Let's lose the distance obsession. It implies ignorance about the game.

[bogeyhitter25]

i agree but i don't him hitting only 275 or so and winning isn't a great example most people on here wouldn't mind a 275 average at all

Most people here average 320 off the tee. But seriously, he plays on courses where par 4s average out at 440ish.

[denver_nuggs_15]

Well, A LOT depends on that (wind, trouble near the green, lie, condititons in general soft, hard, etc.) so I don't really know HOW people can all of a sudden just pop on and say 5-iron when they don't even know the conditions.

I think the conditions were discussed in the thread, but I could be wrong.

Distance matters. Maybe not much, but it certainly matters. Someone with the same ballstriking ability, accuracy, short game, and putting abilities as me probably wouldn't beat me if he were 20 yards behind me. I wouldn't beat him if he were 20 yards in front of me (on a consistent basis). It helps. There are threads wondering about short iron woes, putting tips, how do I hit this wedge shot, etc. All of those things help you in golf just like distance does. It's a golf forum. There's an obsession with everything that's related to golf...distance is no exception. I do think that distance is overrated by many beginners and higher handicaps, but everything else held constant (ballstriking, putting, short game, etc.), a longer hitter will be better than me.

[skates87]

Hang on a second; I need to go grab my conventional-to-metric conversion chart.

imperial to metric but i agree completly with you everyone is so concerned with how far they hit it yet when they have a wedge into a green they have no idea what to do.

[TheLauncher]

I've always heard that girth was more important than length... and of course finding your target. But all things being equal, ie. you could hit your target distance when you chose, wouldn't you rather be able to reach that target at 300 yards or 250 yards, rather than only being able to hit it 250?

But of course being able to hit those long shots on the range or sporadically during a round does not necessarily translate to a lower score, even though theoretically it should. And after all it's not how long but how many that matters.

[wedge player]

And after all it's not how long but how many that matters.

well said.he summed it up pretty good.

[DiverDown]

I look at this differently. I submitted a post about reaching 300. The idea is not that I broke 300. What it means to me is that I hit the driver correctly and hit the distance that I felt I could hit, something I've been working on for a while. I always felt that I could hit the ball further than it was going, but because I was too tense, incorrect stance, ball position, swing plane, etc... I wasn't getting it done.

Breaking 300 for me was a journey to getting my driver in check. I went out yesterday, didn't touch 300, but hit my driver well with long straight drives. I was very happy with the outcome, I've been working at this.

I know for some it's probably hitting it as long as they can, for others including myself, it's the significance of the 300 yard drive being the outcome of a well struck ball. It is an arbitrary number.

[Kingfisher]

The OP has made some good points.

I also feel that some golfers obsession with distance gets out of hand. Quite frankly, I don't give a monkey's chuff how far folks think they hit their clubs - most of it is just comedy.

Perhaps the obsession with distance is to make up for other inadequacies in their lives - maybe they are short in other departments

[Fourputt]

I'll keep this brief.

Agreed. The only thing about distance which matters is that you have the right club and the right shot planned for the distance you want to hit the ball. You don't need to hit 300 yard drives, you don't even need to hit 260 yard drives. And you darned sure don't need to hit 150 yard wedges. You do need to keep the ball in play, you need to KNOW what distance you are looking at, and you need to know how to pick the right club to negotiate the shot you are faced with. Too many guys are far too obsessed with hitting everything farther and farther. I find that the guy with an average to below average long game and a good short game usually beats the guy who tears the cover off the ball, but who's directionally challenged and lacks a much needed wedge game.

If you habitually play a lot of holes that you can't reach in regulation, then you aren't necessarily hitting the ball too short, you are probably playing from the wrong tee for your game.

[zeg]

One point in favor of discussing distance is the USGA definition of scratch and bogey golfers. Borrowing from about.com:

the USGA defines a scratch golfer thusly: "An amateur player who plays to the standard of the stroke play qualifiers competing in the United States Amateur Championship. The male scratch golfer hits his tee shots an average of 250 yards and can reach a 470-yard hole in two shots.

IIRC, bogey is defined to average 200 yards off the tee. While this doesn't justify obsessing over distance, it does suggest that it's fairly important to reach a minimum.

[dag2000]

Distance kills me more often than not because I can get a little wild. I only pull out the driver 6 or 7 times a round. If I was smarter, it would be 3 or 4.

I'd much rather be 190 from the green on the fairway on a short par 4 after my drive than I would trying to hit a 140 yard running hooked punch out of the woods.

