Refreshing statistics from the Nissan Open

The last decade in baseball will unfortunately go down in history as the “steroid era", as some players made the long ball their top priority, not only in playing careers, but in their personal lives. Over the last decade in golf, we have seen the same hunger drive the industry and the players on tour. We even have Vijay Singh, golf’s version of Jose Canseco, blow the whistle on other players for out-driving him. Of course, Singh was wrong while Canseco’s accusations have proven to be true, but you get the idea.

Today, during this period of golf’s evolution from a finesse game to a power game, I saw some refreshing statistics from the Nissan Open on The Golf Channel’s website. I decided to look at the players who finished last in driving distance for the day, and I saw a lot of familiar names. I also saw that eight out of the nineteen players on this page shot in the sixties, which is a higher percentage than I imagined it would be.

The constant talk of distance these days makes us forget that there are some guys on the tour who average 258 (Mike Weir) and can still win the Masters. The constant talk of distance makes us forget that guys who average 251(Todd Hamilton) can still win the British Open because distance is not a huge advantage in that tournament.

There is still plenty of good golf to be played by the short-knocker, and
I’m glad they’re not totally extinct the way I thought they were. I feel good knowing that the craze for distance will eventually die down, and that the short game will never become insignificant. That’s right Vijay- I hate to tell you, but you’ll have to make some putts if you want to keep winning.