Freddie longer than Vijay!

[PEZGolf]

I was looking over the stats for 2008, and one comparison caught my eye. Vijay Singh was 25th in driving distance at 297.8 yards, while Freddie Couples was 16th at 299.6 yards. Freddie has always been one of our favorites, and was always long off the tee, hence his nickname of "Boom Boom". However, I did not realize that he has retained his ability to hit it long. If his putting was not so bad (he ranks 138th), he would still be capable of winning. Regardless, he is a great guy and fun to watch. He should do well on the Champions Tour.

[apex53]

Agreed... If he could have putted average at the 2006 Masters in the final round he could have won... He was hitting the ball better than anyone that week... His putting was terrible on the second nine... Always fun to watch Freddie

[Fat Slice]

I'm not convinced that he didn't get his nickname of "boom boom" from some other skill...

[PEZGolf]

Agreed... If he could have putted average at the 2006 Masters in the final round he could have won... He was hitting the ball better than anyone that week... His putting was terrible on the second nine... Always fun to watch Freddie

You are right. He is still a fan favorite, and we have had the pleasure of seeing him play a number of times, including a Skins Game a few years ago at the Albany Country Club, here in New York State. Slammin' Sammy Snead was the honorary guest, and Freddie went out on the course with a huge gallery following him, Ed Fiori, Ivan Lendl (the former pro tennis star!), and Blaine McAllister. I have nice photos of Freddie's swing, and his stretching before every shot. What a full turn and great rhyth. Truly a great swing to watch and copy. No wonder he has always hit the ball so far.

[billysandy]

Where are these stats on the net? could someone pm me a link?

[PEZGolf]

Where are these stats on the net? could someone pm me a link?

They must be on the PGATour.com website. I read them in "Golf World", the issue dated December 26. You can go to their website, which is

www.golfworld.com . Another interesting stat on driving distance is Justin Leonard--281.4 yards, which is 156th place. Yet, he finished tenth on the money list with earnings of $3,943,542. It goes to show that you can "drive for show, but putt for dough". Justin was in 8th place in putting with 1.747 in putts per green in regulation.

[Pinseeker81]

http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/xm.html?101

[Jmacgolf99]

The boom boom nickname is fitting not only for him hitting a golf ball far...

[Quinn07]

Could that stat possibly be a bit skewed as Vijay plays significantly more than Couples?

[Parker0065]

I thought Freddie was pretty cool at the Skills Challenge longest drive this year. Rocco was in the lead with a drive around 287 yards, and Couples was the last to hit. I expected Couples to give it just a little extra ooomph, but he just swung smooth as ever. His first drive went +20 yards past Rocco but in the rough. Couples takes another smooth swing and drills it +20 over Rocco's in the fairway,,,Game Over,,, Couples as usual, made it look so effortless.

[PEZGolf]

I thought Freddie was pretty cool at the Skills Challenge longest drive this year. Rocco was in the lead with a drive around 287 yards, and Couples was the last to hit. I expected Couples to give it just a little extra ooomph, but he just swung smooth as ever. His first drive went +20 yards past Rocco but in the rough. Couples takes another smooth swing and drills it +20 over Rocco's in the fairway,,,Game Over,,, Couples as usual, made it look so effortless.

You are right, and that is true if you see him up close. He has such a smooth, full turn and such great timing. His swing gives further credence to the book, "Swing Easy, Hit Hard" by Julie Boros. He also had a smooth, fluid swing that appeared so easy. As he said, what counts is acceleration in the hitting zone. That is where the real "hit" exists.

[allin]

Could that stat possibly be a bit skewed as Vijay plays significantly more than Couples?

Where they choose to play and since only shots in the fairway are counted might make stats questionable. Since Fred plays mostly in warm weather Vijay may be playing with more wind and colder temps.

[Quinn07]

I didn't necessarily mean with the differing weather conditions I just meant that if you have more data entries for Vijay there are more opportunities that his shots in the fairway to be lower just because he has more opportunity to have a few shorter shots. Where with Freddie if he plays half the events that Vijay plays it could be with less entries his average might be slightly higher. OR maybe he's just longer than Vijay!!!

Not sure if my explanation is clear or not, but I hope you get what I am saying.

[ryohazuki222]

Can someone inform me if they know more about how these stats are calculated? I read this:

The average number of yards per measured drive. These drives are measured on two holes per round. Care is taken to select two holes which face in opposite directions to counteract the effect of wind. Drives are measured to the point at which they come to rest regardless of whether they are in the fairway or not. (101)

So those numbers reflect TOTAL distance right? but it says drives are only measure two holes per round? How do they pick the holes?

What I'm really trying to find out is what average driver distance really means.... I mean the numbers are waaaayyy shorter than the longest drives they've hit. Does that just mean they WANT to hit 300 yards. Or is that just what they can control? The courses they play only really allow them to hit 300 yards?

I've been curious about this for a while... since I like numbers I also realize how many true but misleading statments numbers can make.