With long drive World Championships set for Colorado this weekend, can the 500-yard milestone be reached?
By Gary Baines – 9/23/2025
It seems like a bit of a long shot — so to speak — but could the rarely-surpassed 500-yard barrier be overcome this weekend at the World Long Drive World Championships, which are being held in the rarefied air of Colorado for the first time?
We’ll find out one way or the other Thursday through Saturday (Sept. 25-27) when the World Championships take place Bigfoot Turf Farm in LaSalle, southeast of Greeley (22455 Weld County Road 49). Admission is free.
While many golfers might be overjoyed to hit drives 250 or 300 yards, there are obviously much different standards in World Long Drive — especially when competing at an altitude of almost 4,700 feet, as will be the case this weekend.
To give some perspective, when the PGA Tour came to Castle Pines Golf Club (which sits at 6,000-feet plus) for last year’s BMW Championship, numerous drives of more than 400 yards went into the books. Byeong Hun An hit one 431 yards on the 10th hole, and Ludvig Aberg went 400 yards plus on at least three occasions, with drives of 430, 418 and 414 yards.
And, mind you, PGA Tour players typically swing at less than 100 percent to maintain directional control over their ball. So if they went at it full bore — as WLD players often do — those numbers would be further elevated, though Castle Pines’ elevation is a fair amount higher than that of Bigfoot Turf Farm.
But given that this weekend’s World Championships will mark the third consecutive WLD event held at Bigfoot Turf Farm — the previous being the Rocky Mountain Rumble a month ago and the Smash in the Sun earlier in September — we have a good idea of what WLD competitors are capable of at this Colorado site.
While no one surpassed 500 yards during the Rocky Mountain Rumble, a couple golfers came relatively close. Fourteen competitors recorded drives of at least 450 yards, with Jack Smith (485) and Scottie Pearman (478) leading the way.
A few weeks later at the Smash in the Sun, Zack Holton (453) and Pearman (452) set the standards. Holton, by the way, hit a 489-yard drive at Bigfoot Turf Farm in 2023.
In 2017 when the “Mile High Showdown” long-drive event was held at Park Hill Golf Club in Denver, a couple of Ryans —Reisbeck and Steenberg (each with 485-yard drives) were longest.
So surpassing 500 yards this weekend would be no small feat — but certainly within the realm of possibility.
But the open division, which normally produces the longest drives, with be just one of four competitions scheduled for the World Championships. There will also be Women, Men’s Senior and Men’s Amateur events.
Lieving has won two World Long Drive titles this year.
Monica Lieving, a real-estate agent from Lakewood, is the No. 1-ranked female in the world and has won two WLD events in 2025 and six overall, including the 2023 World Championships. (Another women’s World Champion from Colorado was Nancy Abiecunas in 2003.) In the Women’s Division at the Rocky Mountain Rumble in LaSalle last month, Mai Dechathipat hit the long drive (391 yards), while Lieving was next best (385). Dechathipat is not in the field this weekend.
Durango native and Fountain Valley School of Colorado in Colorado Springs alum Sean Johnson won the 2024 World Championship Open Division title and is scheduled to defend this weekend. Johnson was a baseball player in college at Iowa Western Junior College and Ole Miss. In high school, he also competed in golf and hockey.
Among the other notable competitors with strong Colorado ties this week are natives Chase Noell (who won the Amateur Division at the Rocky Mountain Rumble) and Hunter Noell, an Open Division competitor whose 2025 competitive best is 443 yards.
All told, more than 120 long drivers are expected to compete at the World Championships, though not four-time Open Division champion Kyle Berkshire.
The top five-ranked Open Division competitors are Colton Casto, Smith, Pearman, Zach Holton and Johnson.
In the Women’s Division, Phillis Meti will try to defend her title and win her fifth World Championship, while Lieving is looking for World Championship No. 2.
The schedule this week for the World Championships:
Thursday, Sept. 25
Open Division round 1 beginning at 8 a.m.
Senior Division beginning at 4:30 p.m., with quarterfinals, semis and finals from 7:30-8 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 26
Open Division round 2 beginning at 9 a.m.
Open Division round 3 beginning at 2 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 27
Amateur Division beginning at 8 a.m., with round of 16, quarters, semis and finals from 11:10-11:45 a.m.
Open Division round 4, 12:30-2 p.m.
Women’s Division beginning at 2 p.m., with the quarterfinals, semis and finals from 3:30-4 p.m.
Youth clinic for kids 11-18, 3-3:45 p.m.
Open Division quarterfinals, semifinals and final, 4-5:30 p.m.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com