How I WON my Third World Long Drive Title

I watch back through my world long drive 2023 performance in the finals on the Bobby Jones golf course against Justin James, Zack Holton and Sean Johnson!

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Kyle Berkshire breaks down the world long drive finals.

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Hey guys what is up hope everybody has been having a wonderful holiday season so far it has definitely been a fun offseason for me I’ve been keeping busy playing a lot of golf keeping my body in good shape and uh getting ready for next year and I figured it was definitely

Time to release a kind of a a voiceover synopsis of the sets from the world long drive Championship because I do consider this to be definitely the toughest World Championship I’ve won of my three so far and also I’m going to be getting a brand

New mic so if the audio quality is not perfect I apologize I am upgrading that in very short order I’ve signed on with a new post-production editing team so I’m very excited about kind of having the post- production stuff out of my hands and uh definitely looking forward

To um being able to put out more great content for you guys but uh that being said let’s get into it so I’m not sure if you guys watched the uh The Telecast but um even if you guys have I figured it’d be a good thing to give you guys my

Thoughts and kind of what I was thinking going into the uh final three sets because what a lot of people don’t realize we we we had to get through six days to get to this point and I can promise you it was not easy so might be

A good way to give you guys some insight into the background context and things like that if you guys enjoyed this video please be sure to like the video it really does help push this video out to more people and subscribe to the channel definitely looking forward to making

Next year a big year for my YouTube channel and for the content creation side so let’s hop into it and uh yeah when I when I saw the draw that um I was going to have in the quarterfinals against Justin James I was just like you

Got to be kidding me but um Justin James has absolutely been one of the best in the world as long as I’ve been in the sport all the way since 2016 2017 and you guys know me I like the hammer position and so he’s going to be going

First today there win was off the left down and so so if you hit a draw the wind would fight it back to the center of the grid um and the danger of hitting a draw which is the shape Justin and I both play is the wind is a lot stronger

Because the the arena in those trees you guys can see can form a bit of a void with the wind and so you might not feel the wind down here where we are but it’s definitely blowing left to right and down and if you start a draw on the

Right center of the grid the intention of turning it back towards the middle what might actually happen is it starts right but the wind pushes it further right even if it’s got draw spin on it and you guys will see here in a little bit that almost cost me my tournament

But uh Justin got off to a good start here didn’t capture his numbers there but I would guess about 220 ball speed a really solid number right off the rip um and that’s what makes Justin so good he just never hands you the matches I mean

Jus and I have probably had at least 10 or 12 matches in the final eight together um many of them televised so we were no stranger to each other we know how each other likes to work Justin’s just very methodical he’s going to get a ball and

Play early and he’s going to build um he and I both had pretty solid tournaments I started off a little shaky with a couple OB sets early in the first couple days but I pretty much had the greatest four sets of my career in the round of 16 yesterday I mean well yesterday

According to the day we were hitting the day before um I went be first set and the round of 16 was an absolute just Gauntlet and then the last four sets unfortunately some of the flight scope numbers didn’t capture but I had to have been sitting in the low 230s the last

Four sets and won each of my last four sets by at least 15 yards I think something like that um so I felt really good going into today um felt like it was certainly my tournament to win and you know so that’s kind of how I was

Approaching it I was just you know put a ball in play make good swings and just go from there but the the tough thing about this is it’s such a it does not matter how many times you’ve been in this situation it truly is whiplash I mean you’re going

From round robin sets where you have five sets and you got you know plenty of rounds you can go be and still be in it too you’re instantly in a position where it’s an elimination set and that can be very tough when you’ve spent most of the tournament kind of cruising I actually

Think on day one I got a lot closer to getting knocked down day one than I obviously wanted and that helped me cuz I actually got to feel a little bit of that pressure on day one and I think that kind of upregulated my my uh stress

Reaction so that I was kind of ready for this moment here and it happens fast guys I mean we only get six balls now um and it’s definitely a tough situation so definitely a rough first three balls here I think the second one was actually a little bit closer of the right side

But I keep getting a little bit under the ball and I’m just flipping the hands you guys can see here how flippy I’m getting um about probably halfway through that down swing and again it’s just nerves really is I mean I felt a ton of pressure going into this week

Coming into this week I had just broken the ball speed record and hit the longest drive ever recorded on golf course so my odds my betting odds were quite generous so I was definitely thinking about that and I knew that people were expecting me to win and you

