Long drive?

[GangGreen]

Watching the long drive competition on the golf channel and just a little confused. I always thought the conventional wisdom was that you needed to learn to draw the ball for distance but the guys I'm seeing tonight all seemed to be taking the ball left to right...is this the power fade and, if so, does a person (like myself) whose natural misses tend to be slices better off trying to learn a more controlled fade vs. draw with a driver.

[mvmac]

Part of it is that they're hitting up 5-6*, basically with neutral alignments at set-up, hitting up means you're swinging left.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/44307/hitting-up-or-down-with-the-driver-in-an-inline-pattern

[iacas]

  mvmac said:

Part of it is that they're hitting up 5-6*, basically with neutral alignments at set-up, hitting up means you're swinging left.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/44307/hitting-up-or-down-with-the-driver-in-an-inline-pattern

Or 8 or 9° actually…

And a lot of players will play draws too. It's kind of irrelevant at that level - any curvature is actually a slightly glancing blow, so they're trying to play relatively little curve.

[GangGreen]

  mvmac said:

Good stuff!!!

[Ernest Jones]

  iacas said:

Or 8 or 9° actually… And a lot of players will play draws too. It's kind of irrelevant at that level - any curvature is actually a slightly glancing blow, so they're trying to play relatively little curve.

Yeah, their target is the width of a football field so a two way miss is not really a problem and accuracy definitely takes a back seat to distance so I'd imagine they would mostly just be trying to nut one as straight as they can. All else being equal, curvature reduces distance because 350 straight yards is longer than 350 drawing or fading yards when measured in a straight line.

[Hotrodjrd]

So I watched the Long Drive Competition last night on Golf Channel in between the World Series and these guys are crushing it 400+ yards.  I went to the website of the drivers a lot of them use called "Krank Golf Clubs".  If you can hit it that freaking far with one of these drivers why are they essentially unheard of in the golfing world...are they junk, illegal, or what??  I see that they're expensive as heck but I've never heard a word about these had I not watched the show last night.

[tefunk]

Hotrod - the drivers they use in the long drive competition do not meet the USGA criteria for what is conforming ( the drivers are a few inches longer than what's allowed by the USGA ). That being said, those guys can crank them either way...

[saevel25]

  Hotrodjrd said:

So I watched the Long Drive Competition last night on Golf Channel in between the World Series and these guys are crushing it 400+ yards.  I went to the website of the drivers a lot of them use called "Krank Golf Clubs".  If you can hit it that freaking far with one of these drivers why are they essentially unheard of in the golfing world...are they junk, illegal, or what??  I see that they're expensive as heck but I've never heard a word about these had I not watched the show last night.

Actually the clubheads are conforming for REMAX. So the Krank clubs are on the USGA conforming list. The one thing that isn't conforming is the shaft length.

[Mr. Desmond]

Saw the LD early this morning.

Krank was represented by the winner and others, but Callaway showed up and earned a second, and had others using the XHOT.

At that level, it's a matter of hitting 3 long drives straight.

427 to win is looooooooooooooooooooooooong.

[saevel25]

  Mr. Desmond said:

Saw the LD early this morning.

Krank was represented by the winner and others, but Callaway showed up and earned a second, and had others using the XHOT.

At that level, it's a matter of hitting 3 long drives straight.

427 to win is looooooooooooooooooooooooong.

Seriously they are hitting it down a 60 yard wide fairway, I would love that ;)

[iacas]

  saevel25 said:

Actually the clubheads are conforming for REMAX. So the Krank clubs are on the USGA conforming list. The one thing that isn't conforming is the shaft length.

Pretty sure that's conforming too. The clubs are supposed to have to conform to the Rules of Golf. That means, IIRC, a 48" shaft.

[Lihu]

  iacas said:

Pretty sure that's conforming too. The clubs are supposed to have to conform to the Rules of Golf. That means, IIRC, a 48" shaft.

My kid's regular coach (a well respected club-fitter) stated exactly the same thing. He was helping some long drivers with fitting.

[Archie Bunker]

  Hotrodjrd said:

So I watched the Long Drive Competition last night on Golf Channel in between the World Series and these guys are crushing it 400+ yards.  I went to the website of the drivers a lot of them use called "Krank Golf Clubs".  If you can hit it that freaking far with one of these drivers why are they essentially unheard of in the golfing world...are they junk, illegal, or what??  I see that they're expensive as heck but I've never heard a word about these had I not watched the show last night.

Most of the driver heads are designed for high durability, since these guys are hitting rock-hard balls with incredible swing speeds. Even so, they occasionally crack a face. I picked up a SMT 455 Deep Bore head at a garage sale the other week, and it looks and feels rock solid.

[Valleygolfer]

  saevel25 said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

Saw the LD early this morning.

Krank was represented by the winner and others, but Callaway showed up and earned a second, and had others using the XHOT.

At that level, it's a matter of hitting 3 long drives straight.

427 to win is looooooooooooooooooooooooong.

Seriously they are hitting it down a 60 yard wide fairway, I would love that ;)

Pffft...I still hit it OB

[Ernest Jones]

  Valleygolfer said:

Pffft...I still hit it OB

Lol, yep. The wider the fairway the stupider I get.

[BombTechGolf]

One of the main reasons you don't see the big brand names in long drive is the loft options...Callaway went low in lofts this year and Adams has in years pasts.

Such a small world. Only so many golfers need a 5 degree or lower loft! Or a XXX Flex....

Wish they put more in the grid...Tough to get excited when you see someone hit 6 out of bounds...or "off the grid." Congrats to Tim Burke. That was an outrageous drive.

Always fun to swing hard..but you still gotta be in the fairway.

I went to a few long drive events and hit a couple 360 yards....Did me no good. One of the golfers in the top 8. Aaron Mansfield was there and hit one 417 yards.

made my 360 seem like 220..

[mvmac]

  BombTechGolf said:

One of the main reasons you don't see the big brand names in long drive is the loft options...Callaway went low in lofts this year and Adams has in years pasts.

Such a small world. Only so many golfers need a 5 degree or lower loft! Or a XXX Flex....

Wish they put more in the grid...Tough to get excited when you see someone hit 6 out of bounds...or "off the grid." Congrats to Tim Burke. That was an outrageous drive.

Always fun to swing hard..but you still gotta be in the fairway.

I went to a few long drive events and hit a couple 360 yards....Did me no good. One of the golfers in the top 8. Aaron Mansfield was there and hit one 417 yards.

made my 360 seem like 220..

What loft and length do you use for long drive competitions?

[BombTechGolf]

I was using a 4.5 and 6 degree at full 48 inch legal max...As you may have seen from the long drive on the golf channel last night, you can be long with those but not accurate!!  Would never dream of using something like that for real golf.  The dispersion factor on something that low in loft is so high and you are swinging out of your shoes every time.  I contemplated coming out with low loft versions of the Grenade but thought it would be better if it was under a different company name.