Tall Golfers

[MSUGolfer]

260 off the tee and a 190ish 6 iron would be consider long by almost any standard...

[The Recreational Golfer]

6'6". I believe the major issue that my height presents me is balance. I work on that a lot. I'm not that long compared to you guys, (driver carries 230, 6i goes ~150) but I don't have to swing very hard to get that, and I'm a lot longer than golfers in my age group.

Ball position. That's a good one. Never thought of that in terms of height, but I play all my irons in the middle, and my hybrids and driver one ball ahead of that.

All shafts +1".

[Tweetie]

Im 6'2" and most of the guys i play with always ask why Im not longer off the tee as tall as I am. :(

[double_j]

I would argue that club fitting issues aside, the swing problems of most of us in this thread here aren't much different from the 'shorties' on the board.

That said, I do agree that the taller you are, the more clubhead speed you can generate, all else equal. And although most things in the swing are proportional, absolute speed does make things harder to control regardless of how much effort you expend to generate it (e.g., misses will be magnified, etc.)

[shortstop20]

I am 6' 2" and being that height I have trouble getting into the posture that we see in many of the great players.

When I use my normal amount of knee flex, I feel like I have to slouch over the ball a bit.........but when I flex my knees more I can keep my upper body more upright, but the extra knee flex makes me feel like I'm sitting down almost. I hit the ball better when I flex my knees more, but I have trouble trusting it on the course because it still feels akward during a round vs. the practice range where hitting a bad shot has no consequences.

Like anything else in golf, we all have certain things that we tend to do. This is the main one for me being taller. I'm slowly getting more comfortable with more knee flex over time.

[double_j]

I am 6' 2" and being that height I have trouble getting into the posture that we see in many of the great players.

Are your clubs fitted? I'm also 6'2" and my irons are 1/2 inch longer than stock and 3 degrees upright. It makes a world of difference and pretty much eliminated my most common mishit with stock clubs (slightly chunky off the toe).

If you are using stock shafts, I found that bending a bit more at the waist (but not slouching) helped with my ball striking a ton. It almost feels like you're giving your arms a bit more room to swing.

[Koth]

Not from what ive seen. Every guy ive played with in am tourneys that was 6' or over just murders the ball.

Yeah, I'm 6'2" and I tend to murder the ball too. By drowning.

[chappers]

At 6'2", I have always struggled with keeping the club to on plane - in comes the dreaded flip to try and square things. The great breakthrough for me was to get in closer to the ball at set-up and make things more upright. Of course, you still need to engage the body (the gloves under the armpits practice technique is very handy) but otherwise the natural length of the arc should allow a lot of club head speed and a lack of emphasis on needing to re-route the club because you are swinging basically up and down and it means that you can actually make the movement the same move back and through. I think a tall golfer should totally ignore the likes of McIlroy, who gets the club working on a huge arc - he's a small guy and therefore relies on a rounder swing and an absurd, freakish double hip turn to generate power - amazing but something even he has reined in over the last season or two. As Ernie Els demonstrates, the most important part of this more upright arc is to keep the tempo smooth. When the club is coming down from 6ft and above, the ball doesn't need to be hit, it just needs to get in the way. His power comes from unleashing the wrists and hips in sync - when I play best i always feel as though I'm swinging slow and within myself. Why the hell is Tiger Woods built like a brick wall and trying to swing himself off his feet these days? Totally unnecessary when you see that soft, controlled fade he is supposedly working on. The other helpful drill i have found is to narrow the stance and work on bracing the left side - this allows a full turn and release through the ball...and stops the dreaded sway!! Anyway, you may shank a fair few to start, but keep that posture upright and solid, without much knee-flex and it soon starts to work - my experience anyway.

[Brian Fergusson]

I don't think height should necessarily be a disadvantage. Michael Jordan is, to the best of my recollection, 6'6", and he carried a 1.4 handicap in 2009. http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2009-01/usopencontest_bestrom

[hag1128]

I'll give a bit of perspective to this discussion.  I'm 7' 2"  +3 shafts and 5* upright ball in middle of stance on normal lies. The taller you are the more error is inherent to your swing arc and especially when it comes to your head movement so your balance is crucial.  I hit my 6 iron 190 and if I need to drive 300+.  On most courses that is usually some sort of hazard on a par 5 or bunker/creek on par 4's so I will hit a 5 wood lay-up and wedge to most greens.  I have a very upright swing arc around my ears and no problem getting the ball up in the air.  I play the stiffest shafts in all my clubs otherwise the clubhead lags too far behind my hands on impact.

[Williamevanl]

Originally Posted by birdiedream

The world's top 6 golfers are 6 feet or taller but the tallest is 6'3". I wonder if the average height of the pga players is around 6'0" or 6'1".

Tiger Woods61

Mickelson62

Westwood 6 0

Stricker60

Furyk62

Els63

?

Did you just make this list up?  3 under, 3 over. You hear a lot of people say though that Rory is more like 5-7 woods, 5-11 etc..

1.	McIlroy	12.03   5-9
2.	Woods	9.03     6-1
3.	Donald	7.58       5-9
4.	Snedeker	6.91      6 -1
5.	Rose	6.44        6-3
6.	Oosthuizen	6.44      5-10

Historically though many of the greats were smaller (Hogan 5-8, Jack 5-10, Trevino 5-7, Snead 5-11 etc..)

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

? Did you just make this list up?  3 under, 3 over. You hear a lot of people say though that Rory is more like 5-7 woods, 5-11 etc.. [TABLE] [TR] 1. [TD]McIlroy[/TD] [TD]12.03   5-9     [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [IMG]http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/pix/1.gif[/IMG] [/TR] [TR] 2. [TD]Woods[/TD] [TD]9.03     6-1  [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [IMG]http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/pix/1.gif[/IMG] [/TR] [TR] 3. [TD]Donald[/TD] [TD]7.58       5-9[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [IMG]http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/pix/1.gif[/IMG] [/TR] [TR] 4. [TD]Snedeker[/TD] [TD]6.91      6 -1   [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [IMG]http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/pix/1.gif[/IMG] [/TR] [TR] 5. [TD]Rose[/TD] [TD]6.44        6-3[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [IMG]http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/pix/1.gif[/IMG] [/TR] [TR] 6. [TD]Oosthuizen[/TD] [TD]6.44      5-10 [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [IMG]http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/pix/1.gif[/IMG] [/TR] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Historically though most of the greats were smaller (Hogan 5-8, Jack 5-10, Trevino 5-7, Snead 5-11 etc..)

He didn't make his list up....it was from 3 years ago. Obviously the worlds top 6 has changed. On topic, I'm 6'5" tall. My clubs are 1/2" long, 5* upright. I have to really focus on keeping my head still as I have a tendency to sway more than I should.