In case you haven’t heard, driving distance has been a major discussion topic within golf over the past few years.
We have our own opinions for what increased hitting distances mean for the game of golf, but we thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at driving distance numbers in golf’s modern era.
It’s clear that a mix of better technology, better athletes and more pristine agronomy have paved the way for where we stand now—but how exactly did it evolve to reach this point?
The Early Years of Recorded Distances
The PGA Tour has kept driving distance stats dating back to 1980 when Dan Pohl led with a 274-yard average.
While methods for tracking distance have grown more advanced over the years because of ShotLink, the PGA Tour has continued to use only two holes per round to measure driving distance. They are both holes where players are basically guaranteed to be using a driver off the tee.
“Care is taken to select two holes which face in opposite directions to counteract the effect of wind,” the PGA Tour states. “Drives are measured to the point at which they come to rest regardless of whether they are in the fairway or not.”
Only one PGA Tour player from the 2022-2023 season (Brian Stuard) would have ranked behind Pohl. Said another way, Pohl would have been second-to-last for driving distance on Tour last season.
Of course, Pohl and his fellow competitors were using persimmon drivers and hitting balatas. That accounts for a significant chunk of the difference.
There was little increase in driving distance throughout the 1980s. Tour average was between 256 and 263 yards every year and there were no meaningful trends in driving distance leaders.
The top driving distance leader in that decade was a familiar name: Davis Love III. He averaged nearly 286 yards per drive in 1986, about 25 yards ahead of Tour average.
1980 — Average: 256.89 | Leader: Dan Pohl (274.3)
1981 — Average: 259.66 | Leader: Dan Pohl (280.1)
1982 — Average: 256.89 | Leader: Bill Calfee (275.3)
1983 — Average: 258.65 | Leader: John McComish (277.4)
1984 — Average: 259.61 | Leader: Bill Glasson (276.5)
1985 — Average: 260.18 | Leader: Andy Bean (278.2)
1986 — Average: 261.58 | Leader: Davis Love III (285.7)
1987 — Average: 262.50 | Leader: John McComish (283.9)
1988 — Average: 263.50 | Leader: Steve Thomas (284.6)
1989 — Average: 261.81 | Leader: Ed Humenik (280.9)
Late 1990s’ Distance Boom
John Daly was the longest driver on the PGA Tour in 11 different seasons.
Average Tour driving distance stayed stagnant from 1990 to 1995, between 260 and 263 yards.
Everything was status quo—except for the emergence of John Daly, a player who would be the “driving distance champion” of the PGA Tour for 11 years throughout his career.
Daly averaged about 289 yards in 1991, a record at the time. He would stay around that mark for the next few years until we start getting into the late ‘90s.
We really see distance jump starting in 1996 as the Tour average goes up three yards. By 1999, the average distance shot up another six yards. This coincides with persimmon drivers fading from the game as better technology takes its place.
Daly went from averaging 289 yards per drive in 1996 to almost 306 in 1999.
Impressively, that would be well ahead of PGA Tour average (299.9) for the 2022-2023 season.
Throughout the decade, only Tom Purtzer (1990) and Love III (1994) steal driving distance “titles” from Daly.
1990 — Average: 262.75 | Leader: Tom Purtzer (279.6)
1991 — Average: 261.44 | Leader: John Daly (288.9)
1992 — Average: 260.52 | Leader: John Daly (283.4)
1993 — Average: 260.36 | Leader: John Daly (288.9)
1994 — Average: 261.84 | Leader: Davis Love III (283.8)
1995 — Average: 263.55 | Leader: John Daly (289)
1996 — Average: 266.49 | Leader: John Daly (288.8)
1997 — Average: 267.67 | Leader: John Daly (302)
1998 — Average: 270.63 | Leader: John Daly (299.4)
1999 — Average: 272.45 | Leader: John Daly (305.6)
An Even Bigger Leap in the 2000s
The Titleist Pro V1 was a major part of the distance leap in the early 2000s.
What we saw in the ‘90s was a harbinger of what was to come as driving distance exploded in the following decade.
As the Titleist Pro V1 and other revolutionary technology came on board early in the 2000s, we saw an incredible spike. Driving distance averages went up six yards from 2000 to 2001; there was then a seven-yard jump from 2002 to 2003.
At that point, PGA Tour driving distance average was 286 yards. Remember that Love III had led the Tour in driving distance with that same mark back in 1986—only 17 years earlier.
However, the rest of the ‘00s don’t see a ton of movement. Average hitting distance creeps another few yards but lacks the massive jump we saw early in the decade.
In fact, there is no other sequence of years that matches the 2000-2003 time period where average driving distance climbs 16 yards.
