I read an interview with Nick Faldo a while back, and here is part of it:

"Q.: Has the game changed too much? "

Nick Faldo: "Well, yeah, it really has from my era, which was only -- wow, it's 15 years ago, that's all, and it's a totally different style of golf. We all drove the ball with Persimmon drivers, the big hitters were 260. You know, maybe that was probably -- a good carry in those days was 245, 250. The big guys hit it 260. Now Tiger is hitting a little fade out there in cold weather at 310. (Laughter.) Yeah, comes up on ShotLink, 310, we're going, "What?" When he launches one, it's 320 and there's plenty of guys who hit it 280 through the air, 300 through the air. That's the difference."

So I did a little research on www.pgatour.com and came up with historical data on driving distance on the big tour and developed the following:

Before John Daly came on the scene in 1991, the distance in 1981 of 280.1 yards actually decreased in the next 9 years to 279.6 yards in 1990!

In fact, the top driving distance leader on the 2007 LPGA Tour is hitting the ball further than anyone on the PGA Tour in the years 1980, 1982, 1983 and 1984! And no doubt further than anyone in the preceding years, before records were kept. This would include Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and a host of other greats. Just imagine what they might have done with today's equipment!

Any more questions about how the length of top players has changed the game?