Last week, Texas A&M head golf coach J.T. Higgins met with PGA Tour player Ryan Palmer before the Aggies competed in a tournament near Dallas. When the conversation between the two turned to driving distance and its importance in the professional game, Palmer could hardly get the words out fast enough.
“If you don’t carry the ball a minimum of 290 yards off the tee, you’re going to have a hard time competing on the PGA Tour,” the Texas A&M alumnus said.
The reality of the driver being the most important club in the bag is difficult to deny, both from an anecdotal and statistical standpoint. Almost all of the game’s superstars are averaging more than 300 yards off the tee, and if you aren’t a dynamic driver of the ball, the margin for error in other parts of the game has become incredibly thin.
Last year on the PGA Tour, the top 10 players in strokes gained off the tee were virtually all success stories. Player of the year Rory McIlroy finished first in the category, while fellow top-five players in the world Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm were close behind. Others like Cameron Champ, Keith Mitchell and Corey Conners all enjoyed breakthrough victories. Another up-and-comer, Mexico’s Abraham Ancer, collected 10 top-25 finishes and moved into the world’s top 50. It is possible that all 10 players will compete in the Masters next spring.
It’s a stark contrast to other categories, such as strokes gained putting. The top three players in that stat were Denny McCarthy, Jordan Spieth and Dominic Bozzelli. McCarthy barely made the FedEx Cup playoffs, Spieth’s ballstriking struggles prevented him from reaching the Tour Championship and Bozzelli finished outside the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings, thereby losing his full-time playing privileges.
That’s not to suggest putting isn’t meaningful – it’s usually still the critical difference between a good week and a great week – but there’s no question that power has a monopoly on the game. Why has power taken over? Because if you can hit it far enough on courses that don’t penalize missing fairways, then your approach angle doesn’t matter, especially if the greens are soft. And with how far the modern golf ball and driver allow players to unleash their tee balls, there is a more pronounced advantage to having a wedge for your approach instead of a 7-iron.
What makes Champ’s story even more intriguing is what happened between his victories at the Sanderson Farms Championship last October and the Safeway Open late last month. Despite dominance with a driver in his hand, Champ fell into a black hole for much of last season by missing the cut in 10 of 14 starts while withdrawing once during one horrid stretch.
Because of that, many view Higgins’ former Texas A&M pupil, the aforementioned Champ, as a poster child of where modern golf resides. He has prodigious length off the tee (No. 1 on tour last season at nearly 318 yards) but ranks relatively low in driving accuracy (No. 175 on tour last season at 55 percent). Despite hitting the fairway only a little more than half the time, Champ is an elite talent in the strokes-gained-off-the-tee category and can threaten to win when the other parts of his game are above average. The 24-year-old California native has already done so twice in 36 starts on the PGA Tour, which makes him one of the game’s brightest young talents.
What makes Champ’s story even more intriguing is what happened between his victories at the Sanderson Farms Championship last October and the Safeway Open late last month. Despite dominance with a driver in his hand, Champ fell into a black hole for much of last season by missing the cut in 10 of 14 starts while withdrawing once during one horrid stretch. In the other major strokes-gained categories, he finished No. 161 in approach, No. 188 around the green, No. 123 in putting and No. 142 in tee-to-green in 2018-19. All of this took place during a time when the PGA Tour heavily promoted Champ, the personification of its “Live Under Par” slogan, often putting him in featured-group coverage to take advantage of his popularity. Fans were flocking to see the kid with an effortless swing that produces untouchable ball speed.
After winning for the first time in just his eighth PGA Tour start as a professional, pressure mounted quickly.
“Obviously being in feature pairings, it all led to other things,” Champ admitted. “At first I didn’t feel like it affected me. But on the inside I think it did. I had expectations, kind of putting extra pressure, kind of worrying about things I wasn’t worrying about all last year and in the beginning of the fall.

“I think it’s just a maturity factor. I think everyone is different. Knowing what I went through, I wish I could have handled it better because over time it just builds up and builds up, and usually you don’t want to get too frustrated on the course. If I do, I just keep it inside until I’m done with the shot, but throughout the year it just kept blowing over and over, and I’d get mad over things I usually wouldn’t get mad over.”
Higgins could see it as well. Champ’s success brought with it a measure of adversity that he had to figure out a way to work through.
“When (winning) happened so early, it was a lot of fun for him,” Higgins said. “And then you find out it is work. All the things that were really cool before become a little bit of drudgery. Now you are thinking ‘Oh, I’ve got to go do this photo shoot, I have to go play with these sponsors.’ All of that is really neat and I know he is grateful, but at the same time, I think it takes its toll on you.”
The first lesson in Champ’s story is about experience. He is seeing courses for the first time and learning how to deal with real exposure for the first time. After a few years, those factors won’t be as difficult to deal with.
But the other lesson is a new developing standard, one that is related to routinely carrying the ball 330 yards. Consistency is becoming harder to achieve. For one, the depth of talent on tour has never been greater. And for another, players who rely heavily on one dominating skill aren’t set up to play well every week.
That’s OK in today’s game. The rewards of winning – a two-year PGA Tour exemption and invitations to the most prominent tournaments – are greater than finishing 30th every week. Champ’s ceiling is winning any tournament he enters, and his floor is shooting in the high 70s. The gap can be closed over time, but as speed becomes the most desired skill to have, players like Champ figure to become the norm in professional golf.
Just as there are far fewer pitchers throwing complete games in baseball than there once were, there will be far fewer golfers showing up in the top 10 every week. Champ will undoubtedly become more consistent, but this may be the type of career he has – reaching great heights during weeks when things come together and missing cuts when they don’t.