Is being long off the tee a pipe dream?

[vangator]

It's not a pipe dream, but you have to be able to attain the required club head speed. If I take some pain meds, I can get it up there. I'm still a long hitter, but now my drives are typically around 250. I take a little off to keep it in play. Sunday I play on a course that was soaked. Almost all balls plugged. I was a little surprised that my typical drive was only 230-240 yards of carry. I used my GPS watch to keep track. I was trying to hit a high baby fade which may account for the lack of carry. I rarely play with anybody that drives anywhere near 300 and if they're close, they are very wild. You'll be better off playing in the short grass.

[Lihu]

It's not a pipe dream, but you have to be able to attain the required club head speed. If I take some pain meds, I can get it up there. I'm still a long hitter, but now my drives are typically around 250. I take a little off to keep it in play. Sunday I play on a course that was soaked. Almost all balls plugged. I was a little surprised that my typical drive was only 230-240 yards of carry. I used my GPS watch to keep track. I was trying to hit a high baby fade which may account for the lack of carry.

I rarely play with anybody that drives anywhere near 300 and if they're close, they are very wild. You'll be better off playing in the short grass.

Are they legal?

[JP golf]

So this interesting. I like to think that I am very athletic and capable. I work out regularly and have strong endurance. However, is it really "athleticism"? I mean is Fred Couples who drives the ball 300 and is 54 really "athletic"? I realize he is a super star touring pro, but my point is that it really seems like this is much more technique driven vs. physical/athletic ability.

In high school and college I was 5' 8" and weighed between 165 - 185.  I regularly hit the ball over 260 and routinely closer to 275-280 on average (and could hit them over 300 but didn't average that number).  I've been lucky enough to hit a number of 300 yard drives and actually just won a long drive contest Thursday (317- shot with a range finder to the guys on the tee box behind us as we waited for the green to clear).  I have always taken it for granted as I picked up the game quickly and have always been a "long hitter" - (Not always accurate )  I say that to say, I'm not near as athletic as I used to be if your talking about a full court basketball game-  However, I have always been athletic with good hand eye coordination and natural instincts.  So as far as size goes..... You're fine...  You don't have to be tall, you don't have to weight X pounds etc.

You mention technique driven vs. athletic.  It depends on your definition and really some of it is semantics (Good technique requires athleticism and coordination).  Athleticism helps a ton, including flexibility and your natural ability to use leverage and use your core muscles through your swing while having a natural balance and weight transfer (athleticism helps you there).  There is a lot of the same motion with the use of your core in hitting a baseball or throwing a punch.  Body awareness and hand eye coordination are also key...   You can have some athletic people who look pretty uncoordinated at golf and you can have some seemingly otherwise non-athletic people be surprisingly good golfers and long hitters.  Personally I think a lot more people should be able to hit the ball farther, but it seems that many that do have the ability to hit the ball over 300 (even on occasion) start with some natural ability and good hand eye coordination.

If some of your drives are already 230 pretty regularly and you are new to the game then you have a great shot at learning to consistently hit the ball realistically 245-265 range - and by all means you could exceed that number. As many have already said, there are a lot of factors that go into hitting the ball far.  Good luck!!

PS - the wind was surely behind me Thursday and I do NOT consistently hit the ball that far...

[vangator]

Are they legal? :bugout:

Let me look.....yep Hydrocodone and Oxycodone both have my name on the bottles. They're left overs from some medical episode. They both expired about 5 years ago. I will take one (or a half) before an important tourney and it's amazing how much better I hit the ball. The wonders of science.

[newtogolf]

Let me look.....yep Hydrocodone and Oxycodone both have my name on the bottles. They're left overs from some medical episode. They both expired about 5 years ago. I will take one (or a half) before an important tourney and it's amazing how much better I hit the ball. The wonders of science.

We're going to have to start drug testing at your tournaments...

[baw1]

I am not very good (and not very long), but I'm often the longest in my group.

What it took me to move from low 200s to and average of over 240 is to completely revamp my swing. My stats are found below from 2013 to now:

http://www.ushandicap.com/golf-handicap/reports_v2.asp?userID=1599473 (you can drill down to each round and see each drive- embarrassing for me at times!)

I found that I had peaked with my distance in 2012 using the arm-sy "over the top" swing that I had grown up with. I am still learning to get a more flowing relaxed swing from the "inside," and I'm learning this better swing allows the club to whip through more effortlessly. My swing speed was just measured for a driver fitting at 101+ (up a few MPH from mid-2013). It's not uncommon now for me to hit over 250, but for my average to get up over 250, I need to stop those several crappy drives per round. Throw in a few 200-230 drives in a round with off-center hits or slices, and the average drops pretty fast.

