Looking for a new driver, 23 years old - 280-320 yards with a ton of loft.. Please Help

[John Marat]

I've hit 370 yards all carry once

Downhill and with a 40mph tailwind. Best day ever

[sean_miller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suge206

My longest drive was 283 but it felt like it had to be 400 yrds

[nuck81]

I love threads that turn into yardage battles.

My home Driving Range has a line of Pine trees at the end of the Range that are exactly 250 yards.  Most guys don't know this since there aren't yardage signs just flags. You can stand there for maybe 20 minutes and hear at least 6 guys think they just hit a 300 yard drive  when it lands 30 yards in front of the tree's.  My favorite thing ever is the look on their face when I tell them pines are 250 and they really only hit 200 yards plus roll.

I've only hit over the trees once in the last year, and hit too the tree's a handful of times in the last year.  I've only seen four other guys hit it over, and no one can do it twice in a row, and that's counting all the college guys that play at Murray State.

My point is pretty nobody hits it as far as they think they do, and most guys are nutting the piss out of the ball to hit over 250 consistently

[saevel25]

Don't say nobody ;)

That wink is just for show, my driver backs it up

[CyclistOK]

Lots of people chugging the Haterade® in this thread sheesh...

Anyway I'm 23 and drive the ball an average of 280ish w/ some into the 300s (GPS verified), depending on the course/conditions. I had the exact same problem a few months ago, with drives that were very high, and often slicing the ball onto other fairways. I did a couple things:

1) changed my driver swing completely - stopped the slicing for the most part, and made it much more consistent, you don't need a pro to tune up the swing either...

2) Bought a new driver - I was using a Cobra 12.5 degree driver beforehand, and purchased a Taylormdae r9 460 for $120 w/ Aldila RIP shaft. This has brought my spin and trajectory down significantly, plus, while I was messing with the swing, I could adjust the driver to help compensate.

To put numbers on it, on october 21 I hit 3/14 fairways, and today on the same course I hit 11/14

[EverythingGolf]

Why is that when someone says they can hit the ball 300 yards EVERYONE tells them no they can't!! I have been around golf for over 20 years and I have seen a lot. I have played with someone that never touched a golf club in his life and drove a  350 yard par 4. He was a semi-pro baseball player and was very athletic. I have also seen someone who is not very athletic hit it over 300 yards. It can be done, just because you can't do it does'nt mean someone else can't. Give the guy a break. OK,  Im done.

[golf4fun12]

Originally Posted by EverythingGolf

Why is that when someone says they can hit the ball 300 yards EVERYONE tells them no they can't!! I have been around golf for over 20 years and I have seen a lot. I have played with someone that never touched a golf club in his life and drove a  350 yard par 4. He was a semi-pro baseball player and was very athletic. I have also seen someone who is not very athletic hit it over 300 yards. It can be done, just because you can't do it does'nt mean someone else can't. Give the guy a break. OK,  Im done.

well said. Unless you know the person and have played golf with that person, how are you to know how far he hits it?

[max power]

Not saying (and I don't think anybody else is either) that the ball can't be hit over 300 yds.  We've all seen it done, many of us have done it.  The "I'm a 5, 10, 15, 25 handicap golfer, and I'm not very accurate but I usually hit it 305 or 320" guy is full of it, and you know it.

Originally Posted by EverythingGolf

Why is that when someone says they can hit the ball 300 yards EVERYONE tells them no they can't!! I have been around golf for over 20 years and I have seen a lot. I have played with someone that never touched a golf club in his life and drove a  350 yard par 4. He was a semi-pro baseball player and was very athletic. I have also seen someone who is not very athletic hit it over 300 yards. It can be done, just because you can't do it does'nt mean someone else can't. Give the guy a break. OK,  Im done.

[Old1964]

I still want to know - if he is consistently driving the ball straight and longer than most every pro, why does he want a new driver?

What does he expect to do, pick up another 100 yards or so?

[clubchamp]

Originally Posted by EverythingGolf

Why is that when someone says they can hit the ball 300 yards EVERYONE tells them no they can't!! I have been around golf for over 20 years and I have seen a lot. I have played with someone that never touched a golf club in his life and drove a  350 yard par 4. He was a semi-pro baseball player and was very athletic. I have also seen someone who is not very athletic hit it over 300 yards. It can be done, just because you can't do it does'nt mean someone else can't. Give the guy a break. OK,  Im done.

Because there is a huge difference between hitting one 280-300 and averaging 280-300 no one is saying he has not hit one 300 they are saying he doesn't average 300. The problem is some times people turn a couple good drives into their average and then base everything off of it. I've been around golf for 18 years and I can tell you I can count the number of players I've played with that average 280-300 with my fingers. Key word is average.

[golf4fun12]

It seems that no matter what, people will always doubt someone who says they hit it an average 280-300 yards. maybe we should all meet up and hit the range and then go afterwards.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by clubchamp

Because there is a huge difference between hitting one 280-300 and averaging 280-300 no one is saying he has not hit one 300 they are saying he doesn't average 300. The problem is some times people turn a couple good drives into their average and then base everything off of it. I've been around golf for 18 years and I can tell you I can count the number of players I've played with that average 280-300 with my fingers. Key word is average.

