It’s no secret that Dustin Johnson is long… really long. He is currently leading the PGA Tour in driving distance and this week at the US Open, averaging a meek 316 yards, but maybe more impressive was his ability to hit it in the fairway. He tied for 18th in fairways hit for the week at 64% over the four rounds and that’s not counting the 4 drives on#17 where he tried to drive the green as fairways hit. If you count or eliminate those drives, he is tied for 3rd for the week.
As a comparison, we’re going to use another long hitting major championship winner, Bubba Watson. Bubba averaged 306 yards for the week, but fell all the way to 53rd in accuracy hitting only 50%. (To be fair, he also went for #17 four times and weren’t counted towards his fairways hit total.) 6 more times this week Bubba had to play from the heavy stuff, than the short grass…
While both of them have many similarities in their swing one thing sticks out to me that tells why Dustin can consistently hit it as long, but usually straighter than most of the really long guys… his hands.
Check out the video below to see the Dustin Johnson vs. Bubba comparison!