average pga tour player driving distance

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Drive Distance

PGA TOUR Player Stats 2024

• Statistics are updated nightly
• AGE : Current age of player
• EARNINGS : Official money won
• CUP : FedExCup Points
• EVNTS : Tournaments played
• RNDS : Rounds played
• CUTS : Cuts made
• TOP10 : Top 10 finishes
• WINS : Wins
• SCORE : Scoring average per round
• DDIS : Driving distance (in yards)
• DACC : Driving accuracy %
• GIR : Greens In Regulation %
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• SAND : Save Percentage
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How Far PGA Tour Players Hit Every Club In The Bag

The latest Trackman data has revealed the average distances and speeds from shots hit on the PGA Tour

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In this age of ultra-long hitters and ever-increasing technology among the golf-equipment sector, the distances and speeds in the professional game continue to go one way - up.

It is not quite the same among the amateur population , however, with Arccos data via the USGA and R&A in March 2022 revealing that the average male golfer - with a handicap - hits their total drive around 215 yards , a number that has remained relatively consistent over the past five years. Meanwhile, in the women's game, the average total driving distance for players of all abilities is just shy of 148 yards.

But numbers released by Trackman show that PGA Tour professionals are sending it a long way past that, as you would expect. The average carry distance for a PGA Tour pro with a driver in hand is 275 yards, while the average PGA Tour total driving distance was 299.9 yards in 2023.

Their club speed is usually around 113mph with a driver and the resulting ball speed averages 167mph, reaching a max height of just 32 yards off the ground.

Despite a 32-yard drop-off between driver and 3-wood, in regard to carry, PGA Tour players are still averaging 243 yards with the latter and bettering the average distance your leading amateur can manage with the big dog.

From 3-wood down, between 9-13 yards of carry is lost as you move through the bag. Using a variety of hybrid clubs with head angles of between 15 and 18 degrees, the median distance for PGA Tour players to carry that particular tool is 225 yards.

The average shot hit with a 4-iron on the PGA Tour carries 203 yards as a result of 96mph club-head speed and 137mph ball speed, and as the club becomes shorter, so do the numbers.

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When looking at the 7-iron, the total carry distance on the PGA Tour is 172 yards thanks to 90mph club speed and 120mph ball speed. PGA Tour players strike their shortest club - the pitching wedge - around 136 yards (carry), according to the Trackman data.

Rory McIlroy is the longest average driver on the PGA Tour and is known for his high ball-flight

HOW FAR PGA TOUR PLAYERS HIT EVERY CLUB IN THE BAG

Data: Trackman, 2022

Jonny Leighfield is our Staff News Writer who joined Golf Monthly just in time for the 2023 Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup. He graduated from the University of Brighton with a degree in Sport Journalism in 2017 and spent almost five years as the sole sports reporter at his local newspaper. An improving golfer who still classes himself as ‘one of the worst players on the Golf Monthly team’, Jonny enjoys playing as much as he can and is hoping to reach his Handicap goal of 18 at some stage. He attended both the 150th and 151st Opens and is keen to make it an annual pilgrimage.

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How Far Do Pro Golfers Hit Each Club? A 2022 Guide

Written by Graeme Hay | Last Updated: 12/03/2024

When you watch the PGA Tour or any major championship on TV it is hard not to notice how far pro golfers hit the ball.

Their drives seem to always go miles and I don’t know about you but I’m always checking myself to think whether I indeed heard the commentator correctly that they are actually hitting that high an iron for that 200+ yard approach shot.

So just to confirm what we are indeed up against we took a detailed look at just how far the top pros are hitting their clubs.

On average pros drive the ball a total of 296.6 yards (yds) according to official PGA Shotlink data. They hit a 3-wood an average carry distance of 249 yds, a 5-wood 235 yds and 3-hybrids 230 yds. 3-irons average 217 yds, 4-irons 208 yds, 5-irons 199 yds, 6-irons 188 yds, 7-irons 177 yds, 8-irons 164 yds and 9-irons 153 yds.

These high-level numbers of course don’t always tell the whole story as the pros like us are faced with an infinite variety of golf shots which don’t always mean they are hitting each club as far as they possibly can for every shot.

