[Parzinski]

If you watch this Golf Channel week, they have a distance breakdown for each player with several differnt clubs,,,,

has him with a 7 iron distance of 175yds.....

and his avg drive is 260yds - shortest in the field (this week and last)...???

does he have issues with the driver...or is this a mistake..

[jcigars]

He's a short hitter off the tee but that obviously doesn't matter much. He's No 1 in driving accuracy and tied for 4th in putts per round

Hope Brian has a great day !

Jimmy

[chipper3344]

I posted the same thing in another topic. He hits his 4iron 210yds but his driver carries 240 and rolls out to 260. He hits his irons the exact distance i do, but i out drive him by 15-20 yards. His drive ss was 105 and mines 113. I was really puzzled by the numbers. Does he have his irons bent really strong or something cause it doesnt make any sense.

This is what made me to start questioning the golf channels numbers.

[MtlJeff]

I think it's perfectly reasonable. You're not always gonna swing the same way with driver and with irons. Some guys swing hard with their irons and/or deloft them quite a bit on impact. Their swing might not be the same with driver, maybe they'll swing smoother or even want a bit more spin to be more accurate.

my numbers are similarly skewed like Gay's...though a bit longer, i hit my 7 iron 195yds and my 4 iron 230ish...but my driver is in the 280-285 range total distance. Which is good but not as long as you'd think considering iron distance. I'll have rounds where i don't have a 300yd drive. I just don't go after drives the way some do

[Swingie]

can you say strong lofts....easy answer. he doesnt carry a 3 iron(4 iron bent there) and he has lighter shafts that help. You can hit irons whatever you want since the # on the bottom of the club doesnt matter but you cant hit driver any longer than your optimal will allow unless you get faster than 105 B. Gay. I can understand tho seeing the rest of the feild hit irons far, I'd doctor up my irons to fit in too lol

[birdieblair]

I saw that too and was really curious. Granted all the tour pros aren't monsters off of the tee, but seeing numbers like Gay's gives me hope. Not hope for making the tour but, that I don't have to be a big bomber to shoot the lights out. I've been really impressed by his game thus far.

[klein1dg]

he could be using the same ball position with both irons and his driver. the negative impact angle is good for iron play to be accurate and maintain trajectory, but the same ball position with a neg impact angle on a driver will lead to distance loss unless there is a large altering of equiptment.

[Asleep]

Brian and Chipper and Lynn have been working on club/shaft/ball fitting to discover more distance with driver. I too was a bit surprised by Brian's distance with irons and will ask Mr. Blake when time allows.

The guy is deadly with the flat stick and short game. His mental game is top notch --- think how persistant you'd have to remain being 30/40 yards further from the hole all week.

[callawayfan]

he's just short off of the tee
nothing wrong with that since he makes up for it with being #1 in accuracy

[lebanontngolfer]

I have one of his old drivers and can tell you his shortage in distance is not an equipment problem. Don't know what he is playing off the tee now...

[bstone boy]

The fact that we are all writing on this post and reading it shows exactly why we aren't on tour. It doesn't matter how far you hit any club if your score is under par at the end of the round. I hit it 40 yards past him, but that doesn't mean anything.

And it's not surprising. I've played with a number of PGA professionals and they all average from 260 to 285. But they all hit the fairway and green on almost every hole.

[MtlJeff]

bstone boy, on Jan 18 2009, 04:15 PM, said:

The fact that we are all writing on this post and reading it shows exactly why we aren't on tour. It doesn't matter how far you hit any club if your score is under par at the end of the round. I hit it 40 yards past him, but that doesn't mean anything.

And it's not surprising. I've played with a number of PGA professionals and they all average from 260 to 285. But they all hit the fairway and green on almost every hole.

of course distance matters. As it's been said earlier in this thread the guy has a great short game and iron game. Think of how much more he'd be in contention if he hit it 20yds longer off the tee.

distance doesn't matter at all for pros if they're playing against guys like us. But of course it matters when playing against other top pros.

it's like saying having 4.3 speed is irrelevant to NFL wide receivers. It's not necessary...but it certainly helps

[Parzinski]

MtlJeff, on Jan 18 2009, 02:11 PM, said:

I think it's perfectly reasonable. You're not always gonna swing the same way with driver and with irons. Some guys swing hard with their irons and/or deloft them quite a bit on impact. Their swing might not be the same with driver, maybe they'll swing smoother or even want a bit more spin to be more accurate.

my numbers are similarly skewed like Gay's...though a bit longer, i hit my 7 iron 195yds and my 4 iron 230ish...but my driver is in the 280-285 range total distance. Which is good but not as long as you'd think considering iron distance. I'll have rounds where i don't have a 300yd drive. I just don't go after drives the way some do

Looks like you need to find a good club fitter with a launch monitor....if you can generate enough club head speed to hit a (normal lofted) 7 iron 195...and hit your drive 280...there's something wrong with your driver...

