Labs

Study: Accuracy vs. Distance

BY Chris Nickel
Oct 27th 2022
Read all comments

Support our Mission. We independently test each product we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission.

Accuracy. Distance. Which is more important?

Think of the best players you know. Do they hit towering bombs off the tee? Or does it seem like they’re always putting for birdie?

To help provide some context, we gleaned some data from the more than 200 million recorded shots in Shot Scope’s database.

Let’s take a look.

Accuracy

Many golfers likely believe that more skilled golfers are more accurate than golfers with higher handicaps. However, Shot Scope’s data suggests that isn’t exactly the case—at least not when considering the percentage of fairways hit per round. In fact, scratch golfers (0 hdcp) hit fewer fairways than any other handicap range.

As a point of reference, PGA TOUR pros hit an average of 47 percent of fairways. Certainly, course setup (narrower landing areas) and generally firm and fast conditions play into this figure.

It’s also worth noting that LPGA Tour pros hit more than 70 percent of fairways—23 percent more than their male counterparts.

Distance

On the other hand, distance differs significantly between handicap ranges. Scratch golfers have a huge advantage over their fellow amateurs, hitting drives 68 yards further on average compared to 25 handicappers. Still, a scratch golfer is roughly 40 yards shy of the average PGA TOUR driving distance.

If you consider only driving distance, a scratch golfer is far closer to an LPGA Tour player than to a PGA TOUR golfer. To be clear, while swing speed and equipment specs might be in the same ballpark, when it comes to skill and scoring average, the LPGA Tour player is universally superior to any scratch golfer.

Keep in mind that all averages include some outliers. Some golfers might have more frequent, though less severe, mishits. For others, it might be the opposite: fewer mishits but the magnitude of each miss is much greater.

Impact on Scoring

In this case, the data is clear. Regardless of handicap or skill, golfers are relatively consistent regarding the percentage of fairways hit. However, we’d expect to see that golfers with a shorter average driving distance struggle to hit a large percentage of greens in regulation.

A quick example…

Golfer A is a scratch golfer, Golfer B is a 20 handicap.

Both play a par-4 of 395 yards.

Golfer A drives the ball 260 yards, leaving 135 yards to the green.

Based on Shot Scope average distances, Golfer A will use a 9-iron for the approach shot.

Golfer B drives the ball 204 yards, leaving 191 yards to the green.

Based on Shot Scope average distances, Golfer B will use a 3-wood for the second shot and will hit it roughly 169 yards, finishing 22 yards short of the green.

If we look at the data slightly differently, Golfer A hits the green 62.5 percent of the time from 135 yards.

Golfer B hits the green only seven percent of the time from 191 yards. You might be inclined to argue that Golfer B should move up a set of tees (or two) and you’d likely be correct.

However, the illustrative point is that distance has a tremendous impact on a golfer’s ability to shoot the lowest score possible. Moreover, gaining (or losing) distance isn’t isolated to a single club. If you gain 10 yards with your driver, you’ll likely hit your other clubs further as well.

It’s a data-driven world, we’re just living it in.

What topic or question should we dig into next? Share some thoughts.

For You

Golf Wedges

Apr 16, 2024

Vokey WedgeWorks Low Bounce K Grind Wedge

News

Apr 16, 2024

It Was A Masters To Forget For LIV Golf

Golf Apparel

Apr 16, 2024

adidas Pioneers Next Generation of Lightweight Golf Garments

Chris Nickel

Chris is a self-diagnosed equipment and golf junkie with a penchant for top-shelf ice cream. When he's not coaching the local high school team, he's probably on the range or trying to keep up with his wife and seven beautiful daughters. Chris is based out of Fort Collins, CO and his neighbors believe long brown boxes are simply part of his porch decor. "Isn't it funny? The truth just sounds different."

