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daa1969
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Im really confused how some find it hard to believe someone can drive it 300 yds, there are literally 100s of thousands of people that can do that, unfortunately, most of us dont have the rest of the game to get paid. Dont forget many pga players have been bred into it from a young age, theyve had the luxury of money in the family to back them, scholorships, etc. not all, but a great number. It requires a lot of traveling expenses, entrance fees, etc. when your quit school after 8th grade you kind of shut any helping door that may have opened up for you, now your working to live and golf takes a back seat. Have you ever watched street basketball? Theres guys out there that can run circles around an nba player, but like most of us, bad choices were made or things beyond our control took precedence. We need to stop judging ourselves by pga standards. Do u doubt the guys at long drive competitions?

I don't have trouble believing your claim, I have trouble understanding why you think anyone who drives less shouldn't play the tips. BTW, PGA pros can drive farther than you, much farther. After reading many books written on the average tour player, I've concluded that they can hit a lot farther than they do in competition. One book written about Esteban Toledo wrote of his 265 yard drives during competition, but horsing around with his family was driving 300 yards into an open window. Other books describe similar feats from obscure players. Watching many of them them up close has let me to conclude that they posess way more than they let on, and that's why their pros. Not just because they're more accurate.

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Ok, just found out, pga only measures on 2 holes per round, trying to get one against wind and one with wind, the overall average has decreased in recent years and most speculation is pros generally play the hole backwards nowadays meaning they often use less than driver to put themselves in the best place to hit aproach from.

They hit drivers primarily on those holes. They specifically choose holes on which they're likely to hit drivers.

You don't have to hit the ball 300 yards to play the back tees. If you're saying that, you're crazy.

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Ok, just found out, pga only measures on 2 holes per round, trying to get one against wind and one with wind, the overall average has decreased in recent years and most speculation is pros generally play the hole backwards nowadays meaning they often use less than driver to put themselves in the best place to hit aproach from. And im sorry for any confusion but i just stated my average drive, never said it was in fairway, thats just my measurement, according to most yardage markers or gps, i rarely hit a drive less than 265, again, not saying thier straight, and i have hit up to 335, i have been putting for eagle on several 300-315 yarders, i wont even use driver on less than 275, my 3 wood will generally get out to the 265 area from the tee, again, no im not always straight, these numbers are not a reflection of fairways hit, and lets not forget elevation changes and altitude, i have a lot of that here

Using the holes yardage markers along with the hole distance from the scorecard is the absolute WORST way to measure drives. I have no doubt in my mind that your driving average is MUCH less than 305, no matter how many times you claim it.

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I found this topic interesting in the beginning discussing how to choice the right tee box and others take on how it affects others. It seems to deteriorating fast. When they ask pros at pro-ams what is some advice you could give your amateur partners...most of the time they say take more club. Golfers just don't hit the ball as far as they think in general. It must be human nature to say you hit a certain club a certain distance based on a perfect hit in the dead center of the clubface and "call that your distance for that club." Even though I am skeptical he averages 300+ yards with the driver, I find it pointless to disparage him or give him a hard time. If his golf shots coming up short on his approach shots to the green he will learn he doesn't hit as far as he thinks he does. If he is truly hitting it that far the a little short game practice should get that handicap down fast. :)
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Heres some fun facts for you, average driving accuracy on pga tour is like 61% i recall someone posting he only averaged 71% thats right there with the best. average gir is 64% average proximity to hole is 35' at 200+ yards its 50' and inside 125 its 18' the average greens on tour are 6000-6500 sq ft. The greens i play regularly are quite smaller than that, makes one wonder, are we really that different than them? Well, ya we are, but its not in every aspect, theyve just got the scoring thing down, theyve got the short game, the putting, and overall better course management.

... and they hit it as far as they "think" they do.... :-D a tour pro is SO much better at every aspect of the game than a 10 hc... you are deluding yourself if you even think you are playing the same game they are...

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Look, im about done with this too! I never said if u cant drive 300 u should b up. Ive gone over that several times now. I was merely using it as a reference that if someone like me who can drive long can still see the point of playing it forward, than why cant some others. Ive stated theres nothing wrong with driving 200 and playing back, as long as your game is on point, Ive also stated that pros almost never let it rip, as i do, ive stated that i too used to come up short on aproach shots because i was using my range average, i stopped doing that a year ago, ive stated that i use yardage markers and gps tracking, if u try sometime, check your gps on cart, some courses i play if you hit enter at tee box it will measure to your ball. Im sure youve seen the commercials play it forward, for 2 weeks in july the pga and usga got together with many courses who closed their back tees, it was a great success, people had more fun and the average time for round went down, dont be too surprised to start seeing some courses adopt some kinda program.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by daa1969

People, unless your close to a scratch golfer, why do you insist on playing from the back tees? If you wanna improve your score and have more fun, just move up! My average bad drive still goes like 275 and i play forward, i see it all the time, most of the time if your even lucky enough to reach the fairway, its pretty crooked anyway, would you rather hit driver, 3wood, than 40 yard pitch, or driver, 6 iron, at worse little chip? Maybe its just me but it seems really stupid to set yourself up for failure right from the start!