But if you take the averages over a season you are going to get more than a good idea of how far the pros are hitting each club.

What is fascinating also though as you dig more into the figures is the distance control options the best players in the world have with almost every club in their bag!

How Far Do Pros Hit Their Driver and Woods?

When it comes to talking about distance in golf the easiest and most obvious place to start is of course always with the longest club in the golf bag – the driver.

And as it is highly unlikely even the best pros in the world never want to hit their driver as far as they can so it is clearly the club we are going to get the best idea of the maximum distance they hit the ball.

So how far do pros drive?

PGA Tour players hit their driver a ‘total’ of 296.6 yards on average with a ‘carry’ distance of 284.3 yards according to official 2022 Shotlink data. The longest player hits it 320 yards on average and the longest recorded drive in 2022 is 460 yards. On the LPGA Tour the top pros hit their driver an average of 257.7 yards.

When it comes to how far the pros hit a 3 wood and the other longer clubs in the bag including their hybrids the distance analysis gets a bit more complicated because clearly the pros are starting to use these clubs for a wider variety type of shots than they do for their driver.

The pros, like the rest of us, will be hitting a driver as far as they can 99% of the time but when it comes to their 3-wood, 5-wood and hybrids they can be using those clubs off the tee and for approach shots and will not always be aiming for their maximum yardage with those clubs.

The best distance comparison we have for those clubs is therefore the ‘carry distance’. In other words the distance from where they hit the ball to the point of impact on the ground.

On average PGA Tour pros hit a 3-wood a ‘carry’ distance of 249 yards. By comparison a 5-wood carries 235 yards and hit a 3 hybrid, which measures from 19º to 21º, an average carry distance of 230 yards. On the LPGA Tour the top women pros carry a 3-wood 195 yards, a 5-wood 185 yards and a 7-wood 174 yards on average.

For those of you interested in how these averages compare to individual pros we have listed in the table below the average ‘stock’ carry yardages for a selection of the top pros when it comes to how far they hit their driver.

In the following table the list shows how far a selection of PGA and LPGA Tour pros hit their 3-wood, 5-wood and hybrid clubs.

[Note – If you are interested in what drivers and fairway woods the top 100 PGA Tour players are using check out the in-depth analysis we have done here .]

How Far Do Pros Hit Their Irons? Remember to Take Stock

Looking at how far pros hit their irons is a much easier task these days due to all the tracking technology that exists however it still does not make it an exact science.

And that is for the simple reason that pros will hit all manner of a variety of different shots with their irons, especially for their approach shots, and as such, they will hit the same iron a variety of different distances.

A look at Brooks Koepka’s yardage book below gives us a great insight into this and highlights how many types of shots pros can play with their irons.

For example for a 170 yard shot into the green a quick glance at his iron yardages shows he could decide to play either a three-quarter 8-iron or try to hit a 9-iron as far as he can – his ‘max’ distance for that club.

When you account for factors such as wind, elevation, ground conditions and also the context in which the shot is being played Koepka, like all the pros, has a number of options for each iron shot which makes the question of how far he hits each iron a bit more complex than at first you may think.

However the pros have what is called a ‘stock’ yardage for their irons, which equates essentially to the average distance they will hit a full shot with each iron swinging normally.

When we compare these ‘stock yardages’ for irons between the pros we get a consistent view of yardage which we can accurately compare across the players.

On average PGA pros hit a 3-iron a ‘carry’ distance – the distance from strike to point of ground impact – of 217 yards. They hit 4-irons 208 yards and 5-irons 199 yards on average. For 6-irons the average is 188 yards, for 7-irons it is 177 yards and 8-irons, 9-irons and pitching wedges go 164, 153 and 141 yards respectively.

Different pros however clearly hit their irons different distances but in the table below we have listed the ‘stock yardages’ of some of the top pros, including Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau, to let you see how they compare against the average.

And when it comes to how far Tiger Woods, arguably the greatest iron player of all time, hits his irons?

