Gaining Distance and Consistency

[Righty to Lefty]

Ah, the hater's and doubter's always throw that out, but usually they use Tiger.

Thank god for you man because I'm sitting screaming at my computer screen because I'm so frustrated. I'm going to put together a video and prove it because I have nothing to hide.

[NBGC]

Thank god for you man because I'm sitting screaming at my computer screen because I'm so frustrated. I'm going to put together a video and prove it because I have nothing to hide.

Haha, better bring a deck of cards and a sharpie with you. I'm sure the hater's will still find reason to not believe you unless you randomly pull a pcard, mark the card and suit on the ball and never ever take the camera off the ball for fear that you have an assistant hiding in the bushes to run out and grab/replace your hit ball or that you have "planted" another ball further up.

Happens to me as well, I'll pull out my 3w on hole 17, 250 yd par 4 and whoever i'm playing with will be like (last Sunday), "Why not hit your driver?", "cuz I'll hit it over and into the street", "oh sure". Then drop it on the green and say "see?" as I 2 putt for my bird. There's also a 310 yd par 4 that I seem to always hit the frontside bunkers when I go for it. One of these days it'll sneak between the bunkers.

[Righty to Lefty]

I'll put it simply. In 30 years playing this game I have played with thousands of golfers of all levels. I have NEVER seen a high handicapper hit the ball long distances with any degree of consistency. I've seen plenty of gifted players with inconsistent ball striking who have much more talent than their handicap might indicate, though. Of course on hard fairways with tailwinds you can catch the odd one well, but there's a difference between saying you average 290 and saying that in perfect conditions you have occasionally hit one close to 300. To hit it straight and long you need coordination and timing and these qualities naturally translate to the iron game and short game. It's too easy to say "I hit it miles but can't chip or putt." If it's true, why not work on these aspects of your game to take advantage of the driving?

I am a high handicapper in theory because I switched to left hand from right hand where I played off a 12 after nine months. I went through hell right handed to learn how to execute a golf swing right handed but my body is better coordinated from the left side probably because of my ingrained baseball swing which is just on a different plane. I just had to get those muscles coordinated to a golf swing. Oh and after playin with the pro last night he cut my handicap to 21 after only 2 weeks after having established my left handed handicap. I practice at least 10 hours a week on short game pitches, chips, bunkers and that is what has accelerated my ballstriking skills, and play 2 to 3 rounds per week. I play on a very difficult course and it puts you to the test bigtime because it never plays the same. The wind, heat, humidity, the rough ( the most brutally punishing rough I've ever seen). If you miss the fairway you are in the desert and the lie is gonna be powdered sugar or hardpan. There are bunkers on every hole and so I think that having to deal with those elements week in and week out have made me improve quickly. After playing the with the pro I asked his opinion and he said that it is just a matter of time before I'm single digit because how many wedges do you have to hit into greens before you start to score. I still putt right handed so I haven't had to deal with that hell of relearning how to putt and gain feel and distance control. My story is far from typical but I am just thrilled to still be playing after I hurt my left wrist swingin right handed couldn't hit driver over 80 yards for over a year. I am not a typical 25 because I am so far ahead of the learning curve because I played to a nearly single digit handicap right handed. When I first changed over all i could actually hit consistently straight was driver. Even when I missed the sweetspot I was dead straight and 300 yards. But I would get frustrated when I would nearly drive the green and take a double bogey because I couldn't get on the green from 60 yards out. I hit probaly 1000 short game shots a week from every possible situation I can think of so that I can take advantage of my distance. I promise in your 30 years of golf you have never met a golfer with a story like mine.

[Righty to Lefty]

Haha, better bring a deck of cards and a sharpie with you. I'm sure the hater's will still find reason to not believe you unless you randomly pull a pcard, mark the card and suit on the ball and never ever take the camera off the ball for fear that you have an assistant hiding in the bushes to run out and grab/replace your hit ball or that you have "planted" another ball further up.

Last night I actually drove my first green ( not hit it over it) on our 18th hole. It is a forced carry of 270 to carry the water and the pin was 5 paces of the back. The green is 50 yards from front to back and i had 30 feet left and was so shook I three putted!! When the pin is at the front I hit 3 wood but just missed the green but was 20 yards deep so it carried 290.

[Righty to Lefty]

Out of curiosity, how are you averaging 290 yards with a swing speed of 107 MPH? Mathematically and using COR ratios, that's virtually impossible. Are you playing at a higher altitude?

That's about right. His spin rate is lil high but Hotstix says that the formula for a 300 yard drive is 110 mph clubhead speed and 2500 rpms so 290 is about right.

[Lefty731PM]

I promise in your 30 years of golf you have never met a golfer with a story like mine.

