2011 A Bad Year On PGA Tour For Drives Hitting Cart Paths

The Shotlink gang has broken down the numbers heading into Kapalua, home to its share of wind and mountain-slope aided 400-yard drives, and they report that 2011 was the worst year since 2003 for wayward drives bouncing endlessly along a poorly placed cart path as a handful of spectators who refused to use their bodies as shields, look on.

Comments

[Hawkeye]

Lies, damn lies and statistics... Wasn't the one reason for the fewer number of 400-yard drives in 2011 that the 18th at Kapalua played into the wind that week? Just further proof that golf is a qualitative game that can't be analyzed in quantitative terms.

[The O]

I've played the plantation in trade winds. I hit the same two clubs on 10 (uphill, into the wind) that I did on 17 (downhill, downwind) even thought the latter is 130 yards longer from the Blue tees. Wind is everything there.

My question is: the course was considered "the easiest" on tour last year. I wonder if the course is actually easy or if that number is skewed by having a small field of successful players.

[Hawkeye]

It is an easy scoring course for the pros. Par 73, with 60-yard wide fairways and quite a few short Par 4s. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that - it rewards shotmaking and creativity.

[The O]

Yeah, I could see that if you've had time to get used to the wind. Some of the par 3s cut me up with crosswinds. Never seen a well struck ball sail 40 yards left in the wind before....

[Will o'the Glen]

They haven't drawn any conclusions from the stats, so no lies, really. That having been said the 400-yard-drive stats and "easiest course" stats need to be qualified for wind conditions, which as several commenters have pointed out, is a HUGE factor in Island golf. Number of 40-yard drives also has to be qualified by the size of the field, which varies from year to year, and the avg. driving distance numbers of that year's participants.

Most "bad" stats are just incomplete or misinterpreted…

[Easinwordis]

Hit a fade for that hole, O, if you are right handed and it'll hold up into the right to left wind better