And that’s how they’ve been fooling us for years. More swing speed produces higher ball speed. What’s the use of a long drive if you’re punching out your second shot most of the time?Ī longer shaft produces more swing speed. It’s the down the middle part that we are missing. No question, the big modern drivers produce gloriously long tee balls. That’s one thing we’ve all gotten out of newer and better driver tech – prodigious distance. Everyone should be bombing it down the middle! It should also be much more consistent (read: accurate) than the balls back in the ’90’s. The evidence is clear, 20+ years of technology advancements in head materials, weighting, shafts, and grips have only made us less accurate off the tee. So why, since the 1990’s spawned a generation of 460 cc drivers, has accuracy gone down?

Can we just agree that 2 or 3 more fairways hit a round would do wonders for the average golfer? If so, it all starts and ends with the big dog in the bag.Īll the big manufacturers – every single one of them – tells us their latest driver is longer and more accurate than ever before. Jordan Speith is below 50%.Īre you telling me you hit more fairways than these guys? Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele, Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, and Dustin Johnson are all below 60%. Funny enough, back in 1997, he was also one of the most accurate at 79%.īefore you try to convince yourself that you can or do hit 75% of fairways – or even 50%, consider this: the mean this year on the PGA Tour of fairways hit is 62%. In 1997, more than 20 Tour players averaged 75% or better in driving accuracy (fairways-hit).

Golf driver shaft length