A primer for tonight’s 2014 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship finals
Under the lights in Las Vegas, eight of the longest drivers in the world will mash golf balls against each other for a $250,000, winner-take-all prize and title of RE/MAX World Long Drive champion.
Most people, even golfers, aren’t familiar with the sport of long drive. But everyone loves the long ball, so we know you’ll be tuning in at 10 p.m. Eastern on Golf Channel. So let’s give you a bit of a primer for what’s about to unfold.
The eight finalists have a wide array of experience in the sport, ranging from two-time champion Jamie Sadlowski and 2010 winner Joe Miller to 43-year-old Jeff Crittenden and 24-year-old Texan Adam Smith. They’ll all be hitting from a stage created specifically for the competition at Paiute Golf Resort in Las Vegas.
In pre-tournament interviews with Yahoo Sports, both Sadlowski and Miller said the ball will not fly as far as it would during the day, with cooler temperatures limiting ball flight. Both also mentioned the prevailing wind should be into the players, which both say takes away the possibility of a fluke champion as there’s more skill required to hit the ball further into the wind than ride it to unimagingable lengths.
Long drivers may use a 1-wood, but it’s not the driver golfers typically carry. These clubs usually are about 50 inches long, about 4 inches longer than a common driver. The lofts are extremely low, usually in the 4-degree range.
The swings are different, too. They’re not only more powerful, in the area of 150 mph, but also longer and all designed for distance. The idea is to create power through kinetic motion, building power through the upswing and then waiting until the last possible second to unleash it all at impact.
The eight players will square off against one another in a bracket-style tournament, with the four quarterfinal matches already determined — including an early showdown between Sadlowski and Miller. In each match, the higher-seeded player decides if they go first or second. Then the first player hits three golf balls, needing to land in a 60-yard-wide grid to count. The opponent then gets three balls of their own. Then the two repeat. The best ball of six from each of the players decides the match and who moves on in the winner’s bracket. The loser goes into a separate bracket, making it a double-elimination tournament.
In the end, a final round will decide the world championship.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
