'383-yard'

Clarke's 383-yard Open drive

11/18/2003 2:20pm BST
The average driving distance achieved by the 156 players who took part in The Open Championship at Royal St George's was 295 yards. Biggest hit over four rounds, taken from the 904 measured drives, was 383 yards by Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland. At the 13th hole in the final round his drive was 12 yards further than that recorded by former US Masters champion Fred Couples. At just over 6 ft 2 ins and 17 stones, Clarke has a three inch and four stone advantage over Couples. He also stands more than six inches taller than K J Choi of Korea, who was third longest with a drive of 363 yards at the same hole in the third round. Drive measurements were taken at two holes that run in opposite directions to nullify any wind advantage - the 459-yard 13th which is slightly west of north and the 475-yard 15th which points south-east. While only about 60 per cent of players used the driver at the 13th, over 90 per cent used the biggest club in the bag at the 15th. Although he was not in the top three in outright distance, left-hander Phil Mickelson was the most consistent long-hitter, averaging 328.8 yards over the four rounds, just over seven inches ahead of John Daly. Only those two players and Vijay Singh were over 300 yards for all eight measured drives. Tiger Woods' best effort was 351 yards at the 13th in round three. But big hitting alone does not win championships. Mickelson and Clarke finished in joint 59th place 14 strokes behind winner Ben Curtis. Daly shared 72nd and last place of those who completed four rounds. Open champion Curtis was in 21st place in the distance stakes, averaging 303.8 yards with a best effort of 326. Of those who averaged greater distance off the tee only four also finished in the top 10 on the leaderboard at the end of the Championship - Singh, in joint second place, Woods in joint fourth, Fredrik Jacobson of Sweden in a share of sixth and Sergio Garcia in a five-way tie for 10th.