[MtlJeff]

Parzinski, on Jan 18 2009, 09:23 PM, said:

MtlJeff, on Jan 18 2009, 02:11 PM, said:

I think it's perfectly reasonable. You're not always gonna swing the same way with driver and with irons. Some guys swing hard with their irons and/or deloft them quite a bit on impact. Their swing might not be the same with driver, maybe they'll swing smoother or even want a bit more spin to be more accurate.

my numbers are similarly skewed like Gay's...though a bit longer, i hit my 7 iron 195yds and my 4 iron 230ish...but my driver is in the 280-285 range total distance. Which is good but not as long as you'd think considering iron distance. I'll have rounds where i don't have a 300yd drive. I just don't go after drives the way some do

Looks like you need to find a good club fitter with a launch monitor....if you can generate enough club head speed to hit a (normal lofted) 7 iron 195...and hit your drive 280...there's something wrong with your driver...

It's just about putting more of a premium on accuracy, with my driver on a launch monitor i averaged 304 total distance after putting the PL red on it on about 20 hits. But that's because you have nothing to lose so you put more of a full swing on it when you're on a monitor. Outside i tone it down and hit more in the 280-285 range. That's why i wonder if that's what a guy like Gay is doing aswell.

[rockmastermike]

I agree with the iron swing vs driver swing post earlier....speaking just for my game, I am consistently a club longer than my partners with my Irons, but just as consistenly shorter than them on the tee box. My iron swing just dosen't translate into my driver. tough game.

[Mattro]

rockmastermike, on Jan 19 2009, 03:47 PM, said:

I agree with the iron swing vs driver swing post earlier....speaking just for my game, I am consistently a club longer than my partners with my Irons, but just as consistenly shorter than them on the tee box. My iron swing just dosen't translate into my driver. tough game.

+1

[PixlPutterman]

Parzinski, on Jan 18 2009, 12:48 PM, said:

and his avg drive is 260yds - shortest in the field (this week and last)...???

avg drive doesnt mean he used his driver. not saying he a long off the tee. he may just use 3 wood/2iron alot though

[gopherbroke]

I can believe that he hits his irons that far and his driver that short..... I know a fellow golf professional of mine that believe it or not hits his irons about a half of a club longer than i do but i hit my driver more than 40 yards past him... on a consistent basis! Brians angle of attack could be hurting him or he might just not be playing the right driver and shaft for him. That simple... who knows... I would rather be number 1 in accuracy than than hit it 15 yards farther... especially with his flat stic!

[BILL12x]

Just a couple of observations from having played golf with several touring pros -

Most of the round, I'm mostly keeping up with them on my drives, however on the par 5's, I'm 50+ yards behind them. They swing 80% most of the time going for accuracy over distance, but let it out on the par 5's. On the par 3's, they're hitting 7 iron while I'm hitting 5 iron or more.

Someone mentioned that they bump their lofts. I think the opposite is just as likely. Many will tweak lofts weaker to fill gaps. It also makes more sense than tweaking stronger, thereby having negative bounce on your irons.

[mhk5000]

Perhaps it's his overall strategy to be short but straight with the driver. If he's always in the fairway, I would think he would hit more greens (irregardless of what iron he used). Percentage wise, being in the fairway 15-20 yards back, is better than being closer but in the rough.

[dorfblee]

Does anyone know his lofts and club lengths?

I can hit a 5i 205 carry . . . but it's lofted at 25* with 39.25" length . . . so it's actually more of a decent 4i than a long 5i. Then again in another set the 4i is lofted at 24* at 38.25" and flies about the same.

Also, if I were deadly with my long irons, why wouldn't I tone down the tee shot to ensure a nice lie for my long/mid irons?