Tiger hits his 3-iron a ‘carry’ distance of 240 yards on average while his 4-iron goes 225 yards and 5-iron 210 yards. When it comes to his mid-irons he hits his 6-iron and 7-iron 195 and 180 yards. As for his short irons his 8-iron yardage is 165, he hits his 9-iron 150 yards and his pitching wedge 135 yards on average.

How Far Do Pros Hit Their Wedges

When it comes to looking at how far the pros hit their wedges the stock yardage they hit each club is again obviously only one of the multiple yardages they can hit the most versatile clubs in any player’s golf bag.

As we can again see from Brooks Koepka’s yardage book above he has 5 different yardages listed for each of his specialist wedges which highlights just how much distance control the best golfers in the world can exert with their wedges.

Another added complication when it comes to comparing the distances that the pros hit their wedges is the differing lofts each of them often carries for seemingly the same club.

For example while one pro’s ‘gap wedge’ may be 50º another may choose 53 or even 54º for that same ‘gap wedge’ club and with such a difference in lofts it becomes very difficult to compare with any meaning how far the pros hit the same-named wedge.

Assuming however the pros are hitting ‘standard’ lofted pitching, gap, sand and lob wedges we found the following stock distances for how far the pros hit them .

As a whole PGA pros hit their pitching wedge an average carry distance of 141 yards. They hit 52º gap wedges a stock carry distance of between 126 and 135 yards and carry 56º sand wedges an average distance of 119 to 124 yards. Standard 60º lob wedges meanwhile carry 95 to 105 yards on average.

While these yardages will give you a general guide as to how far pros hit their wedges it is important to remember how particular all the pros are about these clubs especially.

It is vital for them to know exactly how far they hit their wedges with a variety of different types of shots because feel is so important from those short distances, especially at the top level of the game, where a yard or two can make the difference between winning or losing a tournament.

That is why you will find some pros’ wedges measured up to 0.5º or even 0.25º when listed and it is also likely that some of the actual strengths of the wedge lofts they use may in reality be stronger (i.e. a lower loft) or a touch weaker (i.e. a higher loft) than the actual degree loft number shown on their club.

To help however answer the question as well as we can the table below shows the varying distances some of the top pros, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, are hitting their wedges, together with the degrees of loft their clubs are listed at.

Before you go …

While it is great to find out how far the top players are hitting the ball it is even better to know the reasons why they achieve the huge distances they get.

Is it simply down to the fact that they have access to the latest and best equipment or is it something else?

Read our next article to discover the real reasons the pros hit the ball as far as they do, and how you can potentially add 20 to 30 yards to your drives!

How Do Pros Hit the Ball So Far?

Other top articles related to this topic:

• How Far Should You Hit a Driver? FULL GUIDE By Age, Handicap etc.
• How Far Does a 3 Wood vs 5 Wood Go? Tee and Approach Shots!
• How Far Should I Hit My Hybrids? 2 vs 3 vs 4 Hybrid Distances
• Hybrids vs. Fairway Woods – FULL Distance and Comparison Guide
• How Far Should I Hit My Irons? By Handicap, Age & Swingspeed
• How Far Should You Hit Your Wedges? Be Sure to Fill the Gaps!
• Why Don’t Your Drives Go Far? Slow and Steady Loses the Race
• How Far Should Your Driver Swingspeed Go? 60 to 120 mph Guide
• Average Driver Swingspeeds? COMPLETE GUIDE by Age, Handicap etc.
• Ideal Spin Rate and Launch Angle for Driver? That’s Personal!
• How Far Should Your Ball Speed Go? 100mph All the Way to 210mph!
• The PGA Tour’s Rising Driver Ball Speeds Mean One Thing – $$
• What Should Your Driver Attack Angle Be? Try Not to Be Negative
• How Much Does Driver Loft Affect Distance? Loft is Dynamic Too!
• 10 Ways to Get More Distance off The Tee With & Without Speed!
• What Determines Driver Distance? Skill Triumphs Over All!
• Are Driving Range Distances Accurate? Golf Balls are a Problem
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a]:underline [&>a]:text-team-secondary"> Rory McIlroy had the longest average driving distance in 2022-23, at 326.3 yards.

