Arccos Data Meets Major Championship Pressure

There’s something about Quail Hollow. The way the course stretches through the Carolina pines. The shadows that fall across the fairways in the late afternoon. The quiet tension on the tee box as players take aim down a corridor that seems to narrow with every swing.

This week, the world’s best arrive in Charlotte for the PGA Championship. Rory, Scottie, Brooks, and the rest. And if there’s one thing Quail Hollow demands, it’s distance. 

Rory McIlroy knows Quail Hollow well. He’s won here before. And he’s perfectly built for it. This course rewards players who can hit it long and high, carry bunkers most can’t, and turn 480 yard par 4s into mid iron approach shots. That’s Rory’s domain.

According to Arccos TOUR Ambassador and Chief Data Strategist, Edoardo Molinari, who recently broke down the keys to Quail Hollow in Golf Digest, 68 percent of strokes gained off the tee by top finishers come from distance. In a sport where every shot matters, those who can push the ball 300 yards or more consistently are at an advantage.

But then there’s the rest of us. The weekend warriors. The scratch players with day jobs. The dreamers watching from our living rooms and thinking, what if?

At Arccos, we recently released our 2025 Driving Distance Report, drawing on more than 6.5 million verified driver tee shots captured from real golfers playing real rounds. 

• The average male Arccos user drives it 224.7 yards.
• A low handicap male (0-4.9 handicap), someone with serious skill, averages 250 yards.
• Even the longest group of women in their 20s come in at 201.1 yards.

Now take that 250 yard hitter, put him on the PGA Championship tees at Quail Hollow, and what happens?

That gettable par 5 becomes a three shot puzzle. That mid length par 4 suddenly feels like a par 5. And those approach shots the pros are hitting with pitching wedges? You’re holding a hybrid and hoping you can hold the green.

It’s not a knock on skill. It’s geometry. It’s math. It’s the sheer reality of a 60 yard gap in carry distance between the best amateurs and the best in the world.

And the challenges don’t stop there. Our report also looked at wayward tee shots, drives that result in penalties, punch outs, or forced layups. These are the killers. The ones that derail scorecards. Unsurprisingly, higher handicap players see these more often, and the damage adds up fast.

So while Tour players at Quail Hollow can potentially afford to miss a fairway here and there, most amateurs can’t. That’s the real divide. Not just distance, but the cost of being off line. Golf doesn’t have to be fair to be fun. And you don’t have to be Rory to play smart.

With Arccos, you can know your game. Your real driving distance, not your once in a blue moon best. Your tendencies off the tee. Your most common misses. With data, you can stop guessing and start making smarter decisions. You can manage expectations, choose the right tees, and shape your strategy like the pros even if you’re still 60 yards short of their tee ball.

This week at Quail Hollow, the best players in the world will showcase what elite driving looks like. It’ll be thrilling to watch. But the real win is using what we learn to get a little better, ourselves.

Because power is great. But knowledge, that’s what really travels.