Looking for a new driver, 23 years old - 280-320 yards with a ton of loft.. Please Help

wdorsa · March 1, 2011

I have played just one year of golf now probably been out 12-15 times with a beginner set of golf clubs. I am 23 years old pretty strong and drive the ball between 280-320 yards. I also hit the ball very high and usually slice. Looking at the Callaway Diablo Edge/Tour Driver, rated by golf digest to be very forgiving as well as pretty inexpensive in the $150 range. Not sure what loft to get or how stiff of a shaft (9,10,11 or stiff extra stiff or regular). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

**ajschn06** · March 1, 2011

1. You do not drive the ball 320

2. If your looking for forgiveness, stay away from tour models.

3. Since you "claim" to drive the ball 320, I would suspect that you at least have a good amount of swing speed, so your probably looking at something with 9* or so loft and a stiff shaft.

If you really want to get serious about golf though, go get properly fitted for a driver. The shaft is the most important aspect. Not just the flex, but you have to think about weight, kickpoint, length, etc. That's why getting properly fitted is so important....

**Clambake** · March 1, 2011

240 yards out and 80 yards sideways does not equal a 320 yard drive

wdorsa · March 1, 2011

The point of my post was not to boast about driving distance but to improve my game. When I slice it obviously does not go 320 yards but if I hit it strait it goes as far as I said before. I will take the advice of going for a fitting, I have a golfsmith like twenty minutes away. Thanks.

**AzGolfGeek** · March 1, 2011

Considering your experience, and what you describe as a high slicing ball flight, I would recommend a few lessons first. This will help in determining what driver will help you the most. The lessons should help determine if the slice is an issue with your swing, hitting it high is usually good, but the ball needs to stay within one control. Once your swing is consistent, and ball flight is consistent, then I would find a demo day at a local course and hit all the drivers available, Nike has 2 heads with about 50 shaft options, Ping has multiple options, Taylormade has 2 drivers with multiple shaft options, Titleist has 2 different heads....point is, there are so many options available, you need to try many of them to determine what is comfortable and whats not. Once you find something that's comfortable, I would then get fitted, Fitting will determine some specs for a club, if you do a fitting before trying a lot of club, you may have a mental idea of what your looking for in a club which might be whats really the best for your abilities. This is, if you really want a club customized for you, that will maximize your ability. If your just looking to beat the ball around the course, I would recommend looking at past year or 2 year models, they will be a lot cheaper. From that stand point, callaway, taylormade, titleist ect are all going to be about the same.

**sean_miller** · March 1, 2011

Originally Posted by wdorsa

The point of my post was not to boast about driving distance but to improve my game. When I slice it obviously does not go 320 yards but if I hit it strait it goes as far as I said before. I will take the advice of going for a fitting, I have a golfsmith like twenty minutes away. Thanks.

Do the fitting, btu after playing for only 1 year, your swing might not be consistent enough to shell out big money for a new driver. If you can get those yardages on your good hits, then it's probably not the driver, but any level of fitting can tell you that for sure.

**max power** · March 1, 2011

1) You don't drive the ball 320

2) Even if you don't get a fitting go to a golf store with a simulator and hit a bunch of drivers, completely free and should help you narrow down your search

**ajschn06** · March 1, 2011

The point of my post was that many amateurs don't realize how far 300 yards is. Luke Donald only averages like 278 yards off the tee(I think that's what I heard). I believe that you can hit the ball a long way, and it may feel like 300 yards, but I guarantee you it's not...

Originally Posted by wdorsa

The point of my post was not to boast about driving distance but to improve my game. When I slice it obviously does not go 320 yards but if I hit it strait it goes as far as I said before. I will take the advice of going for a fitting, I have a golfsmith like twenty minutes away. Thanks.

**Gerald** · March 2, 2011

When I was like 23 .......

Originally Posted by ajschn06

The point of my post was that many amateurs don't realize how far 300 yards is. Luke Donald only averages like 278 yards off the tee(I think that's what I heard). I believe that you can hit the ball a long way, and it may feel like 300 yards, but I guarantee you it's not...

....... I also hit the good drives at 300+ and it wasn't a big deal, just a good whack, but they were all over the place and my lowest hc was about 14.

