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Tiger Woods is 2nd in swing speed, 24th in driving distance. GolfWRX members discuss

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GolfWRX member cavemeister took a look at Tiger Woods’ stats, and something didn’t add up for him.

Here’s what he saw.

  • Tiger Woods is 24th on the PGA Tour in average driving distance at 306.6 yards.
  • Tiger Woods is 2nd on the PGA Tour in average clubhead speed at 122.04 mph

Now, only drives that find the fairway are measured, and swing speed is only recorded a couple of times per round, but what gives, cavemeister wonders in a forum thread.

Not surprisingly, WRX members had a range of opinions for the disparity between TW’s swing speed and driving distance.

Flog2 points out

“distance is only measured when you are on the fairway!”

Woods is doing the above at just over 51 percent this season, so the sample may be small.

Torrujean suggests Woods may not be finding the center of the clubface on some of the measured drives.

“Quality of strike does not match the speed.”

MSUIRONDAWGS says

“You have to understand also, that distance is only measured for official stats on a few holes on Tour. So if he happens to hit 3 wood on one of those holes, the avg distance comes down in the calculation of his 3 or 4 holes that day.”

And of course, there conspiracy theorists, such as QuigleyDU

“the numbers are not accurate.”

Shot-savior may have the best take

“So many variables:

1. Quality of strike
2. Launch/Spin
3. Type of shot played; high/low, fade/draw
4. Run out versus carry
5. Favorable bounce; catching the slope
6. Landing in fairway first versus hitting in rough then kicking into fairway
7. Riding the wind or knocking it under the wind
8. And so on…

High SS is the best indicator of potential distance. But, it’s conditional and there’s some luck involved to. That’s why we periodically see lower SS players out drive the highest SS players on tour. There are always random outliers not consistent with normal findings.”

See the thread for more replies.

What do you think, GolfWRX members? Is this interesting, or meh? There are clearly a number of possible explanations…which do you find the most plausible?

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19th Hole

3-time PGA Tour winner calls for LIV to buy Champions Tour to fix ‘joke’ purses

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While speaking on the Subpar podcast, former PGA Tour winner and current PGA Tour Champions player Chris DiMarco said he hopes LIV buys the Champions Tour.

“We’re kind of hoping that LIV buys the Champions Tour,” he said.

“Let’s play for a little real money out here. I mean this is kind of a joke when we’re getting $2 million. There were like seven guys last week from TPC (Sawgrass, at the $25 million PLAYERS Championship) that made more money than our purses.”

In 2024, the Champions Tour had a total of $67 million in prize money over the course of 24 events.

DiMarco also defended LIV players for taking the money and said he would take it also.

“They wanted to play for a lot of money, and they deserve it. They have had some great careers, why not go and get some money?”

DiMarco also offered insight on Graeme McDowell’s move to LIV.

“I saw Graeme McDowell at the Old Memorial Pro Member, and he goes, ‘Listen, I went up to Jay Monahan and said I love the tour but I am struggling to keep my card and these guys are offering me all this money and less golf. I’m sorry, I’m going.’ And I do not blame him one bit, and I said I would have too.”

DiMarco was ranked as high as 6th in the world in 2006.

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19th Hole

‘It won’t win you golf tournaments’ – Golf analyst rips Charley Hull’s course management

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Charley Hull came just short of her third LPGA Tour victory over the weekend at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship when she played her last two holes at 3 over to slip all the way to 10th on the leaderboard.

After the round, Hull was blasted by Sky Sports commentator and former LPGA Tour player Trish Johnson for her lack of golf course management.

While speaking on the Sky Sports Golf podcast, Johnson spoke harshly of Hull.

“I’m probably her harshest critic, because I know how good she is. She doesn’t win anywhere near enough for her talent, and she doesn’t get involved enough, in all honestly.

“The thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her. I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her]. She’s never going to change and she’s just going to go for every pin.

“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”

Johnson also made a fascinating comparison between Hull and a famous male golfer, John Daly.

“Golf-wise that’s the way she plays the game and it’s a little bit like watching John Daly I suppose.”

“There’s something that John Daly had that made him a major winner and a winner, but Charley is kind of lacking that. Her talent is not in question, but maybe her application is. Maybe it’s just the case of her never changing and that will cost her golf tournaments, there’s no two ways about it. You cannot go for every pin because that’s the way you play and it being fun, as other players are better than that and you have to have course management.”

Hull is still only 27, and therefore has plenty of time to work on her flaws to achieve the success her talent should allow.

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19th Hole

Former agent lifts lid on being fired by ‘zombie’ Tiger Woods

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Discussing his new book “Rainmaker” with the Daily Mail, Tiger Woods’ former agent, Hughes Norton, recounted the events leading up to and after his split with the 15-time major champion.

Norton was abruptly fired by Woods in 1998 after his 1997 Masters win and monster deal with Nike.

In the book, Norton talks about the way Tiger views his relationships, calling him a “zombie.”

The solace I can take, which doesn’t provide much, is this: He was an equal opportunity zombie with relationships, his swing coaches, his lawyer, the guy negotiated the IMG representation deal, with caddies, When it’s over, it’s over.”

Norton added:

“It is the way he terminates relationships with everyone. Whether it’s girlfriends, whether it’s his former golf coaches. It’s ironic, really. In a way he’s so good at confrontation on the golf course. If he’s playing you, he will beat your brains out every single time.

“But when it comes to confronting things like me and other people that are in his life, he has no social skills whatsoever. It’s maddening, actually.”

After he was fired by Woods, Norton was let go by IMG, which he believes was due to Woods’ influence.

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