Do you know people that think they drive the ball further than they actually do?

[Q.Q.Quillume]

Frank Thomas ( http://www.thegolfchannel.com/core.a...2&select;=18555 ) says the average drive for the average golfer is 192 yards but Joe Average thinks he hits it 30-40 yards farther. Mr. Thomas is Chief Technical Advisor to the Golf Channel and Golf Digest. He was Technical Director for the USGA for 26 years.

I'm surely not going to argue with Mr. Thomas, but on the other hand I'm not going to argue with any average (or below average) golfers posting on this thread who think they average 300.

[Mhinderaker]

For me I would say consistently over 260 (with an occasional wtf was that moment with a nice little 225 yard hook) and every once in a while absolutely jumping on a ball and smashing it. Highlight of today was being 20 yards off a green that was listed at 365 in the early morning when the fairways were still wet.

[elivate]

The club I play at is supposedly going to get some gps set up in the carts next year... I am not going to worry about how far I think I can hit it anymore until then. I would really like to know how accurate the markers are, though...

On a side note, the driving range at my course is aquatic, so you know exactly how far the ball carries, but , the wind always moves the buoys around and the balls supposedly do not travel as far... At that range I usually carry it about 220 - again, that is according to their markers - so I guess the only true test would be to use gps on a flat hole...

[slackhouse]

Now if I could chip and putt better I wouldn't be such a high handicapper...

there you go. same thing as me. my high handicap is not due to driving. some people can hit it long and have no short game. other people lay up and are great at the short game.

therefore, long drive doesn't equal low handicap. and short drive doesn't equal high handicap.

[blagrange]

I am probably one of those average hitters 230 after roll. But I do nto care as long as it stays in play and I can reach GIR.

[Pete Beau]

I use two methods for distance readings; rangefinder and pocket PC program/ GPS.

The pocket PC program is called INTELLIGOLF and with a GPS works much like a Skycaddie. It's fun GPS’ing our drives and see the humbling looks on golfing friends faces when you tell how far their drive REALLY went. Those 260+ yard drives are really more like 225.
Also, when stepping off drives using the yardage markers don’t forget the position of the tee markers. Some tee boxes can move the tee’s 30+ yards.

[jb1982]

Our course is one of those poorly marked courses. We have a par 4 that's marked at 360 from the blues. It is a slight dogleg but the only thing protecting the corner is 2 20' tall pine trees. My skycaddie gives me a measurement of 310 when I'm standing on the the 360 marker. There are about 5-6 guys in my league that can drive the green. They all THINK they're hitting 360 when it's actually only 310 with a straight shot. I used to be one of those guys til I got my skycaddy. Now I realize I average maybe 275, and blast about one per round out over 300.

[$2 Nassau]

This thread is proof in itself, reading through all these posts truly gave me a chuckle. It's amazing how many long bombers we have on this website!!

[Mhinderaker]

This thread is proof in itself, reading through all these posts truly gave me a chuckle. It's amazing how many long bombers we have on this website!!

I just want to say, although I do agree with your general sentiment here, that seeing as this is a GOLF website and many of us are completely obsessed with golf / spend all day thinking about golf, I would think the average drive would be higher than that of the average golfer.

[titleistglfer]

I think what is really difficult is all of the variables that go into a drive. Like other posts prior to this one: elevation changes from tee to fairway, turns in the fairway that allow players to cut off distance, wind, ROLL. Let's be honest, are we talking about carry distance? or distance with roll? give me a hard muni fairway in the middle of August...i could probably get it plus 300 a few times. If you were to take total yardage of the hole and subtract distance to the middle of the green you probably wouldn't get the ACTUAL distance of the drive even 75% of the time. It would probably be close. Sure, I've hit the ball on a 415 par 4 and been at 100, but was my drive 315 yards? I don't know---and I don't care. After a round, people don't usually ask how--they ask how many. I'm just trying to answer with the lowest score possible.

