The big hitters: Philip Reid reports on the new generation of long hitters, Bubba Watson and JB Holmes
Is it a macho thing, this fascination with hitting the ball long - and not always straight - off the tee? To be sure, the "grip it-n-rip" culture first established by John Daly has passed on to a new generation, as exemplified by the exploits of Bubba Watson and JB Holmes on the US Tour where hitting the ball in excess of 300 yards, a feat unheard of just a decade ago, is now considered an accepted occurrence.
Even so, what Watson, with his pink-shafted Ping driver, and Holmes, with his King Cobra driver, do is not normal. Not by a long shot. Bubba - not his real name, he was apparently christened Gerry - and JB - who was called John as recently as last year's Walker Cup, but, seemingly unimpressed that poets and politicians have also shared his given name, the golfer changed to using the initials on tour to avoid being confused with a deceased porn star - are respectively one and two in the driving distance statistics on this season's PGA Tour.
On the origin of his name, Watson remarked: "As soon as I was born, 10 seconds later my dad said, 'He's fat and ugly. Let's call him Bubba'."
Watson, who stands 6ft 3in, looks and acts the part of a big-hitter; Holmes, at 5ft 11in, is a more reserved, less flamboyant character. What they have in common, though, is an ability to send a golf ball almost into a different time zone. The advances in technology, with clubs and balls, have helped develop this new breed of long-hitter, although Tiger Woods is one of those convinced we ain't seen nothin' yet.
"That is the future of golf, where guys are going to be longer, bigger, more athletic. I'm only 6ft. Wait until guys who come out here are 6ft 6ins and have the skills to play the game and have the swing speed. It'll be truly remarkable to see how far they can hit it, and also be able to control it," said Woods.
The arrival of Watson wasn't unheralded. People - players and spectators - had been fore-warned, after his exploits on the Nationwide Tour from where he earned his full Tour card. At last year's Northeast Pennsylvania Classic, where he finished in third place, Watson delivered a spectacular display of power hitting to average 367.3 yards off the tee. His recorded drives at the tournament measured 400, 396, 382, 379, 372, 346, 333 and 332 yards.
"I don't think John Daly or Hank Kuehne or Scott Hend can hang with me when I'm hitting it. If I hit my best, there are not too many people that can get within shouting distance," observed Watson, a self-taught player who learned the game by hitting perforated plastic balls around his house when growing up in a place called Baghdad, in Florida.
His dad, who also goes by Bubba, gave him a nine-iron at the age of six, with instructions to swing hard and hit the ball as far as possible. Bubba the elder figured his son could learn, in time, to hit it straight. But the younger Watson enjoyed trying to hook and slice balls around trees on the family's one and a half-acre property. He drew a five-foot wide circle in the dirt driveway, pretended that was the hole and bent the plastic balls every which way he could. Such an ability to shape the ball has helped him overcome some wayward, if long, driving.
The statistics don't lie. Watson currently tops the driving distance statistics on the US Tour with an average drive of 318.5 yards, while Holmes is ranked second with 310.8 yards. Watson may be long, but he is definitely not always straight. In fact, the 27-year-old Tour "rookie" is placed second-last (in 183rd position) in driving accuracy, with only Craig Perks positioned lower. Imagine if he managed to find accuracy too?
Still, Watson is making an impact and, to date, has amassed $450,145 and lies 61st in the money list. He believes his power stems mainly from a number of factors developed from basically beating the living daylights out of plastic golf balls as a kid.
Of the source of his long driving, he explained it comes from, "My arc and my swing, my arms and then just timing . . . plus you have to hit the ball pretty much solid all the time. If you toe it, it's not going to go as far. Most of the time, I hit it close to the centre." Asked when he was last out-driven by a player, Watson replied matter-of-factly: "I don't know. If I hit it like I want to, I haven't seen a person yet that can that on the Tour."
Watson is his own man, a unique character on tour. A left-hander, he persists with using the pink-shafted driver.
"People can make fun of it," he said recently, "then when I hit one, they're like, well, I can't outdrive him, so I can't tell everyone I got out-driven by a pink-shafted driver. You've got to have fun with it. It's something the fans like to see. Sometimes I think the game of golf is a little boring, not enough interaction. I want to change it up a little bit."
His wife, Angie, is also his agent. She stands 6ft 3in and played basketball in Italy and France for a number of seasons and he credits her experiences as a professional athlete for helping him deal with pressure situations.
"She understands bad days and good days," he said.
While Watson has yet to win on tour, Holmes - who topped the PGA's qualifying school - did so in just his fourth outing on the US Tour, winning the Phoenix Open. He is a quiet contrast to the louder Watson. He wears a black glove, closes his eyes and recites a Bible verse to focus, then shows no mercy on the golf ball.
As a youngster growing up, and the youngest player on his school's golf team, he recalls being picked on. "It was just a bunch of little things, being around older kids . . . I had dyslexia at the time and I didn't read real good. I'd go into restaurants, try to look at the menu they'd pick. 'Oh, you can't read'. Stuff like that, immature high school stuff."
Holmes, a 24-year-old rookie, fell in love with golf by sitting on the sofa with his father, watching on television. "I always swung hard when I was younger," he said. "Swung as hard as I could. I did it all the way until I was probably 15 or 16, and realised I didn't have to swing as hard as I could."
And while power driving is his main asset, Holmes - lying 20th with $1,175,914 on the US money list - recognises the importance of getting the ball into the hole. "Everybody thinks we can just hit it a mile, (but) you've got to putt. I mean, you can hit it a long ways, but being able to putt is the biggest advantage. You've got to have a short game."
Still, just like Watson, it is his long driving that has made people sit up and take notice. Just as it originally did for John Daly, who dominated driving distance for over a decade until the arrival of the new generation.
Golf's long hitters - The averages
*2006 Bubba Watson 318.50
2005 Scott Hend 318.90
2004 Hank Kuehne 314.40
2003 Hank Kuehne 321.40
2002 John Daly 306.80
2001 John Daly 306.70
2000 John Daly 301.40
1999 John Daly 305.60
1998 John Daly 299.40
1997 John Daly 302.00
1996 John Daly 288.80
1995 John Daly 289.00
1994 Davis Love III 283.80
1993 John Daly 289.30
1992 John Daly 283.40
1991 John Daly 288.90
1990 Tom Purtzer 279.60
(* after Houston Open on 2006 PGA Tour - Source: PGA Tour
