FORGED is honored by the fact that three-time World Long-Drive Champion Sean “The Beast” Fister used our shafts while competing in the Senior Division.

Based upon his championship titles in 1995, 2001, and 2005, Sean “The Beast” FisterS was inducted into the LDA Hall of Fame in 2002.

Sean began his sports career as a multi-sport athlete at the University of Florida.  His specialty was pole vaulting for the Olympic decathlon competitions.  He did this at the expense of a potential baseball pitching career, and it proved to be a costly choice he missed the pit following a pole vault and he took a sixteen-foot fall to earth during a track meet.

As legend has it, “The Beast” wasn’t a golfer; however, while playing golf for the first time during his senior year in college he is said to have driven a 345-yard Par 4 hole.  Sean developed this skill and in 1995 “The Beast” became the U.S. National Long Drive Champion in spite of the fact that he was involved in a car accident a week earlier, and he suffered multiple injuries; including, a broken finger, a fractured sternum, as well as a torn meniscus in his knee.  

During the next five years “Te Beast” remained a contender; however, he couldn’t get another win until in 2001 he hit a monster last walkaway drive to beat favorite Brian Pavlet.  This win is a TV classic and it builds on the lendary lore of “The Beast.”  Driving into a fairly stiff breeze, “The Beast’s” ball travelled 376-yards to beat Pavlet by just two-yards.  The event was telecast under the lights at the Las Vegas Hilton Country Club and shown on ESPN.  The persona of “The Beast” was out in full force that night and the viewing public loved what they saw.

“The Beast” gained his third world long drive championship in 2005 to come within one title of Jason Zuback’s four wins; however “Golfzilla” got his fifth win in 2006 to close out the rivalry.

Sean published his New York Best Selling book “The Long Drive Bible – How you can hit the ball longer, straighter and more consistently,” which features his “Ten Commandments of Distance” in 2008.  That book is still sold through Amazon and other book publication outlets.  

At age 51 in 2013 “The Beast” was still competing in long drive in the Seniors Division, despite having gone through four back surgeries in the past three years.

The prodigious nature of “The Beast’s” career is documented by the fact that he conducted more than two thousand exhibitions, and generated more than $3 million in career earnings.  His worldwide schedule of competitions as well as his appearances included stops in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Paris, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia the Phillipines, Venezuela, Mexico, and Canada.

In November 2020, the Dustin Johnson Golf School in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina announced that Sean Fister was a new member of their staff, who would be serving as a Coach at the Dustin Johnson Junior Golf Academy.