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

[Gerald]

You are right, at about every golf club there are about 0.03% golfers that hit 300 yds plus when they drive a ball really well, but most of these guys play from index 12 or worse, they just like to bum-bum the ball a mile, but don't ask them to hit 8 out of 10 100 yds wedges within 15 ft. from the hole........

But most of these long hitters have a low percentage in the Fairway ......... only remembering when they are able to hit a 6 iron to the green at a par 5 hole .....

At the club I was member of last year we had a guy that really could hit the ball well over 330 yds. playing from hc. 13-14 ....... I played with him on a par 4 of 425 yds. and he had a chip to the green, I made a decent par, and he made a 4-putt ....... uhhhhh.

300 yds of the tee, for some guys ..... no big deal !

But very few really long drives end in the fairway........

A hc. 20 averaging 300+ yards .......... no way !

[JAYDEE3]

are they hitting restrickted flight range balls ?

[golf4fun12]

I hit my driver 290 into the wind yesterday. does anyone believe me? do I care?

seriously, I know people who can do some amazing things with their driver. do they do it consistently? no. but who cares. if he hits it between 280-320, then he does. just take his word for it. that is, until we have proof to contradict him.

[Old1964]

Please let us know what you are hitting now.

If you told us the kind of driver you are hitting now (regardless of distance), we might be able to help you see what kind of club would be the next step up from there.

[RedFox999]

have I seen 300-300+ drives in person, yes. Have I seen people new to golf hit 300 drives, no, unless they are really athletic and strong like a football player. Alot of new players or players that are kinda young think they are hitting their drives 300 yards when they are actually about 260 yards, a 260 yard drive looks really long to the high handicapper so thats why they think its 300

[Bird E3]

Originally Posted by Gaprofitt

You forget that 3 wood and any other club they hit off the tee are also averaged in with the driver.

[golfernc]

Originally Posted by tweaky

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

This is exactly right!

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by TheGeekGolfer

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.

Yeah, that's what I said. He probably excludes those, just like you suggest, then ends up with the 280-320 range. If I get to exclude those my range is 270-345, and that includes drives with a persimmon driver. Nobody in real life (not on the internet) ever asks about our driving average and expects us to include the outliers.

On topic, I'd say the shaft and the swing are at least as important as the loft, that's why I like trying drivers that are already built (i.e. stock).

[Joehuggy]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

AHAHA similar the the safety factor applied to building loads in civil engineering construction of 1.4 lmao

[inthecup]

Boy I wish I could hit it 300, that would be awesome, 280 would too.  I know my real average and I am certainly not going to post it here.  The odd thing is I play with lots of people and no one hits it more then 20-30 yards past me.

The bad news is that this thread got totally derailed because of semantics.

[David in FL]

Boy I wish I could hit it 300, that would be awesome, 280 would too.  I know my real average and I am certainly not going to post it here.  The odd thing is I play with lots of people and no one hits it more then 20-30 yards past me. The bad news is that this thread got totally derailed because of semantics.

The good news is that it got derailed over 2 years ago..... ;-)

[tomvk77]

i only rarely hit it past the 300 marker. i'm around the 280-290 y

i play stiff 9 deg

[inthecup]

Originally Posted by David in FL

The good news is that it got derailed over 2 years ago.....

Good he is older and better able to take the "advice"

[inthehole]

Looking through this old thread I saw Sean Miller's name - he was one of the most frequent posters & wasn't afraid to offer a (strong) opinion ... what ever happened to him ????

[iacas]

Originally Posted by inthehole

Looking through this old thread I saw Sean Miller's name - he was one of the most frequent posters & wasn't afraid to offer a (strong) opinion ... what ever happened to him ????

He decided he was spending too much time online and didn't like the type of member he'd become. He may come back some day.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by inthehole

Looking through this old thread I saw Sean Miller's name - he was one of the most frequent posters & wasn't afraid to offer a (strong) opinion ... what ever happened to him ????

Shorty too.  They both kind of disappeared at the same time.  Not sure what happened to either of them ...

Originally Posted by iacas

He decided he was spending too much time online and didn't like the type of member he'd become. He may come back some day.

I hear that!  I gotta be careful sometimes or else this place just sucks the day away.

[tiger187126]

i read this thread and immediately though of the last time i was posting a whole bunch and that guy claimed 300 and it was beaten to death until he actually went and did a trackman session in vegas i think. that thread lasted forever and every little nit was picked in that discussion. shorty and sean miller were all over it.

oh the nostalgia of a few months or year ago.

[Wisguy]

I hit longer than most people with whom I've played and I've hit four 300 yard drives, all of which were assisted by some combination of a stiff tailwind, hard fairways, elevated tees and/or downhill landing areas.  Last weekend I tried out my new Ping G20 driver at the range of a local course where they were having a father-son outing and there were tons of cocky young high school and college-aged golfers out there bombing balls downrange.  I wasn't paying too much attention to anyone else, but I didn't notice anyone hitting beyond a few of my longest drives, which looked to be about 30 yards shy of the 300 yard marker and I was getting an easy 15 yards longer with the Ping than my normal driver - a Titleist D905T - on my best drives (I brought both drivers to the range).  I was really impressed with the new driver, as I think the newest of these range balls must have been two years old and not going very far, even for range balls.  In 20 years, I've only played with 5 guys who I think could semi-regularly hit a 300 yard drive.

I think the internet tends to add about 20-50 yards to a fair number of golfers' drives.

But I also think there's an issue of context involved here:

"I can hit my driver 300 yards" (in context of "Is the next group far enough out for me to hit my tee shot?", considering maximum drive length)

vs.

"I hit my driver 300 yards."  (suggests more of an average drive length).