Club Distance

I know  we are all diffrent. I am new to golf and would like to compare my shot distance to others on the forum. The clubs in your Bag Driver-PW what are the average distances you are getting on each? I am asking and I dont know mine yet. But am working on it.

This has been going since 05, check it out.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/18426/average-distances-how-far-do-you-hit-each-club-and-dont-lie

Unless you have the same exact clubs with the same exact shaft cut to the same exact length and with the same exact lofts, hitting the same exact balls under the same exact circumstances, it's a moot point to try and compare club distances.

Also, EVERYONE on the internet hits 200+ yd 5 irons, 300+ yd drives. If you don't hit your clubs those distances, you aren't to be taken seriously.

I think this kind of thread will invite people to write some pretty long distances. Some will be real, and some will be just to make you feel inadequate :-\ I am also new to golf, and would like to interject that if you hit it 200 yards and straight off the tee and a PW at least 90 yards and each club up 10 yards more, but straight, that you can play off the standard tees. If your distances are shorter, hit from the forward tees. My kids started doing that to keep pace of play up. Now they play standard tees. My 12year old son hits it 200 to 220 from the tee and PW 100 yards. He is about a 12 to 14 handicap, because his shots always land on the fairways. He also gets many greens in regulation. Straight is more important. Just for reference, I hit about 230 to 240 off the tee during a round and PW about 100 to 110. 5 iron about 175. My handicap is high, and some rounds are really bad. That's because I don't hit fairways all the time. You get penalized a stroke and distance for OB. By the way, when I am on the driving range and dialed in, I hit upwards of 260 or more. However, there is no way, at my level of play, that I could nor would do that on the course. As another beginning golfer, I hope you enjoy the game. Don't even think about the distances you need to hit to keep the pace of play up. Just hit them straight onto the fairways.

:-)

Mine are absolutely brutal.

240-250 driver

220 3w (195-205 off the fairway according to GPS)

200 3h (until last week when the ability to hit it completely left my body and not I roll it about 20 yards)

175 4i (on a good stroke which doesn't happen often with that)

165 5i (on a good day once again)

155 6i

140 7i (yep, that's a big gap don't ask me but that's the average)

130 8i

120 9i

100 PW (once again, no idea)

90 GW

56-60 no idea, never really gave 'em a full stroke.

The sad part is, I'm 6ft, 200 lbs, almost no body fat and very athletic. I can swing a lot faster and go further but I can't control it and aiming becomes useless. Slowing my swing down and accepting the reduced distances has gotten me to playing 1, MAYBE 2 balls a round, getting closer to playing bogey golf which is my goal, and having to take fewer penalties.

As my swing becomes more ingrained into muscle memory, I will likely be able to speed up and get more distance but right now I'll take some small semblance of control over my direction over 280+ yard drives that end up in the rough, woods, water, OOB, on top of the club house, zipping for the man teeing up two boxes to the right, etc.

The problem is, you're confusing the feeling of speed in your upper body for club head speed. Odds are, like me, you have been making some mechanical errors resulting in errant drives. So you slow it down, but with the errors still present it reduces distance while gaining some accuracy through control.

Odds are you've been using your upper body rotation to drive the club. You haven't the appropriate lag to multiply that rotational speed to get greater distances with accuracy. Lag increases your club head speed by means of your releasing it through the ball. Its a double pivot, basically. If you've done any complex mathematics or physics I am sure you would have covered something similar.

Think about a pitcher. He rotates his arm around the shoulder, but to get that speed his hand is essentially rotating around the elbow. One rotational force is compounded by another and you have greater speed. You can get that club head speed by rotating faster, so its a little different. But your arms don't have the strength to really moderate those forces; you're using your muscles with too much intensity. Its the cocking of the wrist that is important. Pay attention to that in your take away. The proper swing plane will feel more natural, and you will swing through the ball and the follow through rotation will feel so natural and right.... and you won't BELIEVE how far it can go. :)

I've probably said it a million times by now..... can't help it, because this finally dawned on me last weekend.... :p

Stewie, I know exactly what you're saying and I do understand it but what I'm doing is casting.

I can't tell you why but when I speed up my shoulder rotation, I release the club too soon and have an out to in swing from hades. It causes a brutal slice that can endanger California field mice from Texas hahahahaha.

I've been working on it with an instructor and I know what I'm doing wrong but not many years of golf mixed with many many years of baseball screws me all up. If I do a full takeaway, pause, unwind slowly accelerating and then let it rip just before the time to release the club, I get these distances but they are typically fairly close to where I'm aiming.

I spend a lot of time on the range slowly working up my speed and timing and I'll eventually get it.

That's basically what I was getting at. When you cast, that's what you're doing. You're using upper body rotation for speed.

There is nothing wrong with accuracy.... though. hehehehe :)

Thanks for the Link. No reason to keep beating a dead horse.

Ok, if you want to compare your distances, maybe this is of any help. On average is a difficult thing on the internet, so lets say a good straight shot, no wind, temp somewhere in the seventies and at sealevel for a once a week player in his fifties would be:

Driver 230

Wood 3 200

I3 185

I4 175

I5 165

I6 155

I7 145

I8 133

I9 120

PW 110