What advantages/disadvantages do the taller players have/get?

[dfreuter415]

I'm 6'3" and here are my personal observations from 50+ years of golfing.

Advantages:

1) My height and long arms allow me to create a longer arc than the shorter player. As a youth, I read articles by Al Geiberger (6'2") that stressed tempo. Slowing down the golf swing would give you a better chance of hitting more shots on the sweet spot of the club face. With a longer arc, the momentum on the downswing would create greater clubhead speed, and thus distance would take care of itself.

2) As a taller golfer with a steep swing angle, I found myself able to hit consistently higher shots than my shorter friends. This was especially helpful for going over trees and landing the ball softly on the greens.

3) This might seem trivial, but on occasion, I was able to see a pin placement on a semi-blind shot that my shorter friends could not see. This obviously helped with alignment and direction of the shot.

Disadvantage:

1) The major disadvantage that I feel the tall golfer has is putting. Let me explain it this way... When you go up in an airplane everything on the ground looks smaller. The higher you go, the smaller things look. Thus, when I am putting, the ball and the hole look smaller to me than than the average height golfer, definitely a disadvantage. Also, with longer arms, it goes to reason that when I stroke the ball there are more things that can go wrong on average, (back swing, squaring the club face, etc.), than having shorter arms. (I think having bigger hands can be a detriment, but I won't go there.)  Combine the two factors of eyes being farther above the ball and longer arms, along with the fact that approximately half of your stokes are on the putting green, being tall can cost you a stroke or more in any given round, especially if you have a number of putts 3 to 7 feet long. (The ones that make or break your score.)

(I know that some people will think that this theory is crazy, but this lets me rationalize a poor putting day on the greens.)

If you want to see Al Geiberger's swing, here is an old video analyzed by Jimmy Demaret...

http://secretinthedirt.com/index.php/village/videos/video/2600-al-geiberger-vs-george-knudson-swing-slow-motion?groupid=208

[tmf9]

Originally Posted by TristanBlevins

I'm 15 and 6'1 and the only advantage I seem to have is power. I can generate more power with less effort, but I have trouble drawing the ball. Of course, this could be nothing but a swing flaw on my part, but all of my shorter friends have a mean draw and have trouble fading, while I have a great fade but can't draw well. It may be because I have a much steeper swing plane.

Interesting you say that im 6'4" and i have a very hard time drawing the ball (especially with longer clubs) but I can hit a nice controlled fade pretty often.  I wonder if there is something to being tall and struggling to hit a draw, i've never really thought about it