Can Driving Distance be Bought (for Better Players)?

[Mike Boatright]

Somewhere in the back of my mind the dream of being a pga tour pro is still alive maybe it's for the millions of dollars or the fact I'm decent at golf and wish I were doing it for a living. I feel like the only thing holding me back is distance. I can hit it 285 yards i'm ok, but I see guys on tv smoothing it 325 yards and I think ouch i'm no good. Can distance be bought with hyper light shafts and uber performance heads like this I mean long drive guys consider 330 a terrible pop up.

[boogielicious]

Somewhere in the back of my mind the dream of being a pga tour pro is still alive maybe it's for the millions of dollars or the fact I'm decent at golf and wish I were doing it for a living. I feel like the only thing holding me back is distance. I can hit it 285 yards i'm ok, but I see guys on tv smoothing it 325 yards and I think ouch i'm no good. Can distance be bought with hyper light shafts and uber performance heads like this I mean long drive guys consider 330 a terrible pop up.

The only thing holding you back is talent. These guys are scary good. The difference between a 4 and a PGA pro is the same as the a high school QB to Aaron Rogers. There is no comparison no matter what their body shape or pedigree. They are orders of magnitude more skillful than a single digit. If you're not a +3 by now, you will never be a pro regardless of distance bought.

[billchao]

Somewhere in the back of my mind the dream of being a pga tour pro is still alive maybe it's for the millions of dollars or the fact I'm decent at golf and wish I were doing it for a living. I feel like the only thing holding me back is distance. I can hit it 285 yards i'm ok, but I see guys on tv smoothing it 325 yards and I think ouch i'm no good. Can distance be bought with hyper light shafts and uber performance heads like this I mean long drive guys consider 330 a terrible pop up.

No, that's not how long drive drivers work. They're designed to accommodate ridiculously high swing speeds; they don't create long distance and high ball speeds by themselves. They are still conforming clubs, meaning they are still within the length and CoR limits set by the USGA.

Standard drivers are designed with thinner faces to be more flexible at impact, transferring more energy to the ball. LD drivers have thicker faces because LD competitors can destroy the thinner faces of standard drivers, so I'd be willing to bet that they probably don't reach the 0.83 CoR limit at all. They also have to be lower spinning than standard drivers because swinging in excess of 130mph can generate a lot of spin.

Basically they're harder to launch and less forgiving than standard drivers. You're not going to get anything out of them unless you swing really, really fast and hit the center of the clubface. If you can do that you're already hitting the ball far.

[Mr. Desmond]

No.

But you can get fitted for launch and spin with adjustable drivers with interchangeable shafts, and you can add yards.

[Patch]

I don't think you can buy extra distance to add to what you already have, unless you are you using the wrong fitted equipment to begin with. What a golfer can do is get into optimum swing, physical shape to generate more clubhead speed, working on those core muscles everyone talks about. (legs, hips, torso, and shoulders) That, or just naturally already have the physical strength to generate 300 yard swing speed. I have a grandson who is 6'4", and weighs 295. He can easily hit balls 300 plus yards.  Problem is they don't go anywhere near where he wants them to go, and his short game is pre-neanderthal.

Another area for those willing to study, and apply,  would be understanding the latent power of centrifugal force, and it's buddy, centripetal force. I don't know much about them, or  how they work, but I am pretty sure they have something to do (in conjunction with those core muscles) with the force of impact on the ball.

[jcjim]

Nope you need to get your core stronger so you can torque yourself up.

[Hardspoon]

and his short game is pre-neanderthal.

This cracked me up.  "I'm working on my short game - trying to get it to at least neanderthal level."

I'll echo what others have said above - you can only really "buy" distance if you're currently playing with really old or ill-fit equipment.