Chris Nickel

Mizuno ST-MAX 230 Fairway Wood and Hybrid

Jan 22, 2024 | 0 Comments

COBRA DARKSPEED Fairway Woods and Hybrids

Jan 11, 2024 | 1 Comment

TaylorMade Qi10 Fairway Woods and Hybrids

Jan 9, 2024 | 2 Comments

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Fairway Woods and Hybrids

Jan 3, 2024 | 5 Comments

Chris Nickel

Driver PING G410 LST	Fairway Cobra SZ
Hybrids PXG (17°)	Irons Mizuno MP 20
Wedges Vokey SM8 (50F - 56D - 60L)	Putter Whatever floats
Ball Titliest Pro V1x

Chris Nickel

comments

Join The Discussion

Patrick

1 year ago

This feels a bit off. Firstly, the driving distances seem quite low. Well at least for the scratch to 10 markers. Secondly, handicaps for US amateurs is skewed. You guys don’t play by the rules and from what I’ve seen, your handicaps are very optimistic. Having played golf in the US I was amazed when my playing partners said they were off scratch to 10 h/caps when they clearly couldn’t play to that standard. Breakfast balls, mulligans, gimmies, OOB just take a favourable drop without penalties. Things like that. Sure, it’s nice to think you’re a low marker but if you played in other countries you would lose your money in quick time! ;-)

Whitey

1 year ago

✅

David

1 year ago

Have to agree with this. Recently read an article that referenced Tom Brady as an 8.1. I’m a huge TB fan, but have you seen him play golf. No way he’s a legit 8.1

Brandon M

1 year ago

There’s multiple studies showing Fairways Hit as the “traditional/old school” stat least related to scoring. You could use it to support any other area of golf being more important.

While GIR is the most important. How does GIR increase? It’s directly related to how far you are from the green and therefore length of tee shot. Using Fairways is meaningless, penalties and recovery shots are the only things to avoid off the tee while minimizing fairway bunkers. The only advantage to Fairways Hit is it lumps all of these into 1 bucket, but it then gets watered down by shots landing in the rough nicely teed up for approaches into the green.

Scotty

1 year ago

There would be stronger correlations than FIR.

Alex

1 year ago

Your so right

WBN

1 year ago

I am one of the shorter drivers in our group but play the same tees as the rest of the guys. I am a 7 hdcp and play 6200 yard courses. At over 70 I hold my own but that 2nd shot to the green keeps getting longer. The upside is my short game is getting better. Loved the article. Thanks.

RICHARD HABERSTROH

1 year ago

Shots gained is a misnomer. If player A takes 42 putts in a round over player B who takes 46 he is deemed to have “gained” 4 putts.
Both were horrid. The 4 shot difference was not gained, but gifted to him by an even worse performance.

Mike

1 year ago

No single statistic is worth picking at it just in itself. If I hit all 18 greens in regulation & 2-putt all of them, I shoot par. My buddy may misses 9 greens yet gets up & down every time, so he shoots par also. Who had the better round? Me, hitting all 18 greens and regulation with 36 putts, or him, hitting 9 greens regulation but having only 27 putts? And does him having only 27 putts meaning he’s a great putter? Not necessarily, he may have chipped each one close.

For me, since I’m not a long hitter, the only stat I focus on is fairways hit. I know that if I’m in the fairway whole day borrowing some other screw up I’ll have a good round. But I also note my misses in that me finishing 3 yards off the fairway with a decent lie isn’t the same as me missing 30 yards wide in the trees.

Matt

1 year ago

You don’t have a good understanding of shots gained. Check out some Mark Broadie articles. Both golfers in your scenario lost a ton of strokes to almost any handicap. Strokes gained is not based off your playing partners, rather is a measure against an established handicap.

K34

1 year ago

What about the average magnitude of mishits bt a scratch and 15 handicap. Like what’s the shot pattern off the tee for different magnitudes? A 50 yard wide shot pattern and a 70 yard wide shot pattern could both have close to 50% fairways hit but it could be significantly more penalizing to have that wider shot pattern.

Most importantly, how in the world do these LPGA players hit such straight drives.? They have players averaging 270+ off the tee who still hit 70% of fairways.. How?

William

1 year ago

You ask a great question about LPGA players. My observation is they play within their physical capabilities better than men. They don’t try to overpower a shot because they know they can’t. Thus, their shots are more controlled as is evidenced by % of fairways hit. They also benefit from much great flexibility than men so they get more out of each shot pound-for-pound.

