I played with a distance machine today!!

[Golfaway]

Today I played with an 18 years old kid at our course, a 7 handicap. On the par 3 7th, 185 yards with a lake just before the green. I usually play a 3 hybrid and I can barely reach the green. My usual shot is a fade that ends up by the right side of the green, when I nut really pure, I barely reach the green.

Anyway, we proceed to play the hole, and he gets out a PW (PING G2). I almost chuckled and I thought he won't even reach the lake. Anyway, he proceeds, makes his pre-shot routine, and THUD. He reaches the green, and the ball even lands in the middle of the green not at the beginning. I was really stunned. I wish you guys could see the power by which this guy plays, the ball is literally ****ed at impact.

Needless to say, his drives were crazy; at least 320 yards carry.

[Stan MI]

I get that same feeling when I play with my son. If I swung that hard the next sound you'd here would be the sirens from the ambulance. I think I would twist off. LOL

[jrm1493]

This summer I played with a HS kid like that, he said he was on the baseball team but wanted to try for the golf team next year. On one hole I hit what I thought was an OK drive, about 230 on a 390 yard hole, leaving myself a 6 iron in, which I hit well to about 20 feet and 2-putted. This kid hit his drive to about 50 yards short of the green, no lie. He then chunked it 3 straight times and 3-putted for a 7.

Walking off the green he indicated that he was impressed by how consistent I was, I think it was a good lesson for him on how to score. I mean this kid probably outdrove me by an average of 75 yards and I shot in the high 80s and he was probably around 110. He seemed like a really nice kid and if he could ever harness that power he'd be trouble. I hope he started to work on that wedge and putter, though...

[O.B. Right]

That's a great story. It makes me wonder, though . .if you hit your PW 185 yards what the heck are you supposed to do from, say 80-100 yards out? A half-strength lob wedge? As much as it would be cool to hit that far . .that would totally wreak havoc on my short game.

[cody west]

That's a great story. It makes me wonder, though . .if you hit your PW 185 yards what the heck are you supposed to do from, say 80-100 yards out? A half-strength lob wedge? As much as it would be cool to hit that far . .that would totally wreak havoc on my short game.

i used to hit my pw 170 and i have taken all my distance and converted it to accuracy. when you have that much distance to spare you can tighten up your swing and make it shorter and more controled even if you do lose distance it doesnt matter because youl still hit your wedge 150. i have done that and gone from a 7 to a 1.3

[O.B. Right]

i used to hit my pw 170 and i have taken all my distance and converted it to accuracy. when you have that much distance to spare you can tighten up your swing and make it shorter and more controled even if you do lose distance it doesnt matter because youl still hit your wedge 150. i have done that and gone from a 7 to a 1.3

So what actually makes it go that far? Delofting the clubhead at impact until it's like a 2 iron. .or does it go 200 yards high, too?

My goal is to hit my 7 iron 150 . .ha ha. I doubt I'll ever hit a wedge that far.

[Ben]

Today I played with an 18 years old kid at our course, a 7 handicap.

Golf is not about how far, but about how many. A clear indication that he is a 7 handicap. "A little jealous Ben," you may wonder to yourself. Not in the slightest. I play with plenty of bombers, and sure, its fun to watch. But its even more fun to beat them with my 290y drives and 185y 6 irons.

[Williamevanl]

Yea that is silly, of course he wasn't hitting the pw correctly, although thats hard to tell to someone that hits it 185 yards. Can you imagine the height and spin you would get on normal 185 yard pw. You could have 50 feet of green and you would still spin it off.

Pros like to hit short irons really far like 150 yard 9 irons\pw but its hard not to over spin it at that point with a good swing.

But anyway if you punch that into a distance calculator it calculates into a 153 yard lob wedge, 200 yard 9 iron, 250 yard 5 iron and a drive with an average carry of 334 yards. Longest on tour average, 315. 'watson'

As ^ stated its just a matter of severe delofting but that stops working at maybe the 7 or 6 iron.

I have seen plenty of delofting line up right snap hooks over the years. What impresses me is a 135 yard, high flying, push drawn pitching wedge that checks and spins back at the flag stick.

There should be a sticky about how hitting a pw over 150 yards is neither cool nor good for your golf game.

[kafka01]

Couple days ago i was hitting balls (in cold and wet weather) and i used my old blades - i was hitting my PW to 145 and i was wondering wtf is going on there, since normally my PW is about 120-125. Next day i got my normal clubs and hit the same shot and hit my normal distance.

So my guess is, that some of my blades by now are probably way delofted and that i have to bent them to the proper lofts again. But i guess G2 arent forged clubs and that cant happen with casted clubs, can it?

But nevermind - as soon as i read he´s a 7hcper - i had to chuckle... His shortgame really must suck, when he can carry it 320 and only has a 7hcp. We have a 65 year old guy who probably cant even carry 200 anymore but he´s a 6 - now what does this tell you?

[max power]

There should be a sticky about how hitting a pw over 150 yards is neither cool nor good for your golf game.

Definitely. I started hitting my PW up close to 150 earlier this year, and after a few weeks realized I was swinging out of my shoes and missing greens long and/or left. I dialed the PW back to about 125-135(max), and saw my accuracy with nearly every iron go up, while my scores kept going down. I'm not knocking distance, but the PW, 9, 8, 7 irons, etc don't require monster swings, and nothing has helped my score more than hitting greens.

