Honestly, I hit it long

[Dad-2-3]

Originally Posted by Dad-2-3  I will start averaging them all and come up with a more accurate number. I'm suspecting about 220-230 yards or so.

Just as I figured, I kept track of my tee shots with driver and average a whopping 223 yards. I'm blaming it on the extremely wet FW's. LOL

To top that off I only hit the FW 7 of 12 times.

Long drive of the day was 259 and the short was 182 where I hit a tree and kicked it straight down. I hit 4 drives under 215 yards and 6 drives 230+.

[sean_miller]

I tracked my distances for a few rounds last spring (after I bought a rangefinder). I found that once I'd figured out my stock distances, I was trying to hit harder in order to bump up my stats. In the end, nobody really cares (including me) what our driving distances are if the group has to slow down and find our balls in the rough. My last match in league play I hit my driver 2 x, then I hit 2-iron for the rest of the round . . . for the win . . . almost (we halved - but still)!!

[Dad-2-3]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

I tracked my distances for a few rounds last spring (after I bought a rangefinder). I found that once I'd figured out my stock distances, I was trying to hit harder in order to bump up my stats. In the end, nobody really cares (including me) what our driving distances are if the group has to slow down and find our balls in the rough. My last match in league play I hit my driver 2 x, then I hit 2-iron for the rest of the round . . . for the win . . . almost (we halved - but still)!!

Yep, not obsessed with distance as much as my iron play and putting which both suck at the moment! I only did this so the next time I play I plan to hit 3W off the tee and see if distance is significantly less and/or if I hit more FW.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Dad-2-3

Yep, not obsessed with distance as much as my iron play and putting which both suck at the moment! I only did this so the next time I play I plan to hit 3W off the tee and see if distance is significantly less and/or if I hit more FW.

I absolutely agree that you need to get a baseline.

[bplewis24]

I hit it pretty long today, on a course (my home course) with tight fairways and dense woods.  Oh, and every one of those long drives was deep in the woods.

Thanks,

Brandon

[Stroudie]

When i go to the range... I hit 150 Balls...

20 with my 56 to start,

50 with my 8-3 Irons,

20-30 with my driver,

20 with my woods, what ever is left with my 52,

and my last one with my putter for a laugh! Bout 140 for anyone interested.

My latest rounds, I have lost shots when within 100 yards. simply because ive never practiced them...

Have almost fixed my drive... going from 270+ and spraying them anywhere to now hitting 230-250 with about 30 yrds of side to side variability..

Im now loving the thought of being able to hit a drive and hit the same ball next shot. Where as before 40% of the time, would be a lost ball!

[saevel25]

Nothing like a scramble to get the driver in the groove.

One bad pulled drive, then the rest were just demolished, at least half of them 300 or over.. felt good to loosen up..

If you want to gain some more distance, work on balance. Start with just balancing on each foot for a minute each. Then you can move your other foot around, forward to the side, and back. This will work your hole leg your balancing on. I found this to help me a ton in my golf game. I can really tear into the ball and not fall backwards, i am in full balance on my front leg. Its allowed me to say my old 100% is now my current 80%.

[Dr. Strangeclub]

Originally Posted by saevel25

The only way these people will believe it is if they see it, so might as well not bring it up on the forum.

I think it's the very thing for shooting the breeze on a golf forum.  How else do "lesser" players come to grips with their actual distances?

For me, a 250 yard windless carry is pretty much my limit, usually more like 235-240.  On dry, hard running fairways, that can easily translate to something close to 300 yards and in a strong downwind even more.  I'm 68, 5'7" tall and weigh 130 at this point, with age-atrophied muscles and tendons like worn out elastic on a pair of sweatpants, so I'm not as long as I was when I hit ballata and persimmon.  I'd be even shorter without the hyper-active ball and watermelon sized driver played these days.  Consider though, that I missed a PLUS one handicap by two shots in 1966 and started playing when I was 11 -- with LOTS of help from the best players around.  And I practiced a lot, too, with my primary, adolescent objective to hit the ball as far as possible.  Before I reached my 50s, I won long drive in scramble tournaments pretty frequently, not because I was the longest hitter (not even in my own group) but because the big hitters would miss the fairway.  I've never been able to hit irons out of my shadow though, because of short arms, ie, the arc on a driver isn't percentage-wise as short as larger players because of the shaft length ratio, so I'm closer to "big people yardage" with the longer clubs.  When I could carry a tee shot 250, I couldn't hit a wedge more than 100 yards -- still true, even though a modern pitching wedge is more like an old 9 iron in loft and length.

I play with quite a few players in scrambles who absolutely launch the ball who don't even have single digit handicaps.  (They're on the team for a reason!)  With people so much bigger and stronger, with longer drivers and hotter balls than were played in days of yore, I have no trouble at all believing most of these guys hit it at as far as they say.

[TXjammer]

During the Volvo Matchplay Championships this year, I was watching Luke Donald and Ian Poulter duke it out.  Before each tee shot, the computer model would show an animated ball flight to the ideal fairway position...usually about 265 yds.  I paid close attention to where on the fairway the animated ball ended up ....Luke and Ian hit their tee shots with +\ - 10yds of that spot consistently, making their average drives 265 yds during that competition. It was their accuracy that impressed me.

On the other hand, I play with some members here at home for which 290-310 yds is an average drive on level ground....but the accuracy?....let's just say I'd rather play a 265yd drive in the fairway than where those guys end up.

[rlambrose]

I think the word you all need to remember is he said "consistently"  Anyone who can shoot in the low 90's consistently is usually good enough to hit one 300+ once in awhile.  perfect contact, wind at your back, public course with sometimes too hard fairways, downhill.

