Is Distance Really That Important for Amateurs?

[iacas]

Wow,if that guy is a shorter hitter with 250-270 yard drives then I must be either a lil girl or old man since mine only go 220.This is what I said about distance really being important on the longer courses but anything under 6600 yards or so should be fairly playable for anyone who can drive the ball 200 yards.

Those shorter courses are also likely to have a rating of 68.3 or something, too, instead of 73.4 or whatever…

As you know, this thread isn't about enjoying golf or playing it "well enough to get around" or whatever.

[Valleygolfer]

I have noticed that the people playing forward tees often are not as long or maybe just short of where my ball is on tee shots. Let's say that I am at 150 out and they are 165. They have to hit 2-3 clubs stronger regardless of location on the hole. It is wildly accepted that most players are much more accurate with a short iron vs mid to long irons. Besides a very convincing scientific argument, common sense should also prevail here. The shorter club you have in your hands on the next shot, the better chance you have to score.

[RFKFREAK]

Wow,if that guy is a shorter hitter with 250-270 yard drives then I must be either a lil girl or old man since mine only go 220.This is what I said about distance really being important on the longer courses but anything under 6600 yards or so should be fairly playable for anyone who can drive the ball 200 yards.

Seriously.

I hit between 250-280 and whereas I wouldn't call myself a long hitter, I wouldn't call myself a short hitter, either.

[Pretzel]

Seriously. I hit between 250-280 and whereas I wouldn't call myself a long hitter, I wouldn't call myself a short hitter, either.

I was referring to him as a sitter hitter compared to the competition at the state tournament and the upper levels of high school play. Compared to a median of all golfers he would be above average, but he is below average at that level of competition.

[mvmac]

Besides a very convincing scientific argument, common sense should also prevail here. The shorter club you have in your hands on the next shot, the better chance you have to score.

Unfortunately common sense isn't so common

[RFKFREAK]

I was referring to him as a sitter hitter compared to the competition at the state tournament and the upper levels of high school play. Compared to a median of all golfers he would be above average, but he is below average at that level of competition.

Ahhh, so you meant relative to the field in the competition rather than relative to the average golfer. Makes more sense now.

[Aflighter]

Those shorter courses are also likely to have a rating of 68.3 or something, too, instead of 73.4 or whatever…

As you know, this thread isn't about enjoying golf or playing it "well enough to get around" or whatever.

Im afraid I haven't seen a course with a rating of 68 or so around here unless its under 6000 yards.The ones we play that are anywhere from 6300-6700 are atleast a 70-72 rating if not more and also 130-140 slope rating.

[Pretzel]

Im afraid I haven't seen a course with a rating of 68 or so around here unless its under 6000 yards.The ones we play that are anywhere from 6300-6700 are atleast a 70-72 rating if not more and also 130-140 slope rating.

I'm pretty certain their slopes are not that high from that short a distance, unless they have some pretty crazy other features or are misrated.

[Lihu]

[QUOTE name="iacas" url="/t/78188/is-distance-really-that-important-for-amateurs/522#post_1082656"]   Those shorter courses are also likely to have a rating of 68.3 or something, too, instead of 73.4 or whatever… As you know, this thread isn't about enjoying golf or playing it "well enough to get around" or whatever. [/QUOTE] Im afraid I haven't seen a course with a rating of 68 or so around here unless its under 6000 yards.The ones we play that are anywhere from 6300-6700 are atleast a 70-72 rating if not more and also 130-140 slope rating.

Where are you located? 6600 yards seems a little long for someone hitting 200-220 yards at sea level.

[iacas]

Im afraid I haven't seen a course with a rating of 68 or so around here unless its under 6000 yards.The ones we play that are anywhere from 6300-6700 are atleast a 70-72 rating if not more and also 130-140 slope rating.

The fact remains: you (general) can play shorter tees to "deal with" 220-yard drives, but the course rating drops as well so even if you shoot lower scores, you might not be "shooting lower scores" if you know what I mean.

[Aflighter]

Where are you located? 6600 yards seems a little long for someone hitting 200-220 yards at sea level.

Charlotte NC area.Heres some of the courses yardages,ratings,slopes and yes 6600 can be tough on my short hitting but my advantage I do have is my drive is 80% of the time in the fairway and not in the thick rough or woods.This year especially the rough was very penal on our courses.

6571-71.4-135

6522-71.6-131

6558-71.6-129  par 71

6484-71.7-136

6431-70.2-126

6706-71.7-123

6406-71.8-141

6489-71.3-130 par 71

6589-71.6-138

6445-71.8-139

6546-72.7-136

6609-72.1-134 par 71

6622-72.2-136

That's not easy golf there.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

Where are you located? 6600 yards seems a little long for someone hitting 200-220 yards at sea level.

Charlotte NC area.Heres some of the courses yardages,ratings,slopes and yes 6600 can be tough on my short hitting but my advantage I do have is my drive is 80% of the time in the fairway and not in the thick rough or woods.This year especially the rough was very penal on our courses.

6571-71.4-135

6522-71.6-131

6558-71.6-129  par 71

6484-71.7-136

6431-70.2-126

6706-71.7-123

6406-71.8-141

6489-71.3-130 par 71

6589-71.6-138

6445-71.8-139

6546-72.7-136

6609-72.1-134 par 71

6622-72.2-136

That's not easy golf there.

