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How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

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  • #1

    How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

    This should stir up some discussions, as everyone knows he has hit shots farther in actual tournaments, but those have been discussed before.

    The following is from Golf Channel.com, supposedly in 2007, and the distances are under normal conditions and normal effort. I've seen the same figures in other sources as well, although I've seen isolated references to other distances. I've seen his driving distance as 193 yards, for instance. If someone has a later or another source for this information, I would be interested in being updated.

    Driver: 285 yards (of carry)
    3 Wd: 265 yards (of carry)
    2 Iron: 245 yards
    3 Iron: 230 yards
    4 Iron: 220 yards
    5 Iron: 208 yards
    6 Iron: 190 yards
    7 Iron: 172 yards
    8 Iron: 158 yards
    9 Iron: 142 yards
    Pitching Wedge: 128 yards
    Sand Wedge: 106 yards
    Lob Wedge (60°): 92 yards
    9 months ago
    Source(s):
    golfchannel.com

    Here's another article, in which Tiger comments on his clubs and perspective. Interesting, that the 4 -iron distance is substantially different than the one in the table above, but the 8 iron distance is still about the same.

    http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...52/ai_76143235

    The following may answer in part why he may not hit the ball farther than some of his fellow pros, or for that matter some of the general public. This is a quote from one of his press conferences.

    Q. When it comes to what you keep in your bag, are you a guy that likes to tinker with loft and lie and swing weight and things like that, and if you do, what kind of thinking goes into those decisions?

    TIGER WOODS: To be honest with you, my lofts, my lie, my length on my irons haven't changed since I was 14 years old. So to answer your question, no.

    Q. Why not?

    TIGER WOODS: Why? Because they have worked (smiling). I've won a lot of tournaments since I was 14. I'm not going to change. But I have changed my 3 wood obviously and my driver over the years and trying to keep up with everybody off the tees, but my irons are still very weak compared to today's standards. They are the standards back in the 60s. People have that so called gap wedge. Well, my pitching wedge is like 51 degrees. My 9 iron is like 45, and that's like most people's gap wedges. A lot of the guys' pitching wedge is like my 9 irons, so I play with very weak lofts, but they have worked so far.

    We also know that Tiger is more concerned with distance control and that he does not go full out, unless he has to.

    Tiger hits his clubs far enough, but he is also noted for his soaring shots, which land softly when he needs it. For instance, his 3 wood is 15 degrees, and how often have we seen him hit it 260 yards for his second shot at a five par and hold the green. His mid irons can be moon shots, yet he will have a decent height to the shots. For example, my long irons would more resemble a low skulled ineffectual shot for approaches.

    Here's another interesting article commenting on his swing statistics.

    http://www.oneplanegolfswing.com/one...ent-driver.jsp

    Ted
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

    post removed
    Last edited by golfinguy28; 02-14-2009, 06:22 AM.

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    • #3
      Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

      Originally posted by golfinguy28 View Post
      I never heard this before, good find. It makes sense, and explains why tigers distances seem so short. a 142 yard gap wedge is pretty impressive for 85%.


      http://protracer.se/gallery/play/CBS_Buick_Inv_Woods_01 Tiger is using a 5i, anyone know the distance of this hole? par 3 so I assume 230? and he looks relaxed/controled and even chokes down a bit. Maybe those iron distances above are of the deck? 2452i to 285D is quite a distance leap.
      You've heard it before, you've never put it together.

      Tiger mentioned the reason why one club hits farther than the next one: Loft.

      Companies are continually changing the number they stamp on the bottom of the club. What they used to stamp 'P' they stamped '9' for the last 7 years, and now some companies are stamping it '8'.

      If you don't believe me, spend some coin and either dig up some older irons or pay a clubmaker to dig up some older gear that all have the same loft and about the same design (no fair using a thin faced iron!). You'll find that regardless of the number (or letter) on the bottom, they all go about the same distance (give or take a handful of yards, use bigger hands the worse you hit the ball).

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

        hi
        i agree with lowpost about the changing in lofts. i know ping did this along with most other makers about 20 years ago and it was made to look like there clubs were longer but it was the change of loft that caused the change in distance.
        you had what use to be a wedge with the loft of what use to be then a 9 iron and it was about then that they started adding in extra wedges to make up for the change in lofts. wedges use to be about 52% but most are closer to 48% now and a sand wedge use to be 54% and most are 52% or even 50% with some makers.
        thats why they added gap wedges at 54% and 56% and also 60% wedges and also 64% wedges.
        also not all 54% and 56% wedges are what the say. get them checked and often you find there a degree stronger than what they say.
        cheers
        bill

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        • #5
          Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

          I've shooting off the hip here, but I thought I saw somewhere that one brand has a 44* loft on the PW.