Know so it’s it can be tough because all of a sudden you’re down to an elimination set and you just got to step up and hit a ball so 393 by no means scared me for a number and I know and Justin knows this

As well he knows he needs more if I get a ball and play that’s good it’s probably going to be past 393 but uh you know he’s uh just pushing out just a little bit to the right in the way Justin Works he likes to hit a

Bit of a push draw and you just a tough shot to hit because with this win off the left you can fight that draw and I was in the same but we have the same shot shape but uh yeah you can see me just kind of getting ready for my last

Three balls I’m not really paying a ton of attention to what’s going on with my opponents because you know obviously what they’re going to do I can’t do anything about it and I I truly did feel like if I hit my best ball obviously there’s a luck component but I’d be

Probably in pretty good shape and Justin hit a really good ball here and I just don’t understand why we didn’t flatten this grid out more because if you guys watch really closely you can literally see this ball sideways out of the grid now it was mid 380s so it didn’t matter

Too much but if you guys look up in the middle of the screen you’ll see a huge hole I mean saw a huge hill and if you guys want to rewind that 10 seconds you’ll see a massive Hill in the middle of the grid and hopefully um next year

We’re going to be able to remove that Hill because I just think if you have a world championship with everything at stake you certainly need to make sure that the grid is as flat as possible but regardless it was still a great venue love being in Atlanta competing for the

World championship nice to be in a big Market City but uh again just you can see you can really see it written all over my face it’s panic and I’m telling you guys that’s just part of the sport if you don’t feel Panic you’re you’re not it’s

It’s just it’s just part of the game you know this happens so fast and there’s so much Stakes around everything that things happen quickly and I almost get a little nervous if I’ve gone through a whole tournament without panicking because I’m like something’s going to happen somewhere and I want to be ready

For it and this is what I’m talking about here I put it up the right side and I’m thinking this is in 227 ball speed and this all day is good this would have one but you guys can see that wind ripping and so what’s happening is the ball’s

Trying to draw but the wind’s pushing it out and um I just couldn’t adjust and you know I really thought that was in play but um as you guys saw there was about three yards o be about 412 415 so I really just walked in knowing that all

I want to do is just hit it well and see what happens and when I hit this I knew I hit a great Drive I knew it was long enough but again you guys see that uh that right corner and um I see them running back and just so you guys know

We didn’t have a live feed score like live feed shot of what you guys are seeing now back in the grid so I all I see is guys running back and I was excited but if you look look how close that ball is to the edge I mean that’s

Insane but um so I I I was excited to see it was long but I got nervous because when they’re running the ball’s rolling and uh you know it can always roll out but uh fortunately it stayed in really needed that I and I you know

Kudos to Justin for being a Class Act great hitter um you can see pretty excited um definitely one of the best shots I’ve hit in my career given the circumstances and just kind of held off on it just a little bit more there and was able to make the swing I needed to

Make and um I knew once I hit it it was way over 400 just just uh needed to stay in that corner and it did you know and that that was really the one thing I knew going into this tournament I was just like I just need one good break

Late in this tournament and it’s mine that’s truly what I felt like and so I knew there’s still a long road to go I had to go through a lot more I still had to go through two more really good hitters but I felt like that was the

Break I needed and um so now we’re moving on to the semi-final match against the current world number two Zack Holton and uh you know if you’re world number two that’s about all you need to say about how good you are and uh so you can see they got the

Graphic up there definitely want to put my name back up on that graphic three time world champ would be you know in my mind I was like that’s going to be pretty cool because only only two other people have done that Sean Fister and Jason zubac so be some quite rare fight

Error you guys can see another shot of the grid here this is at Bobby Jones Golf Course so nice little spot right outside of Atlanta so Zack Holton had probably one of the greatest sets of all time in the Denver event and the L um Colorado had I think five out of six

Balls over 460 to win which is just wild so going into this set you know I I knew Zach was going to be the thing with Zach he’s just so tough I mean he’s not going to necessarily put up 230 ball speed but what he will do is he’s going to put up

Something between 218 to 222 in the grid with great ball flight and that is terrifying knowing that who you’re facing is going to put that number up every single time and I compare him a lot to you know he’s a he’s got a ton of

