"I am quite skeptical Jones carried the ball 320 back then, but he didn't mention any wind or elevation change that could have helped him, nor does have a way to have known whether that 340 yard was correctly measured, measured with a bit of dogleg to it, from the part of the teebox where the tees he was playing that day were placed, etc. Maybe the hole is 340 yards measured around a slight dogleg, from the back of the teebox to a pin that was on the back of a deep green on the day it was measured, and it was only 285 yards to the spot he reached from the tees he played, certainly that would be well within the realm of possibility given all the other factors."
DougS:
That's another example that may offer a reasonable explanation of Jones believing he carried a ball 320 or whatever he said.
I certainly don't know if the hole Jones did that on had any kind of bend to it but if it did that might explain some miscalculation of yardage on his part.
I see that all the time amongst golfers and certainly plenty on here.
I don't know how the length of golf holes was measured back then but it wouldn't surprise me if they measure their lengths the same way they do today, and that's right down their center lines.
If you have a hole that bends, the total calculated yardage of the hole would be down the two sides of a triangle forming the right angle of the triangle. Essentially as it relates to a golf hole that would be the total yardage of say two shots. But if a golfer hit a drive directly at the green that would only be the yardage of the hypothnuse which obviously would be somewhat less carry distance then the total yardage of the other two sides forming the right angle of the triangle.
Two good examples of how this can skew what actual carry distance is would be Wood's driving of the green of a par 4 at Doral.
That hole was listed as 376 yards. That hole had a significant right to left bend, and the total yardage of the hole down two sides of its triangle was 376 yards. However Woods drove the ball over trees on the inside of the dogleg directly at the green down the hypotenuse and carried the ball onto the green.
How far did Wood's actually carry the ball? Well, that's not too clear because apparently no one bothered to measure the exact distance of the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the the shape of that hole. But what was reported is that Wood's drove a hole of 376 yards and now part of that story is Woods carried his drive 376 yards.
Did he actually carry it 376 yards? Of course not. He may've actually carried it 50 yards less far than that. And to determine precisely how far he carried it all one would need to do is just measure the actual yardage of the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by that hole's bend down the center line.
Why hasn't anyone bothered to do that? Good question. I guess part of it is they just didn't think to or maybe they all just like "the sky is falling" stories.
It would not surprise me if this Jones' story of a 320 yard carry has some reasonable explanation like that. Frankly, no one saw Tiger Woods step in there and explain he actually carried the ball down the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the bend of that hole.
But the real question here is does Tiger Woods even understand the different yardage calculation of the "hypotenuse" vs the other two sides of the triangle that hole formed? Did Jones? Or do either of them even care?
One thing I'm sure both do understand it that it does make an even better story for the ages.