Analysing Driving Accuracy

1 August 2019

Understanding where you lose shots is key to improving your scores, driving accuracy is one of the first things that should be looked at when analysing your game.

Fairways in Regulation

When asked which club is straighter their driver or 3 wood, many golfers would think the latter would find the fairway more often – but this is not the case.

On average, a 3 wood hits 1.5% more fairways in regulation. But considering the distance difference between driver and 3 wood (see above) there is not much advantage to hitting a 3 wood from the tee, unless there is a hazard in range with your driver.

Driving Accuracy

Understanding where you lose shots is key to improving your scores. For the handicap golfer, fairway bunkers can ruin scores and should be avoided at all costs. Shot Scope data shows us just exactly how much hitting in to the trees, rough and bunker will cost an average golfer.

The worst place for an amateur golfer to hit their tee shot is into a fairway bunker. Hitting here will cost them an average of 1.4 shots per round. Missing fairway bunkers could be the key to scoring lower and finally getting that handicap cut.

Interestingly, light rough or semi rough will only cost on average the same as hitting a shorter club off the tee. This tells us that a golfer should be pulling out Driver more often and if they hit the fairway great, if they are in the semi rough, they are no worse off than if they were to hit a 3 wood down the fairway for position.

Shot Scope captures data from all around the world. It is used globally in 52 countries. Shot Scope are the innovators of the first ever golf watch with both GPS and Performance Tracking combined in one device. Go to shotscope.com find out more.