Happy Friday- who doesn’t love stepping up to a tee box with a wide fairway and no trouble in site? It’s just more fun when you can swing freely and send it as far as possible, unencumbered by thoughts of trees or houses or water in the back of your mind. Unfortunately, those holes are few and far between. More often than not, you have some sort of trouble to contend with when outlining your tee shot strategy.
Today, we’re going to build the case that you should pull out the big dog more often. Sure, there are one-off situations that call for a more calculated or precise approach, taking a wood or even iron off the tee. But for the vast majority of players, the driver is the play more than 90-95% of the time.
Here’s why…
STAT #1
You Probably Don’t Hit It That Far & Drivers Are BARELY Less Accurate Than 3-Woods
Across ALL Handicaps
Data courtesy of Shot Scope
Looking at the graphic above, it’s rather clear that your driver will put you significantly further down the fairway than your 3-wood. For most players, you’re looking at a 20-25 yard difference, and that might even be conservative for some players.
And yet, many players will pull out the 3-wood hoping for increased accuracy off the tee, recognizing that they might be sacrificing distance. But the difference in accuracy is minimal at best, perhaps just 1-2% across all handicaps.
Translation: Don’t chase accuracy unless hitting it further is truly going to put you in major trouble. Send it!
STAT #2
The Rough Isn’t Nearly As Punishing As You Think
Fairways are over-rated
Hat Tip to Arccos Golf & Lou Stagner^^^
Golf data guru Lou Stagner did a deep dive trying to determine just how punishing the rough might be for amateurs. The chart above details the shot differential when playing from the rough (relative to playing from the fairway). For nearly all players across nearly all distances, you’re only looking at 0.10-0.20 additional shots when playing from the rough. Here’s more from Lou:
“Look at 5-index players from 80 to 89 yards for example. From that distance they will average 0.11 more strokes from the rough than from the fairway. About half of the numbers in that table are 0.10 or less.
As you get farther from the hole, the difference between rough and fairway gets smaller. For a 20-index, they perform better from the rough than the fairway from 240-249 yards! … As a final reminder, hit the ball as far as you can, as often as you can, taking into account penalty strokes and other hazards.”
Translation: Unless you’re playing Oakmont a week after the U.S. Open, your local club’s rough probably isn’t that punishing. So don’t be afraid of approach shots from the rough.
STAT #3
The Longer You Are Off the Tee, the Better Your Approach Shot Will Be Regardless of Lie
Don’t Lay Up to a Preferred or Favorite Yardage
Data courtesy of Shot Scope
Some golfers believe that they are significantly better laying up to a preferred full club yardage rather than having to hit the dreaded ½ wedge shot. Or they might like their 7-iron more than their 9-iron for some odd reason. While the data above is just a small subset, it holds true across all distances. The closer you can get yourself to the hole after your tee shot, the closer you’ll be able to get the ball to the pin on approach. Just because you’re less comfortable with a ½ wedge distance than you are with a full wedge distance doesn’t mean you don’t achieve a better result from a shorter distance.
Translation: Take your feelings out of the equation and just look at the data. If you don’t trust the data above, track your own individual tendencies. I can assure you, if you get yourself further down the fairway off the tee, you’ll hit your approach shots closer to the pin.
So the strategy is clear- as long as you don’t risk a lost ball or penalty, you should be sending it as far as you can off the tee if you want to score. Your driver is barely less accurate off the tee, but it is significantly longer than your 3-wood. And very few of us play in US Open level 4” jungle cabbage, so give it a good John Daly lashing and see if you can generate a few more looks at birdie.
Play well this weekend!
TODAY’S TRIVIA
Answer to Win a Titleist GT280 Mini Driver
(1 winner chosen on 9/30/25 across all August trivia entries, 1,000 correct respondents minimum)
Two Americans won their Sunday singles match by a margin of 8 & 7 (the biggest margin in Ryder Cup history). Who were they?
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