Is being long off the tee a pipe dream?

[baw1]

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

Very interesting stuff. I have thought about getting fitted as well, but want to wait a little longer. This is my 1st real season and I have only been playing really for 5 1/2 months.

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.

Great stuff. The journey shall continue.

[baw1]

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

Absolutely @mvmac. Thanks fo r your feedback.

[baw1]

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).

This is basically where I am coming from. I do not desire to hit the ball longer for the sake of hitting it longer. I want to use a PW or 9i instead of a 6i (on my approach shot)...

[David in FL]

FWIW, if you can hit it with some consistency 220 off the tee, you're already long enough to get down into single-digit hcp range, assuming you're playing a reasonable set of tees..... :-)

[Lihu]

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.

I think those don't expire as quickly as some medicines, but, even so, shouldn't they be taken under doctors orders at the time of need? Your system might have changed since the original prescription date.

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

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.

I just played with 2 long hitters, and they found their balls only because they know their ball flights. One of them almost drove a downhill/downwind 408 yard green (30 yards shy), and on level ground drives about 310 on a good day 295 on a so so day. Then he admits to being a D1 full golf scholarship graduate at USC. The other guy only drives 290 on average, he was about 70 yards from the same hole.

Both of them could find their balls because they are used to the distances they hit. @saevel25 is like that as well.

I think they are more consistent in their distance so given the feel off the face, they kind of know how far and where to look. Driving a golf cart helps too.

An aside is that this 310 yard hitter is the first person whom I have been partnered who almost carried the entire lake/pond on hole 6 which if he had made it would have left him with a 180 yard eagle opportunity with his 7i (most people's 8i).

This is basically where I am coming from. I do not desire to hit the ball longer for the sake of hitting it longer. I want to use a PW or 9i instead of a 6i (on my approach shot)...

220 yards is enough to hit a PW or 9i into 360 yard par 4s. If you carry 220 you probably carry your 9i 130. Most of the par 4s for a 27 handicap are in the low 300 yard ranges. This way you don't have to scramble for everything.

FWIW, if you can hit it with some consistency 220 off the tee, you're already long enough to get down into single-digit hcp range, assuming you're playing a reasonable set of tees.....

Agreed. Especially if you can carry 220 in FL.

[baw1]

220 yards is enough to hit a PW or 9i into 360 yard par 4s. If you carry 220 you probably carry your 9i 130. Most of the par 4s for a 27 handicap are in the low 300 yard ranges. This way you don't have to scramble for everything.

Understood. 220 is not bad but I would probably be looking at a 7i or 8i in your example. My current range is usually 200-230 though so on a 200 yard drive I am probably looking at a 6i.

[Lihu]

Understood. 220 is not bad but I would probably be looking at a 7i or 8i in your example. My current range is usually 200-230 though so on a 200 yard drive I am probably looking at a 6i.

This guide will tell you what length course to play for your drive distance.

http://www.pga.com/pga-and-usga-step-new-sets-tees-in-nationwide-tee-it-forward-initiative

I presume this is to prevent the need for scrambling every hole.

[Jakester23]

This guide will tell you what length course to play for your drive distance.

http://www.pga.com/pga-and-usga-step-new-sets-tees-in-nationwide-tee-it-forward-initiative

I presume this is to prevent the need for scrambling every hole.

I think thats a good guide. I like playing 6500-6800. I hit it on average probably 245-260 I can get a 280 every once and a while but I don't count on that.  I usually go by the length of the par 4's I don't feel comfortable with a bunch of 450 par 4's.  If the 4's are all between 350-430 I can play those tee.

[JonMA1]

FWIW, if you can hit it with some consistency 220 off the tee, you're already long enough to get down into single-digit hcp range, assuming you're playing a reasonable set of tees.....

This is good to know.

I think thats a good guide. I like playing 6500-6800. I hit it on average probably 245-260 I can get a 280 every once and a while but I don't count on that.  I usually go by the length of the par 4's I don't feel comfortable with a bunch of 450 par 4's.  If the 4's are all between 350-430 I can play those tee.

While I don't have single-digit expectations by any stretch, I believe that if I play from the set of tees that make GIR not too hard and not too easy, the strategy of the game might still be similar to that of better players.

If a clean driver swing gets me 220, and my 3w 200, etc, I really shouldn't play from tees where all the par 4's are over 400. I'd be trying to hit every green with a fairway club instead of an iron.

