20+ handicappers hitting 300 yards (mild rant)

[powerdrives]

lol I can easily carry the ball 315 yards...  my best drive is 390 yards with a downhill assist maybe even cart path who knows lol

Today at the golf range the back net is 290 yards we had the wind blowing directly into our face and I was able to air the ball into the net each time no problem...

my handicap is 18 :) believe it ....lol

[savosean]

I hit the ball in the 300 yard margin, my pitching wedge I hit about 150-160... I am not a big guy at all, actually I barely even work out. All I do is simple excersices like streching and endurance running. I really feel its more about how much contact, and how well you generate power from your hips to attain the 300+ yard drives. I am 6foot, and only wieght 156lbs not a big guy at all, nor do I think my swing is excellent. But, I certainly have a very fast swing speed with a very good rotation of the hips. Using all of my body to generate power. I am not a 20 handicapper, and when I was a 20 handicapper I could only hit about 150-190 yard drives. But, still with that it was mostly approach shots chips and all sorts of other things that would cause you to be a 20 handicapper. Nothing to do with the drive. Sometimes I hate having a long ball because I am better with my PW-9-8-7  irons then my gap wedge and lobwedge.

[Lihu]

lastly I use a nike 9.5 degree driver which is now 4 years old so if I get a proper long driver with 7 degrees I can probably start averaging 350+ bombs...

You should get a long drive club and compete. That's also hard to do, but at least you probably have some of the right credentials :-)).

[Lihu]

I would like to see powerdrives penis. I'll buy the pills you're selling

Not my thing. But Vigolfra? Long drive for a few hours? :-D).

[muttbag]

I don't think this is being looked at the right way. If we were in the 1950's with wooden drivers and sub-par golf balls, I see your point. But 300 yards has seemed to remain this untouchable distance regardless of how many advances have been made in club technology. With the drivers we now have available, even an amateur golf with a big swing who connects can power the ball to 300 yards. Is it consistent? No! And regarding the amount of airtime vs. roll... I'm not sure if I see the point here. If you're driving a flat, wide open fairway, who honestly cares? The goal is to get the drive in the best position possible for your follow up shot. Maybe I'm making a mistake by replying after reading only the first few pages of this thread instead of all 25 pages, but this seems to be a common theme that some just cant seem to let go. I played with my neighbor and his 16 year old son a few months ago. The kid can play and consistently pounded 300+ yard drives straight down the middle on the front 9 (back 9 is a different story). Even 15 years ago, that would have sounded unrealistic. Look at the clubs we had back then. My point is, clubs have evolved, but apparently our viewpoints have not. If you still think a 300 yard drive is the holy grail, you're behind the times. We're not stuck with wooden drivers bound to steel shafts anymore.

[Jeremie Boop]

There is a disconnect, I think, in this thread. I don't think many/any 20+ hc players AVERAGE 300 yd drives. At a 22 I can usually get 1 or 2 of these drives a round *granted maybe it's a provisional on occasion*. The others typically are 240-260 if I hit it sort of bad and 270ish if I hit it good. Like savosean, I'm not a big guy, 5'11" 150 lbs, but I hit my pw 145-150 pretty consistently. The main things that keep us back are consistency and short game. There is nothing to keep even a 30 hc player from hitting a 300 yd drive on occassion.

[RayG]

Again- AVERAGE drives are those that actually find the fairway you're playing. NOT the fairway 3 holes over. If you can't hit your own fairway in a round, you averaged 0 yds on your drives.

[muttbag]

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

There is a disconnect, I think, in this thread. I don't think many/any 20+ hc players AVERAGE 300 yd drives. At a 22 I can usually get 1 or 2 of these drives a round *granted maybe it's a provisional on occasion*. The others typically are 240-260 if I hit it sort of bad and 270ish if I hit it good. Like savosean, I'm not a big guy, 5'11" 150 lbs, but I hit my pw 145-150 pretty consistently. The main things that keep us back are consistency and short game. There is nothing to keep even a 30 hc player from hitting a 300 yd drive on occassion.

I agree 100%, Jeremie.  I can usually get one of these per round, if that (though not lately!).  Most of the time, I live in the 250's - 270's, and less than that if my slice rears it's ugly head.  Out of my golfing buddies, I play with ONE guy who comes even close to averaging 300 yards off the tee.  He's a big guy and can consistently put it out there 290+.  I'm ignorant with how handicaps are figured, but he shoots in the high 70's and occasionally low 80's.  Simply put, the guy knows how to get through the ball.

