Jack Nicklaus was famously one of the crucial highly effective drivers of the ball via his lengthy and illustrious profession. It’s troublesome to make comparisons with right now’s gamers due to the tools he was utilizing however protected to say, he was fairly lengthy and anecdotal proof would counsel he would have held his personal with the fashionable large weapons.
Sadly, there wasn’t the info now we have right now for us to make certain on Nicklaus’ common driving distance when he was in his pomp. The primary 12 months the PGA Tour has information for is 1980 when Jack was 40. Even then he ranked tenth in driving distance for the season with a median of 269 yards. It must be famous, he additionally ranked thirteenth in driving accuracy that season. With a complete driving rating of 23 (the 2 rankings added collectively) it stays the best recorded season of all-round driving on the PGA Tour.
In 1967, IBM measured driving distances in 11 tournaments on the PGA Tour. For these occasions, as Golf Digest uncovered, Nicklaus, who was 27 on the time, averaged 276 yards from the tee. That was the longest of anybody. The typical was simply over 260 yards.
However in fact, driving distances are affected by a lot of elements and never simply tools – The wind, the firmness of the turf, the temperature, the altitude… all of those will have an effect on how far the ball travels.
Energy Hitting
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Nicklaus was able to hitting the ball prodigious distances although and there are examples to show it.
Within the playoff for The Open Championship of 1970, Nicklaus reached the 18th tee with a one-shot lead. He famously took of his sweater and unleashed a drive that ran via the inexperienced. The outlet measures 357 yards in order that drive will need to have travelled some 370 yards and it was solely stopped by the collar of tough via the inexperienced.
In 1963, Nicklaus received an extended drive contest on the PGA Championship with a blow that travelled some 341 yards. That will need to have been extraordinarily spectacular on the time.
Lee Trevino as soon as stated he was satisfied that Jack, given trendy tools, circumstances and coaching would be capable to hit the ball 400 yards. Which may be over-estimating just a little however, in case you take into account his 276 yard, 1967 common and his capability to hit recurrently over 300 along with his persimmon driver, it’s in all probability affordable to say that he would proceed to common close to the highest of the pile by way of driving distance.
How far then did Jack Nicklaus drive the ball? The one definitive numbers now we have are that 276 yard, mini-average in 1967 and the 269 season common for 1980. However we all know he was able to shifting it far additional than that. Let’s simply say – The Golden Bear was lengthy!
