I was browsing through the PGA stats. I saw Phil M hit a 3 wood 310 yards yesterday on TV at the Wachovia and was impressed. I noticed Daly was the second longest hitter last year at about 312 yards avg. Just behind #1 Bubba. This year (2008) Daly has fallen to #26 at 291.6 yards. Bubba is still #1 in 2008.

Tiger is much further down the list at 287.7 yards.
Fred Couples is #6 for 2008 at 300.2 yards. Pretty amazing.

I know driving distance is not the be all and end all in golf but losing about 20 yards in one year is not a good sign. I hope the guy trys to turn his life around and try to get back into shape.

Very misleading stat IMO.

Which courses tournaments did they play? hard fairways, soft fairways, tall rough short rough, wide fairways narrow fairways. Are they hitting 3w's or drivers, which holes are they measuring, what altitude are they playing at, what kind of elevation changes are on the course? Hell, 1/2 the time Tiger may hit a 3w or 5w off the tee that others are hitting driver and still hits it 280+. Over the course of a year with a large sampleing of tournaments the driveing distance leaders are probably pretty indicative of who is the longest etc. But this early in the season with all the varying weather condiditons etc. I dont think there is much relavance to it. JMO

just got back from watching him in spain i don't recall drive of 340 and 318 being short also 6 iron 220

As stated above, driving distance is one of the most misleading and misinterpreted stats on tour IMO.

A season-long examination may produce more tangible results but even then it's far from definitive in terms of determining the longest hitters. Venues, weather and turf conditions and individual gameplans can all skew the results markedly.

stats do lie

I watched charity tournament with him and JB..sadly JB was carrying Daly's drives...it was insane..Daly pokes it 320 and JB carries it 320 plus 40 roll..
he is by no mean short..even in the shape he is in..his golf muscles still work...well

Tiger has actually the highest club head speed of all golfers on the pga at 124 mph. Tiger uses a high spin ball. I don't know if Tiger's setup is to optimize distance but more likely to stay in the fairway. Tiger is just as long as all of the big hitters on the tour.

I think he could be, yes. We never see all he has. As he has said before his game plan doesn't include being the longest and we all know he doesn't hit driver all the time nor should he. Just think how much lower he might go if he hit all the fairways. Scary huh? And I think you will see John Daly come up a bit higher in the stats. He is still recovering from his surgery.

Who is JB?

JB Holmes

Yep, have to agree. Realize that back 6-7 years ago when he was still swinging out of his shoes and all lanky-like, he was near tops in driving distance. Now, he's probably twice as strong (literally, I bet he can bench twice now what he could have 7 years ago) and his fundamentals are better. He also plays a very high spin ball, not a distance ball of any sort (although it's a high quality ball, not "short" by any means. When he decides to crank it I'm sure only a few others on tour (probably just JB, from what I've seen/heard) can outgun him.

defo agree wi previous posts, if u think to 2005 when i reckon tiger was gearing his set up towards distance and he averaged around the 315 yrd mark for the season. he will be hitting it just as far if not further now, but playing for accuracy. still cnt gt over the fact that tiger has his irons 2 degrees weak and still hits his 9 iron 165 yrds, insane!!!!
and big jd is still as long as ever, i was watching him on tv playin in spain and he was hitting a 5 iron 233 yrds into a par 3. jimenez hit 5 wood!!!

Angle of attack...Tiger hits down..JB hits up...