The refreshed Xtreme Long Drive Team Series brings drafted teams, head-to-head competition and simulator-powered play together in a format built for live audiences and digital distribution.
SUNSET BEACH, N.C. — July 17, 2026 — The refreshed Xtreme Long Drive (XLD) Team Series made its 2026 preseason debut at Sea Trail Resort in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, bringing a new team-based format to competitive long drive with GOLFJOY serving as presenting sponsor and providing the software powering the competition.
Held inside the Sea Trail Convention Center during the 29th annual Family Golf Week, the event brought together two drafted teams — Send It Society and Shark Attack Golf — for a fast-paced, head-to-head long drive matchup.
Send It Society narrowly secured the win, but the larger story extended beyond the final result.
The event offered an early look at how XLD is rethinking long drive for indoor venues, live spectators and digital audiences — combining the speed and power of traditional long drive with team identities, direct matchups and a more compact competition format.
Long Drive, Reimagined as a Team Sport
XLD operates within the Ultimate Long Drive ecosystem but introduces a different competitive structure.
Rather than competing solely as individuals across traditional long drive divisions, athletes enter a draft pool and are selected for teams. At Sea Trail, captains Hank Parks and Jace Norman led Send It Society and Shark Attack Golf into a format where individual swings contributed to a shared team result.
That shift introduces something relatively new to long drive: recognizable teams, shared pressure, strategy and the potential for ongoing rivalries.
It also changes how the competition can be presented.
XLD has been developed as a shorter, higher-intensity format suited to indoor venues and simulator facilities, while creating a competition product that can translate naturally to livestreaming, social content and other digital platforms.
Technology Moves From Training Into Competition
For GOLFJOY, the XLD Team Series represents another step in a partnership with Ultimate Long Drive that increasingly puts golf technology directly inside the competitive environment.
GOLFJOY became the Official Launch Monitor and Simulator Partner of Ultimate Long Drive in 2025, supporting an organization whose competitions place unusual demands on performance technology.
In long drive, extreme ball speeds and high-intensity swings create a testing environment very different from everyday practice.
With XLD, the role of technology expands further.
The Sea Trail event ran on GOLFJOY software developed for ULD’s long drive competition format, helping bring the team-based competition into an indoor simulator environment.
That distinction matters. Golf technology is traditionally positioned as a tool for practice, coaching or recreational simulator play. XLD demonstrates another possibility: software and simulator technology becoming part of the infrastructure through which a competitive format itself is delivered.
Building Long Drive for New Venues and New Audiences
Moving long drive indoors creates opportunities that extend beyond weather protection.
Traditional long drive requires significant outdoor space. A simulator-powered format can bring the competition into convention centers, golf facilities and other venues that would not normally accommodate a full long drive event.
For spectators, the compact setting brings athletes and competition closer together. For organizers, it creates more flexibility around venues, event programming and media production.
That scalability is one of the ideas behind the refreshed XLD format. The Sea Trail event provided an early demonstration of that model.
It also marked the first time XLD had been integrated into Family Golf Week, bringing the modern team format into an event that has connected generations of golfers for nearly three decades.
More Than a Sponsorship
GOLFJOY’s involvement with XLD reflects a broader approach to competitive golf partnerships.
Rather than limiting its role to event visibility, GOLFJOY is working alongside partners in environments where its technology can become part of how golfers train, compete and experience the sport.
With Ultimate Long Drive, that means supporting a discipline where speed, launch conditions and measurable performance sit at the center of competition — while also exploring how simulator technology can help bring that competition into entirely new settings.
The Sea Trail event was an early step in that direction.
As XLD continues its 2026 rollout and prepares for the planned 2026–27 Winter Series, GOLFJOY will continue supporting the development of a format designed to make elite long drive faster, closer and more accessible to audiences both inside the venue and online.
Watch the XLD Sea Trail Recap
See Send It Society and Shark Attack Golf face off in the first confirmed event of the refreshed 2026 XLD Team Series.
Watch the XLD Team Series Sea Trail Recap
About GOLFJOY
GOLFJOY develops launch monitors, golf simulator systems and software for home, commercial and competitive golf environments. GOLFJOY is the Official Launch Monitor and Simulator Partner of Ultimate Long Drive, supporting the organization through performance technology, simulator solutions and competition software.
