401 Feet! The Inside Story of the World's Longest Putt

You probably missed the longest putt of 2023.

You’d definitely miss it if you tried it yourself. It was 401 feet, 2 inches, a Guinness World Record and it was holed by The World’s Greatest Putter.

Not really. It was holed by Jay Stocki, a semi-retired advertising executive from Downers Grove, Ill. His world-record putt was nearly 134 yards long, the length of a par-3, or almost as long as the distance from home plate to the centerfield wall in the original Yankee Stadium, 408 feet.

Stocki made history in September at The Baths, a 10-hole par-3 course and a two-acre putting course at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wis., whose more famous courses include Whistling Straits and the Irish Course.

The Baths hosted the inaugural World’s Longest Putt Competition, organized by Stocki and his golf friends. He finished a close second in that competition to his buddy, Mike Born. Then, Stocki and his cronies spent two days trying to break the Guinness record for longest non-tournament putt made—395 feet. They took turns in 15-minute shifts. Just as darkness was about to halt play on the second day, Stocki succeeded on the final attempt, a Cinderella shot for Guinness (the record book, not a shot and a beer).

When I reached Stocki, he’d already received a certificate authenticating his Guinness World Record.

Sports Illustrated: Jay, The obvious question is why? And how did this all start?

Jay Stocki: Every year, we get eight guys and go to Blackwolf Run to play golf. Kohler has four of the best courses in the country. Last year, we had the most fun on The Baths, the par-3 putting course, playing as an eightsome. We had lighted balls, lighted holes, we played in the dark. We bribed a bartender to keep the bar open. It was an absolute blast.

SI: There was no wagering, right?

JS: Of course not. Gambling would be illegal.

SI: Good. Judge Smails can relax, then.

JS: As the evening wore on, we tried longer and longer putts. That led to discussion on, why isn’t there a longest-putt competition? We have longest-drive competitions. Anybody can do longest putt. Somebody said, “Huh, I wonder what the Guinness World Record is for longest putt?” We did some homework and found out it was 395 feet off a fairway in Australia. I’ve got an issue with that. The definition of a putt is it must start and end on a green.

SI: Agreed. Otherwise it’s a holeout from the fairway, not a putt.

JS: So we talked to head of operations for Kohler, he’s from the town I live in. We told him our idea and he said, You guys are crazy but it’s just crazy enough, it might work. So 2023 was our test year. We had qualifying events and those qualifier winners went to the final. It was an absolute hoot. The amount of people who happened to be walking by and thought this was great and wanted to participate was really something. Mike Born won, he hit two putts really close from 400 feet. Then, for the sake of a marketing stunt—let’s call it what it was—we went for a world record.

SI: Doesn’t Guinness have stipulations about that?

JS: You can either pay Guinness a lot of money to have somebody on site. Or you jump through a lot of hoops. You’ve got to have two static cameras running the whole time. You have to have two witnesses completely unrelated to anyone involved. And the witnesses can only work for four hours.

SI: Then they go into the witness protection program because they know too much?

JS: Yeah. So I had to have multiple sets of witnesses over the two days we tried to break the record. And it’s work. The witnesses have to write in a logbook, put in a time stamp, “This is 'Putt No. X,' missed.” Right after our putting championship finished, we attempted to break the world record. We were positive one of us was going to make the putt.

SI: Sure, 400 feet. How hard can that be?

JS: There were eight of us, we went for eight hours the first day. The next day, it was cold and dark and windy. We go for eight hours again the next day, nobody makes it. We hit the pin 12 times. I lipped out twice. And we’re bummed. We spent all this time and effort and I convinced seven knuckleheads to join me and it’s not going to happen. The witnesses did their shifts, their time was expired.

SI: Sounds like you needed a miracle.

JS: I went over to the putting course and recruited some new people to be witnesses. They had dinner reservations at 6:30 so they agreed to stay until then. Sunset is at 6:30, anyway. It’s not looking good. Finally, the cameraman yells out, “We’re done, I can’t see.” So I call out, “Last putt!” I hit the putt, turn around and say, “It’s over, that’s in.” Because you always call a putt in after you’ve missed 237 in a row. My 238th putt was the one that went in. Collectively, we hit 1,944 putts before we holed one.

SI: So when you said, “That’s in,” you were being sarcastic?

JS: I was totally being sarcastic. I did not think it was going in. If you watch the video, the crazy joy you see is a bunch of guys who are cold and crabby and who thought they had failed.

SI: What was the celebration like?

JS: There was this absolute sense of relief. We went back to the clubhouse, our witnesses were there. We drank a bottle of champagne with them and a few Wisconsin Old Fashioned’s. Our morale had been so low—and then we got so excited.

SI: It’s the golf equivalent of a Hail Mary pass.

JS: That’s so true. We had to have the surveyor come back the next day to confirm the distance I made the putt from.

SI: Do they still do a print version of the Guinness Book of World Records?

JS: They do but we didn’t make the cutoff for this year’s book. They said I have a good chance to be in it next year.

SI: A good chance? Don’t they have to put any new record in the official book?

JS: I would agree but it’s not my call. They don’t print all of the records each year.

SI: Now what?

JS: We’re turning this into a national competition. We’ve got several dozen charity events that agreed to be qualifying events for the 2024 World’s Longest Putt Competition, which means we are already over 3,000 golfers. Each qualifying event winner gets to compete in a regional event. Regional event winners get a free trip to Kohler to compete in the 2024 World’s Longest Putt finals on Oct. 7. The finals are three rounds, with the final round being set at a world-record distance so everybody will get a shot at breaking my record.

SI: How do you even practice a 400-foot putt?

JS: Bettinardi Golf made a custom putter for us. It had a little extra toe hang, a little extra loft and extra weight so it would work well for that long of a distance. It’s funny, we had eight guys putting with seven or eight different techniques. My buddy, Chris, went low like a hockey slap shot. I used the "whiskey finger," one finger down the shaft but a little lower than usual. We were really, really nice to the course superintendent because we did take some divots. We were basically swinging that Bettinardi putter. You nick a green, it’s a terrible feeling. But that’s what it takes to hit it 400 feet.

SI: Is there a plaque on the site commemorating your world record putt?

JS: I’m working on it.

SI: Are you going to get business cards with “World’s Longest Putter” on them?

JS: I should, shouldn’t I? We’ve got a website, WorldsLongestPutt.com.

SI: You know that as the official longest putt-maker, you can never again leave a putt short.

JS: I know. Whenever I miss a putt now, I get, “Ohh, world record-holder!” And they roll their eyes. I’ve already been the butt of many jokes.

SI: Just show them the Guinness certificate.

JS: All I can do is putt right now because I’m recovering from recent shoulder surgery. I made that record putt with a torn rotator cuff, torn labrum and a torn bicep.

SI: You should say you injured that shoulder while holing the world-record putt. Or got hurt in a gang rumble.

JS: I was rescuing puppies from a burning building.

SI: Even better.