2003 features outliers in Hank Kuehne and John Daly. Go to #2 in 2003 (Daly) and you are at 314. Go to #3 and you are at 306. From there the numbers are more closely spaced.
2000 had outliers in Daly and Tiger. Davis Love was #3 at 288.7.
1990 had no outliers.
So you should probably look at numbers excluding these outliers in 2003 and 2000...in which case you'd say the spread between (adjusted) high and low has narrowed vs 1990.
Kevin, I thought about doing this but we are talking about the long hitters here, so it seems odd to ignore the long hitters. Also, I wonder if the stats aren't actually a little misleading on the low side for the long hitting pros. There are plenty of guys in the top 20 who can hit it well over 300 when they want to, but since they have pretty much outgrown most courses, they usually have no need to blast it and often lay off quite a bit or tap a three wood 270 yds.
Also, I hesitated to post the pro stats at all, for fear that the thread would get hung up on them. Hitting the ball a long ways is now almost a prerequisite for being a pro, so there really isnt a short hitting group with whom to compare. For that reason, I question their relevance all together.
Forget about the pros and think of the people you with whom you play. How much further are the long drivers, compared to the average drivers and short drivers?
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Tom, yes they are different categories.
I am not really concerned at present whether distance helps or hurts pros and/or recreational players. Rather, I am interested in the distance gaps between players of relatively similar abilities.
For example, I am a 10 index. I would estimate that, among golfers with similar indices, long hitters hit it 30 yds further than average hitters, and more than 60 yards further than short hitters. Assuming of course that they actually make good contact, which doesnt happen every time.
From my observations, I would guess that the gap is at least as big or bigger for lower index players.