Episode Details

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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