Speed but like what he’s so good at and don’t let the lower body movement when you see him hit throw you off this is probably one of the most accurate hitters in the planet it’s the ball in the center of the face pretty much more than anybody and that’s why he’s so good

He just has unbelievable control of his ball flight and he has he can dial it up to the low 220s and I’ve even seen him at 225 and that’s d dangerous um so you know you know what you’re going to get with Zach you’re going to get something

In the 218 to 222 ball speed range with good flight in the grid and that’s always going to be a tough ball to beat so that’s what I was expecting from him nothing more nothing less and so I knew I was going to have to hit a good

Ball so I think he gets this ball and play right off the rip I’m not sure but looks like he felt like he hit it pretty good but uh you know just a little bit out little bit OB right I think but you guys can see the lower body movement

Here definitely some of you guys who follow me for a long time that will definitely look familiar compared to what I did in 2019 but he’s definitely taken it to a whole new level and it works for him I mean this guy hits it so straight it’s amazing so onto his second

Ball 2176 1742 spin right at the left Center that’s him I mean that’s what he’s going to do it’s going to be 218 to 222 and it’s going to be in the grid he’s going to be in the grid often and he’s going to be in the grid early so I

Think that’s a little over 390 393 so again a good number but I I truly wasn’t too concerned about numbers besides a freak ball like James Tate went 450 in this in the final eight because he just hit a a crazy Ball but for me I just

Knew if I hit a saw ball each set I’d probably be good to go the only thing that scared me was going Obi you know I knew I was definitely liable for that so really good speed here from Zack Holton 223 again you can see how good his

Accuracy is I mean these are burning corners and I can promise you guys at that distance and that speed missing the corners like that that is extremely accurate even still so I really would like to see a stat and long drive come about where maybe if you miss the grid

By less than 10 15 yards they count that as like a different kind of shot so you can see how many quality shots you’re hitting um instead of just having OBS and inbounds cuz there it really it’s a real thing guys like if I’m only 5 10

Yards OB and I hit it hard that’s going to do a lot more for me than if I miss in the grid by 6070 yards like I know something Good’s about to happen and that really is important you know to be able to at least be close to your misses

So again another Miss 227 out on the right just not turning the turning the face shut and again I I 2289 so you guys can see how I’m moving it definitely this is I’m up there with the best I’ve ever moved it in my career and uh just

Not slamming the door shut on that face I mean these balls are humongous they’re just they’re just not turning over and so I’m just trying to kind of gather myself been here before it happens fast but you just got to accept that it’s going to be constantly evolving and so

I’m going to try to turn it over a little more here again another good shot just 230 in the ball speed but I know this thing is probably going to creep over OB and you can see it just bounces left again I I three good shots as far

As as concerned you know the first two I hit really hard just left the face probably one and a half to two degrees open SEC third shot I made an adjustment and missed the grid by a couple yards left and they were all 227 plus ball speed so as far as I was

Concerned I really wasn’t as nearly as concerned as I was after my first three against Justin because my first three against Justin were pretty bad um but my first three against Zach were good so I felt like with three more to hit I felt pretty good about my chances

Honestly and you know as I said 393 has a good ball um but I wasn’t super concerned about it for a number um it just scared me that it was a number so you feel a little pressure in that regard about um kind of what’s going on

So again another solid number from Zach I mean you know he’s just if he’s missing the grid he’s missing it by a couple yards at most but that’s that’s Zach bit of a Miss hit here a little low in the face 216 it’s going to be in the gr it looks

Like but uh somewhere in the 380s and uh I think he’s got one more left here and he can certainly take it over 400 no question you know he can certainly be in the 410 to 420 range with a good swing here up the right

Side and I think he just pulled this a little left I mean it’s it’s impressive to watch this guy hit I mean he just doesn’t he just it’s every single ball is 215 to 223 ball speed with good ball flight and when you can do that you’re

You’re going to be the second best in the world you know that’s just that simple so again 93 not something that really scared me for a number so at this point I was just ready to make a swing and this was probably my worst swing of

The of the sets right there that was not a fun shot to see that kind of spooked me a little bit so at this point I I kind of thought about something in my head I was like okay I think my Ball’s a little too far up my stance and

So I’m going to push this ball in the back of my stance make that exact swing and just let the toe release you can see me kind of making that motion with my hand but I’m trying to do is just Center myself slow myself down and when I hit

