GOUGE: I don't know about you, but I'm going to see Speed Racer this weekend. Might even bring the kids. But all the speed talk has me delving into the PGA Tour's stats warehouse, which has been noticeably enhanced with the inclusion of new data from the ballflight monitoring wizardry of Trackman. For the uninitiated, Trackman uses high-tech radar and unique software to track ballflight characteristics on tour, including among others launch angle, ballspeed, spin, smash factor and something called total distance efficiency, which reflects the ratio between swing speed (or technically, clubhead speed) and distance. So in other words, you can swing relatively slower than average but still get good distance and therefore produce pretty good total distance efficiency. For instance, 2.7 is excellent, 2.6 is top 30 and 2.539 is tour average. Anything below 2.45 ranks in the 190s on tour, and you'll never guess who one of the worst is. Although you might want to check Golf World next week. Post surgery, I believe mine is right about 2.0.
But here's what really struck me. The average swing speed on tour is now 112.2, which is fairly neat in and of itself, but is important in light of some changes the USGA made to its golf ball testing procedure back in 2004. Among the changes, which included switching to a titanium driver with a spring-like effect at the current limit, was a big bump in the clubhead speed. It went from 109 mph to 120 mph. Now you can argue that 120 is higher than realistic (not really, given that there are 30 players averaging more than 117 mph already), but you can't argue that while 109 might have been about right for 1976, it ain't in the ballpark no more. In fact, more than 75 percent of the players on tour swing it faster than 109 right now. In short, 120 may be rapidly on its way to the new tour average. It makes you wonder what the biomechanical limits of human potential are, though. Before his latest knee surgery, Tiger Woods was swinging it at 124.627 mph, which I believe was fast enough to win the Indy 500 in the 1930s. But they're not growing any more slow swingers. Average age of the top 30 fastest swingers is 31.9; average age for the 30 slowest swingers is 38.4. Even more telling, the slow swingers don't have a win among them all year. But you have to like the fact that Corey Pavin is still trying to get it done, swinging 23 mph slower than Tiger Woods.
BOMB: You? Speed Racer? I've seen you drive (both in cars and on the golf course) and somehow that strikes me as the last movie you might see. But enough about you. What really strikes me about this is that swing speeds are clearly getting faster, but average driving distance on the PGA Tour has been flat for the better part of three years. That makes no sense because we all know that distance at tour-player swing speeds increases about 2 yards for every mile-per-hour. So what gives? Perhaps they're swinging at it fast but launching it like crap despite all those hours on the launch monitor.
But it is disturbing that those at the bottom not only don't have a win, they haven't really had a whiff of one except for Heath Slocum at the PODS. But again, golf is a SPORT. The bombers should have an advantage. Instead we talk about it like it's dirty, disgusting thing like gas at $4 a gallon. But it's not. A high swing speed is a beautiful thing. You should try it sometime.
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