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Two weeks ago we quoted a stat saying driver and 3 wood hit almost the same percentage of fairways, and the comments came apart. One commenter was right, and we went and checked. The stat has a hole in it, and nobody in golf has fixed it. Not Arccos. Not Shot Scope. Not Lou Stagner or Mark Broadie.
In this one: how far you actually hit driver, the one simulation that gets around the broken stat, the physics of why a 3 wood mishit curves less, exactly how many golfers should be hitting 3 wood off the tee, and 3 rules for the tee box that cost nothing.
Isaak has been in and around club fitting since 2017. Hayden plays professionally.
CHAPTERS 00:00 How many times did you actually pull driver
01:00 The comment that started this episode
01:50 The Arccos driving distance report
02:12 The amateur distance boom that never happened
03:33 What you hit it by handicap and by age
04:00 Everybody is 10 to 20 yards off
04:40 Where the strokes actually go
04:57 12% versus 45.1%
05:37 What counts as a big miss
06:23 Your miss is the same. Your aim is not.
06:59 The free stats guide
07:40 The stat we quoted has a hole in it
09:06 Nobody in golf has ever fixed it
10:35 The one study that gets around the problem
11:22 The shortest club won
12:02 The safety club is not safe, it is just shorter
12:44 Is a driver harder to square than a 3 wood
14:06 Gear effect, bulge and roll
15:31 What the robot test showed on toe hits
16:19 Why your own tendencies beat any stat we quote
17:02 How many golfers are straighter with 3 wood
18:20 The 1 in 10 number
18:36 If your 3 wood is as long as your driver
20:03 The 5% out of bounds rule
21:20 Nobody walked in asking me to fix their driver
22:00 Cutting down the driver shaft
23:07 The 2 reasons to shorten a shaft
25:26 Is driver marketing a scam
26:22 What a manufacturer told me about their own numbers
28:10 The fitting thing nobody thinks about
30:00 Tools, not jewels
33:20 Rule 1: driver is the default
34:00 Jason Day's pattern was 74 yards wide
34:40 Rule 2: aim off the trouble by half your pattern
35:50 Tee up on the same side as the trouble
36:10 Rule 3: the only 3 reasons to club down
37:19 The forced carry mistake I made for years
38:30 If you club down on 3 holes a round
38:49 How to think about lessons
41:36 Hayden argues against the whole episode
42:46 What actually fixes a 45% penalty rate
44:16 The guy who does not trust it right now
45:34 Findable and hittable
46:17 Tiger hit driver once at Hoylake
47:37 You do not have a driver problem
SOURCES NAMED IN THIS EPISODE Arccos annual driving distance report, 25,000 golfers and 6.5 million tee shots Lou Stagner, analysis of the Arccos database Shot Scope, driver versus 3 wood fairway data Golf Digest and Golf Laboratories robot testing Mark Broadie, strokes gained Scott Fawcett, DECADE
