Do you consider yourself a 'big' hitter?

[King Cobra II]

Over time technology has made certain distances that once seemed unimaginable very realistic. What distances do you consider to be those of a long or big hitter? Do you consider yourself one? For me I think a long hitter averages the 285 mark with a driver (no thats not me). A long hitter also can hit a club off the grass (hybrid or wood) 225 or more ( that is me, but not consistently) and a big hitter pulls out a wedge from 140 (I go PW). To me those are the distances that constitute a long ball hitter, what determines it for you?

[golfchief]

I'm not a long hitter. I slowed my swing down and keep the ball in play and have very few penaltys. keeping my score in the low to mid 70's work for me. On a wide open hole I can be sneaky long sometimes.

[Stacey_E]

  King Cobra II said:

Do you consider yourself one? For me I think a long hitter averages the 285 mark with a driver (no thats not me). A long hitter also can hit a club off the grass (hybrid or wood) 225 or more ( that is me, but not consistently) and a big hitter pulls out a wedge from 140 (I go PW). To me those are the distances that constitute a long ball hitter, what determines it for you?

I am NOT a long hitter.

I consider over 270 AVERAGE with the driver long. 125 with the pitching wedge is long, as this is what most pros play their PW to. Not how far they can hit their PW, but what they play it to. And if you can honestly CARRY any club 200 off the deck, I think you are long.

[GolferDot]

I am longer then 95 percent of people I play with. We have a 270 meter (300 yard) par 4 and a decent drive usually puts me centre green high.

I hit P/W 115 meters (127 yards)

The 5 percent longer then me are the ones I consider the big hitters.

[Shindig]

A long hitter, by my standards, can hit his driver 260 yards or more. Yes, I realize I defined Corey Pavin into the long hitters category, but he is by most standards. I would put PW at 120 to be a long hitter.

I'm not a long hitter. My good drives are maybe 235 and I play my pitching wedge to 95 yards.

[cnixon83]

it's all in one persons perspective on it. i'd consider myself decently long, driver usually gets out 285+yds. 3W gets out in the 260-270yd. range. i'm one of those weirdos who carries a 2i (and a blade 2i at that) and i usually hit that 230-235. i can smash a PW over 150yds. but thats not what a wedge was made for, i'm pretty comfortable hitting a smooth wedge 140yds. distance plays a huge role in the modern golf game, the courses are getting longer, the forced-carries are getting longer.

[Fat Slice]

Mr driver goes about 240 including rollout and my PW is good for 125. So, for me, no.

Once you play a round with a big hitter you know for sure that you aren't one.

[Laxplayer201092]

  cnixon83 said:

it's all in one persons perspective on it. i'd consider myself decently long, driver usually gets out 285+yds. 3W gets out in the 260-270yd. range. i'm one of those weirdos who carries a 2i (and a blade 2i at that) and i usually hit that 230-235. i can smash a PW over 150yds. but thats not what a wedge was made for, i'm pretty comfortable hitting a smooth wedge 140yds. distance plays a huge role in the modern golf game, the courses are getting longer, the forced-carries are getting longer.

I find myself in your boat.

Distance is a great thing, you can cut corners, hit wedges into greens, lots of advantages. but i also find some odd distance gaps.. LW-95 SW-115 PW-140 9-150 8-160 7-170 6-180 5-190 4-200 3-220 2Hybird-240 3 Wood-260 Driver260+ Like the other day, boomed a drive on a par 5, were talkin 300plus. had 245 out, hit a hybrid about 10 feet short of the green. but i have odd gaps, like the 3-2. or any of my wedges. They are just odd. But i would be a semi big hitter haha.

[firstcut]

This is a tricky question..

I can hit my Driver 300, but I have to come out of my shoes and am pretty happy when it's straight. Normally it's 230-260. So, I don't consider myself a long hitter with my driver..

That said, I can consistently hit my 6 180-185 which *I think* is long.

On Sat I accidentally hit my 8 Iron 175 because I caught it uber square with the softest swing you can imagine.. It would have been a beautiful thing.. If I hadn't been trying to lay up behind the creek that was 175 out.

Oh.. and I can crush a putt 40 yards off a green and into a sandtrap EASY! Beat that tuff guys!

[flap]

For my age 57 I think I am long as my driver is usually 260 but have allways been short with my irons.PW-115-120 5 iron 175.But my woods 3 wood 235 off the deck so go figure.

[Righty to Lefty]

I am a big hitter now that I play left handed instead of right handed where I was a pretty average hitter but was very straight with every club. I am much more versitile with playing with ballflight and trajectory lefty though and I generate about 20-25 mph more clubhead speed. Initially when I switched five months ago I was full out with everything. I could hit a lob wedge 125 yards and pitching wedge was good for about 160 easy! As I developed some feel I play shots at about 75 percent which has made my handicap plummet over the past two months from 36 to 17 ( I practice about 10 hours per week not counting my workouts) I used to swing fro the fences with my driver and an average pass was 310 plus but I would hit about 2 O.B. every round which drove me nuts!!! Distance is a gift and a curse because most holes simply don't have wide enough fairway when you hit the ball over 300 yards so I learned very quickly that it was better to hit it 280-290 under control and in play in the fairway than 300 in the 6 inch rough here at my home course. Also irons aren't meant to be hit fully out because they are supposed to be a precise instrument and not for brute force. But what I find with my irons is that even with a lesser swing if you are hitting the sweet spot there is not much of a dropoff in distance at all. Besides until your short game is tight you will never score off of distance because you are going to hit golf balls into some places that you never imagined you could and then you have to try and get up and down which doesn't usually go over to well until you dial in your short game. Oh but once the short game is there then you can truly bring the course to it's knees. Our head pro here at Sahara Golf and Country Club Damon hit the ball a ton (300 plus average easily) and it's like he's throwing darts inside 120 yards and so he'll go out and rack up 9 birdies at will. His best round is 59 and that is what you get when you have accurate long teeshots and a killer short game. I am a long hitter but I work on my long game only about 20 percent of my practice time. Here are my distances that I hit my clubs. The first distance is full out the second is what I play to on the course.