          Tiger is stiil up there with the big hitters with his longer clubs. It's his shorter clubs that the weak lofts show the shockingly low (as expected for him) distances. But these are his scoring clubs and he knows the distances.

          He can also shut down all his clubs to hit the low piercing shots when he needs it.

          Ted

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

            The reason Tiger can 'keep up' with his longer clubs is that you only have so much loft to play with before a club becomes useless. I'm seeing 'stock 3 woods' with 13 degrees loft. Are you kidding me? It actually backfires in slower swinging golfers as they don't have the moxy to create good launch conditions.

            Back to my point - for the most part a 3 iron is still ~20 degrees. But now a 4 iron is 22 degrees, the 5 iron is 25 degrees, the 6 is at 28, the 7 at 32, the 8 at 36, the 9 at 40, the PW at 44, the AW at 48, the GW at 52 and the SW at 56.

            See, sand wedges never change. If you reduce the loft too much, then there's not enough to get up out of deeper bunkers. So, throughout the ages, SW's were always between 54 and 58 degrees (54 being a 'strong SW' and 58 being a 'weak SW'). So using the above, Tiger's old school 3 iron @ 21 degrees still 'goes' like the new ones. And his 4 iron @ 24 degrees still works. But his 5i @ 28 is now almost a club behind, his 6i @ 32 is definitely a club behind, and so on and so forth down to his 48 or 49 or 50 degree PW - getting weaker as the clubs go on.

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            • #7
              Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

              LowPost42,

              Re: I'm seeing 'stock 3 woods' with 13 degrees loft. Are you kidding me? It actually backfires in slower swinging golfers as they don't have the moxy to create good launch conditions.

              I totally agree with you, most casual golfers have no business using these "stock" clubs. Of course, a lot of pros use the 13 degrees, but they have the speed and fine tuned swings (as you say moxy) to pull it off.

              I had a 13* 3 wood once. Heh, it was part of the Wilson Invex (the weird clubs you will remember) set. Anyways, I had a heck of a time with it. Sometimes, OK, but most times it was a thin scuttler. What it did was drastically made me alter my swing, so I was trying to lift the ball to get a higher trajectory, which further impeded my speed and also made the thin shots worse. It was a total waste of money.

              The wooden headed drivers were about 11 - 12 degrees, were they not?

              Ted

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

                Originally posted by golfinguy28 View Post
                I never heard this before, good find. It makes sense, and explains why tigers distances seem so short. a 142 yard gap wedge is pretty impressive for 85%.


                http://protracer.se/gallery/play/CBS_Buick_Inv_Woods_01 Tiger is using a 5i, anyone know the distance of this hole? par 3 so I assume 230? and he looks relaxed/controled and even chokes down a bit. Maybe those iron distances above are of the deck? 2452i to 285D is quite a distance leap.
                That's at Torrey Pines. I've played the course a few times. The distance is 221 yards, and it plays hard, because of the winds off the ocean. You can see the effect of the wind on Tiger's shot. If you listen to the soundtrack, the commentators are saying it's a 3 iron, not a 5 iron.

                Ted

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

                  Originally posted by rotator View Post
                  LowPost42,

                  Re: I'm seeing 'stock 3 woods' with 13 degrees loft. Are you kidding me? It actually backfires in slower swinging golfers as they don't have the moxy to create good launch conditions.

                  I totally agree with you, most casual golfers have no business using these "stock" clubs. Of course, a lot of pros use the 13 degrees, but they have the speed and fine tuned swings (as you say moxy) to pull it off.

                  I had a 13* 3 wood once. Heh, it was part of the Wilson Invex (the weird clubs you will remember) set. Anyways, I had a heck of a time with it. Sometimes, OK, but most times it was a thin scuttler. What it did was drastically made me alter my swing, so I was trying to lift the ball to get a higher trajectory, which further impeded my speed and also made the thin shots worse. It was a total waste of money.

                  The wooden headed drivers were about 11 - 12 degrees, were they not?

                  Ted
                  The persimmon drivers were 1 woods from 8 to 10, 2 woods for 11 to 13, 3 woods for 14-16, 4 wood 17-19, 5 wood 20-22, 6 wood 23-25, 7 wood 26-28... Back then lots of folks carried a 2 wood - just easier to hit and get airborne.

                  Now a driver covers both 1 and 2 wood range, 5 woods also encompass 4 wood lofts and the 6 and 7 woods are all but gone (or are now hybrids).

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: How far does Tiger hit his clubs?

                    LowPost42,

                    I had a 2 wood wood. I loved it. I recall it had the reminder grip, with the flat spot , which fit under the thumb pad.

                    Ted

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