Jeff Flagg crowned 2014 RE/MAX World Long Drive champion by just 13 inches
In a sport where 400-plus-yard drives are commonplace, long-drive competitions don’t typically come down to a matter of inches. However, that was the difference on Tuesday night between winning and losing the 2014 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship and its $250,000, winner-take-all prize.
The final match of the eight-man tournament saw 29-year-old Jeff Flagg’s 365-yard drive turn out good enough to beat the best from 43-year-old Jeff Critteden by just 13 inches to take the title. That’s the smallest margin of victory in the of the event.
Each player hit three balls off the driving platform at Paiute Golf Resort in Las Vegas, both hitting the 60-yard-wide grid at right about the 365-yard mark. However, the drives were so close that it was unclear who had the lead. When neither could improve in the second set, the tape measures came out to declare a champion. Flagg, a former minor league baseball player, had done it.
“I thought I had him,” Flagg said afterward, “but if there’s anything I learned from baseball is that you can’t get too high or too low until it’s a done deal.”
Had their two best shots been just 7 inches closer, under competition rules, the players would have been deemed tied and forced into a playoff for the title. Instead, Flagg took the cash and the title on a night when a strong wind into the players’ faces made every yard matter.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
