Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are undoubtedly two of golf's modern-day greats. The duo share 21 Major championships and 115 regular PGA Tour titles as well as a host of other trophies and accolades.
Woods was well known for having a sparkling all-around game while Mickelson is the proud owner of one of the best short games ever seen - complimenting his excellent overall skill. Both could shift it out there during their heyday - but who hit it further?
Woods v Mickelson Driving Distances
Between Mickelson turning pro in 1988 and Woods arriving on the scene a full eight years later, Lefty regularly sat in the top half of the PGA Tour's longest drivers over the course of a season and only once dipped below the tour average. That was in his first season, where he was just 0.3 yards shy of the 262.9 yard median.
During his early years in the big leagues, Mickelson struggled with consistency of distance off the tee. He posted 262.6 in 1988 before rocketing up to 278.7 a year later and crashing back down to 266.2 in 1990. But from 1991 onwards, Mickelson's numbers predominantly moved one way - up.
The three-time Masters champion was never crowned the longest hitter over a season, however. He twice came close by finishing third in both 2000 and 2003, with the second of those efforts producing a mammoth average driving distance of 306 yards.
Prior to that, Mickelson finished in a tie for third in 2000 with a year-long number of 288.7. And guess who was one of the two above him? Tiger Woods. Five years into his professional career, Woods actually ended 2000 almost 10 yards longer than Mickelson with 298.0 - though he trailed monster hitter, John Daly by a full 3.5 yards, himself.
Lefty's longest season in professional golf arrived during the shortened 2020 campaign - where the Covid-19 pandemic caused much of the world to stop in its tracks for at least a brief period. Mickelson's 311.5 average was only ahead of his 306.3 the previous year, record numbers which arrived following a swing-speed increase of between five and six miles per hour that helped Mickelson start hitting bombs and ultimately add Major number six to his display cabinet at the age of 50.
And his most recent season in the LIV Golf League proves he has been able to maintain that power, too. Throughout 2023, Mickelson averaged an incredible 301.8 yards off the tee - higher than the PGA Tour average of 299.9.
Meanwhile, once Woods turned pro, the 15-time Major champion spent each of his first five full seasons on tour as one of the top-three longest hitters off the tee, without managing to dislodge Daly, via yardages of 293.1 and 298.
Woods continued to win plenty of titles but only lifted above 300 yards at the end of a campaign between 2004-07 - not reaching the magic number again until 2015. His longest year on tour was in 2005, belting it an average of 316.1 yards. Woods remained comfortably above the tour average in every season he featured, aside from the 2021 season where he fell below by 5.9 yards.
And of the 27 seasons where both golfers had turned professional and played at least one tournament - Woods missed the entire 2016 campaign - Woods outdrove Mickelson in 18 of them.
Woods v Mickelson Longest Drives
Although neither had managed to stand on top of the average-driving-distance mountain, so to speak, both Woods and Mickelson are able to boast the longest single drive in separate years on the PGA Tour.
Woods' longest drive arrived at the Mercedes Championship in January 2002 - the first year the PGA Tour began recording such a statistic - and was just a hop short of 500 yards, coming to rest at an outstanding 498 yards.
Not to take anything away from Woods, but the mammoth smash came on the 18th hole of the Plantation Course in Hawaii - a hole that features a large downslope - and he was one of 19 players to hit the ball over 450 yards on that hole during the tournament that week. Still, it goes down as his longest ever drive on the PGA Tour.
Meanwhile, Mickelson's big-drive crown arrived in 2013 - the same year he won The Open ahead of Henrik Stenson at Muirfield Golf Links in Scotland. It probably didn't occur in the way he had planned, mind, with the left-hander slightly pulling a drive down the right side of the par-4 17th at TPC Blue Monster at Doral in the WGC-Cadillac Championship.
Thanks to the errant line, though, Mickelson's ball bounded down the cart path far further than it ordinarily would have and landed pin-high at 450 yards. That helped him win the longest drive of 2013 and tie Woods for one unofficial long-drive crown each.
The above statistics prove that both legends of the game were long hitters. But while Mickelson is now hitting it further than ever, it's safe to say that - throughout their careers - Woods came out on top in this particular battle.
