300 yard drive, what's the big deal?

[tm22721]

The key to dropping my handicap has been consistently hitting greens through control, not length...18 degree hybrid. Not saying it's easy...

[saevel25]

Yeah 300 seems to be the gold standard... Really for anybody 6000-6500 should be plently of yardage for tough challenge. Even more so if its a Pete Dye style were its target golf, then distance doesn't matter at all. So you think, 6200, your probably looking at 360 yards per par 4, average. thats 10 out of the 18 holes. Really 220 yard drive, your looking at 140 in, thats defiently in striking range.

If you worry about distance, your missing the opportunity to work on what really matters, ball striking.

[GolfBear]

When I was a double digit handicap I hit a LOT of 300 yard drives. Unfortunately most of them went straight for 200 yards then they took a right turn and flew another 100 yards into the trees, brush, weeds, next fairway over etc....

[goblue107501]

As of right now, for 2010, 6 people do: Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Angel Cabrera, Graham DeLaet, JB Holmes, and Phil Mickelson.

You can't put any stock in the PGA average driving distance stat. The only thing it really shows is who the really long hitters are, not how far they actually hit it. To get that stat they take the two drives per round and get a distance (that is how it used to be done anyway, not sure about now). Typically, the holes run opposite directions to cancel any wind effect. So if a guy hits a 3-wood on one hole and misses the fairway on another, he will have a lower average. Take a look at the longest drive stat if you want to see how far these guys can hit it. Most are above the 350 range.

So can Joe Amateur hit a ball 300 yards? I know several that can. If you take every tee shot and average it, they probably won't average 300, but it really isn't that hard to get the occasional ball out there 300+ every once in a while. There is a big difference in hitting one or two 300 and averaging 300. If you counted every pro's drive, when hitting a driver, in the fairway, I would bet there would be many, many guys well over a 300 average.

[cody west]

i actually used to be longer than 300 yards then i realized that i should be more accurate, its completely possible that people could hit 300 yard drives because anyone can swing out of their shoes and hit it a mile into the woods. i still pull out a power drive every now and then but to put it in perspective my home course has a 330 yard up hill par 4 and i would hit that green 2/3 times from the tee or at another course i play at the range is 300 yards with a tee box about 320 out on the other side with a water pitcher, i broke the water pitcher and some guys called the club house to complain about range balls coming to close. 300 yards isnt as far as people think its just that its takes alot of work to create a swing that is consistent enough to make you average 300

[pxc]

I would be thrilled with a 250 yard driving average that consistently landed in the fairway.

[Fat Slice]

I am a 20.1 handicap (best has been 18.3) and I have driven over 300 yards many times (and posted pictures here). I surely don't *average* 300 yards. Anyway, while that is fun, what isn't fun is being in the trees, hitting OB, etc. I'm now trying to hit a more controlled shot that is a slight fade that starts left and ends up in the middle of the fairway. When I hit that shot correctly it's 240-260 yards. It's far less wristy, which costs distance but adds accuracy and consistency.

On top of that, I hit a lot more greens from 125 yards out than I do from 75 yards out (where I have to choke up or slow down).

My friend's daughter is a skinny short 12 year old and she is a 14.6 handicap and plays from the men's white tees. She keeps the ball in play and has a good short game. I watch her play and think that the occasional bomb is not worth it for all the trouble that the guaranteed mis-hits create.

The big deal, though, is that it's fun - just like hitting a home run, or throwing a bomb, serving a blistering ace, etc. My second eagle came from driving a 344 yard green and making the putt. Sure, it was a severe downhill with a wind assist but that didn't make me feel less happy about it!

To me, it's totally understandable why people get excited about 300 yards even if they are rationally screwing up their game with that goal. What I don't understand is why OTHER people hate those 300 yard dreamers/storytellers so much. That is puzzling.

[kpaulhus]

Yesterday, my driving was money. It needed to be since the course was over 7000 yrds. I ended up hitting 12/14 fairways, with a 286.25 avg drive. Longest was 311 and shortest was 266. It was not a normal day at all. According to all of my drives for 2010 I average 256 yrds. I think its still pretty good. FYI in 36 rounds so far this year, I have hit two (2) drives over 300 yards....so thats what 2 out of 504 drives? lol

[zeg]

If you counted every pro's drive, when hitting a driver, in the fairway, I would bet there would be many, many guys well over a 300 average.

Not counting non-driver tee shots would help, but otherwise I'm not sure why you think counting all the drives would push the average numbers up. I'd expect the opposite, if any effect, since as I understand it they pick holes where they're likely to hit driver and are not short or tricky holes. Over the course of a season I'd expect a pro to play enough tournaments that he hits plenty of measured drives, so I don't seen any reason that the average would be very far off. You may miss the big all-out swing, but you may also miss a poor shot.

