My First Gps Measured Drive

[Chillmoon91]

Something doesn't add up. Either your average driver swing speed is much higher than 85 MPH or your average drives are shorter than 300 yards. I carry a Sky Caddie and measure my drive distances. My average swing speed is 102 MPH (I admit I haven't measured it in a year) with the driver and average drive is 252 yards (varies between 240-265).

No that was his iron speed, which I think is extremely slow for some-one who claims to hit it 330, obviously swing speed increases when using a driver, but pros have 95mph with their irons and average about 285ish with their drivers........and no-one on the planet hits it 340 straight down the middle.

You must have the short game of a chimp if you,re playin off 9 op, whats up with that?

[Fat Slice]

Next time you can, measure all your drives where you go for max straight distance. Driving long and accurately is great no matter the measured distance.

[oneoverwrx]

When i get my gps unit i will be measuring all my drives. I am not trying to say i average over 300yds with my driver, However on monday I feel like i did. When it is really on i am always out at that distance. Most of the time there are 2-3 drives per round i would confidently say were 300+. I would say average over a span of 5 round would be 285. I struggled for a while hitting the ball really high, i would still hit the ball well but depending on the fairway i would only get about 5-10 yds of roll. I moved the ball back in my stance and adjusted a few thing over the last few weeks and it has helped me get my ball flight lower and has helped my roll tremendously.

Next chance i get i will go have my swing speed measured again. I will try to get them to do iron and driver speeds.

I appreciate those of you who arent treating me like a liar.

As far as my shortgame goes...I am garbage from 75yds and in. I am great from inside 15 and outside 80. But i struggle with the inbetween. I am working on it though. When i get that all lined out im sure my hdcp will drop 3-4 strokes pretty quickly.

[sean_miller]

When i get my gps unit i will be measuring all my drives. I am not trying to say i average over 300yds with my driver, However on monday I feel like i did.

Was it hot and humid that day? That can add a few yards carry. I played twilight rounds Saturday and Sunday evening where it was hot (for us in Canada anyway) and humid both days. I was long on a few approach shots on Saturday, then made adjustments on Sunday and shot 8 strokes better (on a tougher course).

Anyway, I measured all my drives when I first got my laser rangefinder. Sure, it was reassuring to see my paced yardages were close, but it got me thinking about carry and rollout distances in a new way. I've been making better decisions regarding when to try and carry a dog leg or hazard and when to lay up. Good luck!!

[zeg]

Could be a bad day when you were measuring iron swing speeds, too. I tend to do badly when I'm measuring, usually because it means I'm in an indoor stall rather than out on the course or the range. If you were tense, that could really cut into your speed.

For those saying a measured 300+ yard drive is "meaningless," I disagree. Obviously it's a single data point, but many and perhaps most of us could measure every drive we hit in a year and not have that data point. I'm in complete agreement that most of the yardage claims we see on here have a strong bogosity factor, but let's not get carried away with the skepticism. Presumably the OP will measure more, and it'd be interesting to see what results he gets. It'd also be interesting to actually measure some good full iron shots from flat lies for comparison.

[deronsizemore]

A decent rule of thumb would be 2.5 yards of carry for every mph of swing speed. Of course you have to take into account how solid your contact is, wind, downhill or uphill, etc. It's fairly close for me as my swing speed is usually 107-110 and typically carry the ball in the 260ish range.

What course where you playing at?

Also, if you really want to have your swing speed and all that tested and you go to Pro Golf to do it, don't do it in their golf simulator thing as it's pretty worthless IMO. Set up an appointment and get fitting on the TrackMan there or better yet, go down to Brannon Crossing in Lexington and see Bob at Golf Etc. He's one of, if not the best club fitter around.

