Driving Distance

[Pablo68]

These threads always crack me up...........

The internet is full of guys hitting it 300+ yards and nicknamed 'the human tripod' when naked.

[WWBDD]

Originally Posted by 14ledo81

Well....not just any 1 iron. The ping eye 2. The greatest irons ever made.

It's illegal for Jack Hamm to own Ping Eye 2s.

[ecureed]

high capper here so driving distances are all over the place.  i could hit one 175 and the next 215.  i'd say my average is 190.....lots of work to do....and let me just say i've read a couple posts about strength and i'll agree that has nothng to do with it. one guy said he cant do more than 2 pushups but averages 290, i could knock out 50 pushups no problem

[Fred Fields]

Wow! Blades4me got it exactly right!

Distance is the most overrated factor in golf for everyone but professional golfers, and even for them it's not as important as short game,

I'm an old guy...76 years old. In my younger days I was a 6 handicap, and often played the way back tees at Columbia Counrty Club, which any local golfer will tell you is 7200 yards. My driving distahce...225-230 yards. My best score from that distance...73. (That's +1, y'all)

The reason for my best score, I was chipping and pitching close for 1 putt greens all day.

Driving distance is ok if you can do it AND KNOW WHERE YOUR BALL WILL LAND! But 200 yards in the fairway beats 300 yards in the woods or pond all day long.

If you want to improve your scores: Stay out of trouble, and chip and putt like a genius...and use a smart "weekend golfer" game plan, not Tiger Woods" strategy (unless you play the same game and can hit the same shots as Tiger Woods).

[MJK3122]

I am pretty long I guess. I can hit it in excess of 300 but I recently went with the "lets hit the fairway approach". I hit more of a controlled cut and its about 270-280 on average. Like others have said, giving up distance for accuracy is a good thing.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Fred Fields

Distance is the most overrated factor in golf for everyone but professional golfers, and even for them it's not as important as short game,

I disagree. Distance is a huge advantage, and recent data makes a very, very compelling case that the short game has been over-valued - and that the full swing matters quite a bit more to scorin well.

Originally Posted by Fred Fields

I'm an old guy...76 years old. In my younger days I was a 6 handicap, and often played the way back tees at Columbia Counrty Club, which any local golfer will tell you is 7200 yards. My driving distahce...225-230 yards. My best score from that distance...73. (That's +1, y'all)

The reason for my best score, I was chipping and pitching close for 1 putt greens all day.

You also only managed to shoot 73 once.

Originally Posted by Fred Fields

Driving distance is ok if you can do it AND KNOW WHERE YOUR BALL WILL LAND! But 200 yards in the fairway beats 300 yards in the woods or pond all day long.

Yes, but 275 and close to the fairway also beats 200 and in the fairway all day (especially if you're still only hitting the fairway 75% of the time or less while hitting it 200 yards.

Originally Posted by Fred Fields

If you want to improve your scores: Stay out of trouble, and chip and putt like a genius...and use a smart "weekend golfer" game plan, not Tiger Woods" strategy (unless you play the same game and can hit the same shots as Tiger Woods).

Yeah, just chip and putt like a genius!

Fred, as I said in the other thread, post something of substance in your own thread, but please stop taking these threads off topic. Thank you - I appreciate it.

[x129]

I would love to hear why you think LPGA pros don't hit it as far as PGA pros? Why do the senior guys lose distance? And so on. Not to mention why  you think pushups have anything to do with the golf swing (i.e they aren't the primary power muscles in the golf swing) and why endurance (doing something 50 times vesus doing something once) is important in a power activity. Is strength the most important thing in distance? Nope. But it is something that you can improve and will lead to more distance.

Originally Posted by ecureed

high capper here so driving distances are all over the place.  i could hit one 175 and the next 215.  i'd say my average is 190.....lots of work to do....and let me just say i've read a couple posts about strength and i'll agree that has nothng to do with it. one guy said he cant do more than 2 pushups but averages 290, i could knock out 50 pushups no problem

[SimpleSimon]

My average driver distance is about 240. But I hit a fade. The first 4 or 5 holes I grip down just to get a feel for it and the nerves of the first few holes. usually hit it about 220 when I grip down.

My buddies give me crap when they hit their 3 wood further than I hit my driver on a few holes. Their ball is over in the rough while I am sitting center fairway. You can't be consistent if your constantly hitting from the rough.

[JCoop]

I started playing a couple summers ago and I hit a driver around 200 yards on average, with some being a sloppy 180 and some 220. Last year I hit one 230 yards for a baby draw dead center fairway. It was a thing of beauty! The last time I played, which was before everything shut down last fall, I hit 7 out of 9 fairways, which was by far the best I've ever done.

Can't wait to start all over again this spring...

[3putter]

Originally Posted by TimG3394

We have had a couple long threads on this

http://thesandtrap.com/t/25474/how-far-do-you-hit-your-clubs

http://thesandtrap.com/t/18426/average-distances-how-far-do-you-hit-each-club-and-dont-lie

I was looking one of these threads and I couldn't stop laughing at the numbers I was seeing. Sandtrap needs to hold an annual get together where guys just hit balls to these amazing distances.

Longest average on tour is 320+ by Luke List, but some of the guys here seem like they can hang with him. Even the iron distances from these guys are like "Whoa!!" I tip my hat to these internet numbers.

