Has anyone ever done a comprehensive analysis comparing ball flights on tour?

Draws and cuts and trajectory are talked about a ton on the broadcasts, but has anyone actually done a study comparing the performance of different stock shapes?

Don't know if a study has been done but I'll add my little take on flight. People think a draw is a small hook and a fade is a small slice but this is not the case. Hook and block are related. Slice and pull are related. Fade and draw are related. A hook dips and a block is a reaction to a hook. A slice balloons and a pull is a reaction to a slice. Draws and fades are basically straight shots that simply have a little fall at the end of the flight. A draw is not a small hook. A small hook is a small hook. Jason Day and Justin Thomas play with a small hook and when it goes bad it becomes a big hook. The players who are consistently good play with a straight shot that falls slightly at the end. Snead, Nicklaus, Hogan, Trevino and Tiger chose to play with a fade but could hit a draw if they wanted because their basic pattern was pretty straight. To extend this further they have a release pattern that means they don't have to use their hands to square the club. John Rahm, Victor Hovland and Min Woo Lee are the next group I've seen that will have a lot of success because they don't rely on timing.

Every single player uses hands to square the club. Slices don't always balloon and hooks don't dip. Can definitely hit a flat slice and a ballooning hook. I think this is over complicating matters.

To the OP, I think everyone on tour has a shot shape they prefer (can differ with irons/driver etc.), and playing to that shot shape leads to the best scores on average. IMO it probably doesn't matter which way the ball curves overall (certain courses may favor one shot or another).

Haven’t done a study but from attending quite a few tournaments they over exaggerate the shot shapes. The players don’t curve the ball nearly as much as they insinuate on tv and when they label a player a “drawer” or “fader” of the ball I found in many instances it was flat out untrue. A couple that jump out to me are Fred Couples and David Duval. I use to hear about how they hit a fade yet when watching them play all I saw was a predominately straight ball with maybe a hint of a draw. All the guys on the range seem to just hit lasers.

Have to disagree. The arms and hands can roll open and closed but not always because the player is trying to do that. It's a natural momentum of the forces in a golf swing. Its only deliberate if the player feels their natural swing won't send the ball down the middle. Just because a hook is high doesn't mean it is ballooning and just because a fade is low doesn't mean it is dipping. But I'm not talking about trick shots. I'm talking about a stock shot.

Adam Scott played his whole career with a small hook and an unbelievable amount of talent. He has spent the last couple of years changing his release patterns to play with a straight ball flight and he is now starting to see the benefits. The next 5 years will be the most productive of his career as he now now has a swing to match his talent.

Yes, and that's precisely why they are really good at golf while amateurs are not. Any change I do to my swing is to hopefully produce baby draws or fades. I used to hit pretty big hook draws. It's just too hard to control and unstable. The less of it, the better as anybody can end up hitting a push or a pull, but then the effects are minimal. A pro can hit a pull and be next to the green. Am's hit a pull and it's off into the woods.