May be so - look - I don't think you're insincere. I just think that you might get better more quickly if you don't focus as much on distance. It's a big thing to change from RH to LH and good on you for doing it - I would rather read about consistency and accuracy rather than distances -that's why posts about it bug me. Because it doesn't mean much. And - adding to what I previously said, I have also, in 30 years never seen a long (and straight) hitter who can't hit irons.

Don't be in too much of a hurry to get back to 12 and below, and forget the GPS for a while.

[Righty to Lefty]

May be so - look - I don't think you're insincere. I just think that you might get better more quickly if you don't focus as much on distance. It's a big thing to change from RH to LH and good on you for doing it - I would rather read about consistency and accuracy rather than distances -that's why posts about it bug me. Because it doesn't mean much. And - adding to what I previously said, I have also, in 30 years never seen a long (and straight) hitter who can't hit irons.

I never said that I couldn't hit irons. I do just fine with them and even hit them off of the teebox most of the time. I hit driver probably 4 times per round because my course demands accuracy. This post was started by someone else asking for advice not me even though on the homepage it says that it was started by me. My accuracy isn't spot on yet and my course is going to punish you if you can't hit the fairway or the green and it is far from a resort course. They are trying to get it rated to host a senior PGA event so they are trying to get a good slope rating so they are trying to kill the memeber's in the meantime. I really have to earn my scores here because if you miss the green by a foot you are in deep trouble because the ball will bury down in the rough like a fried egg but the grass will surround it and it is difficult to get a club on it.

[NBGC]

Out of curiosity, how are you averaging 290 yards with a swing speed of 107 MPH? Mathematically and using COR ratios, that's virtually impossible. Are you playing at a higher altitude?

Swing speed was measured about a month ago when I got refitted for new driver and 3wood shafts. Dunno about the mathematic's, just know I hit it 290. As I said, I also count the drives that don't hit the fairways, If I'm in the rough but between the tree's I measure them unless I know it's not close to 300. I also don't get alot of roll, it's all carry. Look, I'm not here to impress anybody or stroke my epeen, I even started a thread about this 2 weeks ago

http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16288 so it's not like I just popped in to pop off. Trust me, it's as frustrating to read doubter post's as it is liar's. As the saying goes, I guess we'll agree to disagree about my distance. And I can understand your PoV, many many people really have no idea how far they hit the ball so they overestimate or use incorrect distance markers. I don't use range cart GPS or subtract distance to pin from tee, I use my GPS shot marking function. Click a button and start walking as it count's yardages up from hit to sit. I'm about as close to sea level as you can get, my main course is about 3 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Maybe we should get hosting for our distance video's and start a new thread. That would probably make everyone feel better to weed out the liar's and back the others.

[NBGC]

I'll put it simply. In 30 years playing this game I have played with thousands of golfers of all levels. I have NEVER seen a high handicapper hit the ball long distances with any degree of consistency. I've seen plenty of gifted players with inconsistent ball striking who have much more talent than their handicap might indicate, though. Of course on hard fairways with tailwinds you can catch the odd one well, but there's a difference between saying you average 290 and saying that in perfect conditions you have occasionally hit one close to 300. To hit it straight and long you need coordination and timing and these qualities naturally translate to the iron game and short game. It's too easy to say "I hit it miles but can't chip or putt." If it's true, why not work on these aspects of your game to take advantage of the driving?

Are you sure you're talking about consistancy, or accuracy? Because I find it hard to believe that in 30 yrs and thousands of golfers you've never met any high handicappers that could blast 300yd drives that landed in the deep snot. Because I see them every month, and when they get on the green in 3, they 3 putt. On the other hand, getting those to land in the fairway consistantly is accuracy. I never said I was accurate, I said that my drive's were playable, meaning that I may have a hard approach shot out of the rough.

I'm also working on my short game, I'm hitting much more GIR's and chipping twice as close to the hole then when I started getting serious about golf. Out of 100balls in a large bucket, I hit probably 20 drives. Rest are full SW and up. Then I putt/chip. But as you know being a low hdcp, the short game takes time and most golfer's, myself included, spend most of thier time in the begining on the drives and full swings. I've probably hit 100x more drives than chips/putts before the last 3 month's. That's been reversed.

[NBGC]

Ok, actually you guys win. I love this forum and don't wanna argue with anyone for fear that you may not answer any golf questions I may have in the future to spite me

I'll try in the future to not let my buttons get pushed so easily and take any remarks as a personal attack. I know they're not meant that way and without proof I totally understand your POV.

Truce?

[Yanks Fan]

Fun reading all that lol

[907golfer12]

115- 119 mph at impact verified by launch monitor on the driving range not in a hitting bay.

