The Desire for Distance : A history of the driver on the PGA Tour
Distance Over Everything: How Driving Distances have Changed on the PGA Tour
As the old saying goes, you drive for show and you putt for dough. While that does ring true, there’s no better feeling than ripping a drive deep down into the fairway.
Over the years, technology has drastically improved, allowing golfers of all skill levels to hit the ball further and straighter. Club designers have seemingly defied physics by increasing the size of the sweet spot while keeping the size of the club the same.
Our journey into the evolution of golf's favourite club will centre around those who have mastered its use.
There have been consistent improvements when it comes to driving distances across the decades, and we’ll take a look at the history of how that happened.
The 1980s: The Persimmon Era
It was the year 1980 when the PGA Tour began to track and record the driving distances of players. This would be the first building block towards how analytical and scientific the game has become.
Persimmon wood drivers were the go-to big stick for golfers in the 80s. MacGregor was the gold standard and by far the most popular among the professionals on Tour.
If you’ve ever held a wooden driver in your hand, the first thing you’ll notice is the size difference.
Swing a persimmon club head for the first time, and you may consider yourself lucky if you make contact.
These clubs were typically around 200 cubic centimetres (CC), which is how the size of a driver’s club head is measured. For comparison, the driver that’s in your bag today is likely well over 400 CCs.
Beuwood Classic Wooden Headed Drivers
The 1990s: John Daly Meets Titanium
Enter John Daly. Daly took the golf world by storm in the 90s in part due to his driving prowess. He is still regarded as one of the longest drivers in golf history.
Daly pushed the limits of what was possible with driver in hand, leading the Tour in driving distance 8 out of the 10 years, and he became the first golfer to eclipse an average distance of 300 yards (305.6).
While his never-ending backswing played a role in it, the introduction of the metalhead driver was the main reason he was able to outclass his predecessor from the previous decade by nearly 20 yards. ‘Big Bertha’ was born, and Callaway changed the game forever with this design.
Despite the original design clocking in at only 190 CC, the difference between this and its wooden counterpart was the “jump” players felt off the club.
This is a metaphor for how the ball felt as if it was jumping off the clubface at impact. Common terminology would refer to the face of Big Bertha as “hot”.
While the original Big Bertha was a stainless steel design, Mizuno brought to light the power of Titanium. The impact of that introduction is still woven into club designs of the modern era.
The 2000s: The impact of technology
From the 90s to the turn of the century, golf saw its largest jump in average driving distance from one decade to the next, with just under an 8% increase.
The 90s brought Titanium driver heads to the forefront of golf companies across the world, and from there, it was an arms race to see who could do the most with it. Year after year, club heads grew larger and larger:
2000: 350 CC
2001: 400 CC
2002: 500 CC
The R&A, the lawmakers of golf, implemented a limit on driver size in 2004 of 460 CC. The legal limit has withstood the test of time and is still used to this day.
Speaking of the R&A, I’m sure its original members would be rolling over in their graves to hear that companies like Callaway and Nike brought square club heads to market in the mid-2000s. It was more than a fad for a few years, but eventually faded into the background.
We saw an introduction of added weights on drivers also, allowing players to adjust to fit their swing type and desired ball flight. That turned out to be more than a fad, and nowadays clubs without adjustable weights and options are the exception instead of the rule.
All the driver technology in the world pales in comparison to the real driving force behind the uptick in distance, Titleist’s Pro V1 golf ball. Long gone were the days of balata golf balls once Titleist revolutionised the golf ball game, combining the best of both worlds between feel and distance.
Pro V1 is still the consensus #1 ball in golf, although that’s not to say it hasn’t evolved since its 2001 initial model.
2010s: Maximising the golf swing
It makes sense that golfers continue to hit the ball further, as the game’s athletes continue to become bigger, faster, and stronger.
The interesting part of this is that golfers are still swinging the club at similar speeds to golfers of the decade before.
With similar swing speeds, they still averaged 6 yards further than the decade before. The reason? Continuous development of driver technology allowed players to maximise their swing, letting the club do the work. Golfers were able to play smarter rather than harder.
If “larger” was the theme of the 2000s, then “sleeker” would be the theme of the 2010s. Club manufacturers began to realise that the aerodynamics of a club’s design truly matters.
It’s a constant battle to find the balance between maximising club head size and minimising the drag on the club during a golfer's swing. There have been plenty of creative and visually appealing answers to this challenge.
The game of golf took an analytical leap in the 2010s. Terms like “smash factor”, “attack angle” and “ball speed” became common terminology. With Trackman and similar ball flight technology, even the average Joe had the ability to tap into Tour-level feedback and swing knowledge.
2020s - The Bryson Era
A lot of companies have revolutionised the game of golf through cutting edge technology for balls and clubs. However, Bryson DeChambeau has shaken the game to its core. In 2021 he rewrote the record books with an average driving distance of 323 yards, regularly touching 350+ yards throughout the year.
Golf's mad scientist has gone away from the smooth swing approach, opting for a more violent variety. He only appears to be scratching the surface of what’s physically possible to do with a driver.
Bryson will be leading the charge for the 2020s to become the first decade with an average driving distance of 300+ yards on the PGA Tour. If history has anything to say, they are well on pace for it.