Steve

1 year ago

Have played in at least 50 4 to 6 member scrambles the last 10 years I guarantee you the most money I have won was on a team with at least one LONG hitter off the tee. Truth weekend golfers hit greens with a nine iron or wedge., no buddy makes money hitting 6 irons or above into greens.

Darby B

1 year ago

This is spot on. Also, I’m a high handicapper, but have found that adjusting my driver to lower spin (supposedly better player) settings has dramatically increased my driver distance and consequently my scores. Instead of high MOI drivers, most players should be moving to the low spin models!

Richard Kostka

4 weeks ago

I agree with lowering the loft with the driver . I am 76 years old and I gained 5 to 10 yards with my driver
Lowering the loft reduces the spin and I also get a little more draw.

Blair

1 year ago

I’m confident the #s provided are statistically accurate, but the narrow range (46% – 50%) is misleading as to the real impact driving accuracy has on handicaps, and therefore on playing golf! A more accurate analysis would reflect %s by how many yards the various handicaps miss the fairway. If the fairway is missed by 1-10 yards, there is often no impact to a players score (still hitting the green on your 2nd shot). At 11-20 yards the impact starts to be 1 stroke (have to chip out of the trees). Over 20 yards the penalty is often 2 strokes (ball lost, OB, etc). While the 25 handicappers I play with do hit the fairway about as often as the scratch player, the 50% of their shots that don’t hit the fairway result a very significant % of “hitting 3 off the tee”.

David

1 year ago

Boom! Spot on.

Ryan

1 year ago

The outliers are the story more so than the distance. That 20-handicapper isn’t hitting a bunch of drives around 200 yards. He’s hitting half of them probably around 230 and the other half include hosel shanks into the woods and worm burners that go 100 yards.. I think the ouliers need to be removed from the averages to tell the whole story.. A single digit handicapper’s worst drive in a round might only be 30 yards shorter than his best drive. A high handicapper’s worst drive might be legitimately 200 yards shorter than his best and 150 yards shorter than his ‘typical’ (different than average) drive.

This isn’t to say there aren’t distance differences that make a difference. Of course there are, but accuracy and consistency might just tell a more compelling story. A drive that misses the fairway and lands OB is a lot different than a drive that is sitting in the rough. Just quantifying whether or not the drive was in the fairway doesn’t tell us enough about accuracy. It would be similar to classifying distance as just long or short.

George Trinidad

1 year ago

Average LPGA vs average scratch…this debate reared its ugly head at work recently. Request a deep-dive into how an average scratch would fare over the long haul vs average LPGA

William Grooms

1 year ago

I don’t have data on it, but I’m betting the average scratch golfer would not be remotely competitive versus LPGA professionals

Patrick

1 year ago

Especially against US handicaps. You guys don’t play by the rules and your h/caps are extremely optimistic. Play against a guy from the UK or Aussie with a scratch h/cap and I’m betting they get much closer to the LPGA players.

Whitey

1 year ago

Exactly

Cory

1 year ago

This is all true but accuracy is still the most important thing relative to HC. Players don’t try to simply be more accurate rather than hit it far. If players would simply go for the fairway and the amount increased just 10 percent or so it would increase scores considerably. Hit fairways and score better even if it is three wood or a more controlled driver.

Matt

1 year ago

Please, please, please read Mark Broadie. He wrote an entire book disproving your assessment. Your pretty far from the truth.

Drew Z

1 year ago

I think accuracy is probably much more important for the higher handicap golfer, as they are more likely to hit balls OB, top balls of the tee, shank, etc. If they were more accurate off the tee, I’m sure their scores would improve quite a bit. However, I think the better golfer benefits more from distance than accuracy (depending on the golf course). Because I would imagine that the better golfer is going to hit the green at a much higher rate from the rough than the worse golfer and in turn, still be able to make birdies & pars more often. Distance is certainly important at all levels, but without looking at data, I would just assume that accuracy would be more beneficial to the higher handicapper.

BT

1 year ago

Tops and shanks relate to ball striking though, rather than accuracy and improving ball striking will improve average distance so whereas someone in that scenario may get more accurate the real gain they’ll see is in the gain in distance. Working on increasing distance as your main goal encompasses the goal of improving ball striking and (if done correctly) result in less shanks, tops, etc.

