Can you believe that anyone can hit a golf ball over 500 yards?

Perhaps you can think of it football terms. Begin by standing at the goal line of a local high school field where Carl Wolter might drive a golf ball off a tee. Now walk all the way to the opposite goal line and you have covered 100 yards. At this point Wolter's golf ball is just gaining air lift. In your mind, place four more football fields in front of you and now imagine walking through all of them and you will come to a spot where Carl 's ball would have finally stopped. If you then look back to Carl from 500 yards away, he would appear to be about three inches in height.Wolter, who resides in Lehighton with his wife, Shannon and his daughters, Mady, and Ashlin, will attempt to win his third REMAX World Long Drive Championship in Mesquite, Nevada this week.Wolter golfs in the qualifying round on Friday, Sept. 26.The former letter winner for his Indian high school golf team had instant success when he began to enter long drive tournaments."I was racing motocross and I broke my foot in an accident," says Wolter. "So when I was laid up for awhile I went on the internet to see if there were any local long drive competitions. My dad had suggested I try it out after he saw me hit off the tee in a pro-am golf tournament. He said that if I won some money I could buy parts for my car."In August of 2002, Wolter entered and won a local qualifying event in southern New Jersey and then won a regional Northeast USA title that qualified him for the world championship event in October of the same year in Mesquite. Wolter won that event too with a maximum drive of 384 yards.Driving golf balls for long distances is not all that Wolter has accomplished. In motocross racing he was the 1991 Pennsylvania state champion in the novice division and earned his Pro/Expert Rider status in 2002. For Lehighton High School, he was the leading basketball scorer in !994 and was selected to the first team Times-News All Stars. On the gridiron, Wolter was selected to the Big 33 Top 100 Football Players Team as a quarterback.As a member of the track team, he won gold medals in the javelin throw in league and district competition with a long throw of 220 feet. After high school at Penn State, Wolter placed third in the javelin throw at the BigTen Championships, but at the NCAA National Championships, he suffered a career ending elbow injury on his third throw.He has since dedicated his athletic efforts into motocross racing and long distance golf ball driving. He explains how the tournament event operates."It's basically double elimination. You get to drive six balls in each round and the longest two balls advance to further rounds. You have to hit straight too. Your ball must land on a grid that is 50 yards wide and is placed 400 to 500 yards from the tee box. Only two advance into the winners ' bracket and the rest have to win without losing again."Wolter, who has been a health and physical education teacher at William Allen High School for the past 15 years, competes in the open division which is comprised of nearly 18,000 world members that pares down to a final eight at Mesquite. He expects his strongest competitors to be Jason Zuback and Jamie Sadlowski from Canada and Joe Miller from England.Following his first world title in 2002, it took Wolter nine more years before he won again with a drive of 462 yards, the longest hit in the history of the finals. If you believe that's quite a drive, his longest golf course tee shot was 542 yards.To keep his performance at top level, Wolter trains with weights and cardio workouts."You have to keep your whole body strong," he says. "Strength and balance are the keys to hitting a ball far."He has a state of the art indoor facility in his home where he can practice his shots by way of a simulator that can measure power, direction, and distance. He is also a member of the elite Callaway's Kings of Distance team, a group of select long drivers who are afforded the best possible equipment that the sport can provide."Sometimes I hit outside," says Wolter. "Then my daughter, Mady and I get to walk deep into the woods to see how many balls we can find."For now. he has set his sights on becoming a three-time long drive champion as he attempts to gain ground on Canada's Zubak, who has won five titles. His performances in Mesquite can be seen during the month of October on the Golf Channel.For those of you who may still wonder how far Carl Wolter can hit a golf ball, consider Mickey Mantle, who hit one of the longest home runs in baseball history. It measured 565 feet and landed in the street behind the stadium. Standing at home plate on the same field, Wolter's longest golf shot would have traveled nearly three times farther than where Mantle's epic blast had landed.