How Far Would Jack Nicklaus Drive It Today?
In 1963, Jack Nicklaus striped a drive 341 yards — with a persimmon-headed club and a wound balata ball, decades before anyone made a science of speed. So the obvious question: how far would that same swing go with modern equipment?
Give Jack’s swing today’s gear — a titanium head and a multilayer ball that flies higher and spins less — and it’s worth roughly 40 more yards to a swing like his. That’s 341 plus 40: about 380 yards. And that’s the conservative version. Jack himself figured modern equipment would add closer to 50.
The man was hitting it Tour-long before the Tour was trying to. Imagine him now.