So yes, it's possible. You need a good swing first of all. Look closely at how you are swinging. This site is a great start. You need to achieve the keys (5SK) described here or else it'll be tougher to get distance with consistency.

Thanks for your feedback.I disagree that "you are not very good". You are quite good! Relatively speaking to the majority of golfers, you are certainly in the upper bracket. I will continue to refine and develop my swing. How are you obtaining and recording your drive distances and 1st putt distances during your rounds?

[baw1]

If some of your drives are already 230 pretty regularly and you are new to the game then you have a great shot at learning to consistently hit the ball realistically 245-265 range - and by all means you could exceed that number.  As many have already said, there are a lot of factors that go into hitting the ball far.  Good luck!!

Congrats on winning that long drive competition. Thanks for the advice and words of encouragement. Your estimates seem realistic.

[SidRixon]

My pro once said to me 'Don't hit it FAR, hit it on the FAIRWAY'. I read once somewhere that the average drive for an amateur is reckoned to be 206. Don't ask me where the stat came, i just remember reading it. So if you can do 230, you are doing v well. 245 is an extra 15 yards, measure that 15 on a lawn and see if all that effort to make the extra is really worthwhile. I play with two guys who are huge hitters, but they have no idea where the ball will finish.

[newtogolf]

My pro once said to me 'Don't hit it FAR, hit it on the FAIRWAY'.

I read once somewhere that the average drive for an amateur is reckoned to be 206. Don't ask me where the stat came, i just remember reading it. So if you can do 230, you are doing v well. 245 is an extra 15 yards, measure that 15 on a lawn and see if all that effort to make the extra is really worthwhile. I play with two guys who are huge hitters, but they have no idea where the ball will finish.

The advice your pro gave you might have been specific to you but overall for better golfers it's not the right strategy.  You should pick up a copy of Lowest Score Wins, or read some of the threads on here that discuss the trade offs of distance and accuracy.  Within reason it's better to be long than accurate.

[saevel25]

Depends on the golfer's natural ability, and how much that person wants to put into getting more distance out of the drive. The best drivers of the ball are long distance competitors. Distance is a skill. They put a lot of time into it.

First, the golfer must hit the ball solid. I don't care how hard you swing, if you are hitting it all over the club face you are loosing distance.

Second, a golfer can get stronger and more flexible.

To me long distance comes from the ability to swing at high speed (I know duh!), but also in balance. A lot of people can swing the club hard, not many can do so in a way that allows them to consistently hit the center of the club face.

Also some people might think they are swinging fast, but actually are loosing distance. The reason being that when you flip the club, and get the hands behind the club head at impact you are loosing power. That move is a powerful move. Yet, it is a timing move. So when a golfer flips, it feels fast, usually faster than when they get their hands more inline.

That is why I think a lot of golfers say, "Oh I swung too hard". When they are probably swinging the same every time but the timing being off makes it feel like they are swinging faster. When a golfer gets a good swing, with good sequencing, then the swing feels less powerful in the hands, more powerful in the body. In that regard, I think that type of swing feels not as fast, but it produces a more powerful shot.

In the end, a golfer needs to make good contact. So if a OP, who is a 25+ handicap, wants to get more distance. I would tell him to stop worrying about how far he hits it and get a better swing. He might catch 1 out of 10 solid, but in the end it does him no good overall.

My pro once said to me 'Don't hit it FAR, hit it on the FAIRWAY'.

I read once somewhere that the average drive for an amateur is reckoned to be 206. Don't ask me where the stat came, i just remember reading it. So if you can do 230, you are doing v well. 245 is an extra 15 yards, measure that 15 on a lawn and see if all that effort to make the extra is really worthwhile. I play with two guys who are huge hitters, but they have no idea where the ball will finish.

Distance matters more than accuracy.

[baw1]

In the end, a golfer needs to make good contact. So if a OP, who is a 25+ handicap, wants to get more distance. I would tell him to stop worrying about how far he hits it and get a better swing. He might catch 1 out of 10 solid, but in the end it does him no good overall.

Thanks for your comments. I am certainly focusing on ALL aspects of my game: putting, chipping, irons...Improving my drives and getting additional distance off the tee is only one aspect

[SidRixon]

I must be playing a different game. That's a huge caveat 'within reason'? Don't you mean, 'when not in the woods, lakes, rivers, oob, neighbouring gardens, it's better to be long than accurate'?

[Jeremie Boop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Within reason it's better to be long than accurate.

