Driving the distance up on Tour

Average drive off the tee on PGA Tour nowadays stands at 298 yards

It was the first week of June in 1970, just a little more than 50 years ago. Beverly Country Club in Chicago was hosting the PGA Tour’s Western Open for the third time in seven years. An iconic Donald Ross course that had hosted Francis Ouimet’s U.S. Amateur triumph in 1931, its past champions included three Hall of Famers who won the Western Open. Chick Evans won the 1910 Western while Arnold Palmer took home the Western in 1963 and Jack Nicklaus did the same in 1967. Beverly had a way of identifying great golfers.

All the contestants in that 1970 Western Open had teenage caddies who were Beverly regulars. There is a lot of dead time at golf tournaments and a group of us would sit atop the bleachers overlooking the 18th green when we weren’t looping for one of the pros. For the first time, the Western had an electronic scoreboard next to the bleachers. It imparted information such as the leader board results, which threesome was coming up the fairway, and statistics from that season on tour. including money leaders, tournament wins and driving distance.

I vividly remember one of our conversations when the driving distance stats showed up on the big screen. Jack Nicklaus led the tour in driving distance through the midway point of 1970. He averaged 270 yards off the tee. In 128th place was South African golfer Gary Player. A member of golf’s big three alongside Nicklaus and Palmer, Player’s average tee shot distance was 231 yards. It was obvious that there were different ways to win at golf. Although we were just kids, we did understand that Player had to put a lot more pressure on his short game than Jack did. On a medium length par-4 of 380 yards, Nicklaus could hit driver and then pitching wedge into the green. Player had to hit driver and then 7-iron into the green. Yet our analysis turned to the par-5s at Beverly. Jack could reach some of them in two shots with a driver and a 1-iron. Meanwhile Gary would have to go driver, 3-wood and then wedge to reach the putting surface.

The advantage would always go to the long-ball knocker.

The PGA Tour began keeping complete driving statistics in 1980 with regard to distance and fairways hit. Looking back over 40 years of information shows the increase in driving distance from the era of persimmon woods, steel shafts and balata golf balls to our current era of metal woods, three-piece golf balls and exotic metal shafts.

In 1980, journeyman Don Pohl led the tour in driving distance with an average poke of 274 yards. The tour average was 257 yards, and the 150th golfer in driving distance was Michael Brannan at 239 yards. The numbers were minimal in comparison to Nicklaus and Player one decade earlier. However, the late 1980s and the 1990s would show a decided increase in driving distance among the top golfers who were exempt on the PGA Tour.

In the early 1980s, a new company called Taylor Made Golf came up with a steel-headed driver. Unlike the persimmon drivers of the past, the Taylor Made “Pittsburgh Persimmon” metal driver had a longer shelf life. During the course of just a few years, the persimmon wooden heads could crack or break, meaning that a competitive golfer had to travel with backup wooden woods. The new metal woods had longevity on their side. They also went farther.

In 1986, relative newcomer Davis Love III led

the tour in driving distance at 286 yards. The tour average was up to

263 yards while the short knocker of the group was Jack Renner at 243 yards off the tee. The arms race was on and long-hitting John Daly, a two-time major champion and one of the more colorful characters on the PGA Tour, broke the 300-yard barrier in 1997 when he averaged 302 yards off the tee. Ed Fiori, who beat rookie Tiger Woods in the 1996 Quad Cities Open, was the short ball hitter at 245 yards. The tour average was now up to 266 yards.

The 1997 season marked Tiger Woods’ major triumph at the Masters as he bombed his way to a new tournament record

of 18-under-par coupled with a 12-shot victory over former U.S. Open champ Tom Kite. Woods played brilliantly all week, but it was stunning to the golfing world when Tiger hit driver and pitching wedge onto the green at the 540yard par-5 15th hole. It was some 42 years earlier that Gene Sarazen had made a double-eagle-two on the very same hole in the 1935 Masters hitting driver off the tee and a 2-wood into the cup.

In October of 2000, the Acushnet Golf Company, makers of the Titleist golf ball, introduced their new Pro V1 model to the throngs at the Las Vegas Golf Show. The new product from Titleist included a larger and firmer

core, fewer dimples and a thinner cover. The end result was added distance off the tee because of reduced spin. The science was such that on shorter shots with wedges, the spin ratio increased. Your tee ball would carry farther and then run out while your wedge shots to the flagstick would have the necessary spin to hold the green. Suddenly golf was in the midst of a new world order.

In 2001, Daly led the tour in driving distance at 317 yards. Former U.S. Open champ Corey Pavin was at the bottom of the list at 268 yards. The average distance among tour regulars was 279 yards. Some three decades removed from that 1970 Western Open when Nicklaus

was leading the PGA Tour with average tee shots of 270 yards, the diminutive Corey Pavin was hitting it just as long. Pavin was that era’s Gary Player as he was tough, talented and short off the tee.

Ever since the evolution of the medal wood, exotic shafts of mixed metals along with the three-piece golf ball, the distance wars have increased incrementally. In 2015, Dustin Johnson topped the tour at

318 yards. Two years later Rory McIlroy led the tour in driving distance at 317 yards. Last year Bryson DeChambeau built up his body and topped the tour at 322 yards off the tee. The short knocker of 2020 was Andrew Putnam at

278 yards and the tour average

was 298 yards. Hitting it 270 up the middle all the time will make you competitive at the U.S. Senior Amateur, but it won’t even get you a paycheck on the mini-tours nowadays.

In time, golf’s ruling bodies might decide to rein in the distance battle. They might legislate that golf balls can’t fly as far. Then again, they might not. It’s not an issue for amateur golfers, but it is a matter of importance to those atop the game’s hierarchy. If distances continue to improve, it will all be relative. However, the negative end result might be that courses of note such as San Francisco’s Olympic Club and Harding Park could become obsolete for grand slam golf.