[Parker0065]

Couple days ago i was hitting balls (in cold and wet weather) and i used my old blades - i was hitting my PW to 145 and i was wondering wtf is going on there, since normally my PW is about 120-125. Next day i got my normal clubs and hit the same shot and hit my normal distance.

Blades have a higher center of gravity than parimeter weighted clubs so when properly struck with hands forward at impact will create a nice lower boring shot with a good amount of spin. This is the number one reason I prefer blades over parimeter weighted clubs is that I can control my trajectory much more accurately by adjusting how much I lead the clubhead with my hands. Consequently, I hit blades farther than parimeter weighted irons.

As far as the original post, 185yd PW is beyond Tiger like,,,lol. First thing I would ask is the hole downhill, downwind, and was it measured with a gps/laser? Either way I agree with those that say the club was severly delofted. Can you imagine the swing speed it would take to propel a ball struck from the normal 48* PW loft to carry 185 yards. I would think it would have to be somewhere up there with World Long Driving Champions that drive the ball over 400yds. But I didn't work out the math on it so I could be wrong! What was that,,something like (Acceleration = Velocity/Time)? I need some remedial physics help please,,lol! Anyone know how to calculate ball speed given launch angle and total distance?

[Williamevanl]

Ahh crap.

So distance = initial velocity'squared' X sin(45) \ 9.8 ???
So conversions? (169.14 meters = Solve * .74 / 9.8)
169 * 9.8 = Solve'squared' * .74
1656 = Solve 'squared' * .74
1656 \ .74 = solve 'squared'
square root of 2237 = 47 m/s or 105 mph. "Doesn't seem right looking over math..."

I'm totally high right now, someone figure this out.

Wait looks like the launch angle of a pw is 30 degrees so its
57 m/s or 127 mph.

*I had to google the launch angle of a pitching wedge so replace 45 with 30 in this ridiculous calculation.*

"in reality, the launch angle for a golf ball propelled by a forty-five degree pitching wedge is about 30-degrees instead of 45-degrees" Source: http://www.leaderboard.com/GLOSSARY_LAUNCHANGLE

So yea this guy you played with had a swing speed of 127 mph with his pw?!? Word! :)

[Golfaway]

You guys wondering about the guy's short game; rest assured, it's top notch. He can stick his approach to within no more than 10 feet from the flag. He's a registered 7 handicap but I am sure he plays to 1 or 2 maximum. He's just that good. He's been playing since 3 for god's sake.

I just wonder how will he play when he's 25 or something.

[whetstone]

While not good for your golf game, hitting a pw 185 is definately cool.

hitting a pw over 150 yards is neither cool nor good for your golf game.

[cody west]

So what actually makes it go that far? Delofting the clubhead at impact until it's like a 2 iron. .or does it go 200 yards high, too?

for me it was always because i swung hard, the ball would go very very high and i would have the problem with to much spin occasionally. i think most of the reason i hit the ball so far was because i would always hit the ball first and my swing is pretty on plane. also i have a very steep angle of attack. i cant really explain it, it just happens like im not a big kid and i really dont weigh much. it really helps to have that much distance kinda hidden away.

[cody west]

Ahh crap.

im pretty sure that would b ball speed not club speed. the club speed would b about 1.5x=127 so ABOUT 84.66 mph assuming he doesnt deloft the club, or hit a draw. also you would have to have the spin rate of the ball because more backspin will make the ball stay in the air longer and rise faster. also your angle of decent will change that because those problems are based on a congruent path of accent and decent when in reality the ball comes down much steeper than it rises.

[Williamevanl]

im pretty sure that would b ball speed not club speed. the club speed would b about 1.5x=127 so ABOUT 84.66 mph assuming he doesnt deloft the club, or hit a draw. also you would have to have the spin rate of the ball because more backspin will make the ball stay in the air longer and rise faster. also your angle of decent will change that because those problems are based on a congruent path of accent and decent when in reality the ball comes down much steeper than it rises.

?Are you saying a pw swung at 84.66 mph should go 185 Yards?

Maybe a 4 iron swung at 85 mph. lol SWING SPEED CONVERSION CHART Driver Carry........150 Yd Club ....Club Head Speed...Shaft Flex 265 + Yards...........8 or 9 Iron.........105 mph.................. XS (extra stiff) 245-265 Yards...... 6 or 7 Iron......... 90 - 110 mph............S (stiff) 215-245 Yards...... 5 or 6 Iron......... 80 - 95 mph..............R (regular) 185-215 Yards...... 4 Iron................. 70 - 85 mph............. A (amateur, senior)

[clubchamp]

You guys wondering about the guy's short game; rest assured, it's top notch. He can stick his approach to within no more than 10 feet from the flag. He's a registered 7 handicap but I am sure he plays to 1 or 2 maximum. He's just that good. He's been playing since 3 for god's sake.

I think what people are getting at is that he must have flaws because if he didn't he would be at least scratch. I mean you said he's carrying drives further than the pro's and sticking wedges to 10 feet he should be easily shooting under. I mean think about it basically he would never hit more than a 8 iron into any par 4 and maybe no more than a 5 iron into par 5s. Plus your saying he sticks his wedges which would be the majority of what he hits into greens. I'm not saying its not true but he must have some flaws that prevent him from shooting very low scores.