PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Vol. 5

The PGA Tour driving distance average rose 2.3 yards in Scottsdale to 289.4 yards for the season.

In the 350-yard or longer drive category, the tally was boosted by 22 tee shots, pushing the season total to 481 for the season. (Sheesh, J.B. Holmes must have had at least half of those 22!?)

There were 2059 drives of 350 yards or more in 2005.

Ah but the two-week streak without a 400 yarder ended, with 2 hit, bringing the season total to 15 and just four behind last year's total of 19.

Holmes Post Round Talk

J.B. Holmes after his round: 

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah, 13 was in the fairway. I was in between clubs, picked the wrong one, hit a great shot and just landed in the middle of the green and went over. Then went over in about the worst spot it could be. I played an okay shot, really wasn't that great of a shot to 25, 30 feet.

Then hit a great putt and it went in. So that was all the way around.

Q. What was the club on that?

J.B. HOLMES: I hit a 6 iron.

Q. What was your number in, do you remember?

J.B. HOLMES: I think it was it might have been 216 to the pin or something.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: 15, you had eagle?

J.B. HOLMES: I hit a good 3 wood. That was probably one of the bigger swings of the day, just getting it in that fairway. It's so firm and the ball can take off to the left there. Then just hit a great 4 iron right where I aimed it and just smoked it. It went up there, rolled right up there and then made a great putt.

Q. You had 257 to the flag and you hit 4 iron over water?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. It was only 230 to the front. It flew like 235 or something.

Q. Was that the second best shot of the day?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah. The putt was probably the second best shot. The 4 iron was definitely huge. Ryan being in the water and then hitting it up there like that, that was a big change for me.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: 17, you had a birdie.

J.B. HOLMES: 17, just aimed middle of the green, hit it out there pretty good, and it started turning a little bit towards the hole and bounced up. I thought I made my first one, just didn't hit it hard enough, and tapped in for birdie.

Q. 3 wood?

J.B. HOLMES: Yeah.

Uh, that's a par-4 he's talking about, in case you were unsure. 

Oh and nice 77-yard approach into 18! Wow. 

Long John Holmes

AP's Bob Baum has the story on Sunday's FBR Open, including the story of winner J.B. Holmes' father arriving just in time to see his son capture his first win.

And I had to do a double take on this line:  "On the 15th, Holmes reached the green easily in two with a 263-yard 4-iron shot over the water, then sank the 14-footer to go to 20 under."

198 yards...8 iron

Carl Spackler: He's the Cinderella boy...he's got about 195 yards left, he's got about a - it looks like he's got about an 8-iron. This crowd has gone deathly silent. The Cinderella story, outta no where, a former greenskeeper now - about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac - It's in the Hole!

J.B. Holmes, FBR Open, 13th hole Saturday: 8 iron from 198 yards.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Vol. 4

The PGA Tour average drive dropped another yard to 287.1 after the Buick Invitational. And for further proof the guys need to hit the gym before Scottsdale, there were only 3 drives of 350 yards (or more), bringing the tally to 459 through four events.

There were 2059 drives over 350 in all of 2005.

That's two weeks in a row without a 400 yarder! Now that's progress.

And if you are wondering why these growing numbers are followed, a full explanation is available here.

Update on 2006-01-30 23:19 by Geoff

Reader Josh points out the silliness of using two holes for driving distance average when stats are available for all drives. Looking at the percentage of drives over 300 hit by players, I can see why.

 

Oh and big deal on Bubba Watson. How about J.B. Holmes hitting 72% of his drives over 300 yards! 

 

The current Tour average is 28% (of drives over 300). 

It's All About the Fitness

Damon Hack writes about Bubba Watson:

A confluence of fitness, equipment and old-fashioned swing speed have rendered the PGA Tour a slamfest in recent years, and Watson is at the forefront of that push — at least in swing speed.

"My dad gave me a 9-iron at age 6 and said, 'Hit it as hard as you can,' " said Watson, who weighs 180 pounds. "It's about hitting the ball in the center of the club face and hitting it hard.

"If it ever comes down to where I need a lesson, I'm retiring," Watson added. "People say, 'Quiet your hips, do your elbow.' I don't have a clue what that means. I just hit it."

As for hitting the gym?

"I just like to sleep," he said. "I think Tiger and his caddie went out running yesterday, and I was like, 'You won't see me doing that, and my caddie won't be running, either.'

"My wife has tried a few times to get me to work out, and she yells at me about that, but I don't see myself doing that," Watson added. "There will be no yoga, you won't see me lift up any weights over 100 pounds."

Okay then, it's the "agronomy." In Bubba's case.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Vol. 3

The PGA Tour average drive dropped nearly a yard to 288.4 after the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, played at the gorgeous Classic Club (and elsewhere).

Tiger and John Daly haven't even teed it up, and yet there were 63 more 350 yard (or greater), bringing the tally to 456 through three events.

There were 2059 drives over 350 in all of 2005.

There was some good news for those hoping the distance issue goes away: no 400 yarders last week. 

And if you are wondering why these growing numbers are followed, a full explanation is available here.

The Bashers vs. The Artists

SI's Chris Lewis takes on the Bubba Watson and his eye-opening drives, but instead of focusing on Bubba and what car he drives or what he thinks of yoga, Lewis actually explores the concept of how the game is played (really!). Even more scary? He considers the ramifications.

Lewis says the main 2006 PGA Tour plotline will be "the Bashers vs. the Artists."