As for why those claiming 300 averages on here get so much grief, I think it's simply that there are way too many 15+ handicaps claiming to average an astronomical drive distance. If you follow along closely, you'll see that there's plenty of grief for those claiming 290 averages and perhaps even 280, so it's not that there's a magical "BS detector" that kicks in at 300. The reason for the flak is that hitting well past 250 yards every drive requires skills and technique that it's quite unlikely for someone to possess when the rest of their game is so poor that they can't play better than bogey golf. It's possible, but the numbers seem out of whack---there are just too many people who make that claim to be plausible. Someone who's < 5 handicap index? A lot more likely they hit it that far, but even as we've seen, those posting here typically acknowledge that their average is lower. So in short (TOO LATE), I think the reason for 300 being "special" is that people who claim to hit long tend to claim a 300 yard average. People making claims that seem out of place at their handicap index tend to be doubted, whether or not they claim that "magic number."

[like2no2]

I find it interesting that some people seem to believe that because they can't accomplish a 300 yard drive that it must be impossible for everyone else. I sometimes get one out that far or longer with roll. There are many factors that lead to a long drive. Also, I have seen lots of long drivers with a bad short game. Sure there are s### talkers but to suggest its impossible because that person can't is a bit of insecurity in my humble opinion. I generally carry around 250 with varying yards of roll.

[Dave2512]

Yeah it's the high handicap golfers claims of regularly hitting 300 yard drives that sends up the BS alert. Search for the JimboSlice 300 yard drive thread from a few years ago. Long story short after being taken to task he offered to prove it with a Trackman session and post results. If memory serves he hit just 2 right at 300 out of something like 100 balls. Most were far less and even fewer straight. Which to me said he was swinging harder than usual in an attempt to prove it. When it was said and done his average drive was 240ish for that session. Prior to that he was certain his average drive carried a fence 275 out at his local range. My experience is people misjudge drives or don't accurately measure.

[colin007]

Lots of people just don't know how far 300 yards is. They think that they hit it 250 and since I might be 50 yards past them I'm hitting it 300.in reality they can only hit it 220 and for most guys my 270 is way out there. 300 is a loooong way.

[Motley01]

I hit a 300 yard drive today! It was an elevated tee downhill and just nutted one. Notice I live in CO thin air up here so ball flies farther.

It doesn't happen very often but when I do its an awesome feeling. But my average drive is around 260.

[Dave2512]

Thing is I don't really care about the long drives unless it leads to par or better. If people want to be honest with themselves track everything from the crap that barely clears red tees as well as the long ones. I average in the 255 range every 20 rounds. Typical round I might hit 8-9 drivers, shortest is usually around 200 longest in the 265-285ish range. I only track it see what holes give me problems from the tee. I hit more 3w than most guys.

[Strandly]

I went to a driving range yesterday and the day before and hit my driver for at least 1/3 of the bucket because I was trying some new things.  Trying to eyeball it from range markers I think my best drives carried about 230.  I'm not horribly concerned about the actual distances but I do wish I had accurate readings so I could see if I was getting better or worse and could correlate the longest drives with potential setup tweaks, body movements, etc.  Another thing that annoys me is the ball seems to shoot out there nice but then it drops out of the sky like a brick and hits the ground with close to no roll.  That's probably a whole other animal though.

[liquor box]

I think a new rule on this forum should be if you claim an average distance off the tee you should HAVE TO give a fairways hit percentage.

[late347]

You can't put any stock in the PGA average driving distance stat. The only thing it really shows is who the really long hitters are, not how far they actually hit it. To get that stat they take the two drives per round and get a distance (that is how it used to be done anyway, not sure about now). Typically, the holes run opposite directions to cancel any wind effect. So if a guy hits a 3-wood on one hole and misses the fairway on another, he will have a lower average. Take a look at the longest drive stat if you want to see how far these guys can hit it. Most are above the 350 range.

So can Joe Amateur hit a ball 300 yards? I know several that can. If you take every tee shot and average it, they probably won't average 300, but it really isn't that hard to get the occasional ball out there 300+ every once in a while. There is a big difference in hitting one or two 300 and averaging 300. If you counted every pro's drive, when hitting a driver, in the fairway, I would bet there would be many, many guys well over a 300 average.

Gorilla James from england, long driving amateur as of now, outdrives probably even Bubba at this point....

The gorilla has abou 138 mph clubhead speed with the long drive driver.

Obviously it's not impossible for an amateur to hit the ball a long ways...

[Crim]

I would be thrilled with a 250 yard driving average that consistently landed in the fairway.

I've yet to manage to hit a 250 yard drive thus far. However I've been driving around 210-220 straight down the middle lately....and it feels so amazing. I can't imagine what a 250-275 consistently straight drive would feel like.

My brother and a couple of his golf buddies can drive the ball 275 yards+, not consistently...and they get into trouble a lot. I'd rather just be playing from the fairway right now thank you very much.