Whats better?

[One Planer]

Watching Bubba Watson in the final round at Bay Hill got me thinking.

What's better??

Consistantly hitting 300+ off the tee with a mediocre/poor short game.

or

Hitting 250ish off the tee with an amazing/good short game.

What are your opinions?

 

[Aztecs27]

Shorter off the tee and better around the greens, every day of the week!

 

[Doh]

Neither, Greens in regulation thats whats better

 

[bladeplayer]

Shorter off the tee and better around the greens, every day of the week!

snap .. same as.

 

[Steviebhoy]

Defo shorter off the tee and better short game!

To me it takes more skill to have a good short game than longer drives

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Whatever gets you in the hole in the fewest number of shots

 

[znuffzz]

drive for show, put for dough

 

[G_Mulligan]

short game

 

[Whereditgo]

Whatever gets you in the hole in the fewest number of shots

Which will be the short game then

 

[bobmac]

Whichever tickles your pickle

 

[G_Mulligan]

Neither, Greens in regulation thats whats better

I was interested in this one and had a look at the PGA stats. Last year top 10 GIR players was a who's who of the 100-150 finishers on tour. Sand saves and up and downs were dominated by the top guys like Watney, Furyk, Cuchar, Poulter, Rose, Casey to name a few. Stats can show a lot of things but I don't think GIR is as important to scoring as short game.

 

[timgolfy]

This argument over 300+ yards and 250 yards but accurate is pointless.

Last year on the PGA tour all but the very lowest average drive was 270 yards. Even Jim Furyk managed 275 yards!

Speaking about hitting it 230 yards but with a good short game is like racing in F1 with a Caterham. Excellent in the corners, but rubbish top speed.

To compete in the top 200 on the PGA you need to drive the ball at least 270 yards on average. 250 would barely get in the women's tour.

 

[timgolfy]

LPGA Average Drive Distances, 2010. Please tell me where it says 250 yards.

AVG DRIVING DISTANCE - 2010
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Rank Player Drive Average
1 Michelle Wie 274.5
T2 Brittany Lincicome 266.6
T2 Vicky Hurst 266.6
4 Karin Sjodin 265.5
5 Karen Stupples 264.8
6 Laura Davies 262.9
T7 Gwladys Nocera 262.6
T7 Jee Young Lee 262.6
9 Maria Hjorth 262.5
10 Yani Tseng 262.3
11 Inbee Park 261.8
12 Lisa Strom 261.5
T13 Amy Yang 260.8
14 Sarah Jane Smith 259.7
15 Nicole Hage 258.8
16 Cristie Kerr 258.3
T17 Catriona Matthew 258.0
T17 Suzann Pettersen 258.0
19 Sophie Gustafson 257.7
20 Leah Wigger 256.7
21 Se Ri Pak 256.4
22 Allison Fouch 256.0
23 Pernilla Lindberg 255.9
24 Hee Young Park 255.6
25 Katie Kempter 255.5
26 Pat Hurst 255.2
T27 Giulia Sergas 254.9
T27 Tania Elosegui 254.9
29 Stacy Lewis 254.8
T30 Amanda Blumenherst 254.4

 

[timgolfy]

Perhaps a better question would be to Bubba himself. Ask him if he would score better if he took a little off the drives. Would be interesting to hear his answer.

 

[chris661]

This argument over 300+ yards and 250 yards but accurate is pointless.

Last year on the PGA tour all but the very lowest average drive was 270 yards. Even Jim Furyk managed 275 yards!

Speaking about hitting it 230 yards but with a good short game is like racing in F1 with a Caterham. Excellent in the corners, but rubbish top speed.

To compete in the top 200 on the PGA you need to drive the ball at least 270 yards on average. 250 would barely get in the women's tour.

Who mentioned competing in on the PGA tour? I would imagine the op was asking regarding club golfers.

And what is your fascination about hitting it 300+ yards you dont even have a handicap yet.

 

[timgolfy]

And what is your fascination about hitting it 300+ yards you dont even have a handicap yet.

What's better?
Grooving a swing which generates 230yd drives and Cat III golf?
Grooving a swing which generates 290yd drives and Cat I golf?

 

[chris661]

And what is your fascination about hitting it 300+ yards you dont even have a handicap yet.

What's better?
Grooving a swing which generates 230yd drives and Cat III golf?
Grooving a swing which generates 290yd drives and Cat I golf?

How about just playing golf you might find that your short game is $hit and no matter how far you hit it you cant chip/pitch putt etc

 

[TheClaw]

Perhaps a better question would be to Bubba himself. Ask him if he would score better if he took a little off the drives. Would be interesting to hear his answer.

Don't think this applies to Bubba. He doesn't have a bad short game, hence being in the top 20 in the world.

His answer would surely be that hitting shorter doesn't mean your scoring improves...how could it?

 

[Imurg]

And what is your fascination about hitting it 300+ yards you dont even have a handicap yet.

What's better?
Grooving a swing which generates 230yd drives and Cat III golf?
Grooving a swing which generates 290yd drives and Cat I golf?

Now who's making assumptions about distance and handicap?

If you can hit it 290 then fine - still doesn't mean you'll necesarily be Cat 1...

 

[smange]

What's better?
Grooving a swing which generates 230yd drives and Cat III golf?
Grooving a swing which generates 290yd drives and Cat I golf?

So if you drive the ball 230 yards you cant be a Cat 1 golfer????

Should I stop trying to lower my handicap then? Coz I only drive about the 230 yard mark and im off 8 at minute and was hoping to get it down lower

May as well give up now then