• Who has the biggest driving distance average this season?
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You won't believe how much farther PGA Tour Champions players are hitting the ball now than in their primes

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Dustin Johnson's prodigious playoff drive at last week's Northern Trust was the latest reminder that today's PGA Tour pros hit the ball a lot farther than their predecessors. The combination of better technology in golf clubs and golf balls, and a more fit golfer in Johnson, allowed him to take a line off the tee on the 18th hole at Glen Oaks Club that even the game's longest hitters 20 years ago couldn't have imagined.

It's not just today's players, however, who are hitting it farther. Yesterday's players—the guys playing the PGA Tour Champions—are hitting it farther than ever, too. And we don't just mean farther than previous generations of senior tour players, but farther than they ever hit it in their primes.

To find out how much farther, we went down the list of driving-distance leaders on the PGA Tour Champions this season and then looked up what some of those bigger-name players averaged off the tee during the PGA Tour season in which they turned 30. (We picked 30 because it's a nice, round number, but it also happens to be the average age of Johnson and Rory McIlroy, the PGA Tour's two longest hitters this year.) The results were eye-popping, even for the 60-year-olds on the 50-and-older circuit.

Let's start at the top with John Daly, who at 51, leads the PGA Tour Champions with an average of 299 yards off the tee. At age 30 in 1996 Daly only averaged 288.8 yards, which was part of eight consecutive seasons in which he led the PGA Tour in driving distance. To be fair, Daly had seasons with much higher figures, topped by a 314.3 average in 2003. Daly has always been freakishly long, so he's not the best guy to look at. Let's move on.

Kenny Perry ranks fourth on the PGA Tour Champions in 2017 at 295 yards per poke. In 1990, he had a driving-distance average of just 270.8 yards. That's not bad considering Tom Purtzer led the PGA Tour that season at 279.6 yards (for comparison, Rory McIlroy's 316.4 yards leads this season) but that equates to nearly a 9-percent increase in driving distance from the time Perry was 30 to his current average as a 57-year-old.

The increase is even bigger for Fred Couples, if we use his driving-distance average (a whopping 300.4 yards) from 2015, the last time he played enough rounds on the PGA Tour Champions to have official stats. In 1990, two years before Freddie won the Masters and ascended to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, he averaged a measly 272.6 yards on his tee shots. Of the players we looked at, Couples' 10.2-percent increase led the way. (It should be noted that the Callaway Big Bertha was launched in 1991 , ushering in a new era where driver heads grew to the size of small microwaves, giving a boost to driving distance stats.)

What about the senior tour's dominant force, Bernhard Langer? At 60, the German checks in at 25th in distance at 280.4 yards. But that's up 7.72 percent from his 260.3 average in 1987, two years removed from the first of his two Masters titles. That's right, Langer is significantly longer now than he was 30 years ago . We know the guy is a physical marvel, but no matter how much time he spends in the gym, those numbers are crazy.

Anyway, these examples go on and on, so we decided to make a list ordered from biggest distance increase (by percentage) to smallest:

Earlier this year, the USGA asserted there's only a "slow creep" when it comes to distance increases across all tours in the past 13 years. But if this trend continues, it makes you wonder just how far someone like Dustin Johnson will be able to hit it when he's on the senior tour.

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How driving distance has changed over the past 40 years on the PGA Tour

In 1997, John Daly became the first golfer on the PGA Tour to average more than 300 yards per drive. That year, he was more than 30 yards longer than the average Tour player.

Now, 21 years later, the entire PGA Tour averages 295.3 yards off the tee — the longest average ever. By the way that stat has been increasing over the past five years, don’t be surprised to see the Tour’s average break the 300 mark by 2024.

In 1980 (the first year that the PGA Tour’s driving distance stats are available), Dan Pohl led the field while averaging 274.3 yards per drive. The Tour average was a meek 256.89 yards.

RELATED: 15 longest drives on the PGA Tour since 2010

Since then, the average driving distance has steadily increased, rocketing upwards in the ‘90s and early 2000s. For 13 years — from 1994 until 2006 — the average increased every year, which is the longest such string since 1980. During that stretch, Daly led the Tour off the tee eight years in a row.

