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Cabrera average drive:
1 round 298.5
2 round 322.0
3 round 314.5
Overall (so far) 311.7

Bubba average drive:
1 round 300.5
2 round 300.5
3 round 306.5
Overall (so far) 302.2

Source for Bubba.
Source for Cabrera.

Interesting

You know how much this stat means to the eventual winner? Zilch.

Still, pretty interesting.

did you guys see that 370 yd bubba drive? and then he hit a 354, pretty impressive i think

Aaron Baddeley and Tiger Woods, although they're not short drivers, have lower stats and they're #1 and #2 so far. But it's an interesting fact all the same.

Actually I like Baddeley because he's the Stack & Tilt flagship and this swing style helped me a lot. On the other hand, I sympathize with Cabrera because he's a fellow Argentinean.

Cabrera is usually too aggressive and impatient. He aims to score a whole in one from every tee, which sometimes drives him to good results but more often drags him to catastrophes. In fact he managed to control his temperament this time and this explains his good performance (T7 so far).

Cabrera hits driver almost every hole. That would explain why he has better distance stats than Bubba.

Does this only count balls that find the fairway?

Yes.

Driving distance....IIRC the only stat has a weaker correlation with success is sand saves or average putts per round (the latter being a function of G.I.R.).

I am pretty sure that these stats are only taken off of a few holes on the course for each tournament, and those are the holes where pretty much everyone hits driver.

Keith

The average tournament only counts two holes each round for driving distance. So, those holes where Bubba went 370 and 354 didn't count I'm sure. Pretty useless stat in the grand scheme of things.

I really don't understand why they do that. Doesn't the PGA Tour keep track of every statistic through Shot Link?

Good question, nikeone. 2 measured drives per round has been the standard since 1980, but you would think they would have changed that.

Yes, you would think they'd use all the "driving" holes where almost everyone is using a driver full-out...if length is the stat they're interested in...same with total driving only they'd factor in FIR. Lot more statkeepers out there these days + ShotLink...don't see why they wouldn't.

Shade

didn't cabrera hit one like 394 or something ridiculous in the final round?

I think they didn't want to "disadvantage" those that chose to play 1 irons and 3 woods off the tee for accuracy purposes most of the time (as Jack Nicklaus has begun to do by 1980). If they chose two wide open holes each tournament and everyone knew those were the "stat" holes. then they could hit driver without getting into too much trouble. I agree that it should be changed to reflect all holes over a certain distance and let the stat reflect a more accurate average. Again, driving distance doesn't really correlate to success, so it shouldn't matter one way or the other.