Saturday afternoon was dull but it stayed dry, so it was another lovely afternoon on the course. I managed to send a few of my drives straight down the middle of the fairway, which is typical – seeing as we’re dropping off the fairways these days! I certainly didn’t land on the fairway on every hole, as the gentlemen playing up the 7th while I was on the 1st can verify!
I’m a bit of a data geek, so I tried to find some facts and figures about fairways, A quick search online revealed that typical PGA Tour fairways are 30 to 32 yards wide on average, but fairways usually are narrower for major championships, averaging as little as 24 yards wide. I couldn’t find similar data for local courses, but I discovered that a typical American golf course’s fairways are 35 to 45 yards wide. American golf course architect Jeffrey Bauer reckons that scratch golfers will hit a 32-yard-wide fairway about two-thirds of the time, while 20-handicap golfers require a 40-yard-wide fairway to achieve a 66 percent success rate.
The DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour) returned to the United Arab Emirates last week for the first of four consecutive events in the country. At the start of the week, as the professionals were preparing for the event, the Tour’s media team took Rory McIlroy, Tyrrell Hatton and Collin Morikawa to the drag strip at Yas Marina Circuit for one of the most difficult challenges ever attempted – hit a one-yard-wide fairway.
The Rules: you must use a driver and the ball must land and stay on the fairway.
Watch what happened: