One of my great missions in life — beyond being a good dad and a golfer I can be proud of again — is finding a bag setup that maximizes what I do. Yes, that’s always the goal with any fitting, but what is the metric to really identify if that new driver actually levels you up?
There is a really fun stat on PGATour.com that represents exactly that. It’s called Total Driving Efficiency. TDE is the combination of two key metrics:
Carry Efficiency: “The ratio of a player’s average carry distance and his average swing speed when measured by the radar device (Average Carry Distance / Average Swing Speed). This creates a ratio of yards per miles per hour.” — via the PGA Tour
Distance Efficiency: “The ratio of a player’s average total distance and his average swing speed when measured by the radar device (Average Total Distance / Average Swing Speed). This creates a ratio of yards per miles per hour.” — via the PGA Tour
Add these rankings up and you get a number that is Total Driving Efficiency.
Why does Total Driving Efficiency matter?
Most popular Tour stats live around carry distance, ball speed and accuracy. But what stat out there speaks to the perfect fit of a golf club? That’s TDE.
Simply put, it speaks to how well the driver (for this discussion) in hand harmonizes with a particular player. Have you ever had a “unicorn” golf club? That one club you hit outta the middle, went a mile, went straight, all the time? Well that’s what this stat references — and it’s not talked about enough.
Think of it in terms of optimization. Let’s use Tour leader Greyson Sigg as our example. Sigg is 175th in swing speed at 109.56 mph but he also averages 296 yards off the tee. Granted that’s carry plus rollout, but that is a big number for that swing speed. According to TrackMan optimization, which is a chart that shows the perfect numbers at specific swing speeds and launch conditions, Sigg is at the tip of the spear. That means that beyond swinging it faster, his driver numbers can’t get any better. That’s called maxed out, people, and it’s a beautiful thing.
European Ryder Cupper Sepp Straka is another one that checks off this box. He swings it at just shy of 112 mph and averages 295 yards off the tee, ranking him third on Tour.
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This performance is a Tour fitter’s badge of honor because what they have accomplished is two-fold:
1. They put the perfect head in harmony with the perfect shaft into the player’s hands.
2. They legitimately took a player that may live speed-wise in one category but allowed them to compete in another because the club worked so well.