Yesterday during the BMW Championship coverage they showed JB Holmes' stats after his swing. His club head speed was 128 MPH and his carry was only 278. He has under 3000 RPM's of spin and total distance was only like 310 yards. So how do you, with a lesser clubhead speed, hit the ball farther then a guy with a clubhead speed that is 10MPH faster then your own?

[golf_junkie27]

That's about right. His spin rate is lil high but Hotstix says that the formula for a 300 yard drive is 110 mph clubhead speed and 2500 rpms so 290 is about right.

That's what Hotstix has? I'm not being argumentative. From what I've seen and read, the biggest force of impact is 1.5. (I forget the terminology, smash factor?) Anyway, that figure, 1.5, is considered perfect. Assuming a ball speed of 160, which is about max at that SS, the most the ball will travel is 255 yards. That's why I asked the question about 290 yards.

[Yanks Fan]

Well just to keep updating the thread and progress I am making, today I played and again, teeing the ball even with my left foot seems to really be working with my driver. I feel much more comfortable with the ball that far forward. I also hit some great iron shots as well. I hit two 8 irons from about 140 that fell to about 8 feet each. Two putted each for pars though :( . Also spun my first ball backwards on purpose a significant amount. Hit a sand wedge from about 40 yards out with a slightly open club face and the ball hit, skipped forward and came back about 10 feet which set me up for a 5 foot par putt on a par 5. Would have shot just around a 88-92 depending on how I played the final 3 holes. Had to leave early unfortunately.

Those were the highlights of my day lol. It's slowly coming to me I think.

[Righty to Lefty]

Yesterday during the BMW Championship coverage they showed JB Holmes' stats after his swing. His club head speed was 128 MPH and his carry was only 278. He has under 3000 RPM's of spin and total distance was only like 310 yards. So how do you, with a lesser clubhead speed, hit the ball farther then a guy with a clubhead speed that is 10MPH faster then your own?

Okay I don't know what the conditions ( wind, fairway conditions, humidity etc)were on the shot but that sounds like a five wood distance for him without the roll. And also he is a tour player but sometimes even they miss the sweetspot and this is gonna cost bigtime distance no matter what the swingspeed. I garauntee you that a 128 mph clubhead speed at impact is goin much further than 310 if it is hit on the sweetspot. I hit a perfect drive in the perfect conditions and surely got some roll on a flat teebox and fairway to a straight away hole. My average pass with a driver is between 300 and 320 and it is what it is.

[Righty to Lefty]

That's what Hotstix has? I'm not being argumentative. From what I've seen and read, the biggest force of impact is 1.5. (I forget the terminology, smash factor?) Anyway, that figure, 1.5, is considered perfect. Assuming a ball speed of 160, which is about max at that SS, the most the ball will travel is 255 yards. That's why I asked the question about 290 yards.

Hotstixx is probably the number one clubfitting facility in the world and they do so much research on launch conditions and they do a lot of club testing for the major golf magazines. They did an article for a guy who wanted to hit the ball 300 yards for either golf magazine or golf digest and they guy said that the formula for a 300 yard drive is 110 mph clubhead speed and 2500 rpms of spin. I've heard of smash factor but I'm guessing that measures the amount of force applied to the ball. To be quick and easy though the most important measures probably are Swingspeed, launch angle, spin rate, and angle of attack ( If you come over the top you are losing huge amounts of distance versus hitting a draw.) The hotstixx guys are so good they can tell you how far you hit the ball over the phone if you gave them those numbers. Take a look at their website (

www.hotstixx.com ) and if you read golf magazines alot of the times you are reading an article that they wrote if it is talking about testing clubs or fitting a player for clubs.

[Righty to Lefty]

Hotstixx is probably the number one clubfitting facility in the world and they do so much research on launch conditions and they do a lot of club testing for the major golf magazines. They did an article for a guy who wanted to hit the ball 300 yards for either golf magazine or golf digest and they guy said that the formula for a 300 yard drive is 110 mph clubhead speed and 2500 rpms of spin. I've heard of smash factor but I'm guessing that measures the amount of force applied to the ball. To be quick and easy though the most important measures probably are Swingspeed, launch angle, spin rate, and angle of attack ( If you come over the top you are losing huge amounts of distance versus hitting a draw.) The hotstixx guys are so good they can tell you how far you hit the ball over the phone if you gave them those numbers. Take a look at their website (

The website is actually www hotsitxgolf.com

[Surefire]

I've heard of smash factor but I'm guessing that measures the amount of force applied to the ball.

Smash factor is a ratio of clubhead speed to ball speed.

Eg A swing speed of 100mph with a smash factor of 1.5 means the ball leaves the club at 150mph. Why would swing speed, be more important than ball speed? Surely the speed the ball travels at is more important than the speed of the clubhead in determining how far the ball travels?