Originally Posted by rob0225

That's a lot of testosterone.

I would suggest it is a lot of BS.

Bill M

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And to ccotonj, i clearly stated that they are very different from us! And to think that thier some kind of monsters that no other mere mortal man can do anything like is delusional!
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It's not impossible. I looked at the Game Golf profile just today of a bogey golfer that was averaging 275 with driver.


You didn't need to do that, @Jeremie Boop and @billchao are perfect examples of bogey golfers who drive that distance or more. :beer:

Sorry for the plug again, and I'm hoping that we can't use you guys as examples of long driving bogeys in the near future any more. :whistle:

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You didn't need to do that, @Jeremie Boop and @billchao are perfect examples of bogey golfers who drive that distance or more.

Sorry for the plug again, and I'm hoping that we can't use you guys as examples of long driving bogeys in the near future any more.

Nah, I don't average that. I didn't even hit one that far all day Saturday.

Bill

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People, unless your close to a scratch golfer, why do you insist on playing from the back tees? * Implies only scratch golfers can play back. If you wanna improve your score and have more fun, just move up! * Self explanatory. My average bad drive still goes like 275 and i play forward. * Better than like 95% percentile. i see it all the time, most of the time if your even lucky enough to reach the fairway, its pretty crooked anyway, would you rather hit driver, 3wood, than 40 yard pitch, or driver, 6 iron, at worse little chip? * Derodatory towards those who do not reach fairway seen by you all the time, crooked, then suggestion a little confusing on what to hit however as driving expert. Maybe its just me but it seems really stupid to set yourself up for failure right from the start!

* Do I even need to comment on this last sentence? I think your intentions are good. However, your message was not well crafted although some of your replies have been solid I think. Words like you, my, lucky, stupid, failure used in your original post are nothing more than triggers and should be avoided in lectures on driving or rational on tee box selection to improve scores. The first thing reader might do is look at the posters credentials...HC, for example. Ok, enough of my poppy cock.

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You didn't need to do that, @Jeremie Boop and @billchao are perfect examples of bogey golfers who drive that distance or more.

Sorry for the plug again, and I'm hoping that we can't use you guys as examples of long driving bogeys in the near future any more.

It doesn't bother me, I'm just happy to be considered a bogey golfer now.

On a side note, it has been pretty common for people to come here and claim serious distance off the tee. I caught heat a lot when I first came here too, and I found that I was wrong about how far I actually hit the ball because I was using the course markers and gps distances to the hole for my second shot as a measure of how far my drives were. These days an average of all drives = 260ish, typical drive is 270ish, and best drives at or just over 300. Knowing these has helped me significantly when I am deciding if I should be playing tees that are further back. Based on these numbers I could, without a doubt, handle most of the courses here from the back tees. However, it really isn't any more fun playing from back there and other than having a higher course rating that may help lower my HI a bit there's no real benefit either.

KICK THE FLIP!!

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It doesn't bother me, I'm just happy to be considered a bogey golfer now.

On a side note, it has been pretty common for people to come here and claim serious distance off the tee. I caught heat a lot when I first came here too, and I found that I was wrong about how far I actually hit the ball because I was using the course markers and gps distances to the hole for my second shot as a measure of how far my drives were. These days an average of all drives = 260ish, typical drive is 270ish, and best drives at or just over 300. Knowing these has helped me significantly when I am deciding if I should be playing tees that are further back. Based on these numbers I could, without a doubt, handle most of the courses here from the back tees. However, it really isn't any more fun playing from back there and other than having a higher course rating that may help lower my HI a bit there's no real benefit either.

No disrespect but, if you can hit it that far off the tee, why are you an 18? If I could hit it anywhere near that distance I would be no more than a 4 or 5.

Bill M

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No disrespect but, if you can hit it that far off the tee, why are you an 18? If I could hit it anywhere near that distance I would be no more than a 4 or 5.

Because the rest of your game is better than mine.

KICK THE FLIP!!

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Quote:

Originally Posted by phan52

No disrespect but, if you can hit it that far off the tee, why are you an 18? If I could hit it anywhere near that distance I would be no more than a 4 or 5.

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

Because the rest of your game is better than mine.

I play a lot of golf with a lot of diverse people and everybody I know whose "typical" drive is 270 is a single digit handicap, most of them mid to lower single digits.

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Bill M

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Quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by phan52

No disrespect but, if you can hit it that far off the tee, why are you an 18? If I could hit it anywhere near that distance I would be no more than a 4 or 5.

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

Because the rest of your game is better than mine.

I play a lot of golf with a lot of diverse people and everybody I know whose "typical" drive is 270 is a single digit handicap, most of them mid to lower single digits.


He really hits that far, really. :-)

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