I hit a shot the other day, it was beautiful. I was thinking, "That's gotta be close to 300.  Got to my ball, pulled out my iphone.  Golf Logix GPS showed it was like 265.  And I thought I cranked it.  I think many of these guys aren't lying.  They are high handicap players who don't really check the yardage on their drives.  They are just estimating.

Don't get me wrong.  I had a co-worker.  Young kid.  We'd go to the driving range at lunch.  The back fence at the range said 250.  He would just crank ball after ball over that fence.  Straight as hell.  He'd actually draw a crowd of guys watching him.

Then we'd go to the course.  He'd still crank them long and deep . . . . . problem was, he was usually hitting his second shot from the trees.  :>)

[ThominOH]

Some did a poll on this a couple months ago.. I put down my "average" drive distance between 260-285.(or something like that).. However, as I recall almost a 30% put down their average drive distance to be 286+..  This struck me too funny that I made a comment that I didn't realize we had that many PRO's on the forum, because 286 is the average drive distance of the PGA tour..  LOL

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by ThominOH

Some did a poll on this a couple months ago.. I put down my "average" drive distance between 260-285.(or something like that).. However, as I recall almost a 30% put down their average drive distance to be 286+..  This struck me too funny that I made a comment that I didn't realize we had that many PRO's on the forum, because 286 is the average drive distance of the PGA tour..  LOL

You should read TXjammer's post above.

[nachosgrande]

You'd be surprised how far some amateurs hit the ball.  I'm a smaller guy 5'7", 150#s, and when I played high school golf I legitimately averaged 280 yards off the tee (which includes some mediocre hits in the 250 range and some rockets in the 290-310 range.  I think my swing speed was clocked around 117 back then.  Point being, I wasn't nearly the longest hitter in the conference I played in.  There were plenty of guys who were longer than me, including a guy who was physically smaller but averaged over 300 yards off the tee.  This guy had the most insane swing speed I've ever seen.

My father and uncle, both considerably larger than me, were real long ball hitters back in the day.  I've seen my Dad land the ball (more than once) on a green 330 yards away.  So, I have no trouble believing the guys on here who claim to be long ball hitters.  They definitely exist.

I agree that your better weekend warrior is probably somewhere in the 220-240 range, but there's a lot of single digit guys out there who can really launch it.

[CuppedTin]

I hit the ball as far as I need to, and not a single inch farther...

[CuppedTin]

Originally Posted by TXjammer

During the Volvo Matchplay Championships this year, I was watching Luke Donald and Ian Poulter duke it out.  Before each tee shot, the computer model would show an animated ball flight to the ideal fairway position...usually about 265 yds.  I paid close attention to where on the fairway the animated ball ended up ....Luke and Ian hit their tee shots with +\ - 10yds of that spot consistently, making their average drives 265 yds during that competition. It was their accuracy that impressed me.

On the other hand, I play with some members here at home for which 290-310 yds is an average drive on level ground....but the accuracy?....let's just say I'd rather play a 265yd drive in the fairway than where those guys end up.

Exactly... Times 2

[Dr. Strangeclub]

Originally Posted by nachosgrande

You'd be surprised how far some amateurs hit the ball.  I'm a smaller guy 5'7", 150#s, and when I played high school golf I legitimately averaged 280 yards off the tee (which includes some mediocre hits in the 250 range and some rockets in the 290-310 range....

I agree that your better weekend warrior is probably somewhere in the 220-240 range, but there's a lot of single digit guys out there who can really launch it.

I was about the same size, 5'8"/150, in my prime and have won many a long drive in tournaments.  Never the longest driver (by FAR) in the tournament, but if the long hitters didn't keep in the fairway or thinned it or something, I would win.  I kept pretty accurate yardages (I was scratch in 1966) and was the same average distance during the 80s as Tom Kite, 265 -- which was a tad longer than Nick Faldo!  Nobody on tour had even averaged 300 for a season yet, BTW.  My entire golfing existence was consumed, from the age of 11 until I was probably 20, to hit the ball a long way and I hit thousands and thousands of drivers at the range when I was a teenager.  If that's what you're trying to do, then that's probably what you'll do if you work at it, but big guys doing the same will always outdrive you. I'm 68 and down to 130 pounds these days, but I can still move it out there pretty good.  It's just a trick and you don't have to be very strong to carry it 240.  Anybody 6' tall should be able to easily carry the "modern" ball 260+ with one of the spiffy new drivers.

That said, the tour players are short hitters compared to Ben Witter -- all of them. Played with him in Pennsylvania once back in the 90s. Silly.  To a long par 5, I hit driver (not bad), four iron layup (flushed it) and a full 9 iron onto the green.  Witter carried his 9 iron second over the green.  Another hole, I blistered my tee shot and hit a full 8 iron onto the green -- he drove it to the front fringe.  He was CARRYING the ball 350+.  You haven't lived until you've been outdriven by 100+ yards when you hit it dead solid perfect.

[tmf9]

Im 6'4" 195 lbs so i've always been able to crank the ball pretty good.  My Swing Speed gets up to 120 mph every now and then, and I can hit it 300+ with regularity.  With that being said I played with a 75 year old man the other day who was probably hitting the ball 180 at best.. and I only beat him by two strokes.  I shot 75, he shot 77.  Distance really is overrated, its accuracy that is most important.  I much rather be able to hit some chips and pitches that he pulled out off his ass, rather than hit it 300+ and god knows where.

[MassHacker35]

Well I mean your handicap's 100, so a 300 yard drive is kind of hard to believe.....