golf league arguement

Hey folks, got a issue and I wanted to know if anyone else has heard of this.  We had a traditional long drive contest on a designated hole every week during our league.  It was obviously, the longest drive from the tee would win.

Last year a few golfers began questioning that the longest drive may be farther away from the green and that it was not right.  They convinced the commissioner that it needed to be the "longest drive off the tee that is closer to the green."  So in theory, you could have the longest drive and lose because it wasnt closer to the green.

Anyone ever heard of this?  Is it as stupid as I think it is?

Thanks.

Dumb - never heard of it. My question: Is the distance then measured from the ball to most front portion of the green, or to the hole?

That is true, but I believe competitive Long Drive competitions have straight lines across the field. In theory a more accurate measurement should be curved lines if you want to consider actually how far a golf ball has went.

I guess it depends on how the league wants to set it up. In scrambles, usually long drives are in the fairway furthest way from were tee markers are at. I could see in some cases were a person would think, "Oh it's closer to the hole so it went farther." Especially if you had a slight dogleg.

I would say the longest drive should be measured straight line from the tee markers, not closest to the green.

Right. I refer to arcs above as well. Trouble is, where do you draw the line (pun somewhat intended)? If I hit a huge sweeping pushed hook that starts way right, just missing the treeline and boomerangs back to the left just managing to stay inbounds and then you hit a ball that goes dead straight and past my ball by 10-15 yards, who wins? What if my hook traveled 210 yards total and yours only went 190? You're 15 yards past me but mine travelled 20 yards "farther". That's why I think you have to go with LD method, no arcs. How much distance did the ball "eat up" in terms of what's left into the green or target. That's the whole point of distance right? What if I aim 180 degrees from the target and hit 250 in that direction?

Agree with saevel25.  On the fairway, furthest from the tee box.

I have played in more than a few tournaments over the years and the "longest drive" has always been measured along a straight line from the tee box to the ball's resting place and the resting place must be in the fairway. There normally is a Longest Drive sign in the fairway and if your ball comes to rest beyond that sign in the fairway you put you name the sign and move it to your ball's resting place.  At the end of the tournament whoever's name is last on the list wins the longest drive award.  Pretty simple.

Another way to solve the problem is to have a white line painted down the center of the fairway on the LD hole.  The line serves as a reference point for who's longer.  I have seen situations on this type of setup where a ball that went through a dogleg and rested at the edge of the fairway may have actually traveled a bit further, but is deemed "shorter" when using the line as a reference point.

I maintain that this is a poor setup for a LD hole.  The LD hole should be a fairly straight hole, thus eliminating this situation.

In that case you should just call it Closest to the Hole instead of Long Drive.

Yes, that is at least as stupid as you think it is.

One year in my Men's Club member/guest the tournament committee did something equally stupid.  They had a line painted down the center of the long drive fairway and the prize was for the the longest drive that was closest to the line, which is as stupid as it sounds.  One guy hit it almost 300 yards and was only 10 feet off the line, but he lost to a guy who hit an 8I so he could just reach where the line started in the fairway.  He was only 1 foot off the line, so he got the long drive prize, even though he only hit the ball 145 yards.   There were so many complaints that the board of directors had to post a notice a week later saying that they would not be using that formula again.  I applaud them for trying to find a way give the shorter hitters a chance to compete, but it was a really stupid idea right from the start.  Us short knockers just have to accept that we won't be winning many long drive contests.  We need to put our focus on the closest to the pin holes instead.

In every tournament I've ever played, it's specified that the drive must be in the fairway to be considered.  In the OP's case, unless they're hosting their long drive hole on an extraordinarily wide fairway, that should make it a non-issue.  If it's not on the short stuff, it don't count.

As far as measuring "closest to the hole" vs. "longest drive", I'd think you would need a minder/forecaddy out there measuring every shot with a rangefinder to have any semblance of objectivity.  Long drive is so easy a caveman could do it.  Hit ball.  Ball in fairway?  Ball further than sign?  Move sign.  Write name.

Bwahahaha.. way to loop hole the s*** out of the letter of the law, common sense be damned. Yeah, that is some prize winning stupidity.. .

So if the idea is straight AND long then here is another way: Total distance should be = positive distance along the straight line down the fairway (to account for length) minus distance of sideways deviation (perpendicular) from the line (to account for accuracy). Curved lines are hard to manage.

Green or proximity shouldn't matter. As duly noted in some post above that is just too many additional variables.

Always seems to be crap surrounding league prizes. In our club if you want to participate in the games and stuff it's an additional fee, I opt out. It's $5 per item to participate, even have to pay extra to play in the match play. I like it that way so I can just focus on playing the best round possible. It's not a big club but still lot's of arguing. Thankfully anyone sub 9.9 plays championship flight and we don't have many to argue with. I haven't seen final roster but last season there were 5 CF guys (I didn't participate in 2014). It's the majority in flights 2-4 that get heated up.

I think the whole thing started because everyone now has an app on their phone telling them how far they are from the green. However, long drive has never been about how close it is to the green, just simple distance off the tee.

And part of the trouble is what some of you have been saying, long drive should not be placed on anything but straight holes really, holes that let everyone really rip a driver.  Our commmissioner thinks its cute to rotate them through every hole regardless is it doglegs or the fairway runs out.

Then the same app should make them aware the placard ahead of them marking the long drive to the left or right or whatever is further north than their position. This stuff happens all the time on some holes. Number 1 at our course has an area that opens up and it's closely mown between 1 and 18 fairway. If I pull one and it clears the rough it will be near the pond that is 280 out and well beyond the 150 marker but because it's so far left I may have 185 to the flag. It didn't cut any distance from my shot I just took a longer route. The hole plays 410-420 and because I have 185 to the flag doesn't mean I only hit it 235. If I had it wouldn't have made it to the open area it's a 260 carry to there, about even with the 150 but the hole is relatively straight. Certainly not a dogleg.