On Wednesday, March 16th golf’s governing our bodies (USGA and R&A) despatched an official discover to tools producers concerning “modifications that tackle the long-term cycle of constant hitting will increase in hitting distances.”
The specifics of that memo present loads of fodder for future debate, however the whole subject is based on a single premise.
Golfers are hitting the ball too far.
Or are they?
Leveraging the Arccos database, which incorporates 516,000,000+ tracked photographs, the info tells a compelling, if not contradictory, story.
Arccos 2021 Distance Report
How participant knowledge was chosen:
- In a calendar yr, a participant wanted to hit not less than 60 photographs WITH DRIVER.
- There have been 29,466,594 whole photographs hit within the knowledge set (4.7M in 2019, 9.1M in 2020, 15.7M in 2021)
- For every participant, we calculated the median distance with driver for that calendar yr.
- We then appeared on the median distance throughout all gamers on the participant degree, not the shot degree
- On the participant degree, the median was used to restrict the affect of any outliers. If a knowledge set is comparatively constant, a calculated common can work. Nonetheless, given a much less uniform knowledge set, the median mitigates the affect of outliers (ex. Participant “tops” a tee shot that travels solely 20 yards).
- The twentieth and eightieth percentiles had been used merely to present an thought of how far a “longer” hitter hits the ball (eightieth percentile) and the way far a shorter hitter hits the ball (twentieth). A participant within the eightieth percentile is longer than 80% of all gamers.
Key Takeaways
- Novice golfers are NOT hitting the ball too far
- .5% of Arccos gamers have a median driving distance of 290-yards or longer
- 1.5% of Arccos gamers have a median driving distance of 280-yards or longer
- 3.9% of Arccos gamers have a median driving distance of 270-yards or longer
- 24.0% of Arccos gamers have a median driving distance of 199-yards or SHORTER
- Throughout all age and handicap brackets, the typical driving distance stays simply shy of 200 yards.
Course Size
How gamers had been chosen:
- The logic to pick gamers and calculate their median driving distance is identical as used above.
- Primarily based on the median driving distance for a participant, we checked out every spherical they performed. From there, we categorized gamers by how far they hit the ball whereas referencing the proportion of their rounds performed throughout totally different course lengths.
Key Takeaways
- Generally, golfers usually are not taking part in many lengthy programs, however many golfers are nonetheless taking part in programs which are too lengthy given their median driver distance.
- 3% of all rounds are performed at 6900 yards or longer
- 8% of all rounds are performed at 6700 yards or longer. ~47% of “regulation 18-hole programs” within the USA have not less than one tee field at 6700+
- Gamers which have a median distance with driver of 200 to 219 yards play 47% of their rounds over 6200 yards. The USGA recommends for gamers with a mean tee shot distance of 225-yards, they need to play programs between 5800 and 6000 yards. But gamers that hit it 200-220 are taking part in almost half their rounds over 6200 yards.
- You most likely want to maneuver up a tee field.
Altitude
- This makes use of the identical gamers as above and bins them by handicap.
- This evaluation appeared on the median distance of tee photographs on the particular person shot degree for rounds performed throughout totally different altitudes.
- For reference:
- Albuquerque, NM: 5,312 ft above sea degree
- Denver, CO: 5,280 ft above sea degree
- Salt Lake Metropolis, UT: 4,226 ft above sea degree
- El Paso, TX 3,740 ft above sea degree
- Phoenix, AZ 1,058 ft above sea degree
- Dallas, TX 430 ft above sea degree
- New York, NY (sea degree)
Key Takeaways:
- Altitude helps longer gamers greater than shorter gamers.
- Acquire at sea degree to 5000+ ft is 13 to 30 yards
- If you happen to play at numerous altitudes, it’s vital to know the function of trajectory and spin to maximise distance. Or put otherwise, the perfect mixture of launch and spin in San Diego, CA (sea degree) seemingly isn’t the identical as in Denver, CO (5,280 ft).
The subject of distance is multi-faceted, and it’s clear the ruling our bodies each acknowledge and battle with this actuality. However maybe probably the most obvious juxtaposition is that of newbie {and professional} golfers. Your weekend foursome isn’t the rationale programs are including size or posting scores that seem to make iconic venues out of date.
No less than, that’s not what the info says. Inform us what you suppose.
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