This one I knew that was probably ball game 23.8 in the ball speed you know just really pumped I hit that shot when I needed to and it flies right into that Hill so lost a y a lot of yardage on that but still enough to get the job

Done and that’s all I really care about but had that been on the right side you’re probably looking at 420 430 plus um like I did against Justin so you can see the relief in my eyes there I definitely didn’t want my run in like that going into this day all I wanted

Was for my run to not end with an OB set that’s all I was really on my mind but uh yeah I just was able to settle in put the ball back my stance get that ball to start to the right side of the grid and just turn it right into

The center and uh you can see it didn’t take much time for me to know that that was probably going to be good enough and uh just a little more patient you can see the ball just a little further back my stance a little further off my InStep and uh yep felt pretty

Good about once I hit it and uh it feels good to be cruising at 230 ball speed at you know the biggest Tournament of the year and that’s what I live for guys you know I you know game seven bottom of the ninth that kind of stuff and this is it this

Is a world championship you got to be at your best to win it and you know I just love doing that and it’s just a ton of fun so this point you can see I got either James Tate or Shawn Johnson and I believe Shawn Johnson took it by a

Couple yards so that’s who I’m going to be facing in the uh in the finals so here we’ll cut back to um so Sean Johnson with 405 I went 398 I think sea went up the right side and that’s all the difference um cuz I think his ball

Was like 216 218 and my Ball’s 230 so just goes to show you I mean you know the grid decides a lot of this and I remember Waring up they had net return set up to the side of the if you guys look at the um shot right here

If you look to the right where that light pole is that’s where the net returns were said you can just see them the range is up top and it was quite a walk so what I did I didn’t have time between the semis and finals to go back

Up to the range so I was just hitting in the return with my track M and my God guys I was moving it I mean we had the Bridgestone balls which are a little slower then like the left Dash is probably about four or five miles hour

Slower and I was just pumping it into then that turn I was letting it all rip letting it all go because I had fought a little bit of an injury coming in so I had to be very uh I had to be very economical with my swings and I was able

To skip a couple sets and save some hits my body and I’m feeling awesome right now absolutely amazing so I’m just finally letting it all go and I hit about 20 or 30 balls into the net return to stay loose and I I was sitting in the low 230s I mean it was

Ridiculous I just had so much speed at this point my body was ready I just think my brain and my mind were ready for it and my body was too and uh so I know going into this it’s mine to win Sean’s a tremendous hitter he was the

Rookie of the Year in 2022 you know great guy hit against him a good bit so I know again this is not going to be an easy match I mean I’ve had a very tough path I had to go through Justin James Zack holon Sean Johnson and I

Promise you those are three names that carry a ton of weight in long drive because these are those are three three of the top eight hitters in the world so you got I knew it was going to be a long road but that’s what makes it worth

Winning it’s it’s it’s awesome and it’s fun because it’s tough as you guys know I’m sure by now I’m like SE go first and as far as I’m concerned it’s me versus me you know like that’s really how I felt I I just felt like you know

Shawn’s going to hit a great ball and you can see right there 220 right off the rip I know Shawn’s a great hitter he’s not going to hand me this match so I know for me it’s all about just hitting a good ball and staying Within Myself not

Trying to do too much and that’s a tremendous start 394 right at the gut and Sean did what he needed to do he put ball on me early he didn’t let himself get into a 3v6 match if where what I mean by that is he if he miss his first

Three balls I would have been very comfortable and probably would have put up an even bigger number than I I did um so he did a great job of getting one play a number too I mean 94 was not bad at all um that was kind of right on the

Number to win sets most of the day numbers did drop a little towards the end I think the wind dropped a little but um yeah it was a certainly a good start I think this one’s about 216 of the right side you guys will see the

Numbers I think in a replay a little in a little bit here but again you guys notice that right side it just gives you more gives you more roll out so yeah I think this comes back in 97 very good ball you can see Shawn likes

It but he definitely knows he he’s got more so as far as I’m concerned that’s about what I was expecting I was I was expecting Sean to put something up in the mid90s maybe even in the 400s so for me you know I’m like if this is it you know

I it’s been 23 or four sets to get to this point six long days a lot of pressure and as far as I’m concerned I’m it’s the last set and now it’s time to win it and again a great start here for me 228 ball speed just up the left side

