Distance study in this month of Golf Digest

[Fat Slice]

The #1 thing that correlates to my score is # of fairways hit. Distance is nice but I'd rather be hitting a hybrid into the green from the fairway than teeing up my third shot after a slice OB.

As for the statistics I think a lot of it is skewed by age. If you look at handicaps all of the same age, maybe the swing speeds would be closer. I know a lot of people who swing out of their shoes but make lousy contact.

[Shanks A Million]

The #1 thing that correlates to my score is # of fairways hit. Distance is nice but I'd rather be hitting a hybrid into the green from the fairway than teeing up my third shot after a slice OB.

I think you're close, but I'd say GIR is the most imortant stat. High cappers hit few GIRs. When I hurt my leg, I played a round and hit 0 GIR. I shot a 105.

[deronsizemore]

can hit and average are two very different stats

Exactly.

I hit my driver around 260ish and unless I'm playing in a tourney with a lot of low cappers I rarely see anyone hit it consistently past me. Now I am sure there is a lot of people that can hit it past me but people hit one long drive which becomes their average distance. I find it sad too because too many people worry about how far they hit it instead of chipping and putting which would make them much better golfers.

Same here. I carry my driver about 260. Unless I'm playing in a tournament or with a few other scratch golfers, I'm the longest guy in the group. Even started playing in a league for work once a week with about 40 other guys and even the BIG hitters in the league that I've played with are 20 or so behind me. I'm not even a long hitter by PGA Tour standards. It just comes down to people having no idea how far they hit it or just how far a 280+ yard drive really is. It's a LLOOOOOOOONNNGG way.

[Fat Slice]

I think you're close, but I'd say GIR is the most imortant stat. High cappers hit few GIRs. When I hurt my leg, I played a round and hit 0 GIR. I shot a 105.

Sure, I can hit the green from the rough (did it Friday, 114 uphill, blind, stuck to 4 feet). It's much easier to do from the fairway. If I hit more fairways, my GIR goes up *guaranteed*, my score goes down *guaranteed*.

[Shanks A Million]

Sure, I can hit the green from the rough (did it Friday, 114 uphill, blind, stuck to 4 feet). It's much easier to do from the fairway. If I hit more fairways, my GIR goes up *guaranteed*, my score goes down *guaranteed*.

Right, but many higher handicappers who hit up on the ball can hit off of a tee fairly well, and thus hit fairways. When I was a 25 or so handicap, I hit about 70% of the fairways, but maybe 5% GIR. Fairway was just as hard to hit the green from, and many higher handicaps are more comfortable in the rough, because the ball often sits up.

[Bigtank]

Like I posted on another thread tonight. I am capable of a drive in the 300-310yds range. However to do that you must begin to cut off dog legs and you begin the process of gambling for a fairway vs distance. I find that I score better when taking my 3 wood (13 degree) and putting in the fairway 250-260 out, and I have 90% chance of a clean lie that I can work the ball from and chase pins.

Although I can say, we played a best ball tourney for a charity a few weeks ago. One of my teammates was a former baseball big leaguer (no one anyone has ever heard of) and he had the quickest hands throught the bottom of the swing...he was at least 350-375 off the tee. I was in shock, we pitched at 90% of the greens that day. What was hard to watch was this guy with a thunderous drive, not be able to hit a iron off the deck to save his life, topped everything due to that swooping motion of the swing.

with that I will say distance is "Mostly" overated.

[NCSU_MSE]

HANDICAP SPEED DIS OPTIMAL

Those numbers are pretty close for me. I know a good poke for me is ~250 and I probably average around 220-230.

[DavidFehertysBike]

I can believe that. Im between 270-280 off the tee and a rarely see anyone blast it by me. Unless its this dude tommy i know, who hits his freakin 3 wood that far...

[allin]

I swing anywhere from 96mph to 100mph with an average smash factor of 1.41 with the driver. My average carry is around 260.

Must be that mountain air, here on the plains noway that swing speed gets that much carry.

[golfro]

270-280 average, 115-120 mph average.

I think some people are writing off distance too easy. There's nothing wrong with wanting more distance... I think it takes a lot of practice and consistency to be able to swing with a higher SS and stick it on the fairway. Nothing wrong with wanting to achieve that. Distance can give you quite a number of advantages.

