Launch, Control and the Destination

I remember reading one of the (many) Tiger Woods books I have about Earl Woods commenting on how far Tiger hits the ball and what tournament organisers are looking to do to level the playing field. They wanted to stop scoring performances like the 1997 Masters from becoming common at PGA Tour venues. “If they wanted to Tiger-proof it, there is a way,” Earl Woods said. “Use the ladies’ tees, eliminate all the rough, put the pins in the easiest locations, and widen the fairways. That brings everybody in the field into the tournament and I guarantee you Tiger wouldn’t win.”

Tiger said to Bryson DeChambeau at the start of the 2020 Masters that he had never seen press coverage about one person since himself ahead of the 1997 tournament. Everyone was talking about bulked-up Bryson and his antagonising press comments like August National is a par 67. Although it didn’t work out for him during the Masters, Bryson has done quite well in the three majors this year with a T4 (US PGA), Win (US Open), and T34 (Masters). So the lockdown lat reps have worked for him with increased exposure and success. He’s also tinkered with his equipment to its limits to gain as much of an advantage as the R&A and USGA allow. For me, the issue isn’t with his bulk or his swing speed - it’s with the equipment. I don’t want to hear about Phil and Bryson talk about whether they might get out their extra-long shafts, nobody needs to make Paul McGinley comment on that.

Peaks of equipment performance have come before and they will come again. If we look at the limitations on the 460cc driver head, coefficient of restitution, anchored putters, or the square grooves change, these are all moments that were dealt with by the governing bodies. I am so pleased to see professional golfers in the best shape of their lives (I’m looking at you, Phil ??) and using biomechanics to increase their swing speed. Golf used to be seen as a bunch of flexible dad-bods who hoped to hole a few putts, now young golfers can see the benefits of being healthy and dedicating some time to physical training. If we look at the winners of majors in the past four years, the significant majority have been that class of “big hitters” - Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods, and Gary Woodland. In the modern game, significant length off the tee seems to correlate with the likelihood of success (in the majors, at least). For those looking for some figures, here are some driving distance numbers from the PGA Tour website.

The bars across the bottom are the average driving distances of the PGA Tour players in that year, and the red line is the average driving distance of the longest hitter of that year.

Notable Points

1991 - John Daly debuts on PGA Tour

1996 - Titanium driver heads introduced

1997 - Tiger Woods debuts on PGA Tour

1998 - Top-Flite Strata Tour ball introduced

2001 - Titleist Pro-V1 and Nike Tour Accuracy balls introduced

2003 - Coefficient of Restitution limit of 0.83 imposed by USGA and R&A

2004 - 460cc driver limit imposed

2006 - Bubba Watson debuts on PGA Tour

2020/2021 - Bryson DeChambeau becomes the PGA Tour’s longest driver

If we look at the statistics, the PGA Tour field gains about a yard every year since records began in 1980 which is in line with the average swing speed on tour rising each year. The longest hitter on tour is usually 25 yards ahead of the average for that year, whereas this year Bryson is 42.4 yards ahead. In the era of John Daly’s reign (1991-2002), the most he was ever ahead of the average was 1997 with 34.7. With the introduction of titanium driver heads (1996) and multi-layer golf balls (1997, 2001), it paid to try the new technology and make those gains on the rest of the field. It seems that Bryson has managed to push the limits of club technology, ball technology, and human physicality to push himself further ahead. Interestingly, between the years of 1996 and 2003, the tour average gained 23.2 yards in 8 years, whereas between 2004 and the present day, the tour average has gained 9.5 yards in 18 years. Is Bryson a big deal because nothing this extreme has happened on tour like this for 14 years (Bubba’s debut)? Or is it a big deal because it’s a problem that we haven’t anticipated? Realistically, how much more could his efforts achieve before another plateau?

There have been rumours about a special tournament golf ball that might come into play, I know that Jack Nicklaus mentioned something along those lines during his past few public appearances. I am in the same school of thought, this change would bring a lot of older courses back into championship venue contention after being previously dismissed for not being able to offer 500-yard par 4’s or total yardages pushing towards 7500-8000 yards. If the R&A were just to limit the driver potentials as they did in 2003 (CoR) and 2004 (460cc), I don’t think the limits imposed would have as much of an effect compared to the introduction of a limiting elite golf ball. A new golf ball would nullify the effects of faster swing speeds, higher CoR, and delofted sets of clubs. Most of those previously mentioned major winners have been playing in an era without many technological limitations imposed by the governing bodies. I think that if the governing bodies imposed a further reduction on clubface CoR, it would take years to develop the new clubs and a lot of golf clubs would be redundant and create a lot of waste. A new golf ball structure could be imposed on the elite players without too much fuss considering their production costs.

I’m not really sure there’s a correlation between the enjoyment of watching golf and the length of tee shots watched, but it now feels like the spotlight is on those long hitters and it feels like a distraction from what the game of golf is about (unless the game is a long drive championship). It’s a balancing act to push for larger broadcasting audiences with exciting golf whilst reducing the distance of those booming drives, and I don’t know what the results of this action will be. But I certainly know that to keep extending golf courses is not the answer. Extending courses means more construction work, more money spent by clubs, and more yards to cover with mowers, water, and fertilisers. More costs are most likely to be offset against the average golfer looking to play a championship course. The further the players hit the ball, the longer the courses will become. Maybe the next step is a PGA Tour par 3 venue, who’s your bet to win that?