I'd much rather play par 4's that are 325 - 380.

At the same time, I don't want to play par 4's that are all less than 300 yards unless there's a dogleg or a particular hazard that makes the tee shot difficult. Even more so than hitting a freakishly long drive, hitting a green from outside of 150 yards is a very gratifying shot.

I might be talking out of my #@@, but If by some miracle I started hitting my driver 250+ yards with regularity and getting on the green in 2 strokes (on par 5's), I'd probably start thinking about moving back. I agree that the Tee It Forward chart seems very reasonable.

[Lihu]

While I don't have single-digit expectations by any stretch, I believe that if I play from the set of tees that make GIR not too hard and not too easy, the strategy of the game might still be similar to that of better players.

If a clean driver swing gets me 220, and my 3w 200, etc, I really shouldn't play from tees where all the par 4's are over 400. I'd be trying to hit every green with a fairway club instead of an iron.

I'd much rather play par 4's that are 325 - 380.

I believe this is the point of tee it forward.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with moving back a set of tees on a familiar course for learning purposes, and I encourage you to do so on occasion. It gives you a different perspective of things. Makes you use different clubs and get used to using them on a real course under reasonably familiar conditions. Just do it when pace of play is not an issue.

My plan is to play all tees (Gold/black (championship), Blue (back), White (standard), Red (ladies), Orange (beginners/kids)). This gives all the clubs in my bag a workout on the course.

[joekelly]

My humble belief that if not driving ball 265 and  shooting par once in a while by age 18, then those two options are closed to you for life.  And as an aside, the term 'pipe dream' comes from the use of opium smoking and the wild, imaginative dreams that result.

No doubt, sometimes i wish for a pipe full when standing on the tee faced  with 240 over the pond.

[David in FL]

My humble belief that if not driving ball 265 and  shooting par once in a while by age 18, then those two options are closed to you for life.

I'm 56 and shot my first even par round last year. 6,600 yard, par 72 course. I was probably close to 30 before I broke 80 and got consistently into single digits. Just sayin'........

[Lihu]

My humble belief that if not driving ball 265 and  shooting par once in a while by age 18, then those two options are closed to you for life.  And as an aside, the term 'pipe dream' comes from the use of opium smoking and the wild, imaginative dreams that result.

No doubt, sometimes i wish for a pipe full when standing on the tee faced  with 240 over the pond.

Lucky for us that's extremely rare.

EDIT: Yeah the gold tees on my course number 6 is about that. I pulled it right for a 210-ish forced carry last week (just verified my approximate carry with google earth).

[vangator]

Playing the tees where you are having the most fun is great but if you were a skier, wouldn't you eventually want to graduate from the bunny slope?

[Jakester23]

Playing the tees where you are having the most fun is great but if you were a skier, wouldn't you eventually want to graduate from the bunny slope?

I agree. What's nice about playing back further is you get to hit clubs you normally wouldn't be hitting.

[David in FL]

I agree. What's nice about playing back further is you get to hit clubs you normally wouldn't be hitting.

Plus it allows you to work on your short game, since you'll hardly ever actually hit any greens! ;-)

[Jakester23]

Plus it allows you to work on your short game, since you'll hardly ever actually hit any greens! ;-)

Speak for yourself. I can hardly hit greens from any tees. I don't go to the course looking for a certain score. If I did I would play the reds. I usually play the Tips (most of the courses I play aren't all that long) unless they are real long (over 6700) then I'll play the blues. I've played 7000 but then yeah your hitting a lot of chips. Sometimes it's fun to see how hard it is from way back there though. :)

[JonMA1]

Playing the tees where you are having the most fun is great but if you were a skier, wouldn't you eventually want to graduate from the bunny slope?

Would you really want to see a novice skier on a crowded black diamond hill?

It's not so much playing from the tees that are easiest, more about playing from tees that fit my game. Personally, I'll mix it up between the different middle tees (blues and whites) sometimes in the same round because it can drastically change the way you play a course. But why in the world would anyone play from the tips if they were unable to carry a water hazard for example? What would you have them do, layup so that their second shot is from the women's tees?

I think I get your point. As is the case in most sports, you want the tough competition. I'd rather get my butt kicked going up against a pro tennis player than roll over someone who just started playing the game.

If I got to the point where a set of tees is no longer challenging, I'd probably move back. Sadly, that hasn't happened from the forward/middle tees.