I was shocked when I recently witnessed a guy on my team hit a 345+ yard drive during a scramble.  He couldn't have been 5'9 and had an average athletic build.  His swing was amazing but he rarely caught his drives clean, except for this one.  We used two GPS systems to confirm his distance.  Now that's something I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't been there in person.  That, to me, is the holy grail of tee shots... because I know I will never, ever hit a ball that far.  Unless I'm on top of a cliff with a downhill fairway and a fierce wind at my back.

[Motown88]

Today at the golf range the back net is 290 yards we had the wind blowing directly into our face and I was able to air the ball into the net each time no problem...

my handicap is 18 :) believe it ....lol

First off, I'm only quoting this post so it gets your attention. I'm going to touch base on a couple of your posts.

You got defensive after someone called you "Shorty", just to clear up any confusion. He wasn't calling you "Shorty", that's another member on this forum that likes to cause trouble. (No hard feelings Shorty!)

Explain to me this, if you can consistently drive 300+ yards (which I'm not disputing) and consistently hit the green with your second shot (I'm not disputing this either), why are you going to the driving range so often? Why not find a practice green and do some putting?

You mentioned you score the other day, I believe you said it was +17. Is this a normal score for you? I am going to assume this was a good round for you. Do you have a GHIN handicap? I'm thinking, and I could be wrong, that you don't understand the handicap system that well. If you consistently shoot bogey golf it doesn't mean your handicap will be 18, your handicap depends on a lot of factors. If you play a difficult course you may have a handicap as low as 13 or 14 (I'm just guessing but that seems about right!...someone back me up on that)

As I said earlier, I'm not disputing your distance. I've seen plenty of players that have the long ball. I personally consider myself a longer hitter. I average a hair under 280 now. That takes into account all my misses to the left which are considerably shorter, and it takes into account my straight drives with good roll outs at 300+. I encourage you to stop devoting so much time to the range and start hitting the practice green more often. Your scores will significantly get better as long as what you have been saying remains true.

[Fourputt]

Just read the last 4 pages catching up on this thread.  Thought I'd post this Google Earth image of the hole on my home course where I hit the longest (measured) drive I've ever hit.  This is the par 5 15th hole at Foothills Golf course in SW Denver.  The card has it at 518 yards from the middle tees.  The blue line is my "normal" drive on this hole, 235 yards.  It's typically a 3 shot hole, with the layup toward the end of the fairway short of the irrigation ditch.

It was fall, the fairway was firm and fast, had about a 30-40 mph tailwind off the mountains which are about 4 miles west.  The red line from the tee is my longest ever GPS measured drive, 323 yards.  The second shot measured 176 yards, played with an 8 iron, which is usually my 140 club, 145 max.  Everything was in alignment that day. Add them up and you get 499 yards, 19 yards short of the card length.

And yes, I made the 10 foot putt for eagle, not the only time I ever eagled that hole, but certainly the easiest.

When played by the "normal" 3 shot blue route, I hit a 235 yard drive, 176 yard layup, 106 to the center of the green for a total of 517, so the card is correct when the hole is played as designed.

[Motown88]

A missed fairway doesn't count for 0 yards??? Where did you hear this?

[Jeremie Boop]

Originally Posted by Motown88

A missed fairway doesn't count for 0 yards??? Where did you hear this?

Exactly, it seems to me that it wouldn't factor in at all. Average drive would be average of all drives in the fairway.

[RandallT]

Originally Posted by Motown88

If you consistently shoot bogey golf it doesn't mean your handicap will be 18, your handicap depends on a lot of factors. If you play a difficult course you may have a handicap as low as 13 or 14 (I'm just guessing but that seems about right!...someone back me up on that)

When I was a bogey golf average (+18 average), my handicap happened to be around 15, I think. I have read that your handicap typically ends up being a score that we will beat only about once in five rounds. So it stands to reason that a bogey golfer probably has some bell curve going on with the score distribution, and the top 1/5 of scores might be +15, +14, +13, whatever. All depends on how consistent the player is.

[0ldblu3]

The only thing I would have to say on this thread is that 99.999% of 18 handicappers are not going to average 300 yards off the tee. Not even powerdrives will argue that he is a typical 18 handicap. They will hit an occasional one if the conditions line up perfectly. I hit one 2 weeks ago where a good drive rode the harder ground on the left side of the hole then fed across the slope to the right ending up with a 302 yard drive. Essentially squeaking out the maximum distance on the hole that I possibly could with a carry of 260 or so.

I wish I could hit consistently as far as powerdrives , and in the fairway no less. He's the outlier, there are always some of them. His eye favors the long ball, that's cool. I bet that he is one frustrated guy on the greens though. I mean, the only thing holding him back from being a good player is learning how to lag putt. I'd say to get fit for a putter, get a lesson on putting, and put some hours in on the practice green. Forget about a 7 degree long driver, you are plenty long enough.

Or do we have a Happy Gilmore syndrome here, resisting because golf isn't tough or cool enough?