Driver 310-285
3 Wood 290-280
2 hybrid 265-250
3 hybrid 255-240
4 hybrid 245-230
5 iron 220-210
6 iron 210-190
7 iron 185-175
8 iron 180-165
9 iron 165-155
PW 160-145
52* 140-125
56* 125-110
64* 105-80

[BillyG]

I don't think I'm a 'big' hitter. I have putted pretty long occasionally, though.

[Fourputt]

Not a long hitter. I'm actually quite average. My drives go from 250 to over 300 (once this year ) with most being in the 250-260 range. My irons are abysmally short, but since I know what to hit what distance, that's really meaningless. Who really cares whether you hit a PW or a 7I from 140 as long as you know what club to use.

And those who hit the irons so far would actually be better off to tone it down a bit. If you are hitting a LW 100+ (most pros play a full SW from about 85-100), then anything less is a feel shot, and those are the hardest ones to control. I'm hitting a full 58° wedge about 50-60 yards.... that gives me a theoretical advantage as we get closer to the green.

[Righty to Lefty]

  Fourputt said:

And those who hit the irons so far would actually be better off to tone it down a bit. If you are hitting a LW 100+ (most pros play a full SW from about 85-100), then anything less is a feel shot, and those are the hardest ones to control. I'm hitting a full 58° wedge about 50-60 yards.... that gives me a theoretical advantage as we get closer to the green.

I can hit a comfortable lob wedge 100 yards no problem but I use my sand wedge because at my swingspeed a ball stuck properly generates a ton of spin and that is why pros don't use clubs that require a full out swing from inside 120 yards or so because they are controling the spin depending on the pin position. I know with a sand wedge I am gonna get medium trajectory hop and stop action but with a 64 or a lob wedge I am gonna get sky high ballflight with about 15 feet of back spin which is useful to a tight front pin with bunkers gaurding it to be able to throw the ball in the middle of the green and spin it back. I can even hit a pitching wedge that will come in low and release 10-15 feet forward which gets to the back pin positions. So actually you don't have an advantage the closer we get to the green. Pros are just controling the spin and trajectory and that is why they are hitting sandwedge from 85-100 yards.

[David in FL]

Nope. Short knocker here.

I tend to win the money though.........

[golf_junkie27]

Anyone with the following carry averages I would consider long:

Driver-260
3w-245
3I-215
4I-205
5I-195
6I-185
7I-175
8I-165
9I-155
PW-145
GW-135
SW-125
LW-105

I've never played with someone who performed to these numbers. I have, though, played with plenty of guys that claim to play to these distances. Let's just say the humble pie did not go well.

[pshizz]

what is wrong with me? i seem to hit my irons long but not my woods. I hit driver around 245 in the summer, and pw about 130. However most ppl here who hit pw 130 have 280 drives. This seems to be a reoccuring theme because in golf magazine, i seem to hava the same iron distances as tim clarke but he puts his driver 280 and 3 wood 260 where as i myself am lucky to get 260 on a drive. Any thoughts about my distances? fyi my irons are r7's and the lofts are a little bit strong.

[Fourputt]

  Righty to Lefty said:

I can hit a comfortable lob wedge 100 yards no problem but I use my sand wedge because at my swingspeed a ball stuck properly generates a ton of spin and that is why pros don't use clubs that require a full out swing from inside 120 yards or so because they are controling the spin depending on the pin position. I know with a sand wedge I am gonna get medium trajectory hop and stop action but with a 64 or a lob wedge I am gonna get sky high ballflight with about 15 feet of back spin which is useful to a tight front pin with bunkers gaurding it to be able to throw the ball in the middle of the green and spin it back. I can even hit a pitching wedge that will come in low and release 10-15 feet forward which gets to the back pin positions. So actually you don't have an advantage the closer we get to the green. Pros are just controling the spin and trajectory and that is why they are hitting sandwedge from 85-100 yards.

But you still have to play a different shot for each situation, I don't. My normal shots land softly with little or no spin back so I can attack most pins without making any changes. I CAN spin the ball if I so choose, but usually there is no reason to do so. All that does is add a measure of uncertainty to a shot (which is why the pros do their best to kill that excess spin). Even spinning back a shot to a front pin as you describe is a chancy proposition. It's too easy to hit a bit short and spin back off the green, right into those bunkers you were trying to avoid. I'd rather be trying for about 15 feet past the pin and let the ball die right there. If I'm a bit short, no problem... a bit long and I've still got a reasonable 2 putt. I almost never make more than a 3/4 swing with a wedge in my hands.