Why is it unbelievable I can drive 300+ ?

[Spyder]

Originally Posted by TXRains

So I'm up early watching The Open Championship this morning, and one of the players (maybe Bubba, but I'm not real sure) bombed a drive out to about 317 or so. Scott Van Pelt was on the commentary and said something to the affect of, "This is why, when someone at your club says they can drive it 320 you get to say 'Yea, no you don't.'"

This made me laugh out loud on the elliptical machine at the gym as it made me think of this thread, which I've been reading since its inception. No opinion one way or the other about the OP's driving skills, but just know this thread has left a mark on me.

[LovinItAll]

I also laughed (I referenced that quote in the British Open Discussion thread).  I believe it was Sergio who drove it about 324, just past Tiger who drove it 317.

And that was a real 317/324 - sea level, no wind, flat terrain, average fairways. Hitting it 300+ on command is a loooooong way, mate. Note: McIlroy took a mighty cut and hit the 336 yard Par 4 16th. He's considered very long and one of the best golfers in the universe. I'm not saying there aren't 10-20 handicappers that can't hit it 300+..... I'm just sayin'. ;-)

[Darksun22]

I played on the indoor sim tonight with my friend who is now a golf instructor (but was on the tour about 4 years ago before a car accident put glass in his eye and broke his hip).  He still shoots very well, and maintains an USGA handicap of +1 (or a -1 handicap for those that don't know much about USGA handicap.)

He is really an amazing golfer, and a great teacher.  I saw him on the practice range put 15 balls with his driver at 282-285  same exact ball speed, same exact launch angle.  The tracer on the screen after 15 balls looked like 1 big blurry line the balls were so closely hit.

It made me think twice about how good these guys on tour are. If he is even 50% as good as those mainstream guys, then i can just imagine what they can do.

We were talking about this thread and actually going over the hip rotation in my video i posted, and he said the average tour player can grab their driver and put an extra 40yds on it pretty much on command.  The accuracy will go down, but they can almost all get 300+ and some 350+ if they tried to swing for the fences.

He then proved his point,  Got up to the ball and hit 3 balls right over 310 ( not as accurate, but still in fairway).  The whole point was that I was playing around before the round and got a few 340+ and was joking him over his 280s. (even though i was very impressed, i was just messing with him.

This man is my long drive coach, so hes always trying to teach me something, he just wanted to show how much the tour guys hold back when they swing.

He is 5'10 maybe 160 pounds soaking wet.  He said the larger, more athletic tour players have no problem putting 350 on a range if they wanted to with some accuracy.

His whole point of this was to teach me 2 different swings,  My long drive swing and my golf driver swing.  So we worked on it, and amazingly enough I hit 11 fairways at 270-290 with a slight draw playing on "Pheonix Country Club" .  If you have a sim look it up.  Its a SUPER SUPER tight course.

Great lesson today by my good friend.  No more 300+ for me on the course.  Save that for the comp.

He ended up giving me a 5 handicap on match play and beating me on hole 18 with a great 22 foot put for birdie. I lost 15$ to him but we went in on Keno tickets and won 105$ from our 40$.  So I got above even lol.

[Zeph]

The ranges obviously got better balls than on those around here. We only got flight limited balls. My drives drop down around 220-230 at the range.

[Darksun22]

Great thing about the sim... Hit you own ball.  And never loose one.

I have one ball from a sleeve of proV1 that i hit in the sim.  I keep it in the bottom pocket with my glove.

[bunkerputt]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

How'd you determine the 290 yard carry? Just curious. I can't see well enough to differentiate between 270 and 290 at the driving range.