Daly starts the decade as the longest player in golf (still) but other players emerge to steal that crown.
Hank Kuehne (2003, 2004) and Bubba Watson (2006, 2007, 2008) earned multiple driving distance titles in the decade.
Kuehne’s 321-yard average in 2003 was a record that lasted for 17 years until Bryson DeChambeau came along.
Where was Tiger Woods in driving distance during the prime of his career? He placed second (2000), T3 (2001), sixth (2002), 11th (2003), ninth (2004), second (2005), sixth (2006), 12th (2007), N/A (2008) and 21st (2009).
2000 — Average: 273.18 | Leader: John Daly (301.4)
2001 — Average: 279.35 | Leader: John Daly (306.7)
2002 — Average: 279.84 | Leader: John Daly (306.8)
2003 — Average: 286.30 | Leader: Hank Kuehne (321.4)
2004 — Average: 287.32 | Leader: Hank Kuehne (314.4)
2005 — Average: 288.88 | Leader: Scott Hend (318.9)
2006 — Average: 289.35 | Leader: Bubba Watson (319.6)
2007 — Average: 289.08 | Leader: Bubba Watson (315.2)
2008 — Average: 287.74 | Leader: Bubba Watson (315.1)
2009 — Average: 288.07 | Leader: Robert Garrigus (312)
A Small Uptick During the 2010s
Bubba Watson was the longest driver on the PGA Tour for five different seasons.
You might be surprised to learn that average PGA Tour driving distance didn’t move much in the 2010s, a decade that saw the emergence of weight training and better athletes.
Between 2010 and 2019, the average distance increased by about six yards.
There were eight different players who had the longest average for the season, a departure from the 1990s and 2000s when Daly, Kuehne or Watson was usually on top.
J.B. Holmes (2011, 2016) and Watson (2012, 2014) were the only players to be the longest for multiple years in this decade. Superstars like Dustin Johnson (2015) and Rory McIlroy (2017) emerge on this list as well.
2010 — Average: 287.49 | Leader: Robert Garrigus (315.5)
2011 — Average: 291.14 | Leader: J.B. Holmes (318.4)
2012 — Average: 290.07 | Leader: Bubba Watson (315.5)
2013 — Average: 288.00 | Leader: Luke List (306.3)
2014 — Average: 289.85 | Leader: Bubba Watson (314.3)
2015 — Average: 290.21 | Leader: Dustin Johnson (317.7)
2016 — Average: 291.06 | Leader: J.B. Holmes (314.5)
2017 — Average: 292.79 | Leader: Rory McIlroy (316.7)
2018 — Average: 295.29 | Leader: Trey Mullinax (318)
2019 — Average: 293.90 | Leader: Cameron Champ (317.9)
Bigger Gains So Far in the 2020s
Bryson DeChambeau was the longest driver on the PGA Tour in 2020 and 2021.
There have been a couple of eye-catching numbers so far in the 2020s.
One is that we saw the all-time driving distance record set twice, most recently by McIlroy. He averaged more than 326 yards last season.
The other is that the average distance on the PGA Tour reached almost exactly 300 yards two years ago. That repeated last season. So far in 2024, the average is down to 295 yards—but that is a normal winter fluctuation. We have yet to hit the warmer months where the ball goes farther.
Young players coming up now have been training to swing out of their shoes, maximizing the technology at hand, so it makes sense why we would see that number get slightly higher.
It looks to be short-lived, however, as the 2028 rollback could bring us closer to averages we saw in the 2010’s. We’ll have to wait to find out.
If you are wondering how LIV compares to the PGA Tour, we have you covered there. The PGA Tour’s longest hitters are slightly longer than bombers on LIV but it’s pretty close.
Bryson DeChambeau, however, looks to have lost a step from where he was a couple years ago.
2020 — Average: 296.40 | Leader: Bryson DeChambeau (322.1)
2021 — Average: 295.30 | Leader: Bryson DeChambeau (320.8)
2022 — Average: 299.80 | Leader: Cameron Champ (321.4)
2023 — Average: 299.90 | Leader: Rory McIlroy (326.3)
Final Takeaways
The short summary is that driving distance has increased a significant amount in the 44 years since the stat was first tracked by the Tour.
Average distance is up almost exactly one yard per year over that time.
The ‘80s and early ‘90s were stable but changes in equipment caused an explosion in distance during the late ‘90s and early 00s.
Since then, we’ve seen a steady creep of driving distance.
My goal here is not to argue whether distance in the pro game is a problem—I just wanted everyone to see the evolution over the years.
One thing on which we can all agree: the game is completely different than it was in 1980.
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