[bplewis24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by powerdrives

Here is the deal boys and girls..   I average  330 yards on my drives and I have a 18 handicap due to bad bad putting

Here is the break down and proof..

330 yards par 4 with lake infront of green 313 yards to clear.. I was able to drive the ball over the lake for a total air of 320 and chip on and 2 putt for par

550 yards,  par 5,  ball landed just behind blue stick middle fairway ,  ball driven 340 yards,   then we take the 6 iron and put in on the green 210 yards....  then we 4 putt for bougey :))

546 yards,   par 5 ,   ball landed left side of fairway behind blue stick for a total of 323 yards into wind.  then we took 5 iron and put in on the green 220 yards...  3 putt for par

547 yards,  par 5      ball lands centre fair way  50 yards behind blue stick  346 yards drive.  6 iron then is used and we make front of the green at 195 yards.      2 putt for birdie...
I was able to drive 16 fairways the other day all consistantly over 315 yards.... this proves you can hit the ball long and straight consistanlty

All you have proven is that you played even par for four holes.  So you were +18 or so on the other 14 holes, even though you drove 12 of the fairways (including the par 3 fairways)?  That's 4 doubles and 10 bogeys, with no OB shots?  Impressive.  How many four-putts?

Quote:

So to all the haters who do not believe this is possible go watch jamie sadlowski and john daly videos they both have over extended backswings which I also have this enables us to generate massive club speed.

Any questions?

You realize that Sadlowski and Daly are not 18 handicaps, right?

My question to you would be, how does it feel to be that full of sh**?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Many long drivers can't play golf well. They can drive far and straight. All of them are targeting for 400 plus yards, to win long drive tournaments.

I only know of one long drive competitor at my local range.  He claims to be a 2 handicap or something.  I wish I knew his last name so I could look it up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by powerdrives

16 fairways were hit because on 2 holes I was not sure if my ball would be found or not they doglegged with high trees  ....so I hit a 2nd ball off the tee twice   300 + yards later they were all on the fairway both times...

Yeah, that doesn't count as a 2nd fairway hit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

Exactly, it seems to me that it wouldn't factor in at all. Average drive would be average of all drives in the fairway.

Actually, I'm under the impression that average driving distance counts all drives, including those not in the fairway.  There is no penalty for missing the fairway when calculating distance, other than the natural penalty of less roll-out.

[Hacker James]

Originally Posted by Motown88

First off, I'm only quoting this post so it gets your attention. I'm going to touch base on a couple of your posts.

You got defensive after someone called you "Shorty", just to clear up any confusion. He wasn't calling you "Shorty", that's another member on this forum that likes to cause trouble. (No hard feelings Shorty!)

Explain to me this, if you can consistently drive 300+ yards (which I'm not disputing) and consistently hit the green with your second shot (I'm not disputing this either), why are you going to the driving range so often? Why not find a practice green and do some putting?

That's right.  Your score card does not care "how far" only "how many".  Again, not unlike the guy from a week or so that suddenly disappeared after everybody called him out. I suppose age has a lot to do with it, but I would not want to discriminate. There are a lot of very, very, good young players, very few with enough maturity to discuss their successes  without coming across as boasting that they are super human or something. Of course, some are outright liars.  Not an accusation by the way. Nobody knows but the OP.  Simply put:  "Who cares?"  I am sure there are other forums where long drive competitors can compare notes, styles, offer tips, discuss competition venues.  Of course, you would then be on equal footing and give up your "bragging" rights so to speak.  I read somewhere that Lee Trevino only averaged 235 yards. Older equipment, possibly, but OTOH, I can hit a persimmon about as far as modern drivers and usually hit more fairways. I have never been long, but have not lost all that much. I drive around 220-240 now at age 71.  I doubt if my longest drive was ever much over 250 and that would be some 20-30 years ago. Short game is getting pretty decent, putting needs a lot of work. Even though I average 17 putts per side, there are many that I should not have missed.

[RayG]

Exactly, it seems to me that it wouldn't factor in at all. Average drive would be average of all drives in the fairway.

This... if you miss ALL fairways, your "official" average drive is 0 yds.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by RayG

This... if you miss ALL fairways, your "official" average drive is 0 yds.

I'm not sure where you guys are getting that from.  On Tour, distance is measured no matter if in the fairway or not.  Driving distance is measured on opposite direction par 5s, two holes each round:

The average number of yards per measured drive. These drives are measured on two holes per round. Care is taken to select two holes which face in opposite directions to counteract the effect of wind. Drives are measured to the point at which they come to rest regardless of whether they are in the fairway or not. (101)

http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.101.html

Are you guys thinking of long-drive competitions where distance only counts if within the boundaries?