Mike

1 year ago

A bunch of slow-play issues could be solved by folks using the correct tees for their ability. My course plays long, so it pains me to see guys “worse” than me (I’m a 15 index) moving back to the 6,550 yd tees or even worse, subjecting me to watch them struggle all round from the 6,800 yd tees.

Richard

1 year ago

A lot depends on your course setup, too. If you play a course that has tight fairways with heavy rough that is also heavily tree-lined, like I do, being in the fairway is much more important than being long off the tee. At my course, I have a better chance of hitting the green with a 5 iron from 190 yards out in the fairway than I would with a PW from 135 yards out in the heavy rough.

Terry

1 year ago

There is so much missing from data such as this. The analysis is far too simplistic to matter. It only analyzes one component of a complex set of variables. My index is a 1 handicap, at 72 years old, and a good drive with minimal roll out is about 220-225. So, to put me in with “scratch” golfers who hit is 260 is silly. My fairway accuracy is critical to hitting greens and scoring. I would love more distance, but 15 yards is not going to suddenly appear after 60 years of golf. This data is like comparing how many putts were taken in 18 holes. Almost meaningless in most cases. “Strokes Gained” in the 4 facets of golf, does take into account multiple variables and is far more accurate. I guess the answer is simple, longer in the fairway.

RT

1 year ago

Very good !!!!!!! I AGREE ,!!!!!

Murv

1 year ago

I would say that it is emmensely easier for someone who hits it 260 to learn to hit more fairways than it is to change someone who hits it 200 or 220 to hit it 260.
Also, the shorter the drive, it is more likely to be in the fairway. Just the fact that the ball goes farther causes it to leave the fairway. That’s why the pros use a fairway when they must keep it in the fairway. The 3 wood is not a much straighter club…it just doesn’t go as far.

Mike in Pittsburgh

1 year ago

What is not discussed is how far our misses go from the fairway. The better I play, the closer my misses. If I hit 50% of the fairways but my misses are off the planet… I have a problem. I can overcome narrow misses a lot easier than a banana slice across the neighboring fairway. I am frankly surprised the fairways hit figures are as close as they are, but as others have mentioned, if you are poking the ball out only 180 yards it is a lot easier to hit the fairway than a bomber who launches shots over 280 yards.

Christopher

1 year ago

These studies always show this and it’s absolute nonsense. If a 20 handicap hits the ball 204 off the tee into the fairway it’s certainly going to effect scoring vs into the trees, or OB. No amount of couching will likely get them to hit it 50 yards further. Would 5-10 more yards help? Yes. And they’d need to hit the center of the face more to get it, which means all sort of other parts of their game will also improve scoring. Would hitting it straighter maybe cut 4 strokes a side? Probably. There are so many other factors at work when comparing distance. Players who can hit it longer also have many other advantages typically. Like, for example, being able to move the ball out of the rough.

joey5Picks

1 year ago

Matches up with what Mark Broadie and Scott Fawcett say.

The first table’s second column is miss labeled

meyersp

1 year ago

Drive for show, approach shot for dough.

I like to look at distance as a triangle.. If the angle at the tee box is the same for all golfers, the longer golfers have more area of the cone in the danger or penalty areas.. And thus, need to decrease that angle significantly to have the same overlap.. The advantage the longer hitter has they are using scoring irons more often. Therefore, it boils down to a risk/reward calculation. The shorter hitter doesn’t have to do this calculation as much.

Mike

1 year ago

Hard to make generalizations such as this, I think it depends on the course & tees you’re playing from.

Gerry T

1 year ago

What this doesn’t take into account is a 20-handicap player like myself who gets 240 or so. Is distance based on theory or some other non-factors? It makes you wonder.

Whitey

1 year ago

Or….it’s not how you drive, it’s how you arrive.

Jim P.

1 year ago

Chris – thanks for diving into this topic. We know that distance wins in the battle between distance and accuracy, but I think it’s important to point out that a scratch player who hits roughly the same number of fairways (46%) as a 20-capper (46%) but hits it 56+ yards longer is, by definition, significantly MORE accurate with their driver on a relative basis. In other words, it’s much harder to hit the fairway as your drives get longer, so maintaining the same percentage while increasing distance is the key. As a 5-handicapper with speed (120+ club), I struggle with accuracy (36% fairways hit) and I can tell you it’s a major hindrance to my scoring. Anyway, great work.

