The Daily Record

TUESDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 20, 1954

Today's Sports Parade
By OSCAR FRALEY
United Press Sports Writer

NEW YORK (UP) - How far does the average golf professional or top ranking player hit his drive?

This isn't one of those quizzes which will win you a trip to La Cucaracha, no expenses paid, or even an extra half a stroke a hole in Sunday's weekly foursome. It is, well, just a question.

One way or another, I'll bet you'll be surprised.

Watching the pros when they belt 'em off the tee, and figuring where your abominable slice usually puts you, it is conceivable that you think the pros can get 300 yards with a mallet-headed putter. Or, if you're the proud kind known as "Muscles" to your fairway mates, you probably smirk at some of the dollar divot-diggers when they occasionally miss the groove.

Do Good

Actually, the lads do pretty good - but not as well as most of us ordinary citizens figure.

The pros will average right around 260 yards - carry plus roll.

This was proved conclusively by Robert Trent Jones, noted golf course architect, in tests conducted during the 1953 U. S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, a section of real estate adjacent to Pittsburgh. Robert Trent, not "Bobby," makes this report in "Golf Digest" and it seems of enough general interest to pass along.

Jones measured the drives of all contestants on the 18th hole, considered one of the most difficult on the course, and his figures show that the best drive was a 308-yard poke by Californian Bill Nary. The second best was 295 by burly Frank Souchak of Pittsburgh while third was 292 yards by Jimmy Clark of Laguna Beach, Calif.

No better than fourth was Sam Snead with a 290-yard blow.

Examples

There are numerous examples, however, where the pros have slugged the ball out of sight.

Certainly Jimmy Thomson could hit a ball as far as anybody who ever lived. He proved this time and again, as he did in winning the North American driving championship at Niagara Falls in 1937 with a top effort of 386 yards - and a 10-ball average of 340 yards.

At venerable St. Andrews, on the long fifth hole, there is a marker to the driving prowess of Craig Wood.

It relates that in the 1933 British Open, Craig walloped his drive 430 yards, and it might have gone farther except that it wound up in a bunker.

The average at Oakmont may have been shortened by the fact that quite often - and it was important on the Oakmont 18th - the pros hit for position as much as for distance. Which is a fact we hackers might bear in mind.

Along those lines, and to increase distance in cold weather, take a tip from always-effective Lawson Little.

He'll have his caddy carry a ball in his hand with the advice to "squeeze it!"

A warm ball will travel farther than a cold one.

Which surely puzzles me. Even in August, mine act like they just came out of a refrigerator. Who's gonna sneer at 260 yards?