Who is PGA Tour's driving distance leader? 2025's longest driver explored

Driving distance on the PGA Tour isn't the only determining factor behind success, but it is an important aspect. Being able to consistently drive the greens or at least get further than other players makes the rest of the hole much easier.

If a shot off the tee lands 50 yards closer than someone else's, the chances of performing better are stronger. Some golfers on tour are better at that than others, and that's been true in 2025.

So far, the current leader is Aldrich Potgieter. He's averaging 328.7 yards on his drives, of which he has taken 12 so far this year. He's just ahead of Rory McIlroy, who is averaging 326.7 on 16 drives.

Last year, McIlroy was again second with an average of 320.2. He was slightly outdone by Cameron Champ at 322.8. Potgieter, who just officially turned pro last year, was not on the list.

Gary Woodland is third, but he has the same amount of drives that Potgieter and McIlroy have combined. Others have a lot more drives, like Maverick McNealy with 46 or Sam Stevens with 42. Davis Thompson has 40. Taylor Pendrith has 38 drives. JJ Spaun has driven 36 times.

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PGA Tour's best drivers explored

The rest of the PGA Tour is trailing behind Aldrich Potgieter and Rory McIlroy right now, but they're not far behind. Some notable names and some surprising players rank pretty high in the Tour's driving distance metric.

Rory McIlroy consistently ranks among top PGA Tour drivers (Image via Imagn)

Here are some of the rest of the top drivers:

• Gary Woodland, 323.9
• Tim Widing, 321.7
• Alejandro Tosti, 320.9
• Min Woo Lee, 320.0
• Jeremy Paul, 320.0
• Trey Mullinax, 319.4
• Adam Schenk, 318.6
• Keith Mitchell, 318.3
• Luke Clanton, 318.2
• Kurt Kitayama, 318.2
• Rasmus Hojgaard, 318.2
• Webb Simpson, 318.1
• Rickey Castillo, 317.2
• Norman Xiong, 316.8
• Vincent Norrman, 316.5
• Kris Ventura, 316.5
• Rico Hoey, 316.4
• Kevin Roy, 316.4

Last year, world number one and nine-time winner (globally, not just on the PGA Tour) Scottie Scheffler ranked 64th in driving distance, so it's not the deciding stat in wins and losses.

This year, though Aldrich Potgieter leads the Tour in this statistic, he has a missed cut at the Sony Open, another missed cut at the American Express, and a T15 at the Farmers Insurance Open. He's in the field for the Mexico Open to add more drives to his average.

On the other hand, McIlroy has played well. He has only two PGA Tour starts, but he won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and tied for 17th at the Genesis Invitational. He also tied for fourth at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour, so his driving has led to success.