Vintage distances

[Sweep]

sorry it was the top 10 who averaged over 270
with nicklaus at 276.

Interesting. According to the European Tour stats link on the "Mr Average" thread the average drive on the European Tour last season was 288 yards.
14 players did average over 300 and that number is down from 27, so maybe pro's aren't chasing distance like they used to.

 

[bobmac]

Modern clubs are delofted, partly for length but also because of their launch qualities.

I have to disagree slightly....
While I agree the modern game improver clubs are delofted, some of the bladed clubs aren't.
Titleist MBs for example still have a 21 degree 3 iron and a 47 degree PW

 

[guest100718]

Interesting. According to the European Tour stats link on the "Mr Average" thread the average drive on the European Tour last season was 288 yards.
14 players did average over 300 and that number is down from 27, so maybe pro's aren't chasing distance like they used to.

i guess we have reached what is possible with the current club and ball limits. There is a lot more distance there if they really want it, but that would be at the expense of accuracy

 

[duncan mackie]

i guess we have reached what is possible with the current club and ball limits. There is a lot more distance there if they really want it, but that would be at the expense of accuracy

This is the key - combined with the ball.

In the case of the ball there were 2 resets distance wise - firstly the move from the 1.62" to 1.68" which cut back about 10%, then the developments exemplified by the Professional 100 -> ProV which got that back, plus a little! Club development has only added marginal distance for the top players (but every little helps) although shafts have contributed to accuracy that's enabled them to go at shots a little more.

Most tour players can hit their drives significantly further than they do in practice because the accuracy hit is to expensive on most courses - even at the same angular accuracy if you hit it further you have a greater dispersion in actual yds (and that's before the course designers reduce the size of the landing areas!

 

[harpo_72]

I have to disagree slightly....
While I agree the modern game improver clubs are delofted, some of the bladed clubs aren't.
Titleist MBs for example still have a 21 degree 3 iron and a 47 degree PW

Fair point, but one could counter that these are traditional clubs and perhaps don't have the technology extras that other clubs have. It may also be possible that other muscle back irons are also traditional