Trends: Handicap / Driving Distance / Time as a golfer anonymous poll

[Dave2512]

But that doesn't necessarily mean hitting it further so much as minimizing the mishits. The reason higher handicap golfers have low averages is their averages are mostly comprised of mishits. It's a technique/skill issue not a distance issue.

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, Dave2512 said:

But that doesn't necessarily mean hitting it further so much as minimizing the mishits. The reason higher handicap golfers have low averages is their averages are mostly comprised of mishits. It's a technique/skill issue not a distance issue.

Agree, but it can also be both from mishits and mechanics issues.

[natureboy]

23 minutes ago, Lihu said:

That's what I am getting at. A simple average of all your drives affects your handicap pretty directly. Farther is always better, and that's why increasing the average is important for score.

That's why I said the question wasn't well worded if that's what it was getting at. Most people think of and talk about driving distance in where they expect to put a good one. Kudos to you for thinking about your accumulated average driving distance no doubt that mindset has helped your scoring, but it doesn't mean people are fibbing on the poll.

[Lihu]

7 minutes ago, natureboy said:

That's why I said the question wasn't well worded if that's what it was getting at. Most people think of and talk about driving distance in where they expect to put a good one. Kudos to you for thinking about your accumulated average driving distance no doubt that mindset has helped your scoring, but it doesn't mean people are fibbing on the poll.

Yes, I might have gone a little overboard on that assertion as well. Sorry, to everyone who thinks I'm a jerk for having implied that.

So, what I think makes sense is average drives to handicap which includes everything in play. The other interesting topic is swing speed versus handicap. Together they are kind of indicative of your current scoring potential and ultimate potential given the same basic swing mechanics.

[Dave2512]

People don't have to be lying to be wrong about their driving distance. Without using a tracking device or meticulously working around the course lasering everything their estimates are probably wrong.

The problem is people consider things like a duck hook or skied drive to be the anomaly but reality is of the 14ish drives they hit during a round maybe one is near best (potential) and everything else something worse than that. It's no mistake published averages are low and self reported averages typically higher.   

[TimS65]

2 hours ago, Dave2512 said:

But that doesn't necessarily mean hitting it further so much as minimizing the mishits. The reason higher handicap golfers have low averages is their averages are mostly comprised of mishits. It's a technique/skill issue not a distance issue.

This is me! I know unless I fluff the shot it normally goes around 250 yards total. But that could be into the trees on either side of the fairway, OB or across the next fairway! Generally my drives are improving, hitting fairways more frequently. But I am rarely consistent across the piste with all club types: driver, woods/hybrids, irons, wedges, putter. I feel that I have the potential to be better than I actually am - I need to find that consistency from all types of lie.

[Lihu]

4 minutes ago, TimS65 said:

This is me! I know unless I fluff the shot it normally goes around 250 yards total. But that could be into the trees on either side of the fairway, OB or across the next fairway! Generally my drives are improving, hitting fairways more frequently. But I am rarely consistent across the piste with all club types: driver, woods/hybrids, irons, wedges, putter. I feel that I have the potential to be better than I actually am - I need to find that consistency from all types of lie.

Even if you only hit 220 yard decent drives, I could confidently state that fact especially coming down from a 28!

[PJCdude]

On December 9, 2015 at 5:22 PM, WUTiger said:

Au contraire, Dad! That means you will have two potential caddies to  help you in a few years when you make your eventual bid to win the U.S. Senior Amateur.

Be sure to post pix here in TST!

 

First family with PGA, LPGA and Senior Tour champions in the same year

.....better start shaving that 23 HDCP down

[RickK]

On 12/9/2015 at 9:56 AM, MrFlipper said:

I'm 10+ years younger than you, similar experience except I started when I was 15, was low single digits by college, then the handicap started its expected rise around age 40 and will continue to go up. Haven't lost any distance but I know it's coming, maybe I can hold it off a few more years.

Thanks to technology I still hit it as far as I did as a teenager. I don't expect to see any great technology leap forward coming down the line so the younger folks today are going to see their distance gradually decrease as they age, which makes sense. Just hasn't been that way for 50 years though. No way the young folks of today will hit it just as far when they are 60 that they do now when they are in their 20's. Folks of my golfing generation rode the technology wave for all it was worth.

Technology in balls and clubs kept my distances consistent for a number of years, especially in my irons. I was never a really long ball hitter but from my 30s up thru 65, my iron distances remained very constant.  7iron 160, 8iron 150, 9iron 140...etc.   Yes, I know the manufacturers jacked up the lofts on the irons and the golf ball got longer but still it kept my yardages the same.  The last couple of years, I have lost 10yards from each of those clubs.  I realize it will only get worse.  I don't play distance golf balls and I still put a decent amount of spin on all of my irons shots.  

[Pendragon]

On 12/7/2015 at 7:21 AM, iacas said:

These should not have been made multiple choice, btw.

I'm scratch or slightly better. I hit it about 265 or so off the tee (this year we got VERY little roll, all year… ). I've been playing for years so I'm probably past 1000 rounds, but I might be counting all the times I played nine holes, or five holes… 1000 rounds is a lot of golf. Those in the golf industry don't get to play as much as people think.

I notice that your profile says "pro" where most others show their index. Do you not have an index? I play now and then with a number of PGA members and all of them post scores whenever they play and they maintain a current index. Is this something that varies in different parts of the country?  

[iacas]

11 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

I notice that your profile says "pro" where most others show their index. Do you not have an index? I play now and then with a number of PGA members and all of them post scores whenever they play and they maintain a current index. Is this something that varies in different parts of the country?  

We play off scratch, and I don't actively maintain a handicap. I haven't had a GHIN # for awhile. GAME GOLF estimates a handicap, so that's as close as I get.

[Pendragon]

11 minutes ago, iacas said:

We play off scratch, and I don't actively maintain a handicap. I haven't had a GHIN # for awhile. GAME GOLF estimates a handicap, so that's as close as I get.

I don't know much about GAME GOLF, although I do see threads here dedicated to it. You may be an exception, but it does look like most here who utilize the GAME GOLF program are amateurs who are maintaining GHIN indexes. They'd have to, I guess, since their clubs wouldn't allow them to play in tournaments without an index.