[drewmart]

I know a few people who think they average 270+ but when measured with GPS it turns out at about 240. Anyway at least I know I don't drive the ball very far. I can deal with that though. Just because I hit a ball 280 once on a downwind, downhill hole with dry fairways doesn't mean I'm going to tell everyone I hit it 280. On average I hit it 210-220. On saturday I was playing a hole against the howling wind and rain, uphill and my drive measured 170 which I was happy with, despite the hole being a 460 yard par 4. Needless to say I got a triple bogey on that hole

[Fourputt]

Well, I know that most players don't hit the ball as far as they think they do, and don't average anywhere near what they think they do, but there are some absolute bombers around too who don't generally score that well. I've played with a couple of guys this year who absolutely crush the ball, but have zero control. One who I played with recently in a club tournament holds a 15 handicap (USGA Ghin system), but he shot both rounds in the low 90s that weekend. Maybe he gets it under control enough to shoot more than half his scores under 87, but I sure didn't see it that weekend. He was hitting drives 320 yards, but most were 30-40 yards off line too. And his short game wasn't good enough to save him from his driver...

I hit a 290 yard bomb today... one time on one hole, not average.

[MGP]

True story from my round last Friday...

I'm playing as a single with another single I was paired with at the course. We get to a longish par 4, straight and slightly uphill. I hit about a normal drive for me, solid contact and nice carry and right down the middle. The guy I'm playing with says "Wow, great drive". He then puts a massive swing on his drive and hits it about 10 yards past me.

He says "Man, I killed that thing. It must be close to 300! Can you measure it for me?" (I had my SG3 GPS along for the round).

So I said "Are you sure?" because I knew my drive didn't go more than 240-245 yds. So I marked the tee box and we walked to our balls. Mine was 242 and his was 253. He couldn't believe it and said "that thing must be wrong" then took a couple steps and saw a sprinkler head marked 150 yds. The holes was playing 403 yds from the tee... "Oh, I guess not" he said.

[jb1982]

True story from my round last Friday...

Good story. I would also bet that most of the people that do hit it 300 don't hit more than 50% of the fairways. From my experience it seems that my longest drives result in the highest scores because I'm in the deep rough! One of my league partners has a great saying for it after I mash one into the woods..... "That was really long, and REALLY WRONG!!" Being "pin high" on a par four doesn't help when your still 50 yards from the center of the green and in the woods!

[The Bogey Man]

I remember when I was 15 working at a local golf shop and a guy told me how he could hit the ball about 350-390 yards on average... I laughed hard inside... I wanted to ask if he was actually Tiger or not.

[P3R3]

Whenever someone claims a huge drive I just whip out the bushnell to confirm.

Most heard statement "That thing has to be wrong!"

[NCGolfer]

Anyone can bust a drive now and then but, on average, most people are going to be a lot shorter off the tee than they think they are.

I've been playing for 20+ years now and everyone exaggerates from time to time. Sometimes it's because they only use examples of downhill, downwind, dry-as-a-rock holes. Sometimes they just might be mistaken because a course is poorly marked. In any case, until you go to the range and get a rangefinder to mark distances accurately (flat and not much wind also) you really aren't going to truly know how far you hit it.

The best thing anyone can do is to go to a demo day and get on a launch montior. I haven't done that yet but I've heard it can be a humbling experience.

For the record, I think I hit it about 280ish...but that could be an exaggeration.

[nrussell]

i played in a cga event several years back at tanglewood, and i felt like i had never played golf before. i left there with such a bad taste in my mouth because i played so poorly and couldn't figure out why the course is rated so highly amongst nc courses. best i can remember, we played the back tees, and i am not very long off the tee, so i had 3, 4 & 5 irons in to nearly every green. i hit the ball low at the time (i have since gotten better and can get the ball up), but i had so much trouble because it seemed like there were front bunkers on the majority of the holes. so naturally i found most of them hitting low burners. i would like to give it another shot sometime now that i feel i am a little better golfer. where else do you play at? any nc gems out there that i don't know about?