[Mike Boatright]

I have the talent I have no doubt about that people on here with their plus this and that cracks me up.. Look at lpga tour players they shoot 65-65-70-68 because of consistency and their not exactly pro athletes. To be pro distance is all I need because i'm working on consistency all the time. I succeed at everything I do I hit up the gym and have swung about 115 mph just not consistently. Maybe you guys are right it' cant be bought it's just I have never tried a 45 gram tour ad 300 dollar shaft with a 120 gram head yet.. Theoretically If I can swing something 124 mph  then i'm good right now i'm at 107 it's not to far away. From what I can tell speed is a length and club head weight factor the heavier the head the slower I swing, I did try another experiment with a super light head maybe 80 grams with a 40 gram shaft and swung 129 mph. Thanks for all the feed back I still think tech can get it done because I can hit this club here 250 after roll vs 300 modern .

[EverythingGolf]

I have the talent I have no doubt about that people on here with their plus this and that cracks me up.. Look at lpga tour players they shoot 65-65-70-68 because of consistency and their not exactly pro athletes. To be pro distance is all I need because i'm working on consistency all the time. I succeed at everything I do I hit up the gym and have swung about 115 mph just not consistently. Maybe you guys are right it' cant be bought it's just I have never tried a 45 gram tour ad 300 dollar shaft with a 120 gram head yet.. Theoretically If I can swing something 124 mph  then i'm good right now i'm at 107 it's not to far away. From what I can tell speed is a length and club head weight factor the heavier the head the slower I swing, I did try another experiment with a super light head maybe 80 grams with a 40 gram shaft and swung 129 mph. Thanks for all the feed back I still think tech can get it done because I can hit this club here 250 after roll vs 300 modern .

Mike, LPGA players on average are like +3 give or take, and yes they are pro athletes. Your not even close at 4. I play with guys that are scratch and better and hit the ball a mile that have tried to qualify for tournaments that miss by big margins. I don't doubt you are talented but its going to take a lot more than distance and practice.

[Kenny Lee]

The only thing holding you back is talent. These guys are scary good. The difference between a 4 and a PGA pro is the same as the a high school QB to Aaron Rogers. There is no comparison no matter what their body shape or pedigree. They are orders of magnitude more skillful than a single digit. If you're not a +3 by now, you will never be a pro regardless of distance bought.

I'm a 4 handicap too, and I agree completely.

[iacas]

I have the talent I have no doubt about that people on here with their plus this and that cracks me up.. Look at lpga tour players they shoot 65-65-70-68 because of consistency and their not exactly pro athletes. To be pro distance is all I need because i'm working on consistency all the time. I succeed at everything I do I hit up the gym and have swung about 115 mph just not consistently. Maybe you guys are right it' cant be bought it's just I have never tried a 45 gram tour ad 300 dollar shaft with a 120 gram head yet.. Theoretically If I can swing something 124 mph  then i'm good right now i'm at 107 it's not to far away. From what I can tell speed is a length and club head weight factor the heavier the head the slower I swing, I did try another experiment with a super light head maybe 80 grams with a 40 gram shaft and swung 129 mph.

That's an embarrassing post. You're delusional. Wow. A few days ago your index said "6." Now it's 4. You probably wouldn't pass a PAT on five tries but gig have the talent? I'll take that bet Mike. Name the stakes. You'll never have even Web.com tour status if you're a 4 right now. Or even if you're a 1.

[Mike Boatright]

That's an embarrassing post. You're delusional. Wow.

A few days ago your index said "6." Now it's 4. You probably wouldn't pass a PAT on five tries but gig have the talent? I'll take that bet Mike. Name the stakes. You'll never have even Web.com tour status if you're a 4 right now. Or even if you're a 1.