[colin007]

Hopefully one day i can meet all you guys on a golf course. My driver is my best and most reliable club in my bag. I was not suprised at all by this distance as i am always in the neighborhood of 300+yds. During a lesson a few weeks ago with a wind in my face i was hitting driver and according to my pro (Jason Eberle) I was flying the ball 280yds. Not a SLIGHT WIND, A PRETTY STEADY WIND, flying the ball 280. Now i know this could be all made up and i could be some 10year old BSing you all so i understand the doubters. I am going to have to go to Pro Golf and get my driver swing speed read.

you deserve a pat on the back, so here you go:

[mdl]

I'm interested to see what a 5 round average for all drives is for the OP. I know I have days where my driver's hot, and measuring just from tee-box markers and pacing I've hit drives as much as 40-50+ yards further than what I think my average is. Though that 50+ range is only with a little downhill or wind help. I tend not to be as skeptical of driver distances as others on this board, so taking the OP for his word, I wonder if his true average is ~285 carry+roll like he guessed or really more like 270-275.

[saevel25]

Swing speed and driving distance are not correlated.

They are partially correlated, Ball speed and distance are correlated, with relations to spin, wind, friction, ect.. to much to think about. But swing speed and ball speed are correlated, once again with regards to were you hit it on the golf face, the angle of the club face, ect... Damn this complicated game.

But, Also remember most distanced on the golf course are measured from back of tee box to center of green. There is no uniform measurement of the hole, most of the time its shorter than whats on the card, sometimes alot if the tees are up. Here is what you do, get your GPS out and measure each drive you hit with a driver and keep track for half a year. That would be a good estimate of your driving distance. I know mine, i wont say, to much discussed on this matter. But, if you had a good day driving, congrats, keep it up.

One last thing....you guys are acting like i should only be able to drive the ball 250yds or something, i hit my 3 wood off the deck 250yds.

Yeah they don't give people benefit of the doubt here. There are a few of us who can really launch the ball. Doesn't matter much, i know when i get up to the tee box that the ball will go the distance i know it does. 13+ years of hitting with in a 10 yard range of my average has proven that.

But all that matters with distance is ball speed, that is the sum of everything after the moment of impact. If it goes straight or not is another matter. You need to find a ball launch monitor that can give you ball speed. For consistant 300 plus your looking at a ball speed in excess of 175 mph.

[bplewis24]

However a gps unit such as the one he has is very unlikley to be incorrect.

Even if it was incorrect, it's not likely to be off by more than 10 yards or so. My GPS software will usually tell me what it's accuracy range is (i.e. "accurate within 2 yards" or "accurate within 6 yards", etc.).

You hit a nice drive. The next order of business is to figure out what your swing speed is. I should get mine done as well. Even still, I pretty know what my average driving distance is because I measure every drive. More importantly, I know what my average great driving distance is, average good driving distance is, etc. So when I hit it poorly, I know what to expect, when I hit it good, I know what to expect. So when I hit one 290 (about 15 yards further than my "great hit" average), I make sure to understand the conditions that contributed to the added distance. Brandon

[oneoverwrx]

Deron - I will have to check on Golf Etc. Didnt even know it existed. I used to eat at the red robin over there every other week. Was playing gibson bay and on hole 18 when i hit this drive. Was about 7:45pm

As far as measuring other drives and shots, i plan on doing so when i get my gps unit. Probably toward the middle of august if i had to guess. My yardages for typical shots go like this....5-205 6-185 7-170 8-160 9-150 P-140 and etc. However they usually meet in the middle. For instance i can pure my pw half the time and it goes 150ish. I can hit my 5i a little fat half the time and hit it 185. Im sure this is common for my hdcp.

[Paradox]

pretty much the exact distances I hit my irons on the good days. Don't worry about what anyone says of the distance of the drive. Its the same with everything in life "I can't do it, so no one else can do it, either! Its impossible!"

I've hit drives as far as 320 this year, however my average driving distance is much shorter than that..more like 265. When my driver is working well, I'm routinely at 270-280 on the "average" fairway and on the helping ones I get much further distance, obviously. Keep swingin and all that matters is that YOU are playing the shots you need to play. As far as yardage markers being off. I play at the same course as oneover and not only is the 18th easy to get 300 on with roll, every time I play from the marker distances..my club selections always seem to match the distance. When I carry those club choices/distances to other course..things always work out the same.

