Tiger's Driving Distance

Watching Tiger coverage in Abu last night.  I was noticing he was being out driven by Rory and the other guy up to 60 yards at some holes.  Does Haney actually have something by talking about Tiger lifting TO much?

well he does hit a cut, engaging side spin on the ball that will kill some distance, he almost 38 years old and yes he does lift, which I do not believe to be beneficial except for ego. One only has to look at Ernie Els, Keagan Bradley to realize that being big doesn't add distance.

Being limber plays more of a role.

Im glad you addressed that Erik. I thought the way the ball curved didn't matter after I watched the long drive competition. I think only one of them hit a draw everyone else hit a cut even the winner.

true a couple of yards sometimes, other times it can be 10%+.....my point was spin might be more of an issue with him, the driver, shaft and ball.

Gary Woodland plays 90% of his shots as a cut and he absolutely destroys the ball. Stupid long.

I think that might be the reason why Tiger pops up his driver. He gets crazy hands forward, and still hits down on the ball. Look at were that ball will hit. He has to time that jumpy thing he does or he'll hit so down on the ball. Guy needs to learn to shallow that driver swing out and swing up on the ball. He'll probably gain like 20-30 yards at his swing speed.

Yep, pretty much. Not entirely sure how much an open clubface adds to loft, but it might be 200-300 rpm from a pull slice to a pull fade. Probably not noticeable by the golfer.

Ah, the old "draws go longer than fades" myth.  Here's the deal: if your particular driver has too much loft then yes, hitting a draw will go further because it delofts the clubface.  Otherwise no difference.  People also used to think "coming from the inside" gives you more "power" but within the range of a couple of degrees relative to a neutral swing path that has been proven a fallacy as well.  Dead straight is going to maximize distance with all else being optimized and equal.

wow imagine if they both hit a draw how far it would go!

I'm joking

Yeah, I've always felt that Tiger, with his swing speed, makes somewhat inefficient contact with the driver. He can create effortless power with irons, but with the driver I would think he should hit it farther... I know there are players with slower swing speeds hit it as far or farther than Tigs does.

His driving is terrible.  He is shorter than he ever has been and more offline than he ever has been, obviously that isn't a very good combo.  Remember back in 2000 when he had all of that hip speed and rotation in his golf swing and he hit it far and straight?  Now he slides, slows his hips down and hits it short and crooked.  Nice job Tiger.  He has taken all of the athleticism out of his golf swing throughout his career and his ball striking has gotten worse and worse.  It's hard to watch.

His ballstriking was excellent last year. He won a few events as I recall and got 17th in total driving. He was also 16th in the ranking of players' GIR and total driving combined. He's having a bad week. Don't just watch the majors.

Because he can't hit that " cavity " driver with a cut with any control, while others can. Must be the swing of his, right?  so much for a swing change that is now going on 4 years now?

I know I know....its a process of trajs and reps

How many players have 8 wins in the last 2 years?