The par 71 at 6500 yards are going to be really hard.

I think they are adding longer tee boxes to our par 70 course to take it back to 6300-6400 or so. Currently, it is roughly 6050 yards from the far tees.

EDIT: Odd that the CR 72.1 is a par 71 as well since most scratch golfers would shoot 72 anyway?

[Aflighter]

The par 71 at 6500 yards are going to be really hard.

I think they are adding longer tee boxes to our par 70 course to take it back to 6300-6400 or so. Currently, it is roughly 6050 yards from the far tees.

EDIT: Odd that the CR 72.1 is a par 71 as well since most scratch golfers would shoot 72 anyway?

Sorry,the course website didn't have the rating and slope on it so I typed in the courses name scorecard and must have gave me wrong info.I looked another place and its 71.5 127slope.I should have known because I don't find it that hard even though its 6600 par 71.It does have a couple 230 yard par 3s.Name of course is Warrior golf club.Ive played it a lot so im familiar with it and usually score pretty good on it.I have shot 78 from those tees before and ive also shot even par twice on the 6100 tees.

The other 2 par 71s are completely different.One has a relatively easy front side with a long difficult back 9 but usually I can shoot 78-83 but the other one is a Donald Ross design that is very hilly and my drives cant go far enough to get over the inclines and get roll out leaving me long approaches plus the greens run around 12-13 on stimp and are smallish bowl types that Ross loved.

[iacas]

Yardages and course ratings aren't really the topic here guys.

Thank you.

[Parker0065]

I read Moneygolf and other "golfmetrics" type stuff that seems to be pushing distance over accuracy but when I played golf last time, my playing partners had good distance, seemed to have a decent swing but kept hitting out into the woods.  And the Japanese businessmen behind us did the same thing.   I didn't drive the ball very far at all, taking 3-4 shots to get to an approach to the green but I only lost two balls during 9 holes.   If the scoring were "for real", all the lost balls would be serious penalties and my score might have been a lot better in comparison.

I took my driver out for most of the tee shots but some of my worst shots were with my driver (and the only shots where I lost the ball) - now I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't just be using a 5 wood or even my 3 or 4 hybrid off the tee, leave the driver at home, and work on my short game and putting.   It just seems to me the short game is the area I could make big improvements to my score with a lot less effort, despite all I have read about the importance of distance.

Is distance really important to amateurs?

If you ever want to play in tournaments or win anything outside of just beating your buddies, it sure is.

I'll use my home course membership as a simple example. There is a group of us that I will call group "A" with handicaps ranging from 4 to 0, where everyone in that group drives the ball at a minimum of 275 yards,,,,minimum!  The next group I will call group "B" with handicaps ranging from 5 to 8, where a really good drive for them maxes out at 250, and that's a best of the day, can't hit it any better, down wind, down hill 250! (Disclaimer - There are a couple younger 8-10 handicappers that do drive the ball +300 but are wild as blue blazes hitting 2-3 balls O.B. and relatively poor short games. They are the "outliers" in Group B)

The Club Championship is a great test bed since everyone is playing straight up with no handicaps(they don't flight it for whatever reason). On an average par4 I'm hitting a 3/4 Gap Wedge into the hole where the Group B guys are hitting 7 or 8 irons. Over the course of 18 holes with the group B players hitting 3 to 4 more clubs into the greens adds up and some of them have great short games but just can't compete with the Group A players. A poorly hit 3/4 Gap Wedge usually means having to 2 putt from 30 feet, a poorly hit 7-iron usually results in bunker, hazard, or some other difficult up and down. Over the course of the two day tournament the B players begin to fall back and without the power to cut a dogleg or reach a par5 in two to set up an easy birdie they become cannon fodder for Group A.

YES, distance matters at every level, and in the case of the "outliers" relatively accurate distance is even more important(ie...hit it far and keep it in play)!!!!

[DrvFrShow]

Well said. Parker0065.

I was an outlier last year because of control and contact issues. Working on those now. Once those issues are past, shore up the chipping game a bit and that handicap is coming down.

[inthehole]

^^  interesting @Parker0065 e thinking ... the need for maximized distance may boil down to if a person is ultimately a competitive golfer or recreational golfer.   I think everyone would agree that if a person was on a high school golf team or plays in club tournaments, sure distance is a huge factor and an advantage.     If a person plays for their own enjoyment, keeping it in play and playing a bit more conservatively might well be the better option.     Depends what you want to get out of the game ...

[Lihu]

^^  interesting @Parker0065 post above got me thinking ... the need for maximized distance may boil down to if a person is ultimately a competitive golfer or recreational golfer.   I think everyone would agree that if a person was on a high school golf team or plays in club tournaments, sure distance is a huge factor and an advantage.     If a person plays for their own enjoyment, keeping it in play and playing a bit more conservatively might well be the better option.     Depends what you want to get out of the game ...

It's a body motion thing to me. It feels good to make a good swing with the driver. When I am swinging well I feel like everything is aligned nicely and my timing is just right with a smooth feeling as the club face makes contact with the ball. So, length and accuracy for me are the side effect and not the reason. I've still got a long way to go, but my swing feels better as I gain more keys leading to more distance naturally. There's no question as to whether I want to maximize my distance or enjoy the game more. I get both at the same time because it feels good to swing more efficiently.