[deronsizemore]

Deron - I will have to check on Golf Etc. Didnt even know it existed. I used to eat at the red robin over there every other week. Was playing gibson bay and on hole 18 when i hit this drive. Was about 7:45pm

Yeah, Golf Etc is pretty new. Bob and a partner just opened it a couple months ago. He used to work out at Man O War golf doing all of their fittings and alterations and left to start Golf Etc. Well, if you only had 30 yards left to the green on 18 at Gibson from the blue, you smashed it. Like I said, I typically carry it 260ish and am then at the mercy of bounce, roll, etc. I played Gibson not this past Sunday but the Sunday before from the Blues and had 65 yards to the flag (Rangefinder measured).

[ERdiesel]

GPS is unlikely to be off by more than a couple yards. A rangefinder might be more reliable under optimum conditions, but that's going to mean you've got a target to aim at either at your ball or at the tee box that is exactly positioned correctly.

Agreed. I own a garmin g5 and have about 40 rounds with it over 20+ different courses and I have learned to trust the garmin gps more than any yard markers on the fairway or tee boxes or sprinkler heads when there was a discrepancy in the distance between the marker vs my gps. Friends that I have played with have also learned the hard way when taking the yardage marker distance over my gps when there was a conflict. I've heard range finders are more accurate and I don't doubt it if you get a good view and lock on the pin, however the biggest benefit of my gps is in the course management aspects of a round. If i am looking to layup to a specific distance from the green, i can touch the screen and move the cursor around to give me optimum approach shot range (i.e. pw/sw) and it'll tell me distance to that point and distance from that point to the green. It also helps me with distances to hazards and such and how far i need to hit it to carry it or layup before it. Additionally, many times, the gps visual representation is great when playing a new course with blind tee shots or approach shots, it gives me a better idea of the layout of hole.

[deronsizemore]

If i am looking to layup to a specific distance from the green, i can touch the screen and move the cursor around to give me optimum approach shot range (i.e. pw/sw) and it'll tell me distance to that point and distance from that point to the green. It also helps me with distances to hazards and such and how far i need to hit it to carry it or layup before it. Additionally, many times, the gps visual representation is great when playing a new course with blind tee shots or approach shots, it gives me a better idea of the layout of hole.

To each their own, but I'm capable of doing this with my rangefinder as well. If I'm looking to layup to 100 yards on a par five and I shoot the flag and find that I'm 300 out, from there I know I need to hit my 4 iron which typically is my 200 yard club. Of course there's some math involved, but it's the same thing. As far as distances to carry hazards and things, I can do this as well with my rangefinder, although depending on the model rangefinder one has, it may or may not be possible. With mine, I simply shoot the edge of a bunker, pond, creek, etc and get a very good idea of the yardage needed for carry. Fully agree though that GPS can be nice when playing a new course when you don't really know the layout yet.

[oneoverwrx]

I will definately go check it out next time i am over that direction.

I guess i am going to let this die down until i get my gps and get a few rounds worth of measurments.

Thanks for those of you who replied. Hope to see you all out there.

[Shanks A Million]

As far as measuring other drives and shots, i plan on doing so when i get my gps unit. Probably toward the middle of august if i had to guess. My yardages for typical shots go like this....5-205 6-185 7-170 8-160 9-150 P-140 and etc. However they usually meet in the middle. For instance i can pure my pw half the time and it goes 150ish. I can hit my 5i a little fat half the time and hit it 185. Im sure this is common for my hdcp.

If you can hit your PW pure half the time, you should be well better than scratch. Pure is a perfectly square hit, different from solid. As you get better, you perception of pure changes. I would say of 100 balls on the range, I hit 60 solid, and maybe 3 pure. I hit my clubs around the same length, maybe 5 yards shorter, but I can't hit my driver anywhere near 300 regularly. My perfect strikes go maybe 285.

[oneoverwrx]

Is it possible i just swing my driver hard? I definately feel like i use alot more lower body on my driver swing. IDK, I will get back to this when i have more data