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So Mo Martin is far and away the most accurate driver off the tee...and has 53 players ahead of her on the Rolex Rankings almost all who are no where near her in accuracy off the tee. So what does that suggest about the relative importance of accuracy vs. distance off the tee?
None of the players who have been ranked #1 on either the PGA or LPGA tours over the last two decades were anywhere near the top of their tour in fairway accuracy. But many have been at or close to the top in driving distance.
Twelve LPGA players top 80% in fairway accuracy this year. Not one of them appear anywhere near the top of the Rolex Rankings.
I think this says a lot about the answer to this question. Now this doesn't mean you can spray the ball all over the place or repeatedly hit it 300 yards out and two fairways over. Most of the top PGA golfers put it in the fairway between 55-70% of the time. But they are also about 300 yards out and that far out it doesn't take much to be off the fairway. A lot of those misses are from just off the fairway. So they do have some accuracy.
This is even more the case on approach shots. If you look at distance vs. accuracy on approach shots, most all of us would choose accuracy. Those big bombers have to hit those shots too. If you look at approach shot stats: GIR, proximity to the hole, strokes gained, and related stats you'll see the top performers show up a lot toward the top of those lists.
So for the top performers it really isn't an either or, it's distance AND accuracy.
None of the players who have been ranked #1 on either the PGA or LPGA tours over the last two decades were anywhere near the top of their tour in fairway accuracy. But many have been at or close to the top in driving distance.
Twelve LPGA players top 80% in fairway accuracy this year. Not one of them appear anywhere near the top of the Rolex Rankings.
I think this says a lot about the answer to this question. Now this doesn't mean you can spray the ball all over the place or repeatedly hit it 300 yards out and two fairways over. Most of the top PGA golfers put it in the fairway between 55-70% of the time. But they are also about 300 yards out and that far out it doesn't take much to be off the fairway. A lot of those misses are from just off the fairway. So they do have some accuracy.
This is even more the case on approach shots. If you look at distance vs. accuracy on approach shots, most all of us would choose accuracy. Those big bombers have to hit those shots too. If you look at approach shot stats: GIR, proximity to the hole, strokes gained, and related stats you'll see the top performers show up a lot toward the top of those lists.
So for the top performers it really isn't an either or, it's distance AND accuracy.