The growing gap: driving distances are skyrocketing on the PGA Tour. So why is the average golfer being left behind? - Special Report - widening gap between amateur and professional golfers

Golf Digest, May, 2003 by Jaime Diaz

Admit it. In the deepest recesses of your ego, you believe that with a $500 driver in your hands and the latest miracle ball on a tee, when you really catch one, it's out there with the tour pros. Nothing wrong with that feeling. Sport psychologist Bob Rotella might even say that's exactly how you should feel. In reality, you're nowhere near those guys--and losing ground.

Everyone's talking about golf's distance revolution and how it's changing the game. But the sad reality is, if your name's not on your bag, you're almost certainly being left behind. A recent Golf Digest study confirmed that the gap between tour pros and average golfers is wider than ever.

Most Popular Articles in Sports: The first family: Archie, Peyton and Eli are incredibly famous, immensely ...; The growing gap: driving distances are skyrocketing on the PGA Tour. So why ...; Which pistol caliber for self defense? Four different people come to four ...; Drag racing - National Hot Rod Association; The world's most popular .22: the Marlin Model 60 just keeps on ticking; More »

It all starts with talent. But tour pros also are maximizing their skills with the sophisticated technology of launch monitors (see page 142), the latest generation of bigger titanium drivers (page 146), and subtle changes to their technique (page 148). All of it is there for you, too. Applied intelligently, it can improve your game almost as much as it has revolutionized the game on tour.

When pros play, the 400-yard drive is now part of the golf lexicon. And we're not just talking long-drive competitors, although four-time world champion Jason Zuback recently launched a 425-yard bomb. We mean the guys who have to play their foul balls, too. At The International last year, Hank Kuehne played the longest hole on the PGA Tour, the 644-yard par-5 first at Castle Pines, with a 465-yard drive and a 180-yard 9-iron. During a tour de force at Kapalua in January, Ernie Els, who led the tour in driving distance with a 320-yard average through March, provided the symbolic start to a new era by wowing a prime-time East Coast audience with effortless blasts--one rolling out to 398 yards. Two weeks later in Phoenix (where, by the way, the entire field averaged better than 300 yards), Phil Mickelson drove a 403-yard par 4. Victor Schwamkrug, whose 329-yard average made him Big Dog among the 15 players who averaged more than 300 yards on the Buy.com (now Nationwide) Tour last year, says in his calm Texas drawl, "If a hole is right around 400 yards and sets up so I can go ahead and hit it, well, I'm going to get to it. I'm not the only one out here like that."

Basically, every player who wants to be competitive in that arena is hitting it farther. Take Rocco Mediate, whose 106-mph swing speed is one of the slowest on tour (an average 80s shooter swings about 89 mph). By getting more physically fit and taking advantage of every technological breakthrough in the golf industry the past few years, Mediate is averaging 289.6 yards, the highest of his career and an increase of more than 12 yards over last year.

"It's a distance war on tour, and for me to stay in it I need to understand exactly what I'm doing with my swing, my equipment and my body," says Mediate. "Basically, I have to absolutely max out."

That phrase could easily be the new motto in professional golf--the reason why these guys are good. Not only have tour players learned how to play at full throttle without fear, they're swinging at speeds and with a mind-set that average golfers can barely comprehend. And that's why the distance gap between today's tour pro and the average amateur is wider than it has ever been.

"While most amateurs still either don't do--or don't know how to do--the things necessary to improve, the greater rewards and more intense competition has forced the pros to change," says teacher and CBS golf analyst Peter Kostis. "They have increased their work ethic and their knowledge of all areas of the game, and with their talent and technique, now the separation is a chasm."

According to tests by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the double-digit-handicapper added less than one yard to his average drive from 1996 to 2001. During the same period, tour pros added an average of 12 yards.

Although definitive research is scarce, Golf Digest surveys show that the average golfer's driving distance increased from 193 to 205 yards in the last decade. In the same period, PGA Tour distances increased almost 30 yards. Even these numbers for average golfers may be generous because a test of Golf Digest Schools students in March still showed only a 195-yard average.

"It doesn't seem like the average guy has caught on to how to hit it farther yet," says Joe DeBock, head professional at recently lengthened Torrey Pines. "Every good player I know is longer than he used to be, but it's not true for the masses. When I play a nassau against a 10-handicapper, it's tough for me to win giving him five a side from the white tees, but usually easy if I take him back to the blues, even if it means giving him seven a side. Distance remains the thing the average golfer can't handle."

While the typical amateur is still struggling with the 200-yard standard (even if he thinks and says he hits it 250), the PGA Tour driving-distance average has jumped from 260.4 in 1993 to 279.8 in 2002 to 287.8 this year. Ask a veteran tour player and he'll say that in the last three years he's picked up yardage that previously wouldn't be gained in a decade.

Featured Download

Speak Like a CEO

The growing gap: driving distances are skyrocketing on the PGA Tour. So why is the average golfer being left behind? - Special Report - widening gap between amateur and professional golfers

Golf Digest, May, 2003 by Jaime Diaz

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Business

Most Popular Articles in Sports

Most Popular Publications in Sports