Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2019 - 5

FRONT
New Distance Data
W
e love to go long off the tee; it's one of the great joys
in golf. But longer driving distances are adversely
affecting the game. When you watch touring pros
continually hit wedges into position for eagle putts, you may
sense the concern. High-tech golf equipment and finely conditioned
athletes are rendering old, storied golf courses near
obsolete and changing golf.
So, the USGA and R&A have
stepped in to measure the
numbers and attempt to safeguard
the game.
In 2015, the USGA and
R&A released their first
Annual Distance Report,
a
collection of driving stats
from nearly 300,000 drives on
seven tours: the PGA, LPGA,
Champions, European, Ladies
European,
Japan Golf, and
Web.com tours. But the most
recent report, released in 2017
(noted last Spring in W.P.
Ryan's " Editor's Letter " ), offered some startling numbers: The
average distance on the PGA Tour from the early 1990s to 2017
increased by approximately 30 yards (while amateurs gained an
average of 8 yards from 1996-2107).
Considering the entire report, however, 2017 shows up as a
slight anomaly. Since 2003 (when Shotlink technology was introduced
for tracking distances), the average driving distance on the
seven worldwide tours increased by about 0.2 yards per year. But
in 2017, the average distance gain of the seven tours was more
than 3.0 yards over 2016-worth signaling some alarms.
And the distances may be continuing to climb. Sports
Illustrated magazine reported recently that the average driving
distance on the 2018 PGA Tour was 295.29 yards-which, for
context, is an increase of 5.08 yards over 2015 numbers and a
gain of 38.4 yards since 1980.
How does this increased distance change the game? Well, as
distance goes up, scoring average can go down, and the 2017
Distance Report bears that out. The PGA Tour scoring average
in 1980 was 72.6, and it dropped to 70.8 in 2017-nearly
* BY JOSEPH OBERLE *
Keeping tabs: Golf's Annual Distance Report tracks driving stats
to safeguard the game.
two strokes. Fitness and course conditioning may be contributing
factors, but it is equipment technology that gets the most
scrutiny.
The influence of golf equipment technology on driving distances
is well known, and the game's governing bodies have
worked diligently to put restrictions on the drivers. However,
since the introduction of the
Titleist Pro-V1 in 2000 and
the record 6-yard increase that
year, the golf ball has been
blamed, perhaps unfairly, for
distance increases when clubhead
speed may be the real
culprit.
DUSTIN JOHNSON
Golfer fitness is one aspect
that the USGA and R&A can't
exactly govern. Extreme golfer
workouts started with Tiger
Woods, and the trend continues
in finely tuned athletes
such as Dustin Johnson, who
averaged 314.0 yards off the
tee in 2018.
The PGA Tour has tracked clubhead speed (a strength, fitness
and flexibility by-product) since 2007, when the PGA
Tour average was 112.4 miles per hour. In 2017, it increased to
a zenith of 113.9 mph (and Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee
tweeted in late January that it was 113.46 mph thus far in 2019).
But that isn't to say things are leveling off. According to the
Distant Report, a near 114 mph clubhead speed combined with
an increased launch angle of 0.3 (over the 2007 number) contributed
to an average increase in ball speed of 3.4 mph. We can
only imagine where this perfect storm of technology and fitness
takes us next.
The golfing world awaits the release of the 2018 Distance
Report (published recently-we'll report on it in a future issue).
Last May the USGA launched the Distance Insights Project,
creating a web portal where all the distance reports and other
related information will be collected (visit usga.org/content/
usga/home-page/advancing-the-game/distance-insights.html).
Expect the great distance debate to resume very soon.
mngolf.org
Spring 2019 MINNESOTAGOLFER
5
http://www.Web.com http://www.usga.org/content/ http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2019

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