Among the spectators at the Mile High Showdown World Long Drive event at Park Hill Golf Club in Denver on Tuesday evening was Evergreen resident Craig Stadler, winner of the 1982 Masters.
Stadler, a Colorado Golf Hall of Famer and 13-time winner on the PGA Tour, was interviewed on the Golf Channel telecast and noted, “I can hit driver-6-iron about where they can hit their drive,” he said of the competitors. “It’s amazing how guys these guys hit it.”
Especially at a mile-high altitude.
Though none of the World Long Drive competitors eclipsed the 500-yard mark, as had been hyped by the Golf Channel broadcast crew, they weren’t far away. Ryan Reisbeck of Layton, Utah and Ryan Steenberg of Rochester, N.Y., hit the longest balls during the televised portion of the event — each at a whopping 485 yards in the quarterfinals. (And that’s no typo.)
On the women’s side, world champion Phillis Meti of New Zealand set a record for the circuit with her 406-yard pop in the semifinals that benefited from a great bounce, rolling 66 yards.
In the end, claiming the women’s title and $7,000 on Tuesday was fourth-seeded Troy Mullins of Los Angeles, a smooth-swinging player who knocked one 374 yards on the seventh of her eight attempts to pass Meti’s 363 mark. In the preliminaries, Mullins had hit one 402.
Then in the evening’s finale, third-seeded Maurice Allen of Pine Hills, Fla., upset the new world No. 1 Reisback, who failed to get any of his eight attempts in the 55-yard-wide grid. Allen’s only counting ball went 436, which earned him the victory and $20,000.
“Welcome to the new world of sport,” Allen said. “This is action-packed.”
Allen and Mullins are pictured in a WLD photo.
