Marshmallow Long Drive: What It Is, How to Win

You've probably heard of the long-drive contest as a fund-raiser at charity golf events: Golfers buy the chance to take a swing or swings and the one who hits it the farthest is the winner. But those contests use golf balls. What would you call such a contest that substituted a marshmallow for the golf ball?

Yes, the Marshmallow Long Drive Contest is a real thing. Its various names include marshmallow contest, marshmallow challenge, marshmallow long drive, longest marshmallow drive or just longest marshmallow. And a Marshmallow Long Drive is exactly the same as the standard long-drive contest. Except, you know, for the marshmallow.

Organizers of a charity tournament will, if there's a marshmallow contest, designate one hole on the golf course as "the marshmallow hole." When you and your group of golfers arrive at that teeing ground, you'll have the option to buy a marshmallow if you want to take a swing at the contest prize (usually something like a free driver or a couple free rounds of golf).

The marshmallows are the large size, and are provided by the tournament. If you buy one or more, you'll then take your swing(s) and hope for the best. A tournament official is there to keep track of the longest marshmallows drives. The golfer who has the longest at the end of the day wins the prize.

One proviso that is sometimes (often not) included: The marshmallow must land within a designated target area for the "drive" to count.

How Do You Win a Marshmallow Long Drive Contest?

Let's be honest: The single biggest factor in winning a long marshmallow drive contest is pure, dumb luck. That's part of the fun of it. (And why marshmallow driving contests can be good ways to break up a day of practice or a golf clinic for kids.)

But there are two pieces of advice we can pass along to golfers who really want to win:

• Wind and spin are your enemies when hitting a marshmallow with a golf club.
• For club selection and swing, think "low and slow."

You want to keep the marshmallow out of the wind (unless you have a strong wind blowing directly down your line) and refrain from imparting tons of spin on it. And you probably want to pick a club that has some loft but not a lot, and use a very measured swing, one that is slowed down from your normal swing.

Those are the bits of advice that stand out from our search of videos, message boards and articles about marshmallow long drive competitions. We've seen recommendations from many people who've participated, and a few who've even won, to use 3- or 4-irons or hybrids and a slow swing. We've even seen a few people recommend putter.

But: We've also seen accounts of marshmallow long drives won with mid-irons, 5- or 6-irons. So our best piece of advice is this: If the contest prize is good enough that you want to take the contest seriously, practice. That's right, you heard us. Practice.

Buy a bag of big, fluffy marshmallows and get in your backyard or go to an empty field and experiment with different clubs. Find the one that seems to produce the best results for you, and use that one for the contest.

More golf games:

• What is a proxy contest?
• What is a proxy marker?
• How to play a Choker Tournament