I played today with a guy who could hit his 56* SW 150 yards!!

[RC]

A sand wedge carrying over 150 yards has to be delofted... otherwise it would go so high it would be a danger to aviation. I have seen a guy hit a pitching wedge on a 170 par three slightly into the wind, but his wedge was lower than my six iron by quite a bit. I'm not knocking delofted shots at all -- sometimes the best way to advance a shot is to deloft the crap out of the shot. Never the less, a swing speed that would hit a 56 degree sand wedge 150 yards is going to produce unpredictable spin -- not a good thing.

[iWALK18]

Big deal… I can THROW my 56* 170 yards.

HAHAHA... funnnnny

[RocketSauce]

A sand wedge carrying over 150 yards has to be delofted... otherwise it would go so high it would be a danger to aviation. I have seen a guy hit a pitching wedge on a 170 par three slightly into the wind, but his wedge was lower than my six iron by quite a bit. I'm not knocking delofted shots at all -- sometimes the best way to advance a shot is to deloft the crap out of the shot. Never the less, a swing speed that would hit a 56 degree sand wedge 150 yards is going to produce unpredictable spin -- not a good thing.

exactly. i used to play with my ex father in law and he would laugh at me cuz he's hitting a PW and Im hitting an 7 iron from the same distance. yet his ball wouldnt get 30 feet off the ground & he'd have to land it short to account for roll, but mine would fly high, land, and stop

[Crey23]

Well, I guess I am aa master tehn, cuz i can hit LW 60* 125 yards....

Needless to say, I was aiming 75 yards out to a pin at the driving range. I just kept blowing past my target. They were flying 120 yards and rolling at least another 15.

Bottom line you hit whatever you can to get there under par, as long as he has the awareness that he will drop and roll for another 30 yards, then so be it!

[MiniMoe]

150 yd SW is impressive. The real question is .... how good is he from 100? Most guys that hit the ball that far have very little feel from closer in. The 1/2 shot give them all kinds of trouble.

[kidsonic]

what is delofting? angling the club so your hands are super low and in front of the club head?

[Crey23]

what is delofting? angling the club so your hands are super low and in front of the club head?

Sounds about right. Bottom line, you have angled the club to the point where you are no longer using its effective angle it's smaller now.

[Surefire]

Yeah, what'd the guy shoot? Be the longest guy in the world, but as my favorite quote goes:

I wanted to post this, but you 2 guys beat me to it.

Still no answer, I'm curious.

[kfowler]

150 yd SW is impressive. The real question is .... how good is he from 100? Most guys that hit the ball that far have very little feel from closer in. The 1/2 shot give them all kinds of trouble.

This is what I was thinking. At some point, wouldn't this be a disadvantage? So I would guess that anything less than 140 yards you couldn't hit a full swing. That takes a tremendous amount of touch.

[SasQuatch<3]

Thats just nuts!

[iacas]

Sounds about right. Bottom line, you have angled the club to the point where you are no longer using its effective angle it's smaller now.

To be fair, the average pro de-lofts about eight degrees, and the steeper the angle - in general - the better the golfer (assuming their ball position is within normal ranges, anyway).

De-lofting is good. Excessive de-lofting, not so much.

[TheNatural]

Iacas what do you mean not so good.? the steeper the degree the better the golfer? contradictions of sorts..

Is it that 1% can steep deloft and anyone else is looking for trouble? I know its all in degrees of talent and delofting. Just trying to absorb some science.


150 with a STRONG shaft 60* yea I can do it, but its better left for my pw.
I deloft on most of my shots anyway. BUt the trajectory still seems to be similar to a 60 just from greater distance. I use 60 from 130 and in and she stops or plugs.

[iacas]

Iacas what do you mean not so good.? the steeper the degree the better the golfer? contradictions of sorts..

There's no contradiction at all.

The average scratch golfer has a forward lean - a de-lofting - of about four degrees. The average Pro about 8. The average bogey golfer tends to have backwards lean of the clubshaft of about two degrees. Edit: if there is a contradiction, maybe it's because you took "steep" to mean the club shaft angle. In that instance I was referring to the clubface angle (loft), so de-lofting produces a steeper clubface. I'm sure I could have been clearer about that.

[Golfaway]

I wanted to post this, but you 2 guys beat me to it.

All aspects of his game is great. We played only 6 holes, he birdied one, bogey'd one and par'd 4.

The hole he bogey'd wasn't his fault though. The fairway we were driving into was flooded with water (they use flooding to irrigate the fairways here, and we were playing just before sunset so it was around the time they start flooding the fairways) so he tried to play a power fade to reach an elevated area to the right that wasn't flooded. He managed to play an awesome fade (a very risky one too, the right side of that fairway is OB) but his ball landed a little bit more to the right just next to a tree trunk, so he couldn't but play it safe into the fairway and reach the green on the 3rd, plus 2 putts. I just learned he is a 1 handicapper and in the process of becoming scratch and going professional. I think he has the potential for it.

[jorruss]

I used to be able to hit a SW 135 and a PW 160, but as I became a better golfer my distance gaps needed to get tighter. The last thing you want coming down the stretch in a tournament is a delicate little half shot with a sand wedge. The Long Drive guys struggle with huge distance gaps. It's great to hit an 8 iron 195 yards and a 7 iron 225, but what do you hit from 210?

As this guy learns to score, he'll match his set to reduce those gaps and he won't need to hit a SW 150. I'm sure his distance control leaves something to be desired.

[pjsnyc]

If you watch him very closely, does he "deloft" the club at impact, i.e. hands way in front of the usual position in relation to the ball? This might explain much of the extra length. Video would tell the full story.

I would venture a guess and say yes :)

I played with a dude the other day, honestly couldn't have weighed much over a buck and a half. And the guy was teeing off with an 8i on a 200yd par3. Not entirely accurate, but he was delofting and swinging out of his shoes like crazy.

[Leftygolfer]

When Daly won the PGA he was doing the same thing.

[Brooklyn]

Big deal… I can THROW my 56* 170 yards.

thats one of the funnier things ive read today.