Longest Drivers on Tour by Yards/Pound Body Weight

[boogielicious]

From golfdigest.com

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/pound-for-pound-who-are-the-longest-drivers-on-the-pga-tour

By Alex Meyers

Last week, we highlighted last season's top 10 drivers on the PGA Tour in terms of strokes gained/driving. But who are the longest hitters, pound for pound, on tour? Thanks to an interesting study by BroBible, we know.

Check out this chart, which ranks tour players by dividing their average distance off the tee by their weight to produce a yard per pound measurement:

As you can see, the 145-pound Justin Thomas -- with his 303.2 yards average off the tee -- checks in first at 2.09 yards per pound. Impressive.

Only two players from the strokes gained/driving top-10 list are in the top 20 of the pound-for-pound rank. Rory McIlroy (1.90 yards per pound) is No. 11 and Charl Schwartzel is No. 14 (1.88 yards per pound). In other words, some of the smaller guys can crush it, but overall, the biggest hitters like Dustin Johnson (6' 4", 190) and Bubba Watson (6' 3", 180) are, well, bigger.

So the next time you scoff at Mark Wilson's 279-yard average off the tee, cut him some slack. At 5' 8", 145 pounds, he's pound for pound the seventh-longest hitter on tour, which kind of makes him a beast. (We've got your back, Mark!)

 

[Lihu]

This list and that video just depress me further. . .

Also, I refuse to believe that Dustin is that light. 6'4"/190 would be a skinny rail, and I know a couple people like that. . .

[HonestyPolicy]

Hooray for the little guys.  I play from the tips at 58 years old with the "big boys" and there's nothing they hate more than getting out driven by "a little guy". I'm not a particularly long hitter but I get the most out of my frame, I'm 5'8" and 150lbs and get about 270 on average. I do agree it's always been fun to nut a good one, but in the end it's scoring that counts.

Statistically a par round of 72 is made up of 14 Fairways, 4 Layups (second shots on par 5's),18 GIRs and 36 Putts, assuming of coure 10 par 4's, 4 par 5's, and 4 par 3's. Driving distance is certainly an advantage, but putting is !!!!HALF!!!! of a statistically perfect par round.

Jordan Spieth finished 2015 #78 in driving distance and #1 in scoring average and his putting was a big part of his ability to score. Here's some putting highlights from the 2015 PGA tour stats in review.

-- Jordan Spieth set a ShotLink era record by making the highest percentage of putts from 15 to 25 feet at 27.19 percent. Spieth made 62 of 228 from that distance in 2014-15. 

-- Jordan Spieth led six major putting categories. He was first in putts per round, putting average, one-putt percerntage, putting from 15 to 25 feet, putting from outside 10 feet and putting from outside 20 feet.

-- There were eight five-putts this season: Cameron Tringale (Northern Trust), Andrew Loupe (John Deere), Richard H. Lee (U.S. Open), Brooks Koepka (Farmers Insurance), Shi Kim (U.S. Open), Ernie Els (Quicken Loans), Charlie Beljan (Farmers Insurance) and Eric Axley (Wells Fargo) had them. ... For comparison, there were four six-putts last season.

-- Daniel Summerhays led the TOUR in putting from 3 feet and In. Incredibly, he didn't miss a putt in 941 attempts, which is the best perfect mark in the ShotLink era. A total of seven players were perfect from 3 feet and In, including Jason Day (612 of 612), who is the only player not to miss a putt inside 3 feet in the past two seasons. (986 of 986).

Edited October 23, 2015 by HonestyPolicy
add discalimer

[mchepp]

I think this could be enhanced by adding height into the equation. Sure it is linked to weight (taller people usually weigh more) but would still be interesting.

[rkim291968]

I think this could be enhanced by adding height into the equation. Sure it is linked to weight (taller people usually weigh more) but would still be interesting.

Along the same line, wing span should be the measuring stick, inch for inch. 

 

[Lihu]

This thread might start heading into the direction of "What's the best build for golf?", and I'm not sure weight, height or build can be directly correlated with golfing ability.

Wouldn't it be fair to say that lots of the PGA pros played scratch when they were something like 13 years old and around 5'6"/120 pounds? For example, Sergio Garcia plays in the PGA pros and is one of the longer hitters, and was scratch at 13 years old.

[Natural Patrick]

A toast is being made as we speak that goes out to all the little duders.  Who can mash the ball farther than most can only dream of. Good stuff!