In final World Long Drive event before World Championships, Kyle Berkshire claims ’Smash in the Sun’ title in Colorado
By Gary Baines – 9/7/2025
Kyle Berkshire hadn’t competed in a World Long Drive event this year prior to this weekend, but the three-time World Champion still demonstrated he can go into high gear when he does tee it up on the WLD circuit.
At the “Smash in the Sun” — the second of three straight WLD events scheduled for Bigfoot Turf Farm in LaSalle, southeast of Greeley — Berkshire claimed the elite/open title with a drive of 438 yards on Sunday.
Berkshire has a very large social media presence, with 774,000 followers on Instagram, 521,000 on TikTok and 233,000 on YouTube. And he can still back up his notoriety with the long ball. His longest individual drive overall this weekend in LaSalle was 447 yards, with only runner-up Zack Holton (453) and third-place Scottie Pearman (452) going further.
All this sets the stage for the grandaddy of World Long Drive events, the World Championships, which also take place at Bigfoot Turf Farm, in this case the weekend of Sept. 25-27. Several titles will be on the line there — open, women’s, senior and amateur divisions.
For more information about the World Championships, CLICK HERE.
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