While the progress has cooled off some since the mid-2000s, the average driving distance has increased every year since 2013 and is currently at its all-time high.

MORE: You might not be able to crush driver like Dustin Johnson, but you absolutely can get more distance off the tee. Here's how.

For reference, this is what the PGA Tour says about its method for recording this stat: "The average number of yards per measured drive. These drives are measured on two holes per round. Care is taken to select two holes which face in opposite directions to counteract the effect of wind. Drives are measured to the point at which they come to rest regardless of whether they are in the fairway or not."

Here’s the average driving distance and overall leader for every year since 1980:

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Scouting the Routing: 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson

T PC Craig Ranch has also featured its share of memorable storylines in its three years of service: most notably providing us with one of the more emotional Sundays of the 2023 season, as a pink-clad Jason Day captured his first win since his mother's passing on a day we should all remember to cherish the women who have sacrificed so much for us.

Now that the tears have been wiped from my eyes, this piece will serve to break down every key trend and statistic I'm weighing to project a player's viability in the outright market and set our readers up to make the crucial decisions necessary on pre-week betting boards. Without further ado, here is my comprehensive scouting report on TPC Craig Ranch and the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson!

The Golf Course

TPC Craig Ranch - Par 71; 7,414 yards

Past Champions

• 2023 - Jason Day (-23) over Austin Eckroat & Si Woo Kim
• 2022 - K.H. Lee (-26) over Jordan Spieth
• 2021 - K.H. Lee (-25) over Sam Burns

Harbour Town by the Numbers (Off-The-Tee):

• Average Fairway Width -- 37.1 yards; 8th widest on the PGA Tour
• Average Driving Distance -- 296.6 yards; 6th highest on Tour
• Driving Accuracy -- 61.6%; 14th highest on Tour
• Rough Penalty -- 0.21; 13th lowest on Tour
• Non-Rough Penalty -- 0.41; 17th lowest on Tour
• Missed FW Penalty Fraction -- 3.0%; 15th lowest on Tour
• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee Difficulty: (+0.039); 4th easiest on Tour

In contrast to some of the more demanding venues we're scheduled to visit during the "Championship Season" of professional golf, this week's stop in McKinney, Texas provides one of the least rigorous tests these players will ever see at the top level. This general theme of amiability begins off of the tee, where TPC Craig Ranch presents very few impediments to the game's best.

At an average width of 37 yards, the fairways here will look like runways to those coming straight from the claustrophobic confines of Harbour Town, and the 2.75" Bermudagrass rough hasn't historically provided much consequence to off-line tee shots. This fact, along with a sneakily long layout of over 7,400 yards (seventh highest on the PGA Tour), makes Craig Ranch among the most susceptible courses on the schedule to a bomb-and-gouge approach.

Looking back through recent driving leaderboards here at the Byron Nelson, a clear pattern begins to emerge between players that have routinely topped the field in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee. Last year, nine of the top 10 players in this metric finished the season inside the top 50 in Driving Distance, and in years' previous, Cameron Champ, Bryson DeChambeau, Jhonattan Vegas, and Joseph Bramlett have each excelled off-the-tee despite sitting well behind the pace in fairway percentage.

I don't see much reason not to favor driving distance in your overall modeling, as most of the defense put up by this week's routing comes in the form of 490-yard par fours. Three such holes exist on this course (12, 13, and 16), and each has carried a historic bogey/worse rate of 15, 23, and 27% respectively. Any player able to carry the ball in excess of 300 yards can take a large chunk out of these hole's ability to cause stress (and set you up for success on the extremely score-able par fives here at Craig Ranch). With off-the-tee playing a inordinately large role in determining top finishes here at the Byron (26.3% of total strokes gained by top-five finishers), don't be afraid to ramp up your weighting on ball speed, carry distance, and total driving splits on longer, driver-heavy courses.

