If the Average Amateur had Dustin Johnson's Driving...

[RandallT]

52 minutes ago, 14ledo81 said:

I think 10 strokes for me on my home course.

By assigning a specific number, you kinda remind me that there’s an entire Strokes Gained - Off the Tee stat published by the PGA for players on the tour. 

You’d think he might be aware that stat exists. DJ led PGA in 2017. What does he think that stat means? Seriously.

That’s basically the answer: yes, I’d shoot better by however many more strokes DJ gains than I do.

[mvmac]

The Wedge Whisper is a forking idiot #TheGoodPlace

@iacas, with nothing else changing in my game, how many strokes lower do you think I would shoot if I could hit my driver like DJ, four/five strokes? What would you guess for yourself?

Not only would I be hitting much less club into each green but most courses would effectively be par 68's or 69's.

 

[RussUK]

On ‎28‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 9:18 PM, boogielicious said:

His Tee shot includes his accuracy IMO. I would not be 14HC for sure. 

If i had his distance and accuracy then i'd take that like a shot. Just his distance? i think there would be a sharp increase in golf ball related injuries on the days im playing. Im a short(ish) hitter for the safety of all mankind

[Vinsk]

8 hours ago, mvmac said:

The Wedge Whisper is a forking idiot #TheGoodPlace

@iacas, with nothing else changing in my game, how many strokes lower do you think I would shoot if I could hit my driver like DJ, four/five strokes? What would you guess for yourself?

Not only would I be hitting much less club into each green but most courses would effectively be par 68's or 69's.

 

Yeah it's just a shame. No matter how much data/mathematics/statistics are provided, people like him will never change their mind. Just like all the people out there who believe antibiotics treat viruses. Doesn't matter, they'll never change.

[iacas]

8 hours ago, mvmac said:

@iacas, with nothing else changing in my game, how many strokes lower do you think I would shoot if I could hit my driver like DJ, four/five strokes? What would you guess for yourself?

For you and me?

I would say four to five is about right.

It's tough to gain strokes when you're a +1/0/1, and the math says driving is about 28%, so an average PGA Tour player will save us three strokes if they're ten shots better than us per round (which is probably a little on the high side, but that depends on the course, too). So that's three.

But then you consider that DJ gained strokes driving against the average PGA Tour player, so that alone bumps it up another shot, maybe two.

 

[Ty_Webb]

I can answer this pretty definitively for myself. My stats that I've been keeping have me losing about 2.2 strokes per round with my tee shots vs the PGA Tour. I suspect that's significantly optimistic because I'm playing courses that are wider open than they are, so I'm hitting some fairways where they would wind up in the rough. Let's say that's really 3.2 on PGA tour courses. DJ's average strokes gained off the tee in 2017 was 1.0, so that's probably 4-5 shots per round I would save if I had his drives. 

Based on the fact that he led the PGA tour in strokes gained driving, I don't think I'd be going out on too much of a limb to say that there is no one on the planet who wouldn't be better from where DJ drives it than where they do. There may be a handful in history who would have been better off, but it's a short list. Rory and Bubba once or twice and possibly peak Tiger. Once you start going back before the solid core balls, I think the differences from equipment would eclipse anything else. So Hogan, Nicklaus, Snead etc are out. Greg Norman at his best was pretty phenomenal off the tee. Maybe him.

For what it's worth Bubba in 2012 had the best strokes gained since the stats began (just under 1.5). Rory has had better than DJ's in 2017 and Sergio was right on the same spot back in 2005. Stat only started in 2004, so I don't know what Tiger's would have been in 2000 or 2002. He has typically been solid off the tee and spectacular for his approach play, so I doubt if he would have been much higher than 1.00 even in 2000. That said, maybe. He was quite good that year.