20+ handicappers hitting 300 yards (mild rant)

[bplewis24]

Sorry for the double post, but wanted to add an image:

Red line is 261, White line is 278.  I have no photo-editing software at work to resize the picture.  Sorry.

[Jeremie Boop]

That's a mean hole.

[bplewis24]

That's a mean hole.

I usually hit anywhere from a 3 to a 6 iron, depending on wind.  Front right bunker isn't a bad spot, if going for it.

[Abu3baid]

Hi I have posted here before and would like to add to it.    I easily average 330 yards off the tees I would say Im a honest 14 handicap best round of the year being 80 on par 69.

However at the begging of the season I was easily a 18 - 20 handicap but I could still average long drives that easily exceed the 300 yard mark.

Now because this group title refers to 300 yard hitters having high handicaps as impossible or rare I would say its very possible as I did alot of work on my iron and short game to get my handicap to where it is.

Just to leave everyone thinking I played golf the otherday and on a PAR 4  400 yards more uphill if anyting no elevation on tee blocks and no wind to help ...........

I was able to HIT THE BALL 375 -380 yards!!!!!

I overshot the fairway ending so inbetween the fairway and green was a rough patch 40 feet long I was in the middle of the rough 20 yards from the green....

I wonder how far it would of gone if there was no rough in between the fairway and green ? lol

I was playing with 3 friends that day all of them told their fathers  and they do not believe the story my dad however was not surprised as he has seen me hit my longest drive of 390 yards  2 years ago.

Good day!

Isn't ironic that this thread is about 300+ drives??

[Fourputt]

One par 4 I've played is 340 yards on the card, yet several years ago I hit the flagstick on one hop with my tee shot.  I just measured it in Google Earth at 287 yards.  That's a difference of 63 yards just because of the dogleg, more than a 20% error if you try to measure it by the card.

[WUTiger]

Mid-HDCP golfers might average 300-yard drives if they played on courses with certain turf conditions.

Back in 1982, I played golf regularly at Cedar Valley CC, a course north of Oklahoma City that had a small housing community with it.

I had probably a 16 HDCP then. On some days in the June through August time frame, I would have several drives of 300 yards. The fairways were hard clay, and generally banked left or right at the dogleg to promote good water drainage. If you could hit a drive with a draw or fade about 240 yards and "catch the slalom," your ball would kick downhill another 50-100 yards. If you saw a puff of red dust when your ball hit the first time, you were usually in good shape. (Unless the ball rolled through the landing area and under a pesky cedar tree)

The course had a couple of 550 yard Par 5 holes where I sometimes played a 5 iron as my second shot. (Yes, the approach shots might bounce a little too)

Have I hit drives more than 300 yards? Certainly. Have I carried a driver shot 300 yards on flat ground? Not that I can remember.

[AntiTankNinja]

I said "forget GPS". All the guys on here consistently hitting 300+ yard drives, I was feeling a little behind. So....I started evaluating my drive distances like all these he-man long ball smashers! Step 1, ignore any yardage markers near the tee box(__ yards to the dogleg) step 2, grip and rip. step 3, add 15-20 yards for any drawing or fading movement cause it would have went farther in a straight line. Also, if you think you were cheated on the rollout, or got a bad kick....add a few. Final step, evaluate the distance using a keen sense of depth perception, and always round up. With this method, you too could be hitting 340 yard drives on average like myself. Such a big boost in self-confidence now that I know I can hit "the long ball"! My book comes out in Dec. '4 steps to tee box BS' Message me for order info.

[nick1998bunker]

Come on lots of people are serious. Length is above all a physical attribute.

[GingerGolfer]

Come on lots of people are serious. Length is above all a physical attribute.

Absolutely not. You're telling me rory mcilroy is physically built to hit the ball long? He's 5'9 and about 160 pounds...more about technique...not even technique, It's all about the lag you create in the downswing

[bplewis24]

Absolutely not. You're telling me rory mcilroy is physically built to hit the ball long? He's 5'9 and about 160 pounds...more about technique...not even technique, It's all about the lag you create in the downswing

Additionally, guys like Schwartzel and Oosthuizen are listed as 146 and 170lbs respectively.  They don't want for much distance (29th and 26th in driving distance, respectively).

[theworldengine]

the most impressive looking swing I have seen IRL was Seung yul noh. I haven't seen a ton of pro golf.  Noh is really tiny looking out there, looks like a damn kid. but he has been in the top 10 in driving distance fwiw.

