Are 400-Yard Drives so Commonplace That Par Fours Are Now Par Threes?
With The Plantation Course at Kapalua in the rear-view mirror, it's time to talk long ball again.
At the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, nine drives went 400 yards or more. The longest was a tie, and you might be surprised as to who hit those shots: Geoff Ogilvy and Jason Day at 409 yards. Don't you remember when 409 yards was a par four?
Every year, The Plantation Course has an abundance of long drives in the PGA Tour stats. At the conclusion of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, ShotLink data reported 373 drives that were 329 yards or longer (and only 34 guys played).
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One reason is that there are several tremendously downhill slopes on that particular golf course.
With just eight weeks of the 2015 season in the books, the idea that 912 drives have been hit that are 329 yards or longer is astonishing. That yardage also equates to par fours, maybe even at the course you play today.
Amazingly, not all the long drives in the current season have been hit from the top of a hill in Hawaii.
At the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, the field boasted a strong second to Kapalua's Plantation track. There, PGA Tour pros pumped out 345 drives between 329 yards and 371 yards into fairways and roughs. The 371-yarders belonged to Brendan Steele, Tony Finau and Daniel Berger.
Compared to The Plantation Course, TPC Summerlin is relatively flat. But because it is in the desert or for whatever reason, the ball tends to go farther.
You can ask anyone who plays desert golf in Palm Springs, La Quinta, Phoenix or Tucson. When it's nice and dry and desert-like, the ball flies about 5 percent farther. Similarly, in the mountains, rule of thumb is generally 10 percent farther.
By comparison, at the Frys.com Open, played in the inland valleys of northern California, there were 95 drives in the top 912 in yardage, the longest one by Shawn Stefani at 401. Next best at that event was Tony Finau at 374. But that's still 95 drives longer than three football fields plus a junior Olympic-sized pool.
Even the Sanderson Farms Championship held up its end with 50 substantial drives, including Sebastian Cappelen's 358-yard tee shot in the humid climate at the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. It would have been more impressive to have hit it in August when the moisture content of the air is closer to 99 percent, but it's still a long way.
But what was really impressive were the 40 long drives at the McGladrey Classic, which is at Sea Island, Georgia, right on the Atlantic Coast. Concerns include the sea level and coastal air with humidity you cannot escape. Shawn Stefani hit a drive of 354 yards, which stood as the longest for that event.
Mayakoba and the HSBC WGC both had four in the top 912 drives, the longest of which were by Bubba Watson at HSBC and Alvaro Quiros at Mayakoba, who amazingly hit it the same distance, 337 yards.
One would expect Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes to be at the top of the longest tee shot list early in the season, but they were down a bit, with Watson at 397 yards and Holmes at 399 yards. Both were in the field at Kapalua. There are plenty of weeks left for them to find the 400-yard mark.
So, recapping, just eight weeks into the official 2015 calendar and a week and a half into actual calendar year 2015, already 912 drives have measured 329 yards. Last year, only Bubba Watson had a measured drive over 400 yards. It was 424 yards on the 16th hole at Firestone Country Club.
Now, the PGA Tour has no interest in worrying about their players hitting the ball too far.
As the saying goes, chicks dig the long ball, but they aren't the only ones. Guys dig the long ball. TV networks dig the long ball. Announcers dig the long ball. Writers dig the long ball. That length is a showstopper, even if they now hit it so far that you lose sight of it.
The last 20 years, distance has increased at a ridiculous pace.
In 2013, there were 19 drives of 400 yards or more, and the longest was by Phil Mickelson at Doral, a slick 450-yarder.
In 2012, there were actually 67 drives longer than 400 yards, the longest by Gary Woodland.
In 2011, it was Dustin Johnson with what you'd think was the record of 463, but it isn't.
Even Steve Stricker, not known for distance, led the category in 2010 with a drive of 424. Steve Stricker.
In 2009, it was Charley Hoffman at 467.
Skipping a couple of years to 2004, Davis Love III had a tee shot of 476 yards. That same season, there were 83 drives longer than 400 yards.
Perhaps the most amazing drive, pound for pound, was by 5'8" Jeff Sluman in 2003. At the Humana, he had a 473-yard tee shot.
However, as you might suspect, the longest we have was by Tiger Woods in 2002 at the Mercedes with a monster poke of 498. Two yards short of 500 yards. That's 60 yards longer than a quarter-mile. No wonder he says he can't hit it like he used to.
The change officially came in 2001. That year, the longest drive was hit by Casey Martin and went 409 yards during the Tucson Open, which is at some elevation.
The year before, 2000, the longest drive was by David Duval at 305. That's a difference of 104 yards.
Every golf fan who has been next to the tee in a professional event has watched in awe as the best on the planet rear back and whack a 1.68-inch ball so far that it's lost in the distance. Everyone loves it.
The only people who don't like it are the course owners, who will soon have to create 700-yard holes to make a par four really challenging and carve out 800-yard holes for a difficult par five.
While I am the first to agree it sounds nuts, when a drive goes the length of a par four 20 years ago, it's not a par four at the elite level.
The distance disparity is so enormous between top amateurs and professionals that you have to wonder if it is time to throw away all golf-course design theories and just create one set of courses for professionals and another set for the rest of us.
We almost have that with the TPC network, but even those don't have room for 800-yard holes. A course like that would have 18 holes playing at 10,000 to 12,000 yards for a par 72. If we played it, it would be more like playing 36 holes with a par of 144.
Just 20 years ago, par threes were capped at 255 yards. Par fours stopped at 475 yards. Anything longer that 475 was a par five. That thinking was thrown out the window before 2000.
So, when today's golfers can hit a drive as long as what used to be an average par four, is it a par four anymore? Is it the players? Is it the trampoline effect of the clubs? Is it the ball? And is it even normal golf any more? Or do today's PGA Tour pros just need monster courses where they can let it fly?
Stats obtained via PGA Tour.
Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand or from official interview materials from the PGA Tour, USGA, R&A or PGA of America.
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