Tag: Colton Casto

2024 World Long Drive World Championships feature cash prizes for top three 400+-yard drives

The three longest drives Sunday that go beyond 400 yards will be awarded an additional cash bonus.

The 2024 World Long Drive World Championships started Thursday in Atlanta. The competition features two divisions of golfers vying for money and bragging rights.

Eagles Landing Country Club in Stockbridge, Georgia, is the site for this year’s title, with a men’s open division – 96 competitors – and the women’s division – 22 – duking it out over four days.

The open division’s best competitor this season is Colton Casto with three victories, including back-to-back coming into the championships. Meanwhile, Mai Dechathipat has two wins in the women’s divison, the lone woman to win more than once, including the most recent stop.

Coming into the championships, the longest drive this season in the open division is 463 yards by Justin James. The longest drive in the women’s division is 387 yards by Dechathipat.

The prize money in Atlanta this week was adjusted Thursday evening, upping both the open division to $40,000 and the women’s division to $15,000. There’s additional prize money up for grabs this week. On Sunday, the three longest drives that go beyond 400 yards, into an area dubbed the Newton Landing Zone, will be awarded an additional cash bonus.

Saturday’s rounds will be live on ESPN+. The women’s final will be on Golf Channel on Monday and the open final will be on Golf Channel on Tuesday.

What does it take to win a men’s World Long Drive competition?

Everyone can think of that one friend who hits their driver a bit further than the rest of the friend group.

Everyone can think of that one friend who hits their driver a bit further than the rest of the friend group.

Whether they’re an ex-baseball player, another type of athlete or just a guy with good genetics, maybe the topic of long drive has been brought up. World Long Drive is back, but what exactly does it take to win a men’s competition?

Colton Casto, a 27-year-old from Snohomish, Washington, won this last weekend in Memphis, Tennessee, with a winning ball of 380 yards, and this victory was a long time coming.

Casto has been working with his coach, Bobby Peterson of One Stop Power Shop, out of Newton Grove, North Carolina, since 2018. Peterson has produced many world champions, such as Kyle Berkshire and more, but Casto’s journey has been a lengthy one.

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Peterson owns the OSPS training center, where his athletes hit on simulators and on a lit, outdoor driving range. Training typically consists of multiple hitting sessions, resulting in hundreds of balls hit. Casto has spent eight full weeks at OSPS since the beginning of the year.

When Casto started with Peterson in 2018, his swing speed was around 140 mph and his ball speed topped out at 210 mph. The top ten long drivers swing speeds are now in the 155-169 mph range with ball speeds averaging in the 212-230 mph range.

“Colton and I have put in a lot of work. After the last competition in Denver, he decided to come back to OSPS where we worked on some things to correct his 14 to 15 inch low point in his swing, ” Peterson said. “This was causing him to close the face too quick and flip it. We drilled on that all week long pretty intensely, putting in 200 to 400 balls a day.”

Casto came out on top in Memphis using a Callaway Paradym Long Drive Head set at 2.5 degrees and a 48″ Kinetixx Hypersonic D10 shaft. 

“I couldn’t even talk after the win. It has been such a grind to get to this point,” said Casto.

Added Peterson: “He did the work, came to Memphis and it all came together. I couldn’t be prouder of what he did and of all the OSPS members. We had 10 in the field last week, and seven made the top 16. That’s two wins in a row for us, and we look forward to the next event.”

You can learn more information about World Long Drive here.