[saevel25]

Absolutely not. You're telling me rory mcilroy is physically built to hit the ball long? He's 5'9 and about 160 pounds...more about technique...not even technique, It's all about the lag you create in the downswing

Yes he is, because Rory has the  physical ability to spin his hips faster than nearly any other tour player. That is why he can hit the golf ball further even though he's loosing 8 inches on his radius of his golf swing. That is his physical attribute. There is no doubt being taller is an advantage, majority of the top ten long drivers are tall, specifically the top 5.

If you want to get into the match

v = w*r

That means for Rory to have the same velocity of the clubhead as the other long hitters on tour, who are way taller than him, he has to make up the radius difference in rotational speed. This is special to him because no other 5'9" guy hits as far as he does on tour.

[nick1998bunker]

Yes he is, because Rory has the  physical ability to spin his hips faster than nearly any other tour player. That is why he can hit the golf ball further even though he's loosing 8 inches on his radius of his golf swing. That is his physical attribute. There is no doubt being taller is an advantage, majority of the top ten long drivers are tall, specifically the top 5. If you want to get into the match v = w*r That means for Rory to have the same velocity of the clubhead as the other long hitters on tour, who are way taller than him, he has to make up the radius difference in rotational speed. This is special to him because no other 5'9" guy hits as far as he does on tour.

plus he can hit it 350 if he wants to so someone even smaller should be able to hit it 300

[Pretzel]

I said "forget GPS". All the guys on here consistently hitting 300+ yard drives, I was feeling a little behind. So....I started evaluating my drive distances like all these he-man long ball smashers! Step 1, ignore any yardage markers near the tee box(__ yards to the dogleg) step 2, grip and rip. step 3, add 15-20 yards for any drawing or fading movement cause it would have went farther in a straight line. Also, if you think you were cheated on the rollout, or got a bad kick....add a few. Final step, evaluate the distance using a keen sense of depth perception, and always round up. With this method, you too could be hitting 340 yard drives on average like myself. Such a big boost in self-confidence now that I know I can hit "the long ball"! My book comes out in Dec. '4 steps to tee box BS' Message me for order info.

Does this method also work for determining whether it is safe to carry that lake with your tee shot or not? If so, sign me up!

[Micah]

Do taller men have an advantage in leverage off the tee?

[bplewis24]

Do taller men have an advantage in leverage off the tee?

Theoretically and potentially, yes.

[saevel25]

Do taller men have an advantage in leverage off the tee?

Look at it this way, if the velocity of the club head is a direct proportion to the angular velocity (how fast the body is rotating), and the length of the radius (body size + club length).

Lets make this easy. Its tough to say exactly how much radius Rory is loosing to someone like Dustin Johnson, but lets say is around 3". He's about 8" shorter, wing span about equals height, divide by two because one arm pivots in the swing, and take off an inch because Rory's back is shorter in width as well.
This is just a hypothetical. For exact numbers. But to give you an idea about why height is an advantage.

Due to height, Rory has to rotate his hips about 4% faster than someone who is 8" taller than him. Look at it this way, if we take 4% off Rory's club head speed, he would loose about 5 mph. That would drop Rory about 17 yards on flightscope simulator. Cause it would cause him to loose about 7.5 mph on ball speed.

[Pretzel]

Look at it this way, if the velocity of the club head is a direct proportion to the angular velocity (how fast the body is rotating), and the length of the radius (body size + club length). Lets make this easy. Its tough to say exactly how much radius Rory is loosing to someone like Dustin Johnson, but lets say is around 3". He's about 8" shorter, wing span about equals height, divide by two because one arm pivots in the swing, and take off an inch because Rory's back is shorter in width as well. This is just a hypothetical. For exact numbers. But to give you an idea about why height is an advantage.

So basically this means that height is only usually an advantage due to having a proportionally larger arc to the swing since wingspan usually correlates with height? Also, wouldn't a more narrow back be an advantage to having a larger swing arc rather than a detriment? If your back is shorter, wouldn't it stand to reason that a greater percentage of their armspan would be "usable" in the sense that their arms would be lover than someone who had broader shoulders with the same wingspan? As a final note, I know that wingspan can vary pretty far from a person's height due to personal experience. I am only 5'10" tall, but I've had my armspan measured at 6'2". A friend of mine was doing a statistics project trying to find a corellation between height and armspan and used me as a test subject. While he did find that there was a fairly strong corellation (r value of around .9) and he threw my data out as an outlier, it shows that some people can still have longer/shorter armspans compared to height. Perhaps the long hitters on the PGA Tour have something similar where they have long arms. Finally, just as clarification, I don't hit the ball longer than most and actually find that long arms can get me into trouble by having my hands too deep at address sometimes.