Flag at 291, and he was standing just a pace off the marker.  They're lasered and are accurate.  He was flying past the flag.  The ground elevates slightly past the flag, so it's pretty easy to see.  Plus the small crowd watching him was verifying.  I just said 290 because it was definitely longer than 290 and I didn't want to exaggerate.  I saw him on the monitor a few years ago, and his driver SS was 126 every time like a Timex.  Of course that was a few years ago.  But doing that at 45 and at 5'4" is impressive.  He works hard though.  Tons of speed.  His swing is kind of a blur to me.  Hasn't lost any of it at 48.

[daSeth]

Jimbo,

Most people don't get to see elite atheletes on any kind of regular basis.  They really have little idea what the human body is capable of in an elite athelete.  I knew a guy, baseball player.  He didn't make it as a baseball player because he didn't run particulaly fast and didn't hit well enough or pitch well enough to fit into the slow-guy baseball roles (third, first, pitcher...).  But the dude could hit a golf ball a freaking mile, straight most of the time.  I attribute it to the fact that he had pretty good rotational speed and mechanics which he learned from playing years of baseball.  Didn't hurt that he was a big, strong guy either.  In terms of handicap, he played something north of 15.  His chipping and putting was abysmal.  Absolutely worthless with a wedge.  Anyway, that was 12 years ago, I lost contact with him.  I am sure he is scoring better now.

My old man was a high jumper in college, much better athelete than myself. He also played some baseball and softball when he was younger. He hit 300+ well into his 50s with old equipment.

My point is, most baseball and hockey players even approaching any kind of elite level (think junior college and up) could pick up a club, swing it for a month, and stripe drives 300+.  Scoring would be another matter entirely.

The Internet is full of haters and incredulous, narrow-minded individuals.  Just keep working on your game and ignore them...

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by daSeth

My point is, most baseball and hockey players even approaching any kind of elite level (think junior college and up) could pick up a club, swing it for a month, and stripe drives 300+.  Scoring would be another matter entirely.

And I call bull**** on your point.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by bunkerputt

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

How'd you determine the 290 yard carry? Just curious. I can't see well enough to differentiate between 270 and 290 at the driving range.

Flag at 291, and he was standing just a pace off the marker.  They're lasered and are accurate.  He was flying past the flag.  The ground elevates slightly past the flag, so it's pretty easy to see.  Plus the small crowd watching him was verifying.  I just said 290 because it was definitely longer than 290 and I didn't want to exaggerate.  I saw him on the monitor a few years ago, and his driver SS was 126 every time like a Timex.  Of course that was a few years ago.  But doing that at 45 and at 5'4" is impressive.  He works hard though.  Tons of speed.  His swing is kind of a blur to me.  Hasn't lost any of it at 48.

What's his index. He must be +, right?

[Gresh24]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

And I call bull**** on your point.

I don't agree with that either, but I know more guys that can and do hit 300 yard drives than most people on here would ever believe.  It certainly isn't easy to do, but I see a fair number of young, very good, athletes that do it.

[tiger187126]

Originally Posted by Gresh24

I don't agree with that either, but I know more guys that can and do hit 300 yard drives than most people on here would ever believe.  It certainly isn't easy to do, but I see a fair number of young, very good, athletes that do it.

a buddy of mine was a collegiate pitcher and threw in the low 90s.

he could crank out 300 yard drives and throw a football 60+ yards. there's a certain type of athleticism that translates very well into the golf swing and baseball is one of them.

it's weird to watch though, because nothing looks dramatically different overall.

[Darksun22]

Originally Posted by daSeth

My point is, most baseball and hockey players even approaching any kind of elite level (think junior college and up) could pick up a club, swing it for a month, and stripe drives 300+.  Scoring would be another matter entirely.

I don't know why this is hard to grasp.  I give the credit for the speed on my swing due to baseball my whole life.

The baseball swing (don't know much about hockey except the LD champ Jamie played hockey) uses a ton of the same muscles. Throwing a baseball itself teaches you to clear your body for your arm to come around and release the ball.

Not to mention, baseball is one of the more hand-eye intensive sports out there. Which means if your a great baseball player, you will automatically have fine tuned hand-eye which will translate perfectly to golf.

