New Reviews Coming

[Tony Covey MGS]

As we've hinted over the last week or so, we're working on a number of reviews which should begin posting in the next couple of weeks. I'm constantly thinking and re-thinking the scoring process to arrive, not only at a score that reflects the overall performance of the golf club, but also one that best reflects what the consumer thinks about when buying golf clubs.

 

To that end, I have one simple (or maybe not so simple) question? When it comes to woods (and hybrids maybe) What matters more, distance or accuracy?

 

As you may recall from our Adams review, we provide a good amount of data; real numbers from real golfers. We derive the actual Performance portion of our score based on two numbers, total distance and accuracy. Although I have my own ideas, I'm wondering what everyone else thinks. Within the total performance score, how should those two numbers be weighted?

 

Are they equal (50/50)?

Does distance matter a little more (60/40)?

Does distance rule (75/25)?

Is accuracy king (40/60)?

 

I'd leave to hear what MGS forum members think.

[Moecat]

I think distance and accuracy matter about equally, although marketing departments seem to push distance a lot more.

[robbo32]

I prefer accuracy a little more than distance. When I have accuracy I feel in control of my game and to me thats important. I know for a fact that my old Cally XHot 3 wood was longer than my 906 but I can control my 906 so much better than my Cally or even my Adams. I think this has a lot to do with the V2 shaft in my 906 but I also feel more confident with it. I love hitting the long ball and that was one reason why I played my Cobra F Speed driver for 1.5 seasons befor I changed to my 907. My drives with the Cobra were about 270-280 but less than half of those drives found the fairway. My 907 gets my drives about 260-270 but I would say about 50-60% of my drives find the fairway. With all that said I voted for 60/40 accuracy.

[Maverickping]

I voted for, I think distance and accuracy matter about equally. I like both

[Matt Saternus]

I voted strongly in favor of accuracy. I suppose it's hard to quantify what 3:1 means, but I thought about it like this: I'd rather hit it 225 and in the fairway than 275 in the trees. I'll happily take a few extra clubs and play stress free. Now, if accuracy means fairway vs. playable rough, then give me the long ball, but for me inaccurate means trees.

[Phana24JG]

Frankly, I am more interested in distance. Very often I opt to carry two drivers, one bomber and one accurate driver. When I only have one driver, the 3 wood is there for accuracy.

[JohnBarry]

I want it all...75% accuracy and 25% distance

[MmmmmmBuddy]

This is a tough question to answer. It all depends on the player and courses he plays. For me, I am never looking for more distance off of the tee, I want a club that I can hit in play, and make my share of 3 putt bogies. But for some players, that 15 extra yards is at a premium. They are accurate enough. 15 more yards would allow them to hit more greens, and make more pars and birds.. tough question with no good answer.

[HillWilliam]

Excellent question! I'm a bomber that misses too many fairways. It doesn't limit itself to drivers, either. I have a Titleist 3 wood that I can pure to ridiculous lengths but it's a Sirens song...It's hard to hit and if I try to overreach, I crash on the rocks. I've found that my Wilson Fybrid is nearly automatic and gives me great distance without the drama (great shaft).

I'll give up a few yards to get that same feeling in a driver. While short game is where you score, I find that my driver is where I blow up good rounds..So my search is for a shorter shafted driver that keeps me under control and finds fairways. Dispersion should be a primary test result. Distance behind that. But that's me...

[JohnBarry]

Actually, I think size matter the most, no matter what anyone says.

[GolfSpy Dave]

This is a tough question to answer. It all depends on the player and courses he plays. For me, I am never looking for more distance off of the tee, I want a club that I can hit in play, and make my share of 3 putt bogies. But for some players, that 15 extra yards is at a premium. They are accurate enough. 15 more yards would allow them to hit more greens, and make more pars and birds.. tough question with no good answer.

You make three putt bogies sound bad Nic.

[mudfish]

I voted strongly in favor of accuracy. I suppose it's hard to quantify what 3:1 means, but I thought about it like this: I'd rather hit it 225 and in the fairway than 275 in the trees. I'll happily take a few extra clubs and play stress free. Now, if accuracy means fairway vs. playable rough, then give me the long ball, but for me inaccurate means trees.

 

 

Once again, I am going to have to agree 100% with you... At any point when I start hitting my driver poorly, I put it in my bag and start hitting my 3 Hybrid... I can typically hit it 190-210 yards, and I am fairly accurate with it...

 

Sure, it makes the par 5's a lot longer, but at this stage in my game I am happy with bogey golf, so I would rather be in the fairway or light rough than the woods...

[Andrew Bush]

Accuracy is king, i guess when ur saying accuracy ur also saying distance control so a no brainer to me closer to the pin or long as u can with god know where it is going so ill choose accuracy !!!!!!!!!!

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[JohnBarry]

Accuracy is the King

[JBones]

I'm a 100% distance man when it comes to the driver. I can put it closer from 30yds out in the rough, than most people can from 120 in the fairway. That being said, my new Cobra S9-1 Pro is LONG and straight. I've went from hitting 53% of fairways last year, to 80% through 12 rounds this year.

[Tyk]

I think distance is a bit more important with a driver. I tend to feel that accuracy is a product of the swing, if I'm swinging well, I'm going to be accurate with any club, whereas distance is more influenced by technology. Meaning that if I'm swinging well, I would like the club that's going to give me the most distance to go with what is probably already going to be an accurate shot. If I'm off, I have yet to find the club that is going to save the shot. I might make it "less bad", but its not going to turn it into a GOOD shot. So let me take care of the accuracy, and the club can take care of the distance.

 

Now, I wouldn't want to play a club that was completely unforgiving, I'm not that precise, but within reason, I will give up a bit of accuracy on a bad swing to get a bit of distance on a good one.

 

Now, with a hybrid (I don't bag fairway woods), I'm looking to hit those a specific distance, so I don't really care how long they are. Meaning that I want a club for 230, and a club for 210, and I want it to be predictable, forgiving, and ACCURATE, which is completely different than what I'm looking for in a driver. I don't really care how the club gets it done, or if I'm hitting an 18* or a 24*, just so long as I'm confident that its going to go the distance I want it to go.

[cheymike]

I voted the 50-50 button, but now that I think about it... I actually think accuracy is more important. I'd rather be sitting 120 out, from the fairway... than 100 out in 6" rough!!

[JohnBarry]

I agree, I love the fairway much more than the rough, no matter what the distance!

[canyon23]

This is a question of personal preference. For me distance is not an issue at all, so accuracy is a much bigger key. I can certainly understand for many players that their feeling is exactly the opposite.

[pfingst]

If we're talking drivers, I'll take distance over accuracy any day. I figure distance is the club's problem, while accuracy is my problem. If I put a good swing on the ball (on the rare occasions that happens) it should go where I pointed it. That said, what I think we're talking about when we say accuracy is really consistency - given a series of good swings, we can reasonably predict what will happen. If a club is long but vulnerable to very slight variations in your swing, it won't be very consistent. That's what we don't want to see, and that's what we really care about.

[Super Tuna]

I agree, I love the fairway much more than the rough, no matter what the distance!

 

Agreed!

While my hybrids don't seem to care, it's definately a mental thing for me and how I approach the next shot/plan for the entire hole.