USGA and R&A Release Driving Distance Report

[Jason Topp]

Basic conclusion - driving distance has largely held steady since 2002:

News Release:  http://www.usga.org/articles/2016/06/usga-and-r-a-publish-joint-distance-study.html

Full Report:  http://www.usga.org/content/dam/usga/pdf/Equipment/distance-study.pdf

[jeffwarne]

Basic conclusion - driving distance has largely held steady since 2002:

yep and I have oceanfront land for sale in Arizona.


no doubt another study shows square grooves and anchoring are the real reason thousand of new tees have been built and numerous clubs have greater safety corridor issues.


doddering.....old...... fools......

[John Connolly]

It's like a pharmaceutical company releasing a study showing its new drug is safe.

[Sven Nilsen]

In the old days, at least they recognized there was a problem.

Evening Bulletin - Feb. 29, 1912

[Brad Tufts]

I read through the report, and thought the result was the opposite of the bold conclusion.

"Only 0.2y per year" is what they want you to think (which is still substantial in my opinion), but how about the average drive going from 265 to 290 since distance has been measured?!

[Benjamin Litman]

Echoing Brad's observation, here is a good takedown of the report: https://golficity.com/why-the-usga-ra-2015-distance-report-is-a-joke/

[Jason Topp]

Echoing Brad's observation, here is a good takedown of the report: https://golficity.com/why-the-usga-ra-2015-distance-report-is-a-joke/

In my view the analysis in this rebuttal is flawed. 

• It cherry picks the year 2002 for its claim that driving distance has jumped 10 yards over a 10 year period.  2002 was still during the time period that distances were jumping due to the conversion to multilayered balls.
  
• The issue of how often players use driver on measured holes is specifically addressed in the report starting at page 13

Pre 1990s there was a similar increase in driving distance to what one sees today, presumably due to better technique or competitive pressures weeding out shorter hitters.  Current trends seem similar to that history  - compare the period from 1980-1991 to the period from 2003-today on figure 2 of the USGA report. 

Players of today are in much better physical condition than they were in 2002.  I attended the PGA that year and was surprised by how many overweight players there were in the tournament.  Also - I think Tiger Woods was still using a steel shafted driver. 
 

[Mike Bowen]

Using stats is great and obviously the only objective way to measure these changes.  There were a few shots in the last few weeks that stick out as something I don't remember seeing even a couple years ago.


Jason Day hitting an iron over 300 yards on the 18th at Sawgrass.


Rory McIlroy easily reaching two par fives at the K club from 270 yards out.


Obviously theses guys are incredibly fit and amazing talents and blah blah blah... but is this really the distance the governing bodies deem acceptable?

[BHoover]

I didn't think anyone reasonably could dispute that distances have increased dramatically in the past 15+ years.

But thankfully anchoring has been eliminated. Countless courses that otherwise would have been rendered obsolete are now safe from the ravages of out-of-control putting styles.

[PCCraig]

The increase in distance on the PGA Tour is due both to huge improvements to technology and to a lesser extent physical fitness. The difference between a Tour Prestige 90 and a Pro V1 in 2001 was like a V8 Corvette vs. a moped. The ball should be rolled back.

[Jim Nugent]

Echoing Brad's observation, here is a good takedown of the report: https://golficity.com/why-the-usga-ra-2015-distance-report-is-a-joke/

IMO the takedown falls apart in its second sentence: "In summary, the report states that the increase in driver distance has been more of a crawl over the past two decades with the advances in club and ball technology having little impact to the game."

The report did not talk about the last two decades.  It talked about the period from 2003 to 2015.  Assuming conditions are mostly the same (width of fairways, hazards, rough, length of run etc.) distance has not increased much during that time.  The numbers the report gave are pretty accurate. 

The big question is, have the distance gains really leveled off, or are we going to see another jump, like we did before 2003?     

[Tom_Doak]

The big question is, have the distance gains really leveled off, or are we going to see another jump, like we did before 2003?   

I don't think you are going to see another jump, as we did at the end of the 90's.  The governing bodies have committed verbally that if there is a substantial increase from now forward, they will demand changes to counteract it.


Therefore, they're equally committed to denying whatever change there is.  The main one being that in 2002, nobody was trying to reach 600-yard par-5 holes in two, and today, you see it from a bunch of the longer hitters.  Somehow, they've gained 30 yards in two shots over that time.  Maybe it's all on the second shot, but I doubt it.


And of course, the real problem is that they let the cat out of the bag throughout the 1990's, and then grandfathered it all in and declared 2003 the standard going forward, as if distance wasn't a problem for golf courses in 2003.

[Andrew Buck]

The increase in distance on the PGA Tour is due both to huge improvements to technology and to a lesser extent physical fitness. The difference between a Tour Prestige 90 and a Pro V1 in 2001 was like a V8 Corvette vs. a moped. The ball should be rolled back.

Also, the teaching at an early age has changed due to the technology.  This generation of tour players were taught with "modern" equipment to hit it as far as possible at an early age and then dial it back.  In addition, strength training has been optimized with modern swing equipment.

It feels right that technology hasn't advanced much in a little more than a decade, but the ability to train around technology has certainly been refined since the days we out 460cc drivers and proV's in the hands of those who learned in persimmon.

[Steve Lang]

    Let's look at Figures 1 & 2 ... 1992 - 2002 quite striking in rate of change!

[Tom_Doak]

Steve:


I like the shading.


An alternative label for the green shading could be:  "Big Bertha and Pro V1 grandfathered in, so Callaway and Titleist won't sue".

[MClutterbuck]

Whether we like the conclusions of the report or not, the actual publication of it is a big step forward and hopefully sets some kind of a cap as is implied.