I agree with your point.  Probably 75% with a little work could put a few past 300 out of every 10 or so.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Darksun22

Quote:

Originally Posted by daSeth

My point is, most baseball and hockey players even approaching any kind of elite level (think junior college and up) could pick up a club, swing it for a month, and stripe drives 300+.  Scoring would be another matter entirely.

I don't know why this is hard to grasp.  I give the credit for the speed on my swing due to baseball my whole life.

The baseball swing (don't know much about hockey except the LD champ Jamie played hockey) uses a ton of the same muscles. Throwing a baseball itself teaches you to clear your body for your arm to come around and release the ball.

Not to mention, baseball is one of the more hand-eye intensive sports out there. Which means if your a great baseball player, you will automatically have fine tuned hand-eye which will translate perfectly to golf.

I agree with your point.  Probably 75% with a little work could put a few past 300 out of every 10 or so.

Some can and some can't. Or are you also saying that 75% of long hitting golfers could compete in a home run derby?

[Darksun22]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Some can and some can't. Or are you also saying that 75% of long hitting golfers could compete in a home run derby?

Don't hate me for this but im about to throw some truth out there no one here will like but it is 100% true.

PGA golfers are super talented and gifted players with great hand eye skills, BUT lets look at some facts.  The average PGA player is NO WHERE NEAR the physical condition of the average NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL player. They just ARE NOT.

Golf is a sport that a very small, and sometimes out of shape player can do very well. Golf does not gobble up elite humans as much as other sports.

Come on really,  There are 55 year old men that still play on the PGA tour in average physical condition.  They just have it with a club.   Put them in ANY other sport for 1 day and would half way die, (if not get hurt really bad).

Even Bubba Watson, One of the longest hitters, in "OK" shape and young for the tour,  would get absolutely murdered in any other professional sport. But there are tons of great MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA, players that shoot very well with a low single digit handicap and could be a pro golfer with full time practice.

I live about 10 miles from the ATL Falcons training facility so i have a few friends who play, have played, or went to camp for the falcons.  One notable is a little guy named cory that just got cut.  Ran a 4.27  40m   but weighed 150ish lbs. . Just not big enough, but an elite human.  He was playing with me on the sim and could drive the ball almost as far as me ( a 225lb 6'3 guy that was an elite athlete, all state in 3 sports)

These Mainstream sport pros and no joke, they are extremely fast, extremely strong, extremely good with their hands.

Golf athletes are not equal to athletes on other main stream sports. End of story.

To your question NO. They would get 100% demolished in a home run derby lol.   But the home run derby guys would snap every driver on the range in two hitting monsters with a little practice.

[dak4n6]

What I find unbelievable is that this thread won't seem to go away.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Darksun22

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Some can and some can't. Or are you also saying that 75% of long hitting golfers could compete in a home run derby?

To your question NO. They would get 100% demolished in a home run derby lol.   But the home run derby guys would snap every driver on the range in two hitting monsters with a little practice.

I used to think that too because I played golf with so many hockey and ball players that could crush a golf ball as well. If this forum has taught me anything it's that being able to hit a golf ball > 270 yards, let alone 300 yards makes one either a very very special person of a downright liar.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Darksun22

Don't hate me for this but im about to throw some truth out there no one here will like but it is 100% true.

This isn't your thread, so please stop posting stuff that's marginally on topic (or more likely off topic) in it, please.

We're awaiting the Trackman results from the OP.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Darksun22

Don't hate me for this but im about to throw some truth out there no one here will like but it is 100% true.

Darksun, copy this post over into the "Is Golf A Sport" thread and you'll get plenty of feedback, I imagine.

Originally Posted by iacas

This isn't your thread, so please stop posting stuff that's marginally on topic (or more likely off topic) in it, please.

We're awaiting the Trackman results from the OP.

Yeah, I am curious to see them as well.