Subtitle: In which the ever-growing ranks of PGA Tour dogleg-cutting, tree-flying, dimpled-ball bombardiers finally and forever vanquish the ever-shrinking number of short-hitting, fairway-dwelling, shot-shaping sissies.

Besides Bubba, he looks at other bashers and artists. And he explores why John Holmes changes his Tour name to J.B. 

Reporter: Why go from John B. [Holmes] at Q-school to J.B. [Holmes] here?

Holmes: You know the answer to that.

"Big-Hitting Rookies Are Blowing Game Apart"

David Davies in the Telegraph writes about the "explosion" of "huge hitting" in golf, focusing on Bubba Watson's recent exploits. Lots of the numbers I've hit you over the head with here.

This was an interesting perspective:

Pat Ruddy, the eminent and amiable Irish golf course architect, is appalled by all this. "After these guys have driven the ball they have consumed over 70 per cent of the golf course. There's nothing left. The entire values of the game are being attacked by one club, the driver.

"What are we, as architects, to do? How about growing long grass from the green back towards the tee, so that they have to hit a wedge first and then a three-wood into the green? Or have 10-mile long courses?

"These tee shots have wiped out five or six clubs from the bag."

Bubba Watson won't care, of course, and neither will Jason Gore, but the rest of us should be mighty concerned about the threat to golf as we have known it.

Bubba Drives Interest In The Game

Tim Rosaforte writes:

If you stayed up late Sunday night to watch David Toms blow out the field at the Sony Open, you were looking for something to keep you from going asleep. Nothing against Toms, who won by five strokes; it just wasn�t much of a final round for drama.

Thankfully, there was Bubba Watson. The purists may think distance is ruining the game. In truth, distance drives the interest in the game.

Distance drives interest in the game? Hmm...so is that why ratings are in the toilet and play is way down? I knew it!

Watson is more than a circus act experiencing his 15 minutes. He is the reason why Tiger Woods went to graphite and why Mickelson was experimenting with a 47-inch shaft this off-season. Watson is the future. He is 6-foot-3, 180 pounds of elasticity, and he didn't appear the least bit nervous on the weekend, finishing with an eagle on Sunday for a check of $244,800 that represented job security.

Bubba is the reason Tiger went to graphite?

Huh, wonder why Tiger's never credited him? Shameful Tiger, shameful.

Bubba Numbers

This unbylined Shark.com story looks at Bubba Watson and his prodigious driving distances.

While David Toms won the Sony Open by five shots for his 12th career PGA Tour win, it was Bubba who stole the show. It wasn't just his career-best fourth-place finish, thanks to a final-round 65, as much as Bubba's rare ability to hit tee shots into the next time zone. He averaged an eye-popping 347.5 yards at Sony.

How much of a sideshow was it? At the par-5 18th hole on Saturday, Bubba out drove playing partner Fred Funk by, oh, about 140 yards. Imagine what that was like to witness. "He's already pretty small," Bubba said of Funk.

Four of Bubba's drives in the final round were measured at more than 360 yards, including a 398-yarder at the 12th hole. Even more amazingly, he managed to hit 11-of-14 fairways during a week when the field averaged hitting just 45 percent of the fairways. 

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Vol. 2

At Kapalua, the guys averaged a paltry 254.9 yards off the tee, 35 yards below last year's final average.

They caught up quickly at the Sony Open, moving the Tour driving distance average to 289.3 yards

All those wintertime workout programs really paid off for the boys (or maybe it was their launch monitor work?), because in two events, there have already been 393 drives over 350 yards (134 of those at the Sony Open). There were 2059 drives over 350 in all of 2005.

Another interesting number courtesy of the Tour's longest drive stat:

• There have been 13 drives over 400 yards in 2006.

• There were 19 all of last year.  Heck, Bubba Watson  might hit 19 over 400 at The International alone!

And if you are wondering why these growing numbers are followed so closely, a full explanation is available here.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Vol. 1.75

You may recall last week it was noted here that Kapalua was 21.5 yards below its 2005 average of 276.4.

Golf World's Jan 13 issue revealed that the two measuring holes were Nos. 3 and 15.

On No. 3, the players average 232.0 yards, 278.7 on No. 15 (which I believe plays slightly uphill).  

So yes Kapalua does distort the Tour numbers, just not in the way we might have imagined.  

Golf World also reported that the average distance on all drives was 281.2 yards. 

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch Vol. 1.5

Just a follow up on the driving distance item: the 2005 Mercedes produced an average drive of 276.4 yards according to the PGA Tour. That's a 21.5 yard drop.

And if you were wondering (I'm sure you were not), Michael Campbell was not included among the driving distance stat leaders because of his Tour (non) status.

Sheesh, it's not like he crossed a picket line.

PGA Tour Driving Distance Watch, Vol. 1 (2006 Edition)

Maybe they used meters on the two driving distance holes last week?

The Kapalua field averaged 254.9 yards off the tee, nearly 35 yards below the 2005 average.

But if you go to the Tour's "Longest Drive" stat page, more than half the drives from Kapalua are listed.

There were 238 tee shots over 350 yards for the week, and 565 over 300 yards.

And of the 999 drives listed, the average was 314.6 yards.

With a field of 28 having 15 driver chances per round, there were 1680 possible drives, with 1/3 of those 45 or more yards over the week's "average."  

Kind of makes you wonder which two holes were used for measuring.