This common golf tip is ruining your driving accuracy

If you’ve ever had to hit an important shot under pressure, you’ve probably heard the popular golf expression: aim small, miss small.

In a game where fractions of an inch can be the difference between birdie and bogey, that sounds like sage advice. But only because sound well doesn’t mean it’s true.

Does aiming at a smaller target really guarantee better loss? This is the question Eric Alpenfels, a GOLF Top 100 Teachersand Dr. Bob Christina of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro tried to answer one 2018 study.

To determine how target size affects performance on the course, they conducted studies on different shots: tip shots (driver, 3-wood), irons (9 and 6-iron), and short game (break, chip, and putt).

While all the studies revealed surprising conclusions, the results from the driving part may be the most surprising of all—and their findings may even help you hit more fairways.

Conclusion: Aim big to hit more fairways

Contrary to the “aim small, miss small” belief, Alpenfels and Christina’s study proved that aiming at a bigger ones the target led to improved performance in driving accuracy and distance off the tee.

How did they get there?

To reach this conclusion, Alpenfels and Christina monitored 32 right-handed golfers with an average age of 65. Players were divided into two skill levels: low and high skill players. USGA indexes ranged from 1 to 11.8 for the handicap group and 13.4 to 30 for the high handicap group.

A pre-study questionnaire found that, like many of us, most of the players in the test preferred to aim for small targets off the tee and usually chose the driver over a 3-wood when given a choice.

To determine whether small or large targets were more effective, each player hit 12 tee shots — six with a driver and six with a 3-wood — using their clubs and the same ball for consistency. For each club, they hit three shots using a small target (about 0.30 yards wide) and three aimed at a large target (about 30 yards wide). Performance was measured by three data points: distance from the center of the fairway, fairway strike, and total distance.

After analyzing the data, Alpenfels and Christina found that players performed better overall when aiming for a large target.

The average driving error (distance from the center of the fairway) was less when players focused on the larger target (~13 yards) than when they used a smaller target (~14 yards). The number of freeway hits was also significantly higher when using a large target (64 freeway hits) compared to using a small target (48 freeway hits).

Players also saw a slight bump in driving distance — roughly 5 yards — when using a large target off the tee. The average drive distance when using a large target was ~220 yards, while the average drive distance of players with a small target was around ~225 yards.

With the data from this study, Alpenfels and Christina demonstrated that the old phrase “aim small, miss small” does not hold. In fact, they proved that “aiming big” might just be the key to unlocking more accuracy and distance off the tee.