{"id":833773,"date":"2026-09-02T04:50:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/833773\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T04:50:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:50:34","slug":"he-is-the-only-golfer-on-the-pga-tour-who-drove-the-ball-further-than-rory-mcilroy-in-the-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/833773\/","title":{"rendered":"He is the only golfer on the PGA Tour who drove the ball further than Rory McIlroy in the 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMWcxajNfc2h3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Follow us on Google Discover <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>The 2026 PGA Tour season concluded last weekend at the Tour Championship, with Scottie Scheffler winning by three strokes.<\/p>\n<p>With a three-week hiatus until the Biltmore Championship Asheville, this is the perfect time to reflect on the past season.<\/p>\n<p>We have looked at the leaders of each statistical category on the PGA Tour, and the longest driver was particularly interesting.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2287365087-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"3M Open 2026 - Round One\" \/>Photo by David Berding\/Getty ImagesAldrich Potgieter\u2019s driving distance feat against Rory McIlroy<\/p>\n<p>21-year-old South African golfer Aldrich Potgieter was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/topic\/pga-tour\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"98401\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PGA Tour\u2019s<\/a> biggest hitter in 2026, ahead of Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n<p>Potgieter drove the ball an average of 331.1 yards, a little less than one yard more than the Masters champion (330.3).<\/p>\n<p>However, the South African\u2019s inaccuracy off the tee meant that he did not take full advantage of his huge driving distance.<\/p>\n<p>Potgieter ranked 147th on the PGA Tour for driving accuracy in the 2026 season, hitting just 51.83% of fairways.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"grv-tpwp-permalink-overlay\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/talkingpoints\/talk-golf\/what-are-your-thoughts-on-the-tour-championship-changing-to-match-play-in-2028\/\" aria-label=\"What are your thoughts on the Tour Championship changing to match-play in 2028?\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">        What are your thoughts on the Tour Championship changing to match-play in 2028? <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">The Tour Championship is set for a huge revamp in 2028\u2026<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/discuss-9-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-121576\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p>By comparison, Russell Henley ranked first at making fairways with an impressive 72.59% driving accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>MORE RORY MCILROY STORIES<\/p>\n<p>That is why Potgieter only ranked 16th in strokes gained off the tee, whereas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/topic\/rory-mcilroy\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"98400\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McIlroy<\/a> was comfortably in the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 Rocket Classic winner would also benefit from practising his iron play in the offseason, as it consistently let him down.<\/p>\n<p>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover The 2026 PGA Tour season concluded last weekend at the Tour Championship, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[122281,427,3332,6082,99],"class_list":["post-833773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-aldrich-potgieter","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}