Masters 2025: New data might be destroying a longtime Augusta myth

AUGUSTA, Ga. — It's long been said to fear the last player on the driving range. The thought being that it's a tell-tale sign of panic and desperation, a last-minute search for the answers to a test that, deep down, you know you'll never find in time.

"When I show up to the tournament, what I have starting on Tuesday, Wednesday is what I'm going to have coming into the tournament and Sunday," defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler says.

"It will be pretty rare for the light bulb to just go off on Wednesday afternoon. Chances are you're not going to find it."

Yet, Scheffler himself was the last man on the range after his second-round 71 on Friday. Bryson DeChambeau, one back of the 36-hole lead, was the day before, and he hit a whopping 659 balls in the three days leading into the tournament—far more than anyone else.

"Something's not right up here," said DeChambeau, pointing to his head sarcastically when asked about his practice regimen. "A little different, I guess."

"Hogan and Vijay would tell you the person who beats the most balls, shoots the lowest scores," added Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee later that night.

So which is it? Is hitting more golf balls before the Masters—or any tournament, for that matter—good or bad?

Is practicing too much during Masters week *actually* bad?

For the first time, we just might be able to able to objectively answer that question.

The Masters has captured data from every shot hit on the range this week. We gathered all that data leading up to the tournament—the ball counts for all players hit from Monday to Wednesday. Then, we looked to see if there were any correlations between players' ball counts and their Strokes Gained performance over their first 36 holes, measured here by Data Golf.

What did we find? In truth, not much. Which in itself is quite revealing.

When you look at the group as a whole, we found no major statistically significant correlations between ball count and any Strokes Gained Performance category. The only relationship we found was a slight increase (+0.24) in SG: Around the Green when players hit more range balls, which doesn't make a huge amount of sense, and may be a sample size error.

When you divide the 2025 Masters field into three groups based on their ball count volume over the three days—a low ball-count group (players who hit fewer than 211 balls across the three days); an average ball-count group (211-298 balls); and a high ball-count group (more than 298 balls)—the picture didn't become much clearer.

⬇️ Low ball count group (players who hit fewer than 211 balls)

↔️ Average ball count group (211-298 balls)

⬆️ High ball count group (more than 298 balls)

There was a slight increase in players' SG: Tee-to-Green performance in players who hit fewer golf balls—but not a statistically significant one.

Players' ball striking performance begins to rise and peaks for golfers who hit between 200 and 250 balls over the three days, but the relationship is weak.

📈 SG: Tee-to-Green: +0.69

It then begins to fall steeply for the golfers who hit more than 250 golf balls, so much that it drags the entire average ball-count group below average.

📉 SG: Tee-to-Green: -0.38

Performance rebounds slightly for the golfers who hit more than 300 balls, but not significantly so, and because only nine players hit more than 300 golf balls in the lead up to the 2025 Masters, that uptick can largely be attributed to DeChambeau, the outlier in both ball count and on-course performance.

What the data reveals

If there is a sweet spot, it's somewhere on the low end of the average group. Between 200-250 golf balls—about 75 practice golf balls per day—for the three days heading into the 2025 Masters. Just enough to stay sharp, without getting fatigued. If you're hitting more than that, it's probably not helping. It may even be hurting.

Of course, there are lots of things that could be muddling this data. Of course, it could be that the players only hit relatively fewer golf balls because they feel good about their game, not that they play well because they hit fewer golf balls.

In short, if someone says a golfer is playing poorly or well because of the amount of golf balls they hit before the tournament, you can politely say we haven't found any evidence to prove that. At least not yet.

It seems to come down to the player themselves, and whatever they feel like they need. As the outlier Bryson DeChambeau at the top of the leaderboard is showcasing this week.