I must be playing a different game. That's a huge caveat 'within reason'? Don't you mean, 'when not in the woods, lakes, rivers, oob, neighbouring gardens, it's better to be long than accurate'?

Accurate as in fairway compared to rough. A drive that's 20 yards further but in the rough is typically going to give you a better chance at hitting the green.Obviously hitting balls in hazards or oob is not better than one in play.

[RandallT]

Thanks for your feedback.I disagree that "you are not very good". You are quite good! Relatively speaking to the majority of golfers, you are certainly in the upper bracket. I will continue to refine and develop my swing. How are you obtaining and recording your drive distances and 1st putt distances during your rounds?

Ha, thanks! Usually I use GPS on phone golf apps (I have GolfShot and SwingBySwing).  If there's a drive that's rounded to 5 or 10 yards, then it likely means I forgot to record it, so it's a guess based on the tee location and my distance from the green.  Otherwise, I just enter the exact number my app recorded.

For first putts, I just guess at the end of the round, +/- a few feet is all I'm looking for.  Outside 20 feet, I just totally guess within 5 feet.  I have no idea if I'm close, but when I try to remember a round, it's amazing that when I see "25 feet", that I can remember that hole better.

That site is pretty good for recording the info, and the reports are pretty decent. It also gives you an official handicap (not GHIN, so it causes some confusion with some people). But I don't compete yet, so that hasn't been an issue.  You also don't need to enter all that data- you can just enter the data you want to record- few people enter it all and I get lazy sometimes, especially when my round stinks or is somewhat forgettable . I'll just enter a score.

[RandallT]

Thanks for your feedback.I disagree that "you are not very good". You are quite good! Relatively speaking to the majority of golfers, you are certainly in the upper bracket. I will continue to refine and develop my swing. How are you obtaining and recording your drive distances and 1st putt distances during your rounds?

Too late to edit my last response to you, but I also thought I'd include this link to my latest drive analysis at a club fitter using Flight Scope (it was a summary of about 10 clubs I tried, although it does not record which was which club):

http://thesandtrap.com/t/69512/my-swing-randallt#post_1056954

I think at the beginning of last season, I was about where you are now. After two seasons, I am here:

	Carry	Total	Club Speed	Ball Speed	Spin
Average of best 42/52 drives	238.6	248.6	101.6	149.9	2697
Top 5	255.0	267.8	100.9	151.1	2327

Your mileage may vary, but you asked what is reasonable to achieve, and thought I'd give you specifics about what I did. I'm fairly athletic but not necessarily a natural-born kind of golfer. What I find interesting is that my best 5 drives had a lower swing speed than the average... but better ball speed and 15 yards further carry, almost 20 yards further total.  Those swings hold the key, and I remember how good those felt. They just came off the face purely, and I remember looking forward to see what the readout would show. Proof that it's more in the solid contact with the ball than with how hard you swing.

[mvmac]

In the end, a golfer needs to make good contact. So if a OP, who is a 25+ handicap, wants to get more distance. I would tell him to stop worrying about how far he hits it and get a better swing. He might catch 1 out of 10 solid, but in the end it does him no good overall.

Yes @baw1 , work on your priority piece, get the mechanics better to achieve more distance through better contact.

[vangator]

To play your best golf, you need to hit as far as you can and keep it in play. Work on you mechanics and hopefully your length will grow. You will score better with a wedge in your hands than a 7 iron (or longer). I think some people just don't have the twitch muscles to generate that extra speed needed. My muscles are always twitching.

[baw1]

Ha, thanks! Usually I use GPS on phone golf apps (I have GolfShot and SwingBySwing).  If there's a drive that's rounded to 5 or 10 yards, then it likely means I forgot to record it, so it's a guess based on the tee location and my distance from the green.  Otherwise, I just enter the exact number my app recorded.

For first putts, I just guess at the end of the round, +/- a few feet is all I'm looking for.  Outside 20 feet, I just totally guess within 5 feet.  I have no idea if I'm close, but when I try to remember a round, it's amazing that when I see "25 feet", that I can remember that hole better.

That site is pretty good for recording the info, and the reports are pretty decent. It also gives you an official handicap (not GHIN, so it causes some confusion with some people). But I don't compete yet, so that hasn't been an issue.  You also don't need to enter all that data- you can just enter the data you want to record- few people enter it all and I get lazy sometimes, especially when my round stinks or is somewhat forgettable . I'll just enter a score.

Interesting. I am not familiar with those apps, but perhaps will acquaint myself soon. I am not quite ready to record all that data though. I use a site called oobgolf to put in my scores. I track penalties, sand shots, putts, and fairway hits. That's it though. For now  :)