[imtomtomim]

well look at it this way. If we were playing a match together and let's say we're at a 380 yard par 4 and I drive 280 into the first cut rough and you drive 240-250, all I got left in is a full easy sw while you may need to hit a 6 iron. Doesn't that make a difference?

I get what you're saying, but distance does help. And I do love that wow factor haha.

[Shorty]

well look at it this way. If we were playing a match together and let's say we're at a 380 yard par 4 and I drive 280 into the first cut rough and you drive 240-250, all I got left in is a full easy sw while you may need to hit a 6 iron. Doesn't that make a difference?

I am talking about threads on this forum, not distance.

I am commenting on threads where people, without knowing the conditions or circumstances, make judgements about what club they would hit on a hole they've never seen, for example. There is a comment in THIS thread, for example, where a player had a goal of hitting a 300 yard drive. Fair enough, but on certain courses, because of fairway conditions, it might not be possible for him to be within 60 yards of that. On the other hand, there may be courses where, because of run he could achieve it regularly. My point is that we have to compare apples with apples and can't.

[leo3]

well look at it this way. If we were playing a match together and let's say we're at a 380 yard par 4 and I drive 280 into the first cut rough and you drive 240-250, all I got left in is a full easy sw while you may need to hit a 6 iron. Doesn't that make a difference?

As someone who does hit it 240- 250, 380 minus 250 tee shot leaves me 130, which is a 9 iron. I would take that off the fairway any day against a shot out of the rough. I can control the spin, and have no worries about catching a flyer.

[sonicblue]

I believe that obsession with distance is THE single greatest barrier for the amateur golfer. My three cardinal areas of swing error:

1) Swinging too hard
2) Losing balance (closely tied to #1 but not inextricably)
3) Swinging too much with the arms

I would offer that, if most beginners/high-handicappers were content with trying to hit a driver 200 yards and a 7-iron 140 yards, they would learn the game much more quickly, and quickly figure out the proper route to hitting their driver 250 and their 7-iron 160.

[enduro]

Then why talk about anything? Aren't all 10' putts different? Downhill, uphill, flat, sideways and different gradients of them. Greens are different speeds and grown using different grass. So obviously we can't talk about putting.

Of course some drives will be longer than others. A downhill drive will go further than an uphill one. Drives go longer in August than in May since the ball is warmer usually and the ground is generally much more firm. Ever date a drive in December when the ground is frozen? We're talking near 400 yards!!

So of course comparisons and whatnot are iffy at best. But that goes beyond just driving. But the entire part of a forum is to talk about things, either thoughtful or mindless. And a thread demanding others don't talk about such things is against the entire point of a forum. I'd say just ignore those threads and move along. Some people enjoy talking about those things, even if you can't comprehend why and have a valid argument for why they are unimportant and nonsensical.

[Mitch C]

Well, another thing to consider is that the biggest hitting professionals would probably not average 300 on the courses most of us play. Go to a PGA tour event. The fairways are cut so short that they look like they have been rolled. If you've ever played on one of your local courses and they had a temporary green set up in the fairway where they mowed the grass down extra short so that you could putt on the fairway, that is what a fairway set up for a PGA event looks like. Unless a course is wet, they get 50 yards of roll on nearly every single drive.

Imagine that. Fifty yards of consistent roll turns a 220 yard driving amateur into a 270 yard guy. Suddenly, he feels like a big hitter. Sure, the guys in the PGA carry it farther than the average guy, but a big part of their distance is that they play in perfect conditions with courses specifically set-up for them. Your country club can't keep its fairways that short all the time because they will die. But for a week, they can get them short and running fast.

So the distance thing gets really skewed. Just go play. You'll feel a lot better if you don't obsess about distance.

[Elvisliveson]

As someone who does hit it 240- 250, 380 minus 250 tee shot leaves me 130, which is a 9 iron. I would take that off the fairway any day against a shot out of the rough. I can control the spin, and have no worries about catching a flyer.

I agree. I hit a little further, 260-265. Anyway, I was playing in a scramble just last month and one of the guys in our group was a slightly longer hitter, and the other two guys not too accomplished.

Well, the big hitter kept lobbying to use his tee-shots in the rough because they were a mere 15-20 yards further than my tee-shots in the middle of the fairway. One was actually underneath a tree! It was a real ego thing and it hurt the team because the other two guys did not posess the skills needed to consistently get out of the rough. Finally, everyone revolted and said we should only hit shots from the fairway.

[pxc]

This thread is ironic because

1 - everyone thinks the OP is talking about being obsessed with driving the ball a long way and he's not, and

2 - people are starting to compare their distances and what shots they would take in a situation, which is what the OP was complaining about.