PGA Tour vs DP World Tour vs LIV Golf: Which Circuit Has The Longest Hitters?

In the modern era of the game, many tour golfers are finding ways to increase their driving distance in a bid to challenge for titles and keep pace with the pack.

By boosting clubhead speed, hitting the gym hard with the best golf exercises and working tirelessly on the range, players are inevitably getting longer and we are now seeing the driving distance average creep up year-on-year.

With the likes of Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and Marco Penge leading the way in recent seasons, there are clearly a core group of crushers on each of the men's professional tours... but which won the distance race in 2025?

PGA vs DP World vs LIV: Which Tour Has The Longest Hitters?

Let's start with the parameters for my little research project.

I am going to take the top-5 on the driving distance average leaderboard for 2025, from the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf, then compare the data to see which camp wins.

PGA Tour

Kicking off with the PGA Tour, you might be surprised to hear that Rory McIlroy had to settle for second place in the 2025 driving distance tables.

South African Aldrich Potgieter outranked the Career Grand Slam winner, with a whopping 325 yard driving distance average. McIlroy, as previously stated, came in runner up with an (almost) equally impressive 323 yard average.

The final three spots were filled by Nicolai Hojgaard (318.8), Jesper Svensson (318.6) and Kurt Kitayama (318).

Interestingly, two of the top-5 have played a lot of their career starts on the DP World Tour before earning their PGA Tour cards, and McIlroy also tends to play across both tours throughout the year - so expect some crossover in the lists.

DP World Tour

We head over to the DP World Tour now, where perhaps less surprisingly Rory McIlroy managed to grasp top spot.

At 323.18 yards, the Northern Irishman was the biggest hitter in 2025, but he was very closely followed by another who produced some huge driver performances on the PGA Tour last season - Nicolai Hojgaard (323.14)

South African Wilco Nienaber ranked third with 321.17 yards, while Mikael Lindberg (319.41) and Marco Penge (319.26) battled it out for fourth and fifth respectively.

Marco Penge, who has now secured a PGA Tour card and recently signed with PXG, will certainly be pushing his way into the conversation for being the biggest hitter on the PGA Tour next season - despite being a rookie.

LIV Golf

Now, this is where it gets interesting. If you had asked me who the biggest hitter on LIV Golf was, I would straight away have opted for Bryson DeChambeau... but I would have been wrong.

In fact, Joaquin Niemann led the way in 2025 with a mammoth average of 330.4 yards.

Bryson DeChambeau filed in just behind Niemann at 328.8 yards, which would still have put him in first place on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour lists, and Dean Burmester rounded out the top-3 with an impressive 327.6 yard average.

Even David Puig in fourth place (325.3) would outrank Aldrich Potgieter and Rory McIlroy to take the honour of biggest hitter (average) on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour, and Peter Uihlein would also be knocking on the door at 324.6.

Results

Based on those numbers, it's hard to argue any other outcome than LIV Golf being crowned as the ultimate crushers in men's professional golf.

Before the comments section explodes, I'm aware that LIV Golf have less tournaments in their schedule, but that can work both ways as each performance is then more heavily weighted - demanding consistency over time.

The combined list shows that five players have an average of more than 325 yards, none of whom play on the PGA Tour, while ten of the top-15 longest hitters (average) in the world of men's professional golf launch the ball more than 320 yards. Incredible!