Pretty insane how in the year 2000, tiger was ranked 54th in driving accuracy but 1st in GIR, his irons were just unfair
by jeffers0n_steelflex
Pretty insane how in the year 2000, tiger was ranked 54th in driving accuracy but 1st in GIR, his irons were just unfair
by jeffers0n_steelflex
29 Comments
His driving distance was also 2nd, so he had way less distance to the green than all but one guy.
Is accuracy a meaure of fairway vs. Rough?
I would way rather be 30 yards closer in the rough than 30 yards back in the fairway.
He was also way closer to the green than most players. We were finding out that bomb and gouge works. Especially if you have the physical strength to manage rough
It’s often easier to hit the green with a 9-iron from the rough than a 6-iron from the fairway. Don’t get me wrong, his ball striking was insane, but he taught the world that distance is mandatory, not just a convenience.
Still hitting 71% of fairways – leader this year was Aaron Rai at 73.85% – leader in 2000 was Fred Funk at 78%ish so Tiger was still very accurate all things considered.
He still hit 71% of fairways. Leader that year was at 79%, so 1 fairway extra.
Tiger was nearly 20 yards longer than the guy in 25th on distance and he was 10 yards longer than the guy in 3rd.
People hadn’t figured out strokes gained and bomb and gouge by that point.
He was bombing it well past anyone not named John Daly.
https://preview.redd.it/czdkri6504zf1.png?width=754&format=png&auto=webp&s=4ca2e1ab7df0635523ebc56606b48f101c9422b6
It’s even crazier that he never once led the tour in driving distance
He was getting his money also. 💵💴💶💷
He was always so good and creative at recovery shots. Scrambled his ass off, for like a decade and a half.
The greatest iron player of all time!
Idk what these stats mean exactly but how is he 1st in putting average but 36th in putts per round lol
“I’m Tiger Woods, not Tiger Fairway”
The OG bomb & gouge.
Think about this, he was hitting more fairways than 2/3rds of the best players in the world while being longer than all but 1. His driving was just as insane as his iron play that year
I’m trying to figure out what course the scorecard in the second photo is from.
Tiger pulled shit out of his ass on the regular that no one else could since.
But in 2000 he was invincible. If he didn’t win after 3 weeks they called it a ‘slump’. Not place top 10. Not whether he was playing well. Whether he won the whole damn tournament. Which in golf is just insane.
GOAT iron player and putter
Distance off the tee more than elite iron play (although he had that too, obviously). It’s why courses became “Tiger proofed.” Fairways aren’t as important as distance off the tee. Ask most golfers and they’ll tell you that they’d rather be 100 yards out and in the rough than 150 out and in the fairway.
That’s because driving accuracy isn’t a very important stat when the difference between #1 and #100 is tiny. This is why, at the pro level where they’re all very accurate, distance is vastly more important.
Sick card
Was this around the time Corey Pavin was averaging like 250 off the tee? Ha, the good old days.
The dispersion between the most accurate and 54th is probably not as great as you would think.
Is that his scotty cameron putter?
he hit it farther than anyone, thats why. Fairways hit is an almost useless stat.
More distance is why
He was like 30 yards closer to the green than most of the field.
Thats the thing. You’re number 1 in greens and number 2 in putting you’re basically untouchable.
[Golf digest did an amazing video about this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIpuUO11hkg)
In summary some statisticians found that driving distance is much more important than driving accuracy. The best strategy is to hit the driver as aggressively as possible and prioritize distance over fairways hit.
You see that Tiger ranks number 2 for driving distance, that is the stat that matters.
It is also worth noting that among the long drivers, Tigers driver accuracy was still insane. John Daly had the longest drives at 301.4 but his accuracy was 57.5% to Tigers 71.4%. You have to drop 17 feet of distance to find anyone with a higher accuracy than Tiger. I am pretty sure he would be number 1 in terms of strokes gained on the driver if they recorded it back then.
54th in accurate and 2nd in distance is stupid. Would dominate all the time always.