Maybe he isn't so great from the first cut or rough with shorter irons, so he trades off fairway approaches with longer irons over rough approaches with wedges?

[BEND OF THE RIVER GC]

He is NOT swinging out of his shoes with the driver. He obviusly places a premium on accuracy rather than distance (which can be good or bad). He knows he can make up for it on and around the green.

[skins992002]

id wager he is toning down his swing on the tee. Sacrifice distance for control but even that seems a little odd with his distances.

[fishlips723]

I do the samething,I hit a pw 140 yrds,7 iron 175,but my driver is only 255-260.My irons are standard issued Ping i5s and have not been tweeked strong.
I think I slide too much when I am using my driver as oppose to just twisting,but its nothing that $500 worth of lessons couldnt fix.Of course as we all know,in two weeks I would be back to my old self again.

[fishlips723]

BEND OF THE RIVER GC, on Jan 22 2009, 10:38 AM, said:

He is NOT swinging out of his shoes with the driver. He obviusly places a premium on accuracy rather than distance (which can be good or bad). He knows he can make up for it on and around the green.

I dont buy it.The other side of that argument is that he swings out of his shoes with his 7 iron.No one can argue that when he is hitting a 7 iron at a flag,accurecy isnt that important so he can swing like a maniac to get 175 out of his club

[xyzvld]

you guys are doing it wrong
it is true that he is one of the shorter players,butyou are comparing what u cand drive on the range vs his average driving distance.if you check the stats only 14 player on the tour had ADD oer 300 yds last year.

[glcoach]

I would say his angle of attack is not suited for premium distance off the tee.

The answer is in the D-plane. I am sure some sessions on trackman would tell him where he is losing some distance.

[Shoutout33]

birdieblair, on Jan 18 2009, 02:27 PM, said:

I saw that too and was really curious. Granted all the tour pros aren't monsters off of the tee, but seeing numbers like Gay's gives me hope. Not hope for making the tour but, that I don't have to be a big bomber to shoot the lights out. I've been really impressed by his game thus far.

Ditto. For a while, everyone kept telling me, that you have to be big of the tee to be successful. That God this myth has been stopped.

[7humbs]

His irons must be tweaked... It's either stronger lofts or longer shafts. I don't think he'd pull numbers like that from delofting alone, but it would help if we could see his ball flight.

My irons (minus the 64, 58 and 52) are half an inch long, and my 5 iron is 1 degree strong. A full 5 iron (not trying to kill it) carry is right around 212 but with all the changes, it's more like a stock 4 iron.

[stauggiebeach]

The PGA Tour driving statistic in based on shots hit with the driver....3 woods and 2-irons don't count. Brian Gay has averaged 270 yards for all of 2009. The total average driving distance for the PGA Tour for 2009 is 287 yards.

One reason for this statistical phenomena could be the fact that 1) only two drives per round are used; they are calculated on two holes facing opposite directions to counteract the effect of the wind; 2) the driving distance statistic is based purely on distance with the driver, no matter where the ball lands....even if it is in the rough or hazard, they still calculate the distance; 3) the early year Hawaii events seem to really yeild some outlandish driving statistics.

Here's some other stats; Brian Gay is:
20 in Scoring Average
9 in Greens in Regulation
1 in Driving Accuracy

It's also important to note that the driving accuracy statistic is calculated on every non-par three hole, regardless of the club used.

He's just above middle of the pack on putts per GIR and putts per round. It seems like to me, based on the stats, that Brian Gay simply places his premium on accuracy vs. distance. A 175 yard 7 iron is not crazy long...especially depending on the conditions. And, as previous posters have mentioned, with today's drivers, the best method of swinging an iron is very different from the best method of swinging a driver. While hitting down on your iron shots is the way to produce the best result, hitting down on today's drivers is not.

And, just for comparison, the 2009 leader is driving distance: Garrigus, is 121 out of 165 for driving accuracy. And, he is 70th in scoring average.
I would speculate that at 20th in scoring average, and 9th in greens in regulation, the "avg." distance stat is not hurting Brian Gay.

[hypergolf]

I am the opposite from the original discussion. I am long with my driver, fairway and hybrid but just average distance with my irons. However, accuracy is always good with my irons whereas I do have hick ups from time to time with the woods in terms of accuracy. However, I don't have any problems with the way it is right now.

[GOLFNUT2211]

He rocks!