The “Lara” family name has become a golf legend in the upper valley – and the legend just keeps growing.
Mike Lara Jr., who hits a golf ball so far it leaves people in awe, won the club championship at Dos Lagos Golf Course for the fourth time in the last five years on Sept. 20-21. Before that, his uncle, Albert Lara, another long knocker, accomplished the same feat of four championships in five years.
Wow.
Albert Lara could hit a golf ball more than 300 yards. Mike, Jr., hits it even farther. A 340 or350 blast off the tee is just as common as a morning cup of coffee. Needless to say, Mike Jr. has won numerous driving contests, including a ReMax long driving championship held at Fort Bliss while he was in the service.
“I hit it 381 yards,” he says matter of factly.
MIKE JR.’s parents, Joanne and Mike Lara, have been supportive of his golf but he also credits much of his success to his grandfather, Tom Lara, who, by the way, is also a former club champion at Dos Lagos Golf Course. He won it in 1987.
“Mike Jr. grew up hitting golf balls,” Tom, who owns a plumbing company in Anthony, says. “He was about five or six years old when he started hitting balls and just kept on doing it.”
It helps being a long knocker that Mike Jr. grew to be 6 feet 1 and 235 pounds. “It helps to be big,” Mike Jr., 30, says, “but it takes more than that. My uncle, Albert, is about five feet nine and hits it more than 300 yards, too.”
He says strength is the most important factor in hitting the ball far but that it also takes wrist, knees and body action.
MIKE JR. SHOWED his talent as he grew. He won various junior tournaments, 12 tournaments while at Gadsden High School, qualified for the New Mexico State Tournament as a sophomore, junior and senior and was medalist with a 70 at the New Mexico North vs. South All Star Tournament.
He attended Western New Mexico University but as fate would have it, he enlisted in the U.S. Army after a year there. “I had thought of trying out for the professional tour, but it just it never seemed to happen,” he says. “I got married and had children.”
He and his wife, Priscilla, have three children, Anthony 10, Makayla 9 and Abigail 6.
He was in the service six years and golf was very much a part of that career. Besides winning long driving contests he was medalist at the All Army tournament in Fort Goren, Georgia with a 71-73-73 score.”
NEEDLESS TO SAY he holds the course record at Dos Lagos Golf Course, 61. “That round included eight birdies and an eagle,” he says.
He also tied the course record at Sonoma Ranch Golf Course from the blue tees with a similar 61.
He’s played in the El Paso City Tournament and has finished as high as second.
Being long off the tee is a big help in scoring well but he says the short game is very important, too. “I think putting is the hardest part of the game,” he added. “It comes and goes.”
He also thinks everyone should develop his own swing. “I loop the club on my backswing just like (PGA star) Jim Furyk does,” he says. “It’s not pretty but it works for me.”
THE LEGEND of the Laras won’t end anytime soon. Mike Jr.’s 10-year-old son, Anthony, has taken up the game and is already raising eyebrows. Some golfers go all their life without a hole-in-one but Anthony already has one. He aced the 139-yard No. 4 hole at Dos Lagos.
“He can already hit the ball more than 200-yards,” Mike Jr. says. “He’s going to be better than me.”
Now that’s a scary thought.