Harbour Town by the Numbers (Approach):

• Green in Regulation Rate -- 70.3%; 8th highest on the PGA Tour
• Strokes Gained: Approach Difficulty: (+0.050); 2nd easiest on Tour
• 200+ yards (accounts for 35.7% of historical approach shots)
• 175-200 yards (18.6%)
• 150-175 yards (18.0%)

One thing that does set TPC Craig Ranch apart from other notable PGA birdie parties is the lack of wedge opportunities players will expect to find around this routing. In fact, with three of the four par 3's here measuring over 200 yards, seven of its 11 par four's measuring over 455 yards, and each of the three par fives playing as two shot holes to a majority of the field, the approach distribution this week looks a lot more similar to a venue like Bay Hill or Torrey Pines as opposed to some of its main corollaries in terms of scoring average.

Through three years at Craig Ranch, over 35% of approach shots have come from 200 yards and beyond, and over 70% of approaches have come from over 150. Despite the winning scores, this is very clearly not a traditional wedge/putting contest to 25-under par. Instead, players will need to create a bulk of their birdie opportunities with a mid/long-iron in hand.

Fortunately, the softer conditions at Craig Ranch (paired with green complexes that measure in at nearly 7,000 square feet), make finding your target with the second shot one of the easiest tasks we'll see all year. Craig Ranch has ranked inside the bottom ten in Approach Difficulty in each of the three seasons it's hosted this event, and it's never ranked worse than 12th in Green in Regulation Percentage.

While Craig Ranch doesn't present the most strenuous ball-striking test, iron play has remained one of the most important metrics in predicting success at the Byron Nelson. Since 2021, top-three finishers here have gained an average of 5.7 strokes on approach, and nobody has finished in the top 10 whilst losing strokes to the field with their irons. Long Iron Proximity and Birdie Chance Creation will each remain at the forefront of my handicapping process.

Harbour Town by the Numbers (Around the Greens):

• Scrambling Percentage -- 66.7%; 9.2% below Tour Average
• Sand Save Difficulty -- (+0.001); 14th toughest on Tour
• Up-and-Down Difficulty (Fairway) -- (+0.054); 2nd easiest on Tour
• Up-and-Down Difficulty (Rough) -- (+0.084); 3rd easiest on Tour
• SG: Around the Green Difficulty: (+0.054); 3rd easiest on Tour

If players do happen to miss these greens in regulation (something the field's best ball-strikers only project to do about 20% of the time), they won't exactly be met with a daunting test from these greenside surrounds either. The scrambling percentage over the first three years here at Craig Ranch sits over nine percentage points above the PGA Tour average, and only Renaissance Club and Vidanta Vallarta have proven to be easier venues for players to gain strokes around the greens.

This combination of ease both in hitting these greens and getting up-and-down on the rare occasions you need to makes the case for weighing short game at the Byron Nelson a difficult one to make. Only 25% of top-five finishers here since 2021 have attained that position on the back of a top ten field-ranking in Strokes Gained: Around the Greens, and the three winners at the Byron Nelson since its move to Craig Ranch have gained a paltry 7.2% of their total strokes with their short games.

One argument that can be made for players who excel around the greens is that of the clear correlation we've seen year over year between prolific Par 5 scoring and top finishes here at TPC Craig Ranch. This metric is historically favorable to those with prodigious short games, and I will be including a few key Par 5 scoring stats in my modeling. However, outside of this auxiliary correlation, I see no reason to further weight around the green play in any sort of Byron Nelson model.

Harbour Town by the Numbers (Putting):

• Average Green Size: 6.778 sq. feet
• Agronomy -- Pure Bentgrass
• Stimpmeter: 11.5
• 3-Putt Percentage: 2.2% (0.8% below Tour Average)
• Strokes Gained: Putting Difficulty: (+0.017); Easiest on Tour

And finally, we come to the greens themselves. Like most events that require scores in the 20s to contend, ball-striking alone will not be enough to carry players to the top of the leaderboard. K.H. Lee and Jason Day have combined to gain 11.1 strokes to the field with their flat sticks over the course of their three championship runs, and only two players in that time have managed to attain a top ten finish at Craig Ranch with a below-average putting week.

