The Long and Short of It: Bomb & Gouge: Golf Digest

The Long and Short of It

Monday, July 30, 2007 Comments

BOMB: You know, it just does my heart good to see Jim Furyk win the Canadian Open. Especially when he stares down bomb-and-gouge poster boy Vijay Singh, who got himself in a little trouble down the stretch with his hit-it-wherever attitude. Anyway, it got me to wondering whether short and straight extends further than Furyk. In fact, would it be possible to put together a Ryder Cup-like team of short hitters that could be competitive? Well, I think I can.

Keeping it to players averaging less than 280 yards off the tee, I can post a lineup of Furyk, Zach Johnson, Scott Verplank, Paul Goydos and Fred Funk—winners all this season. I can also add Jerry Kelly, Tom Pernice Jr., Bernhard Langer, Luke Donald, Tim Clark, Jose Coceres and Nick O’Hern. Combined these 12 players have won more than $20 million this year. And if somehow I could stretch the driving average to 281 yards, I could add K.J. Choi and Steve Stricker to the lineup. But I’ll stick with my 12 peashooters.

There were 31 players averaging under 280. You can have the top 31 guys on the tour’s driving distance list. See if you can come up with a team to beat my guys. And yes, you get Eldrick. But you don’t get Philly Mick.

GOUGE: What, we’re not going to use FedEx Cup points? OK, we both know my team will kick your team in the cash count. I get Tiger (but not Phil who is 32 in driving distance and not Vijay who is 50th) and I pretty quickly get to nearly $24 million with my 12. The Smash Brothers’ lineup looks like this: Tiger, Adam Scott, Charles Howell, Hunter Mahan, Robert Allenby, Nick Watney, Bubba Watson, Anthony Kim, Brett Wetterich, Lucas Glover, Pat Perez and Camilo Villegas. (Of course, you'd beat me with Stricker and Choi on your team.) But here’s the interesting thing: About 60 percent of my money comes from guys who are in the bottom third of the top 31 in driving distance. Only one of the guys in the top 10 in driving distance earns his way on my team (Bubba). Like we’ve always known, driving it far relative to the tour average is not going to guarantee you a living. You know what stat guarantees you a living? The leaders in scoring average tend to make some cash. Our two squads might need a stroke a side to compete with the top 12 in scoring average. Their combined income this year: About $35 million.

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Archived Comments (3) Click to expand

Dear Bomb,

I do believe though, just as you do, that length is not crucial. Golf is a numbers' game - get it in the hole in the least number of strokes, not hitting the ball a long way. However, courses, especially for the majors, seem to have been lengthened dramatically in recent years. I remember Nick Faldo saying a few years ago that he did not see a remote chance of winning the Masters because the Augusta is simple too long for him now. He was never really a long hitter, but he won the Masters in 1996, about 10 years ago, and was definitely not much longer then. The longer hitters seem to have an edge in the majors these days

GOUGE responds: Newsflash. Length has been a key element to success since Young Tom Morris outdrove his pa. And, oh by the way, the correlation between driving distance and success on the PGA Tour remains about as significant as the color of your courtesy car. You can look it up.

Posted by Coverlack July 31, 2007 8:20 AM

You have provided an interesting answer to a question that seems profoundly uninteresting to me.
The question that you guys seem to want to know about, and what Dick Rugge's "Distance Myths" memo for the USGA adressed is this one: Who is it that is winning on the PGA Tour, and how are they doing it?
Personally, I don't care. I understand that sometimes Fred Funk might win, and other times Bubba Watson might win. And I see no reason to prevent either one from winning, or to help either one win more.
What I do know is that all of the golf courses that could ever hope to be used by that (or any) field of elite players, including Funk and Watson, would need to have that field play a rolled-back golf ball, or else they'd need to radically alter a golf course if that hasn't already been done in the last ten years.
And that's a very bad situation, and it was never addressed by the Rugge memo, and it isn't adressed here, either, by you two guys.
You guys can resist the widespread calls for a distance rollback with golf ball specs, but you're wrong.

Posted by Chuck August 1, 2007 2:09 PM

I submitted a reply to Chuck's comment, but it appears to have vanished. I hope it has survived somewhere in your system.

Posted by 86general August 3, 2007 10:20 AM