Durango native Sean Johnson has seen his life change in a few ways since winning his first World Long Drive World Championship on Aug. 11 in Atlanta.
People recognize him at the driving range more in Charlotte, where he now resides after moving there from California in January of 2024. He has more sponsors after becoming world champion that make it financially easier to compete and have all of the winnings go into his pocket.
The long driver from Durango won his world title with a drive of 411 yards, one yard farther than second-place Jack Smith.
Johnson has turned the page from last year’s world championship and is now focused on defending his title. The 2025 world championship will be from Sept. 25-27 in LaSalle, Colorado.
“LaSalle is just outside of Greeley, so we're lucky enough that Bigfoot Turf Farm let us come out there and use all their grass,” Johnson said. “So now, having having the world championship in my home state, I went to high school in Colorado Springs, I’m going to have a lot of friends in the area. So I'm excited to show my stuff in front of all my friends and family and hopefully bring a world championship to my home state.”
Johnson didn’t have the start of the season he wanted as the world champion. He finished ninth in the first two World Long Drive tournaments in Mesquite, Nevada, in late March and early April.
He admitted that he was trying to do too much and had expectations after the world championship. It was the first time Johnson went into the tee box and didn’t know what was going on with his swing. He was hooking shots, shanking shots and had to go back to the drawing board and practice.
Johnson’s form started to come back and he took third place in World Long Drive events in Canada and in Connecticut. He’s ranked third in the world in long drive after starting the year second. The former college baseball player and MLB draft pick is feeling more comfortable and hopes he’s getting hot at the right time before the world championships in September.
Although the Durango native hasn’t been making excuses for himself, he is a busy man. Johnson works as a performance coach at Tread Athletics in Charlotte, a private remote coaching service for pitchers that has produced over 1,000 college commits and 81 MLB draft picks, according to their website.
Johnson played college baseball at Iowa Western Junior College and Ole Miss. He was drafted in the 31st round of the 2013 MLB Draft and played in the minor leagues before tearing his labrum in his shoulder.
Tread Athletics has over 2,500 athletes around the world and Johnson is responsible for 65 of them. He writes their mobility, nutrition, strength, conditioning and throwing programs.
All of this training doesn’t leave Johnson a lot of time to prepare for long drive competitions or garner a social media following with his massive drives, like some of his peers have. He tries to put out videos of his training days and rounds of golf to see if people want to follow along. But it takes a long time to play golf and then edit those videos for YouTube and social media.
“So a typical day for me is I'll wake up at 6:30 a.m.,” Johnson said. “I'm working out from 7-9 a.m., then from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I'm at the baseball facility working, and then usually from about 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., I'm hitting golf balls. So needless to say, my days are very busy. So when my head hits the pillow, I sleep very, very well. It's definitely a busy time in my life for me, but I'm really enjoying what I'm doing.”
Johnson does a lot of strength training to protect his back as he generates so much power and torque with each swing. He knows having a stronger core will not put as much pressure on his back and will help with his functional movement through his golf swing.
Swing mechanics are something Johnson also works a lot on. He struggles to keep his left arm straight after separating his shoulder in high school hockey. Therefore, Johnson works hard on his thoracic rotation.
With his baseball background, Johnson rotates around the ball pretty easily. But to drive the ball well, he needs to swing under the ball. Johnson watches a lot of PGA Tour players to learn about the golf swing and become a more accurate driver.
With all the hours on the range and in the gym, he also hopes to protect his World Long Drive World Championship.
“There's no doubt it's hard to repeat, that's for sure,” Johnson said. “But, a lot of times when we go out there, we beat ourselves more than the other person beats us ... So I’m trying to stay within myself and hit the ball. If I can walk off the tee box and know that I hit the best ball I could hit possible and I end up losing, then I think I can live with that.”
For more information on Johnson’s journey, check out two previous articles here and here.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