Notably, the greens at TPC Craig Ranch aren't exactly preclusive to holing putts, as they've routinely ranked as some of the easiest surfaces to putt on from short, long, and mid-range. Last season, Craig Ranch ranked in the bottom three in putting difficulty from both 5-15 and 15-plus feet, and we've also seen a 25% reduction in three-putt percentage despite these greens ranking well inside the top half of average square footage.

As such, it's difficult to tell just how much of an advantage elite putters will gain on green complexes that are this straightforward for the average player. Last year, six of the top 13 putters in the field finished the season outside the top 100 in SG: Putting, and only Adam Scott and Peter Kuest ranked inside the top 20 in both 2023 Strokes Gained and week-long putting at the Byron.

This stark contrast in season-long and weekly putting makes it very difficult to make a case for relying on putting splits as a predictable entity in our handicapping processes. As usual, I will be placing a small weight on the key putting ranges of 5-15 feet -- as well as historic putting splits on pure bentgrass. However, given the comparable correlations we've seen from more predictive week-to-week metrics (Driving and Iron Play), I hesitate to place too much emphasis on a player's putting acumen. As long as he's proven capable of spiking with the flat stick with enough regularity to return top finishes, I'd have no trouble looking to a more volatile profile in this facet.

Key Stats Roundup (in order of importance):

• Mid/Long Iron play -- specifically weighting Proximity/Strokes Gained splits from 150-225 yards.
• SG: Putting ceiling; specifically on bentgrass
• Driving Distance
• Historic acumen in easier scoring conditions
• Par 5 Proficiency
• Birdie or Better Percentage/Birdie Chances Created

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The Sunday Shortlist

Before the odds come out on Monday morning, here are two to three names I've identified as significant targets upon my initial research.

Min Woo Lee

We've long-awaited the week in which the 25-year-old Min Woo Lee achieves his first stateside breakthrough, and in my estimation, the benign links of TPC Craig Ranch make for the perfect backdrop. Over the last 12 months, the uber-talented Aussie has established himself as a name to watch on some of the world's most prodigious birdie parties: notching two wins at the Macau Open and Australian PGA Championship at scores of 30 and 20-under respectively. He also finished T9 at last year's Travelers Championship: a star-studded elevated event with a winning score of 23-under, and earlier this spring, he came runner-up to Austin Eckroat at the softest rendition of PGA National we've ever seen.

With his elite length, Min Woo has the tools to dominate this leaderboard off-the-tee, he carries one of the highest short-game ceilings on the PGA Tour, and leads this field in Par Five Scoring over his last 50 rounds. In addition, Min Woo has recorded some of his best career approach weeks on layouts that require an abundance of long-irons (PGA National, Bay Hill, LACC), and ranks 27th on Tour in Birdie or Better Percentage from over 200 yards.

Fresh off of his second career top 25 finish at Augusta National just two weeks ago (finishing 11th in Total Ball-Striking in the process), there may not be a more perfect venue for Min Woo to keep cooking than right here at Craig Ranch. I don't see a world where he isn't among the top drivers of the ball this week, and the approach distributions are as tailor-made for his profile as anywhere else on Tour. If the putter can morph back into the weapon that's long-carried Min Woo into the conversation of top-tier golfing prospects, we could finally see him join the likes of Tom Kim, Akshay Bhatia, and Ludvig Aberg as a PGA Tour winner.

Byeong-Hun An

Despite the well-established exploits of Tom, Si Woo, and Sungjae, there is a case to be made that 32-year-old Byeong-Hun An is the most likely to carry the Korean flag to a win at their home sponsor's new site. After a brutally bad stretch of golf three years ago that saw him fall from a playoff mainstay all the way to the Korn Ferry Tour, Ben has re-established himself as one of the Tour's most consistent performers thus far in 2024. Through 11 starts this season, An has missed just two cuts, he's racked up six top 25s, and perhaps more importantly, he's displayed hints of the ball-striking prowess that gained him so much notoriety within the golf-betting space in the late 2010s.

