"The 291.1-yard average would be an unusually high 3.8 yard increase over 2010's number."
/Considering the USGA and R&A place such a correlation between driving accuracy and the money list in pushing for the groove rule change, they probably won't enjoy this stat from Johnny Miller via John Strege following the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Dustin Johnson led the field at the Deutsche Bank Championship in both driving distance and accuracy, a first since the PGA Tour began keeping on-course stats in 1983. Johnson averaged 344 yards on the holes in which drives were measured, and hit 79 percentage of the fairways.
It did not pay off for him, however. Johnson tied for 42nd.
Responding to my post about the 4th hole at TPC Boston losing some of its appeal now that the fields are a lot longer than they were when the hole debuted 5 years ago, Mike Stachura took up the challenge to disprove the statement and found that indeed, driving distance is up this year big time, and certainly increasing enough to bring the dreaded "Statement of Principles" into play.
Still, it is clear that driving distance average is going to break a barrier of sorts this year, eclipsing the 290-yard mark for the first time ever. The 291.1-yard average would be an unusually high 3.8 yard increase over 2010's number. It is also worth noting that driving distance is on pace to be nearly 12 yards farther than it was at the end of 2002.
Of the various stats he lists, these stand out:
No. of players below 285 avg. 2006 - 60; 2011 - 42, for a -30.00 decrease
No. of players above 290 avg. 2006: 87, 2011: 105, for a +20.69 increase
After sharing the Statement of Principles language suggesting to most conscious human beings that we have met the USGA/R&A's standard for action, Stachura writes:
It is difficult to say whether the USGA and R&A view 12 yards as a "further significant increase," but it is true that the driving distance average in 2001, the year before the Joint Statement of Principles was announced, was about 12 yards farther than the driving distance average in 1997. Those who remember 1997 might recall that it was the last year persimmon drivers were still being used by a couple of last holdouts on the PGA Tour.