Now 30 years later most of my drives are like 235-265 yds and in the fairway most of times (but still a have a few per year at 300+) and I am playing around hc 5 mostly ......

Gaprofitt · March 2, 2011

Are you guys crazy? I consistently hit beyond 300 yards. Why are you doubting the guy?

Gaprofitt · March 2, 2011

Originally Posted by ajschn06

The point of my post was that many amateurs don't realize how far 300 yards is. Luke Donald only averages like 278 yards off the tee(I think that's what I heard). I believe that you can hit the ball a long way, and it may feel like 300 yards, but I guarantee you it's not...

Luke Donald is one of the weaker golfers on tour, I mean look at the guy.. Here is the 2010 Driving Avg on tour.

Driving Distance

Rank

Leader

Rounds

Total

1

Bubba Watson

23

314.8

2

Dustin Johnson

19

312.4

3

J.B. Holmes

20

310.5

4

Chris Baryla

13

309.0

5

Angel Cabrera

10

305.6

TOUR Average

16

286.7

**sean_miller** · March 2, 2011

Originally Posted by Gaprofitt

Are you guys crazy? I consistently hit beyond 300 yards. Why are you doubting the guy?

If by consistently you mean at least once every year, then me too!!

**Old1964** · March 2, 2011

I am curious - what driver are you using right now to pound the ball out there?

What kind of shaft does it have?

What degree of loft?

**ajschn06** · March 2, 2011

You made my point for me. Yeah, he's one of the weakest golfers on tour, but he's still a professional and doesn't hit it 300 yards. Those are the longest guys on tour averaging just a handful of yards over 300, yet these amateurs are consistantly going over 300? Riiiiight.....And the tour average is only 286, but us 5-10 handicappers easily hit it 300? Sorry...no...

Originally Posted by Gaprofitt

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajschn06

The point of my post was that many amateurs don't realize how far 300 yards is. Luke Donald only averages like 278 yards off the tee(I think that's what I heard). I believe that you can hit the ball a long way, and it may feel like 300 yards, but I guarantee you it's not...

Luke Donald is one of the weaker golfers on tour, I mean look at the guy.. Here is the 2010 Driving Avg on tour.

Driving Distance

Rank

Leader

Rounds

Total

1

Bubba Watson

23

314.8

2

Dustin Johnson

19

312.4

3

J.B. Holmes

20

310.5

4

Chris Baryla

13

309.0

5

Angel Cabrera

10

305.6

TOUR Average

16

286.7

**hero12** · March 2, 2011

It isn't uncommon for friends who rarely golf to out drive me. None of them are consistent, but it does happen. A baseball player plays golf for the first time can hit the ball a ton 1 out of 20 times, with the wind I don't doubt 320 is feasible with a lucky swing and perfect conditions.

That being said, the doubters have given good advice. You are probably at the point in your game to work on perfecting your swing before investing in your clubs, but if you must, you need to get fitted. If you work on the swing, you might find that the consistency of a slower swing will outweigh the benefits of a 1 in 20 ratio of long balls. If this is the case, you'll need to get a new driver to fit your new swing.

**alo1984** · March 3, 2011

Originally Posted by Gaprofitt

Are you guys crazy? I consistently hit beyond 300 yards. Why are you doubting the guy?

I'm with you buddy. This past Saturday I hit 8 drives over 300 yards! I should tell you though that I was playing with a 60 MPH wind behind me and all 8 of those holes were from an extremely elevated tee and the fairway was VERY dry and...well you get the point.

**Gerald** · March 3, 2011

OK so actually you were fighting to be blown away your self, and used your 3W bc you were afraid you'd be tooooo long and still managed to land the ball way beyond the 300 yrds markers

Originally Posted by alo1984

I'm with you buddy. This past Saturday I hit 8 drives over 300 yards! I should tell you though that I was playing with a 60 MPH wind behind me and all 8 of those holes were from an extremely elevated tee and the fairway was VERY dry and...well you get the point.

**Suge206** · March 3, 2011

My longest drive was 283 but it felt like it had to be 400 yrds

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Looking for a new driver, 23 years old - 280-320 yards with a ton of loft.. Please Help

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