Greg

1 year ago

Distance is certainly not king on our course. We can lose balls on every hole. Not like your courses that are designed for spectators to easily watch . Ours is all thick bush or hazards. I’m a 7 index and rarely play with less than 5 penalty strokes. Average drive is at least 260. Accuracy is king at our course by far.

Ned

1 year ago

There is no way golfer B should be playing a 395 yard par 4. Give up that ego and move forward a tee or two. Jack Nicklaus always said every golf course tees should be setup where each golfer should be hitting a similar iron on the second shot.

Matt Dunn

1 year ago

A missed fairway is a missed fairway statistically, but I reckon higher handicap golfers have a bigger miss that gets them into more trouble and costs them more shots. At some point accuracy matters even if it means ‘only’ missing the fairway in the first cut instead of OB/water hazard/trees etc.

rich

1 year ago

This was my thought exactly!

Huge difference between a “missed” fairway by a really good player that’s 1-10yrds off into the rough, and what we see most high-handicappers do when spraying it wide off target, often due to over-swinging looking for distance rather than accuracy.

Darren Cannon

1 year ago

To this point I keep a stat Green Not Possible (GIRX). In other words when you are out of position and have no shot to the green at all. This is normally a good indication of how I am driving/playing. For par 4’s I might average 4.4 from the fairway, 4.7 from the rough but 5.2 when GIRX. I always tell my mates you don’t have to hit the fairway, it just has to be in play.

Gary

1 year ago

Sounds like player B needs to move up a tee box or two. They should play the same club into the green. 3 wood vs. 9 iron? I think this is more about the best tee box.

Jay

1 year ago

Great article! This goes along with the strokes gained mentality (“Every Shot Counts” by Mark Broadie). Send it!

Golfinnut

1 year ago

Probably already done this one but ….

3-putt % based on handicap. For those that actually hit the green in regulation, where do their putting stats fall?

Jon Mabry

1 year ago

It would be interesting to also look at distance by age, thanks

Jon Silverberg

1 year ago

2nd Column in 1st chart is mislabeled; should be “% Fairways Hit”

Patrick Butler

1 year ago

Your study fails to accont for the fact that longer hitters (i.e., lower handicaps) must hit the ball straighter in order to hit fairways because the same size target is twice as small when it is twice the distance from the tee. Further, I’d bet my house and car that on over 95% of the courses that the fairway width is significantly less at 260 yds than it is from 200 yds. So while longer hitters may only hit 46% of the fairways, it is not correct to say that they value distance over accuracy. The 0 hcp missing half the fairways 280 yards from the tee could be way more accurate than the 15 hcp hitting 80% of the fairways 210 yards from the tee.

Tom

1 year ago

I don’t think this analysis is meaningful. The real question is if the same golfer chose a different club and was more accurate, maybe hitting 75% of fairways but landing 25 yards shorter, what was the impact on scoring.

Matt

1 year ago

Read Mark Broadie articles or book. He answers your question. Cliff notes, hitting it farther is more valuable than being more accurate. It’s the basis of Strokes Gained Driving.

Jim

1 year ago

Hey, you have a typo in your accuracy data table. You have avg distance listed. Great article!

Thomas Pane

1 year ago

Great article. I always believed I would score better if I could hit longer tee shots. That isn’t going to happen in my lifetime.. So, I have focused on my short game, however, I am not making greens regulation more than 60% of the time. I have a 15 handicap.

J Thorpe

1 year ago

This makes the case that higher handicap persons should play from tee boxes fit for their purpose and not the same as dicussed in this write up.. If they improve then move back. As golf courses are stacking tees time, pace of play will be enjoyed by the others on the course.

John Maxwell

1 year ago

The R. Trent Jones trail in Ala. Does tee boxes by handicap. I have tried to get my local club to do this but no luck

Bill Hendry

1 year ago

Life is a lot easier from the fairway which is why I took my driver down to 44 1/2 playing length. My fairway % is now around 50% and my GHIN handicap index is 8.1 Yes I am giving up the 270+ bombs however I will take an average of 248 off the tee with my driver and Taylor Made mini-driver all day long. I have removed the big miss which means a recovery shot back to the fairway or a penalty shot due to being OB. Drops the score quite a bit. Am a way better scorer at 64 than I was 10-15 years ago.

