Trends: Handicap / Driving Distance / Time as a golfer anonymous poll

[bones75]

I'm relatively new to TST, and just found about the poll capabilities.  If this has been done, let me know, but I've looked and couldn't find one.

I'm curious about this stuff, hopefully i'm not the only one.  If people fill this out I'll scatter graph results.  I'm curious about this stuff, hopefully i'm not the only one.

it's anonymous: only honest answers will make the results interesting for all.

Poll only allows for 3 questions, but wish i could have added more.

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crap. I'm sorry for possibly wasting space.  mod: pls remove if i've done so.

I thought i would get detailed results.  can't scatter graph this if it only shows aggregate answers.

Edited December 7, 2015 by bones75

[bones75]

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I don't know who to ask, or if it's possible based on the forum/poll software package TST is run on... but if I can get the individual results of each individual poll-taker there can be some interesting graphs:  "Handicap to Driving distance correlation" or "handicap to # of rounds played"

If anyone knows who i can even ask, msg me or post here.

[pganapathy]

There is another parameter that needs to be added here.  Age and time started golf.  Like with all sports, the younger you learn it, the better you tend to be at it.  I can drive 275+ because I have been playing on and off for approximately 30 years and am 40 now.  Same criteria applied to someone who has been playing 30 years, but started at age 40 and 275+ is highly iffy.

Distance is always important, but a large part of that is based on the course you play.  Always hit a 9 iron over a 7 iron full shot into a green and your handicap will drop a stroke or two due to better accuracy with the shorter club giving you less room for error

[SavvySwede]

I do if rounds played is a very good indicator of anything except for the higher handicap ranges. Lots of people hit a plateau after the first 2-3 years. Plus some guys go to the range a lot more often while others only spend time on the course.

[iacas]

These should not have been made multiple choice, btw.

I'm scratch or slightly better. I hit it about 265 or so off the tee (this year we got VERY little roll, all year… ). I've been playing for years so I'm probably past 1000 rounds, but I might be counting all the times I played nine holes, or five holes… 1000 rounds is a lot of golf. Those in the golf industry don't get to play as much as people think.

[mvmac]

Started playing "seriously" when I was 12, I'm a 1 handicap now (lowest was a +2), hit it 265 off the tee (last 15 rounds) and have played over 1,000 rounds.

[Lihu]

Is the drive distance actual average or average decent drive?

EDIT: Average handicap is about 12 (on this site?) and average drive is 225-250 with more than 251-500 rounds played.

 

ANSWER to OP, I think?:

http://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/64681-handicap-versus-clubhead-speeddriving-distance/#comment-687892

Edited December 7, 2015 by Lihu
Looked at the votes, and they look pretty much right.

[Grumpter]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

These should not have been made multiple choice, btw.

I'm scratch or slightly better. I hit it about 265 or so off the tee (this year we got VERY little roll, all year… ). I've been playing for years so I'm probably past 1000 rounds, but I might be counting all the times I played nine holes, or five holes… 1000 rounds is a lot of golf. Those in the golf industry don't get to play as much as people think.

The first thing I asked when talking to many people in the industry was 'how often do you get to golf?. Most answering 'the last thing I want to do on my 1 day off a week is be on a golf course' made my mind up that it wasn't for me personally. Though I had enough of a passion for it maybe I could have been the exception.

1,000 rounds of golf is not that much if you have played for a number of years. I would guess I hit the 1,000 round mark by my mid 20's but I started young.

[Lihu]

22 minutes ago, Grumpter said:

The first thing I asked when talking to many people in the industry was 'how often do you get to golf?. Most answering 'the last thing I want to do on my 1 day off a week is be on a golf course' made my mind up that it wasn't for me personally. Though I had enough of a passion for it maybe I could have been the exception.

1,000 rounds of golf is not that much if you have played for a number of years. I would guess I hit the 1,000 round mark by my mid 20's but I started young.

I've heard this as well, but they also need to do other things as well, like buying groceries, shopping for clothes, etc.

Even the ambassadors who get free rounds for volunteering 8-12 hours per week don't get in as many rounds as I can. One retired person I partner with on occasion plays all day Monday, but the pace of play in the afternoons and weekends is really slow. I doubt they can get more than one round in per day.

