An 11-Year Study of the Relative Importance of Driving Accuracy and Driving Distance on Scoring Average on the PGA Tour
There is an age-old question in golf. Is it more important to hit the ball long or straight? This question seems particularly pertinent in today’s game, considering how far PGA Tour players can drive the ball. Some think if a player is driving the ball far enough, driving accuracy is not an important skill. The comments of Hal Sutton in the 2003 Golf Digest magazine article, “The Gap,” seem to confirm this: “If you were to ask everybody out here whether they wanted distance or accuracy, they’d all tell you distance. Forget accuracy. The fairways are soft, the greens are hard, and there is no rough. Let’s kill it. There’s no such thing as thinking. It’s just grab your driver and hit it as far as you can.”
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