Over the last six months, Ben ranks second in this field in driving distance, third in weighted proximity, first in Birdie or Better Percentage, and fourth in Birdie Chances Created. Like Min Woo, Ben also possesses an adept touch around the greens that makes him a great Par 5 performer, and although he's had his share of struggles keeping the ball in play with his elite speed, the generous confines here in Dallas should suit his distance-intensive approach to a tee. In fact, the 3.9 strokes he gained with his driver last season marked the fifth-best driving performance of his entire year -- resulting in a 14th-place finish despite losing over two strokes to the field on the greens.

Of course, putting woes aren't exactly an isolated occurrence for the Seoul-native, as An has combined to lose a mind-numbing 11.8 strokes between Harbour Town and San Antonio over his last two PGA starts. However, from an overarching perspective in 2024 as a whole, An has experienced one of the most consistent runs of he's had in his career on the greens. He's gained strokes in six of 10 starts, and bentgrass has always provided his best long-term putting returns. Keep in mind that just last month, An finished eighth at the star-studded Arnold Palmer Invitational as a slightly better than average putter for the week (+0.8), and with the tee-to-green acumen he's consistently shown over the last 12 months, it won't take much help from the flat stick for Ben to make his way back into contention. I'm hoping this recent downturn in form can elevate his price on a rather nondescript betting board, and at anything approaching 33-1, I'll be compelled to take another shot at this alluring ball-striking profile.

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LPGA Tour player average distances: Driver, irons, wedges through the bag

The average LPGA Tour player doesn't hit their driver 300-plus yards. In fact, very few players on the LPGA hit any 300-yard drives. On average, an LPGA Tour player hits their ball longer than most recreational golfers, but their average distances are somewhat closer to how the average younger amateur experiences the game.

How far LPGA Tour players hit the golf ball with each club in their bag isn't an exact science, however. Every player is different, with a different swing, a different angle of attack, different swing speeds and more. Every situation -- off the tee, from the fairway or rough -- is different. So, we wanted to give you an idea of how far is far and how short is short among LPGA Tour players.

We'll take you through the bag to show you LPGA Tour players' average distances with their driver, irons and wedges.

Remember, these are general numbers that don't account for special late-in-tournament situations where a player may be particularly jacked with adrenaline and hit it farther than normal. It's also worth noting that there does appear to be a bigger spread in possible distances off the tee for LPGA Tour players compared to PGA Tour players.

Of course, elevation can affect how far the ball travels as well, though most LPGA events are not played at significant elevation.

LPGA Tour player average distances: Driver, irons, wedges

• Driver: 230-290 yards
• 3-wood: 190-260 yards
• 3-iron: 185-215 yards
• 4-iron: 170-200 yards
• 5-iron: 160-190 yards
• 6-iron: 150-175 yards
• 7-iron: 140-160 yards
• 8-iron: 135-155 yards
• 9-iron: 120-140 yards
• PW: 100-120 yards
• SW: 70-95 yards

About the author

Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is currently a +2.6 USGA handicap, and he has covered dozens of major championships and professional golf tournaments. He likes writing about golf and making it more accessible by answering the complex questions fans have about the pro game or who want to understand how to play golf better.

Ryan talks about golf on various social platforms:

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PGA Tour Event Disrupted by Alligator Casually Walking Across Tee Box

• Author: Madison Williams

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is used to having a special four-legged friend show up from time. to time on the course.

The guest, an alligator, halted play at the 17th hole during Thursday's first round. The groups of Bronson Burgoon and Jhonattan Vegas, along with Paul Barjon and Samuel Stevens, had to wait at the tee box for the alligator to cross in front of them before they could tee off. The animal didn't stop them from taking a few practice swings, though.

This isn't the first time an alligator has showed up at the Zurich Classic. The PGA Tour commentators reminded viewers that the tournament was used to a three-legged alligator gracing the course fittingly named "Tripod."

Now on the tee, from New Orleans, Louisiana ... A GATOR 🐊 pic.twitter.com/N8wEJh1pQ1 — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 25, 2024

The alligator walked across the tee box without causing any issues with any golfers or fans. But it definitely took its sweet time to walk across.

Both golfing duos ended up paring the 17th hole despite the distraction.

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