Coincidentally the OP never used the word average. But, he also said he'd only played < 20 rounds, so I don't know what to think. A lot of guys hit the ball pretty far, but most don't ever hit over 250. It's really hard to know which group he falls into, but anything's possible.

[EverythingGolf]

Originally Posted by Old1964

I still want to know - if he is consistently driving the ball straight and longer than most every pro, why does he want a new driver?

What does he expect to do, pick up another 100 yards or so?

What does a pro have to do with hitting a 280-320 drive. The only difference between a pro and an average player is consistency. He never said he was hitting it consistently and it was between 280 and 320, that's not consistent. There is a lot of average players that can hit it 300 yards.

[TheGeekGolfer]

Originally Posted by wdorsa

I have played just one year of golf now probably been out 12-15 times with a beginner set of golf clubs. I am 23 years old pretty strong and drive the ball between 280-320 yards. I also hit the ball very high and usually slice. Looking at the Callaway Diablo Edge/Tour Driver, rated by golf digest to be very forgiving as well as pretty inexpensive in the $150 range. Not sure what loft to get or how stiff of a shaft (9,10,11 or stiff extra stiff or regular). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Holy cr@p Batman, where can I get that set of beginner clubs!  I've never seen a set of beginner clubs with a driver that doesn't cave in at the swing speed needed to hit it 280-320 yds.

Originally Posted by Gaprofitt

Are you guys crazy?  I consistently hit beyond 300 yards.  Why are you doubting the guy?

Because while he might have hit it 300 yds once, saying you hit it '280-320' is saying that you always hit in that range.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Coincidentally the OP never used the word average. But, he also said he'd only played < 20 rounds, so I don't know what to think. A lot of guys hit the ball pretty far, but most don't ever hit over 250. It's really hard to know which group he falls into, but anything's possible.

Actually, when he said, "drive the ball between 280-320 yards", he was basically saying he averaged around 300 yards.  If you say you hit it between X & Y, then you are saying all of your drives land between X & Y.

I can remember back to my days as a 20+ handicapper and I know I used to 'think' I 'averaged' around 300 yards.  I remember looking at the scorecard and thinking (more than once), "hmmm....this hole is 425 yards long, I should have 125 left for my second shot". Sure, I did it every once in a while, but no, I did NOT come close to averaging 300 yards.

[tweaky]

Originally Posted by ajschn06

1.  You do not drive the ball 320

2.  If your looking for forgiveness, stay away from tour models.

3.  Since you "claim" to drive the ball 320, I would suspect that you at least have a good amount of swing speed, so your probably looking at something with 9* or so loft and a stiff shaft.

If you really want to get serious about golf though, go get properly fitted for a driver.  The shaft is the most important aspect.  Not just the flex, but you have to think about weight, kickpoint, length, etc.  That's why getting properly fitted is so important....

loft is the most important aspect of the clubfitting as you should have found out by now.  the shaft is for fine tuning once the proper loft is established.  you'll never get the correct trajectory and spin rate with a six degree head on any shaft nor will a 12 degree head with any shaft if your swing speed is in the 100+ mph range.

find someone in the business who'll back up your claim and have them post here.

good luck.

[sean_miller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Coincidentally the OP never used the word average. But, he also said he'd only played < 20 rounds, so I don't know what to think. A lot of guys hit the ball pretty far, but most don't ever hit over 250. It's really hard to know which group he falls into, but anything's possible.

Actually, when he said, "drive the ball between 280-320 yards", he was basically saying he averaged around 300 yards.  If you say you hit it between X & Y, then you are saying all of your drives land between X & Y.

I can remember back to my days as a 20+ handicapper and I know I used to 'think' I 'averaged' around 300 yards.  I remember looking at the scorecard and thinking (more than once), "hmmm....this hole is 425 yards long, I should have 125 left for my second shot". Sure, I did it every once in a while, but no, I did NOT come close to averaging 300 yards.

Whether or not I believe him, did he say every single drive was in that range? Did he say it was an even distribution with a mean of 300?

Back when I was a 20+ handicapper (for 1 full season), I never hit any 300+ yard drives. Then again I was using a laminated maple driver and hitting found balls on a course where a 300 yard drive would have been trough every fairway. It was in the 1980s. By season two I hit a few, but didn't know it until years later. I was in shock whenever a long drive stayed on the fairway. With today's balls and drivers, hackers can hit farther and straighter than I ever thought possible. I still use a persimmon driver and vintage ball once in awhile just to stay humble.

[TheGeekGolfer]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Whether or not I believe him, did he say every single drive was in that range? Did he say it was an even distribution with a mean of 300?

That's my point... when you give a range, that means you hit every (or nearly every drive, except maybe topped or popped up ones) in that range.  Why else would you give a range?  Here's how I would describe my driving, "I consistently hit my drives around 260 yards, but when I really connect, they go between 280-320 yards (guessing 20% of the time)".

Anyway, I was just clarifying (imo) his statement.  Back to his original question... go get fitted by your local golf pro or inside on a simulator, be sure to bring your driver to compare.

[clombardi]

Give the guy a break, there are plenty of us that can hit the ball 300 off the tee. I do it, guys I play with do it, I see it all the time.

Go to your golf shop and look for a driver that looks appealing to you, and probably with a stiff to extra stiff shaft. Hit them and

buy what works best for you. Some golf shops have the 30-90 day exchange period if your not liking what you got.