If these numbers are true, you might wanna quit your day job and hit up Haney, Foley, or Butch. Y'all might be able to fix whatever keeps you at 10+ handicap and make it to the tour.

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

I think a lot of players over estimate their driving distances just because they don't truly measure it, and aren't accurate with their guess of average distance. I actually track my driving distance with my iPhone gps app and enter it after each tee-shot. My average is 235.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by MyrtleBeachGolf

I think a lot of players over estimate their driving distances just because they don't truly measure it, and aren't accurate with their guess of average distance. I actually track my driving distance with my iPhone gps app and enter it after each tee-shot. My average is 235.

Exactly.  This was my fault as well.  I never measured my drives, or even attempted to ..... unless I really bombed one.  So the only drives I knew the exact distance of were crushed drives.  And even then, when you're counting backwards from the course markers you're not factoring in whether or not the tees were moved up (I always forgot to check that) and you're not even able to factor in if you cut the corner on a dogleg.  Example:  On Saturday I reached a Par 5 in 2 from about 215.  It was a 505 yard Par 5, so obviously my drive went 290!?!  Nope, I checked on Google, and it actually went about 265.

So I believe that the first one of those threads I posted on I put that I had a 285 or so driver average.  In reality, my average is probably more like 260.  Whoops.

[joekelly]

At Torrey Pines, on the final day, i have read that Tiger took a par after hitting his 5 iron 244 yrds over the bunkers from a crummy lie. I had misread that originally and thought it said  5 wood. My bad.

[Will1993]

I live in high elevation, my drives average around 300 carry with almost no roll unless they land on a downhill slope. My 9 degree is still sending the ball about a hundred feet higher then I would like most of the time so playing into the wind is dangerous. my longest drive this year was 395 into the rough because it ran out of fairway (downhill landing area) and would still never consider hitting a lob wedge more than 110 yards. 5 Iron flies 220 and sticks, also very high. I think my backspin is affecting distance but wouldn't change it for 20 more yards. Cleveland classic 270, and taylor made tour burners. No fairway woods yet. also cant put at all so its not worth anything yet.

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

I live in high elevation, my drives average around 300 carry with almost no roll unless they land on a downhill slope. My 9 degree is still sending the ball about a hundred feet higher then I would like most of the time so playing into the wind is dangerous. my longest drive this year was 395 into the rough because it ran out of fairway (downhill landing area) and would still never consider hitting a lob wedge more than 110 yards. 5 Iron flies 220 and sticks, also very high. I think my backspin is affecting distance but wouldn't change it for 20 more yards. Cleveland classic 270, and taylor made tour burners. No fairway woods yet. also cant put at all so its not worth anything yet.

Considering you just started playing last year, average 300 yard drives, and occasionally hit one almost 400 yards, you should sign up for the ReMax Long Drive Championships. Also, it's spelled "PUTT". /SMH

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by Will1993

I live in high elevation, my drives average around 300 carry with almost no roll unless they land on a downhill slope. My 9 degree is still sending the ball about a hundred feet higher then I would like most of the time so playing into the wind is dangerous. my longest drive this year was 395 into the rough because it ran out of fairway (downhill landing area) and would still never consider hitting a lob wedge more than 110 yards. 5 Iron flies 220 and sticks, also very high. I think my backspin is affecting distance but wouldn't change it for 20 more yards. Cleveland classic 270, and taylor made tour burners. No fairway woods yet. also cant put at all so its not worth anything yet.

I lived most of my playing life at high elevation in Denver, and I know a lot of players who think they average 300, yet when I measure them with my GPS they are never over 275-280.  It's not because they are lying exactly, but they are using a faulty method for measuring distances (that may or may not apply to you, but talking about it on an internet forum without any proof, or even saying how you measured it, is just going to raise eyebrows).  Using on course markings doesn't work - period.   If you want to measure your distances, then you have to actually measure them.  Otherwise you are just guessing, hoping that the course is measured correctly, hoping that you used the right path in using the course markings.  The 18th on my home course is a good example.  The card says 421 from the middle tees, and that is accurate when measured down the center of the dogleg, then straight from there to the middle of the green.  Only the short hitters play it that way though, and they play it as a par 5.  I play it so that my second shot is usually from the rough, but my typical 220-230 yard drive leaves me with just 155-165 to the middle of the green (when I catch one right, I can add another 30 yards to that and be in the fairway with just 120 or so to the green). That's a total of well under 400 yards.  I could make some sort of silly noise about since I only had 155 left on a 420 yard hole, I must have hit my drive 270 yards.

My longest drive ever on that hole was a measured 305 yards (perfect swing, tailwind, and landed on the firm downslope on the far side of a fairway bunker)  and that left me 75 yards to the green.  If you hit the ball 5 yards farther than that you are in the hazard, yet I hear guys talking about their 320+ yard drives on that hole.  Geographically impossible without being wet.

[ajst22]

This is my 3rd year of playing golf. My driver distance is only about 235 or so...not very long. Swing speed is about 87mph. I am 17 and shoot in the low 80s to occasional high 70s

[NuclearMike]

I'm 57 and have lost distance with all of my clubs due to age and arthritis.  My average drive is between 220 and 240 with the occasional longer poke but my driver is my most dependable club, so I hit a ton of fairways.  Last time out I was hitting it a little short, maybe averaging 210-220 throughout, but hit 12 of 14 fairways. I'm usually at 60-70% fairways hit.