Probably would have been a 45 410 ball so I’m I’m happy with the start it was an OB OB OB shot but it was a quality ball and that really does matter as I told you guys earlier it was a quality ball and I like the way it started so

I’m going to going to go again and another quality ball this 2 29.9 right up the left side again just fighting a little bit down the left side and you can see it landed right on the line that probably been another 400 405 so you know I I’m I’m honestly

Feeling very comfortable I’m not really too concerned at all about my ability to hit the grid I know I have four more swings left and if I keep making swings like those first two one’s going to be one’s going to stay in play and that’s really what the sport is about you just

Got good swings and eventually you’ll have one in play if you keep making good swings and this one was the camera didn’t follow this one and it was just one of those I didn’t quite shut the door but 231 ball speed God I would have love to know how far that ball carry

Because that was being pushed by the wind too that was probably a 410 420 carry if I had to guess no idea of knowing that just based on how I hit it so three quality balls that’s how I saw and so I was pretty comfortable and Sean’s got some speed there

2236 you know he’s got a good bomb play so now what Sean’s looking for something in 400 plus and you guys can see me I’m just you know this place really filled up by the way as you guys can see towards the end but I’m just staying in

My element not worrying about outside variables I’m just I just know you hit the center of the face good flight you’re taking your third belt home and that’s kind of how I felt you know and just that’s that’s the way I approach the whole thing and it was really nice

To feel that I had some semblance of control where if I did what I needed to do I had a very good chance of winning so what I’m doing here I’m just going through my routine and I’m just trying to stay locked in my routine because I

Know if I do my routine I’m going to give myself the best chance of Performing under pressure and that’s you can’t see it but that’s what I’m doing off the side is literally just doing my routine over and over and over so that it’s fresh my mind and I don’t have to

Think about it when I step up to te but tremendous set by Sean it it really is extremely impressive he’s a sophomore year to step up in his first championship match and hit six really really hard balls put out a number and then basically tell me now go catch it

You know he put out a really good number he made me work for this and you know he’s just a great hitter so you know I hit this ball and I saw turning over but I knew that wind was fighting it back to the

Left so I was like this is going to stay in there’s one Hill down there you can see it if it landed on the left side that could have gone OB so I was just saying bounce straight and it did on that exact Hill 398 and I see it pop up

On the board and I get quick confirmation here and he tells me I won by more than more than six the six Ines which is the rule for the um the margin of Victory and now it’s kind of just soaking in it’s long year a lot of

Injuries a lot of self-doubt but it it all paid off in the end had a lot of people you know Sean was a tremendous Sean was a tremendous hitter tremendous uh person to share this championship match with and um yeah it was just an incredible feeling I mean it really

Was and to get a third belt this will definitely be a term I never forget and I’m exhausted emotionally like you guys can see it in my face just all the pressure everything I dealt with that week it was just a very difficult week but a ton of fun as well

By a yard and uh you can actually see my dialogue here when they show my after this replay um how much I’m urging this ball all I say is Bounce straight like 230 ball speed and I just didn’t want to land on the side of that hill and kick

Dead left cuz then it could have gone OB so I knew that was going to fight it back to Center so I’m like bounce I’m like stay in come on stay in bounce straight give me a straight bounce I remember saying those words very clearly

And I was just trying to see that bounce um but yeah you can see that’s the look of an exhausted person right there and uh me being interviewed by Bobby Bradley and all that good stuff and it was just really cool you know just really cool to get to

Experience all that and uh just fast forwarding through some of this stuff here 2019 2021 and 2023 so the odd years have been good to me over the last couple uh over the last half decade or so but uh yeah guys it was just an incredible experience incredible to be

Hoisting that belt again these are not easy to win I can promise you guys that and uh yeah it’s just an incredible feeling and uh you know Martin being a gracious Champion he is Martin was a wonderful champion and he always will be a wonderful champion and looking forward

To doing battles with him as well but uh yeah it was a ton of fun guys I hope you guys enjoyed me uh breaking this down a lot more exciting content coming up for you guys in the future excited to really get it going this winter and um give you

Guys some great stuff to watch and I excited about next year so if you guys enjoy this video please be sure to like the video subscribe to the channel and I will see you guys Mak it and that third belt wow that the crew ran ree back the senior champ as

Well what a week from Atlanta congrat to the champions