What is golf- Distance or Accuracy? Where do you stand?

I'm sitting here watching the Canadian Open from St. Georges CC on Sky. (Just bought sky sports and loving watching the PGA and European Tours on the telly!)

Something that struck me was the length of the holes being payed by the pros. There's a 490yard Par 4. Mike Wier sticks it in the rough on the left but still has enough club from the rough to reach the green in two. 10 mins later, Paul Casey slices it into the knee-high on the right and uses an iron to shoot over the green...

I think you know what I'm getting at here. 

Is golf a game of distance or accuracy? Or both? Should it be 50% - 50%? What ratio should it be? It seems to me that the Pro game is 80% distance and 20% accuracy.

I think that's a bad thing. And I say that as a golfer who's recently started to hit the 250yard+ drives. But when I took the game up again after a few years out, the long drive was the last technique I practiced. I concentrated on constistant iron play and getting close with the wedges.

I know courses have had to change to test the pros (17th at the Old Course being the most famous example) but where does that leave the rest of us? 

I was out last Sunday and I noticed 3 tee boxes had moved from my previous round there 3 years previous. Each added about 75 yards without changing the par.  The fourteenth has been extended to 478 yards and remains a par 4. It was already over 400 yards and the index 1... why change it?

I think I may be ranting now so I'll stop. But what do you all think?

80/20 for the Pros because they are so good with the approach & long iron distance so don't worry too much if they are off the fairway or find a trap, not sure many of us can hit 200 yard bunker shots!

Kind of subjective but I will pull off some stats from the million plus rounds here on Golfshake showing that hitting fairways is not really linked to scoring but once you start hitting the greens your handicap will tumble.  So I guess accuracy is a key factor, just ask John 'just another Par' Pettitt

Ray,

A good question.

The Pro's go on distance because they usually have people who will find their ball and they then have the ability to get it onto the green, or very near. They also only take about 25 Putts per round.

Now those 2nd shots needed accuracy or they must one putt for Pars.

So my actual answer is BOTH.

What you will see is a Pro trying to hit the ball as far down a Par4 as he can because if he misses the Fairway badly, he is near enough to be able to get a Club that can reach the green at the ball. Where the problem arises for Amateurs is when they try to hit their ball out of the rough with a Club that they are not capable of hitting correctly from the lie they have.

TheLyth

You could also mention that the Pro's don't have to play out of the kind of rough that us amateurs have to face. Even the Pro's would not move it forward very far from some of the lies I seem to get.

Its simples really ...Accuracy if it was distance Alvara Quiros would win every week. Its all about GIR even I know if i have an above average GIR round I score well. 

Ray,

I will add something else here too.

The Pro's play off a courses Championship Tees, some only used for that particular event (17th, Road Hole), yet when an average Golfer wants to play that course, he too wants to play off that Tee. They then complain how long it is.

A persons Hcp should mean that they can't reach a 490yd Par4 and that is why it may be SI 1.

Distance is a Macho thing and you will always hear at a Golf Club Bar "I reached 14 with a Drive & Wedge today" but you will almost never hear them tell you their score. It reminds me of a story concerning Max Faulkner. He had been playing at Lindrick GC and was having a quiet drink in the Bar when a young Pro came in and sat in Max's company.

"How have you played today?" Max asked.

"Very well, I even reached the 14th with a Drive and 5iron"

"What did you finish with?"

"73"

"I hit my best Driver and 3wood on 14, made eagle on the way to a 67"

Nuff said.

TheLyth

A persons Hcp should mean that they can't reach a 490yd Par4 and that is why it may be SI 1.

It used to be that  par figure for a hole was  given with the expectation that anyone of reasonable ability would be able to reach the green in the required regulation shots then allowing for two putts afterwards.

Whether or not this was achieved is what made handicaps a necessity to level the playing field, but the majority always had the power to reach these greens.

Now of course because the Pro's really can smash it a long way the courses are having to be lengthend to provide a more challenging course, but I am quite sure that if courses were designed to place a premium on accuracy that we not need to go down this route.

I know of a short par 4 that if played 18 times woiuld get a SSS of probably something like 62, yet I doubt very much that many would be that far under par because of the degree of difficulty all the way down the hole and surrounding the green.

As an example I will cite the abilities of our own Chris Perry, I hope he does not mind, but Chris certainly has the power to reach every green in regulation, he has his current handicap because he falls down with his accuracy at times, thus missing greens and then failing to scramble the up and down required.

We have different tees for ladies because of their so called lack of power, but we have a six handicap young slip of a girl at my club who, off the ladies tees, makes a complete mockery of the course. In the Club Championships last week-end she shot a combined 138 on the Waterloo (par 69) and the Wellington (Par 72) 3 under par gross. This was better than the Senior winner who plays off six also yet could only just manage to beat 150. The mens champion was also just under 150.

Because of my age and now very weak body I have to play very well to play to my handicap. I cannot afford to have mis-hit shots.

John,

Don't mind you citing me as an example at all and you are right on the money.  I would happily trade 10% of my distance off the tee if you guaranteed I woud be on the fairway each time. 

My handicap is where it is for exactly the reason you have stated.  I miss greens, or if I hit them generally leave myself a long first putt.  My short game is reasonably good as I have been working on it, but my putting is not where it should be at the moment. 

I think there is an element of those with power would like more accuracy and those with accuracy would like more power; you always want what you don't have.  If I had a choice, I'd take accuracy every time.