[msd3075]

I'd say those numbers seem to be fairly accurate. Most "casual" golfers really have no clue how far they hit the ball.

That being said, so many people on here are so quick to jump on people that claim they can hit long drives. There are long hitters out there that aren't delusional about their average distances and aren't swinging for the fences on every tee shot. Take my swing as an example. According to the Golf Digest data, I should have a clubhead speed of around 104 and a carry distance of 250ish. In reality, my driver clubhead speed averages around 120mph (verified on a launch monitor) and my carry distance is around 290ish. That being said, I can count on one hand how many people I've played with that could regularly outdrive me. I am also the absolute first person to tell you that accuracy will always trump distance.

[deronsizemore]

I'd say those numbers seem to be fairly accurate. Most "casual" golfers really have no clue how far they hit the ball.

You're also a 4, so it's a little more believable. Seriously, for someone to list their handicap at 17 or something and claim they average 290... get real. They may be able to hit it 290 -every once in a while- but they're not hitting it straight and they're not averaging that.

[Shanks A Million]

You're also a 4, so it's a little more believable. Seriously, for someone to list their handicap at 17 or something and claim they average 290... get real. They may be able to hit it 290 -every once in a while- but they're not hitting it straight and they're not averaging that.

Bingo! He's a 4, that's no problem. A 4 can have a near perfect swing, but a poor short game. A 20, on the other hand. Haha. Next time you go to say you hit it 280-290, etc, look at your handicap. Is it below about 5? Then ok, no problem. But if it's 15+... Not likely. Remember, we're talking average, not good hit.

[zeg]

My swing speed was just measured at a Bridgestone fitting and in 5 swings was 91-95 with an average of 93.5. That works out, with my launch angle and spin, to be about 200 yards of carry and 213 total using their model. The optimal that they determined, which I think assumes perfect launch and spin along with a 1.48 (i.e, tour caliber) smash factor was about 241 yards total. I'm a bit skeptical of the claim upthread of a 95-100 mph swing, a 1.41 smash, and 260 yard carry drives. With that smash factor, the ball speed on a 100 mph swing would be just a hair faster than my average with the 1.48 smash (141 mph vs 138 mph), so the total should be maybe 250 yards. No way that is a 260 yard carry over level ground. Maybe at high altitude with some wind, but that's got to be at least 20 yards beyond the Bridgestone model.

At any rate, I'm pleased to see from the table that with my swing speed I should be a 6-15 handicapper. I guess I must be sandbagging....

[Leftygolfer]

The only scratch player I play with is if anything shorter than me but consistantly beats me badly. He flys his driver at most 240-250, hits a 7 iron maybe 160. But he hits a ton of greens and can putt.

I'd say he is at the low spectrum of the distance for players that good. He was telling me about the US open qualifier he played in, was paired up with two 19 old college players and they hit it 50 or more yards past him. For him distance is an issue when he gets on a 7000 yard course that is playing slow. But on a good 6700 yard course he has no issues shooting around or under par. He freakin subs in in my golf league on a pretty short course and has hit no less than 7/9 greens out of 5 or 6 times.

I'd like to be longer, but I would much rather be less wild. I am trying hard to take the wild shot out of play and it is hard. It just doesn't take much to hit a huge push or wild snap hook. Golf ain't easy.

[Lefty-Golfer]

The only scratch player I play with is if anything shorter than me but consistantly beats me badly. He flys his driver at most 240-250, hits a 7 iron maybe 160. But he hits a ton of greens and can putt.

I think i play with the same guy...I hate him!! He just hits it straight most of the time but I spend all day hitting after him, tosses in a chunk or two...you look up 4 hrs later and he has a 73...5 or so 1 putts help a whole lot.

[rdwoody]

I love distance and I would love to hit it 300-310 consistently, but I don't think that will ever happen. I'm happy hitting it 265 and having a short iron to the green. I couldn't be happier with my iron play, but if I beef up on the driver swing I'll almost definitely lose it right every time.

This makes me think of the Heineken commercial where the guy slowed his swing down and is happy hitting it 150 down the middle.

[Deryck Griffith]

Let me guess, TaylorMade then claimed that we all need to be using 46.5" drivers to compensate for the lack of optimal distance as a result of not hitting the sweet-spot?

This is the exact reason why I cannot stand Taylormade drivers - their Golf balls however are fantastic (I play the Penta and TP Black).