Rounds that are scored are another matter for golfers like me (about 1/3 because I like to try different things on the course that could artificially affect my handicap), and if I play at the rate I am playing now I should reach 1000 rounds in another 4-5 years. If I get in 4-6 rounds per week (unlikely) 3 more years is possible, but I would get bored. . .

Back to the OP: I see that the polls are pretty much averaging out to the 12HC, 237 yard drives, 251 to 500 rounds played. This seems pretty correct to me, especially for posters on this site. . .

[Dave2512]

I am 6.9 and I average 236 but that's with all over the place drives, it's by far my weakest link. Since I started in 2012 I have play in the 251-500 rounds range.

My guess is my driving average is low given my handicap. It's certainly not representative of potential. I am truly abysmal with driver in hand. My handicap is probably low given the number of rounds I've played, it could be lower if I could hit a driver. My driver average is just a couple yards more than my 3h average that's how inconsistent I am.

[natureboy]

Couple things not clear from the poll questions. I assumed you were going for average drive with driver rather than average par 4 & 5 driving / tee distance with all clubs and also not how far your good drives go. My only on-course rough measurements vs. range estimating put me in the 225-250 bucket (mostly carry due to northeast fairways) with a wide variation in distance due to inconsistent contact on the face, which I am working on to make the most of the distance I am capable of hitting it. Also assuming rounds played only reflects time on course, not total swing practice time which would be significantly higher in my case.

[DrvFrShow]

What if you never play at sea level? I play at 500 feet elevation. 

[SavvySwede]

47 minutes ago, DrvFrShow said:

What if you never play at sea level? I play at 500 feet elevation. 

5000? Subtract 15-20y I would guess.

[DrvFrShow]

@SavvySwede Not 5000, 500. I've played at 5000 ft once. It was a blast. Probably I'd lose about 5 yds. going to sea level which would put me at about 215 yds carry with my driver, and after a three day rain like we've been having, the ball would probably come to rest about 220 yds at most. 

[No Mulligans]

1 hour ago, SavvySwede said:

5000? Subtract 15-20y I would guess.

Looks like that is in the ball park based on this which says to use 7-10% at a mile high: http://www.pga.com/seniorpga/2010/news/altitude.html

Quote

"What happens at altitude is there are fewer molecules in the way, which decreases the friction you find at sea level, which is why the ball flies further -- that's a fact," Stevens said. "At a mile high, you want to make an adjustment of 7-10 percent. Headwinds and tailwinds don't have as much effect at altitude, which means there are fewer molecules to resist or boost the ball."

Not sure if it would be a straight line, but I'd guess it wouldn't be too far off from a straight line.  500 ft being 10% of 5,000 feet, the change in distance from sea level to 500 ft would be just about 1%, pretty negligible.  The temperature, humidity, and air pressure would probably have a larger impact on distance at that low of an altitude.

[WUTiger]

One possible problem with estimating rounds played, vs. how long playing golf.

Many of us have had a few years here or there where we just couldn't play golf. Or, some people dropped out when the second child arrived, and picked back up again when the youngest went off to college. So, I wonder if "how many rounds played" tells us much, especially if you played 500 rounds - skipped 20 years - and have 100 rounds since coming back. Also, as others have suggested, how may buckets of range balls translate into a round played? It's all golfing activity.

[Pretzel]

I am an index of 1.0, have an average driving distance at sea level of somewhere around 285 (I infrequently play at that altitude, but the difference isn't as great as you think due to the increased humidity compared to Colorado), and I would say that I have likely played north of 1000 rounds, with at least 300 of them coming two summers ago alone.

[bones75]

Honestly, the intent of the poll was so i could scatter graph results.  But I didn't realize I wouldn't get individual poll-taker data, I just get aggregate, so although it's interesting, it's not as deep as I'd hoped.  

Would love to have seen how handicap correlates to # of rounds you've played, and to have actual graphical data on how driving distance correlates to handicap.  Thre have been numerous threads on TST on this stuff, but I've never seen actual data graphed (i.e. you have to look post by post).

Mbe I can provide a link to a poll website.  

I'm a data cruncher by profession, so I dig this stuff.  TST poll also limits to 3 questions, but originally i had more I wanted to ask (not just rounds played, but how many years, and how old are you now, etc..).

Lemme know if you think we could get at least a few hundred ppl up to answering a 5-10 question poll and if anyone else is interested in seeing this and I'll poke around.