Ok whatever iacas I don't make crazy birdies and I'm inconsistent so.. I shoot in the high 70's but it equates to a 6 or 4 give or take on my home track from the tips. I rate my game by my best shots not my score. If I could hit a 330 yard drive just once with a certain driver on flat ground then I would know I could do it again, and again.. That's 75% of the game guys it sets you up for easy approaches. The best players in the world is by no coincidence the longest it's a pre requisite to play in tournaments. You could hit it 240 yards of the tee from the men's tee on most courses and be a +5 that's a different story with a good short game and such it's doable. I obviously think differently than most people because you can move the ball around the course just fine with hybrids making the game easier but if you can't hit hit 315 at a 65% fairway rate then your just an amateur. Look at long drivers they are by default around scratch just from being long of the tee.

[iacas]

Ok whatever iacas I don't make crazy birdies and I'm inconsistent so.. I shoot in the high 70's but it equates to a 6 or 4 give or take on my home track from the tips. I rate my game by my best shots not my score.

I stand by what I said.

And… we wrote about a scenario kind of like what you're saying in the book. You are not the golfer who hits the great shots. Those are the aberrations. You're the golfer who hits the lousy to adequate shots 95% of the time, and the great shot is the aberration.

You don't swing very fast, you're old, you're a 6 handicap on your home course. You have no chance of making the Web.com Tour let alone anything else.

You could hit it 240 yards of the tee from the men's tee on most courses and be a +5 that's a different story with a good short game and such it's doable. I obviously think differently than most people because you can move the ball around the course just fine with hybrids making the game easier but if you can't hit hit 315 at a 65% fairway rate then your just an amateur.

a) You can't hit it 240 and be a +5. I haven't ever met that guy, or even heard of him. So no.

b) You think differently than most people?

c) You do realize most of the PGA Tour doesn't average 315, right?

@Mike Boatright , seriously, is this the kind of poster you want to be: spouting nonsense and failing to make any valid points whatsoever? What are you even saying here?

Still happy to take the bet.

[saevel25]

If I could hit a 330 yard drive just once with a certain driver on flat ground then I would know I could do it again, and again.. That's 75% of the game guys it sets you up for easy approaches.

PGA Tour average is 289 yards with 61% accuracy, not 315 yards and 75%.

No you couldn't do it again and again.

I obviously think differently than most people because you can move the ball around the course just fine with hybrids making the game easier but if you can't hit hit 315 at a 65% fairway rate then your just an amateur. Look at long drivers they are by default around scratch just from being long of the tee.

Distance is an advantage. It's their ability to have small shot zones with all their clubs. The median leave for PGA Tour from 100-150 yards is 5.5% the distance from the hole. From 150-200 yards the median leave is 5.9% the distance from the hole. Meaning if they have 175 yards they average 30 FT from the pin. They are over 2x as accurate than a 90's golfer.

That is the advantage they have. That is just an average. When they win a tournament that percentage goes down significantly.

Driving helps out. It's their iron play that makes them amazing.

[Golfingdad]

PGA Tour average is 289 yards with 61% accuracy, not 315 yards and 75%. No you couldn't do it again and again.  Distance is an advantage. It's their ability to have small shot zones with all their clubs. The median leave for PGA Tour from 100-150 yards is 5.5% the distance from the hole. From 150-200 yards the median leave is 5.9% the distance from the hole. Meaning if they have 175 yards they average 30 FT from the pin. They are over 2x as accurate than a 90's golfer.  That is the advantage they have. That is just an average. When they win a tournament that percentage goes down significantly.  Driving helps out. It's their iron play that makes them amazing.

Not to mention, a 6 handicapper really sucks. :P

[Lihu]

The plus handicaps I know are pretty long and straight hitters. They pretty effortlessly hit between 260-280 yards and always approachable second shots. They seem to use off shelf clubs that are fitted. The clubs don't seem to be magical or anything. . .

[Mike Boatright]

Oh great then I need to gain about 20 yards of the tee average and work on my irons sweet I can do that one year from now ill be a plus 6!!

I think I have a good swing so here is the bet Iacas 7 iron whoever hit's it the longest wins.

[Lihu]

Wait. . .even the one plus 2 golfer I know doesn't even think he has a chance at the pros and he's only 19 years old.