Brad R

1 year ago

I improved my driving distance some – but even more importantly is the upgraded shaft added accuracy also. This was important in drives but getting my index down to 12 at 63 was short game practice. Getting up and down is a big deal.

Drew Z

1 year ago

While I don’t think this should really come as a surprise to anyone, it’s always great to have actual data to support the position. In my hometown, a couple of the muni’s have actually gone away from the traditional ladies, seniors, mens, and tournament tees and have instead started suggesting which tees you play from based on how far you hit your average driver and they do so in 25 yard increments. If you hit 175 or less on average, you play the most forward tees; between 175-200 you play tee marker 2; 200-225 tee marker 3 and so on until you get to 250+ then you play the back tees. Of course there are always going to be people who think they hit the ball on average 300+ and some very well might, but as the data above suggests, those people are few and far between…. Main takeaway: golf is already a hard enough sport. If you’re a double digit handicap, why make the game any tougher by playing tees that are inappropriate for you? Golf is so much more enjoyable when you’re able to hit shorter irons into par 4s instead of long irons or hybrids/woods… Shorter irons into greens = more GIR. And more GIR = lower scores.

Nathan Heatherly

1 year ago

What topic or question should you dig into next? Custom fit golf grips.
I got an advertisement on FB from Jumbo Max Grips. They claim they can add 12 yds of distance just by using their grips. Little skeptical about that claim, but also intrigued. It’s one of those things that I never really thought of when it comes to customizing golf clubs. I always see articles about getting custom fitted for clubs and also custom fit for golf balls. But, I don’t see too many tests/articles about custom fit grips. I just thought it would be interesting to compare Jumbo Max grips to other grips, or test out all kinds of grips to see if custom fit grips can significantly help a golfer.

Whitey

1 year ago

Yes, exactly. I’m a part time club repair , reshafting, fitter hobbyist. A sleight, 5’6” 140lb friend of mine with small hands, had oversize cord grips on his clubs. Replaced them with proper sized non cord, and he gained 20 yds on the driver and 10 yards on the irons. All these tests seem to ignore proper shaft for the golfer and grip size.

Steve S(the old handsome one)

1 year ago

Great article. Jon Sherman in his book, The 4 Fundamentals of Golf, makes this point that distance is good and hitting fairways is overrated. The shotscope and arrcos data he quotes also shows a golfer hitting 3 wood off tees are no more accurate than when they hit driver and give up too many yards. His point is the only time to hit three wood is to take trouble out of play.

Joey K

1 year ago

I’m always the shortest driver in my group but seem to score a lot less than the rest. being in the fairway is more important than distance for weekend golfers,
I’m a 10 handicap.

BT

1 year ago

You’re giving all of the credit for your success vs your friends to the fact that you hit more fairways but in fact, you may be losing strokes to them off the tee and making up for it in the other parts of the game. The reality is probably that you’re just much better than your friends at golf overall but being shorter and hitting fairways doesn’t account for that advantage.

I know I’ve never seen any of you play but here are a couple of scenarios;
1) If they’re hitting the ball OB a lot but you’re in the fairway 20 yards back, this isn’t a gain for you because you hit a fairway, it’s a loss for them because they couldn’t keep the ball in play. You could be in the rough 50 yards back and you’d still be gaining strokes on them in this scenario.

2) If they’re in the rough and still in play with a line to the green but you’re in the fairway 20 yards back and you’re still beating them, it’s because you’re much better than they are on approach and/or around the greens (much better) and I think you’re selling your approach abilities short. However, they’re likely still better than you off the tee if this is usually the case and you hitting a fairway isn’t the reason for the difference in scoring. It’s your overall skill.

I’d bet if you took them on in a contest from 150 out, you’d be much better over 25 shots. I’d also bet that if you hit the ball 20 yards further on average you’d drop 1-2 strokes from your handicap. Final bet, if you played someone who was equally skilled but 20 yards longer, they’d beat you 8/10 times because they’re effectively playing a course that’s 280 yards shorter.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.