August 2012: Hot List 365: Golf Digest

By Mike Stachura
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While the golf intelligentsia continue to debate the merits or demerits of using an anchored putter and whether golf's ruling bodies will eventually announce a ban (all the tea leaves say yes, effective with the next rules revision in 2016), it's an under-reported event that bubbled up out of the last few weeks' results that may spur even more heated debate.

It's driving distance, only this time the numbers seem to be showing a curious movement away from, not toward, cataclysm, despite where we saw tee shots flying during last week's event in Ohio.

After an admittedly soft and less bouncy Open Championship (the driving distance average for the week was about 18 yards shorter than it was in 2011) and a somewhat soft RBC Canadian Open, we saw the most explosive long driving week on tour ever at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. The field average for the week was 313.8 yards, second longest ever, trailing only last year's Reno Tahoe Open, played at elevation (314.7). Bubba Watson led the field by averaging nearly 350 yards off the tee, but he was only one of 23 players who averaged 320 or better for the week. It should not be overlooked that Ohio is in a drought, the temperatures were high and the fairways were runways and most of the biggest hits were downhill.

Those numbers seem fitting, even required, as the world's best players get ready to take on The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort in this week's PGA Championship. Though tees can be altered every day, the course could play 7,676 yards, making it the longest site for a major championship ever, or 350 yards longer than when it was the site of the 1991 Ryder Cup. But is the rush toward 7,500-yard major championship sites just an eventual stepping stone to 8,000-yard sites? (The Ocean Course already has tees that can stretch to nearly that length, if necessary.)

Deep breaths...

While average driving distance on the PGA Tour is now 288.8 yards, that's still 1.8 yards behind the pace for 2011, which set an all-time high average of 290.9. Of course, it's also ahead of the pace of every other year since the PGA Tour started recording stats.

The U.S. Golf Association and Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews have been studying distance intensely for the last decade, on the heels of their release of the Joint Statement of Principles in 2002. That document warned of future golf ball distance gains as being "undesirable."

The question in many minds thus has become, "Are we at a level now that is "undesirable"? But maybe the question is based on a flawed assumption. Are driving distance statistics across all tours, numbers which are readily available for public review, showing a mad rush toward catastrophically "undesirable" numbers?

In fact, the numbers aren't entirely convincing. Generally, quite the opposite, in fact.

This summer, Golf Digest, in cooperation with Club Champion Golf, has embarked on a study on the effects of clubfitting. A group of 10 players of various handicaps agreed to participate in the study, each going through a full bag fitting and having their set changed partially or completely. We're checking in with them through the summer to chart their progress. They've now had their new clubs for several weeks, and what we're seeing is the change in their games is exciting and frustrating, sometimes in equal measure.

Club selection has been a problem for a number of participants, including Darryl Wiggins, who picked up nearly 5 yards of carry (174.8 to 179.5) with his 6-iron during the fitting. He says the added distance has caused him some trouble gauging shots with his old go-to club: "I had always loved my 7-iron. I just knew where it was going and how far." "I just haven't gotten there yet with my new 7 iron." Joe Jung, Master Fitter from Club Champion in Willowbrook, Ill., says Wiggins' post-fitting struggles with club selection are far from unusual, and for good reason: "When you face a 145-yard shot over water, where you used to hit a 7-iron, pulling a 9-iron can be terrifying. Inevitably, there's going to be an adjustment period."

Glenn Goldsborough says that being fitted has made him raise his standards, which is causing him to become more frustrated when his game goes south: "I think I've been putting more pressure on myself, because I have these clubs. I've made a significant investment in my clubs. I should be playing better."

Our participants have also experienced surprises throughout the process. Wiggins went back and forth between r- and s-flex shafts in his irons before the fitting, so he was impressed when he got his hands on the KBS CTaper R+ shafts. He pinpointed "the ability to get a nice feel and not the wider dispersion I had anticipated" is what sold him on them. Goldsborough's biggest surprise was one he welcomed with little effort: "I was actually getting more distance even with a slower swing speed." The reason? Club Champion replaced the 65-gram graphite shafts in his irons with 120-gram steel shafts, or in a way the difference between driving a Mini Cooper and a Peterbilt. This switch decreased his clubhead speed with his 6-iron from 87.8 to 82.9 mph, but his ball speed increased by 8.1 mph (110.8 to 118.9) and he picked up 5.3 yards of carry (171.6 to 176.9). That improvement is only possible because now he's hitting the center of the clubface, something he clearly wasn't doing before.

Goldsborough's fitter, Jim Yenser, said this was possible because the heavier shafts produced higher launch and spin. Golsborough had an "aggressive transition" at the top of the swing, so with a lightweight shaft he struggled to square the face up at impact, leading to poor contact and wide dispersion. According to Yenser, "He was hitting the steel shafts higher because he was compressing the ball more," meaning the ball carried farther, too.

For some participants, confidence in their new clubs has come right away. But others find themselves still waiting. Stan Ludwick says he has complete trust in his new set, especially his irons. Kurt Johnson, however, has not experienced this immediate surge in confidence, but he believes that the assurance will come shortly. "I have been working on it, so I think I will really see the benefits and rewards soon."

Why do some players turn their gains from the fitting into lower scores faster than others? According to Jung from Club Champion, the ease of the transition is a function of the old set's "level of appropriateness." "Most, if not all, people that come in see improvements in their ball striking and ball flight. But if someone's clubs changed dramatically in length, weight or flex, the adjustment time will be longer," he added.

"Stan is a good player, and when he came in his set was very close." "Because his equipment needed only minor changes, he is already seeing results," Jung says. Stan's scores with his new clubs speak for themselves. In four rounds he is averaging 76.3, nearly a full shot lower than his pre-fitting scoring average of 77.2.

Babcock's new clubs haven't yet produced the lower scores he's looking for, but that hasn't diminished his confidence. In fact, they've made the game more enjoyable: "I'm playing better with more consistency, and that is always fun."

--Kevin Tarsa