Drives

[Fourputt]

2 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

Now I post on a few forums, and regarding this subject, they are all the same, and I refer to drives. I constantly here about peoples 250/300 yard drives, and wonder if they have ever actually measured them. I have now got to the point that I halve the distance  anyone gives me. Earlier I read a thread where someone refers to a badly sliced drive that went 220 yards. I play with a fair few people (some low handicappers), and to be honest, a well hit drive rarely goes 220 yards., let alone a slice. Is it possible that some people have got confused with feet and yards, and are really hitting the ball one third the distance they think they are. 

My most recent measured drive was 245 yards, measured with my Garmin Approach G6 GPS.  My average is probably closer to 220.  As recently as 10 years ago I hit measured drives (measured on Google Earth and verified with GPS) of 321 yards and 324 yards.  This is at altitude, a mile above sea level, but still I'm also nearly 70 years old, and not a single digit handicapper.  Those two were extreme deviations from my norm, but every now and then all the pieces of my swing come together at the same time and I can really crack one.  

I used to average around 250-260 back in 1990 with a tiny head, steel shafted late 80's TM Tour driver and Titleist balata ball.  Although there was no way to accurately measure them back then, I still play the same course from the same tees, and I've since done some measurements that verify those averages.

[Grumpter]

In my experience it depends on the type of course you are playing. If I go to the local muni I tend to be one of the longer hitters. At the higher end courses I tend to be a bit above average but find a decent percentage of players that can hit as far or many that can hit longer.

Since I play as a single, joining up with 2-somes or 3-somes, I get to play with a lot of different players. Anymore I may only get 5 or less drives a year that will reach the 300 yard mark and I played 125 rounds last year. Often at the 'lower' end courses a player will comment on one of my drives 'man, you just crushed that thing 300 yards'.  I tell them 'doubtful but let's measure it with the GPS'. What many think is a 300 yard drive ends up being in the 250 to 275 yard range.

[Patch]

15 minutes ago, paininthenuts said:

I am a really bad golfer, and I feel confident that if we ever met up for a round, I could prove it as well 

I'm not very good either when compared to others. But, I am consistant, and that's good enough for me .

[metbid]

 

3 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

Now I post on a few forums, and regarding this subject, they are all the same, and I refer to drives. I constantly here about peoples 250/300 yard drives, and wonder if they have ever actually measured them. I have now got to the point that I halve the distance  anyone gives me. Earlier I read a thread where someone refers to a badly sliced drive that went 220 yards. I play with a fair few people (some low handicappers), and to be honest, a well hit drive rarely goes 220 yards., let alone a slice. Is it possible that some people have got confused with feet and yards, and are really hitting the ball one third the distance they think they are. 

I have been going to an indoor range all winter ( I live in Northern Minnesota).  The pro/instructor says the equipment he uses generally displays a little shorter than reality.  I tend to agree, because I can reach a 175 yard par 3 with my 5 iron outside, but inside it shows about 165 - 170.  That said, using the Driving Range mode, my drives average 210 to 220, (throwing out bad miss-hits)with several flying farther than 220, even an occasional 240 with a perfect hit.  My normal screw-up would be a high fade, but when I do, they really fly and go over 220 quite routinely.  They are some of my beyond average distances because it seems they are the best struck with just a slight open face at impact.

I have gotten in one round outside this year....went south....and using my Garmin G6 GPS I logged several drives in excess of 220.  Some of them in the fade/slice category.

[paininthenuts]

Well, something is really strange here. We have a par 3 173 yard, over water. Unless there is no wind at all, we all use a driver, and most of us don't reach the green. Admittedly it is cold, and we are all over 50, and the green is a little higher than the Tee, but I can't help thinking that those of us from the UK are wimps, and those of you from the U.S are all supermen 

Edited April 6, 2016 by paininthenuts

[No Mulligans]

GameGolf will track your shots so anyone with GameGolf knows how far they hit.  

I hit one 240 yards today which was my best drive in a long time.  Started at right edge and had a draw.  Looked at my club and there was a ball mark right in the sweet spot.  It was early, foggy and damp.  That is as far as I can hit.  Looking at GameGolf, I have a shortest drive of 80 yards and longest of 242 with everything in between.  Average of 196.

The thing is, on average I don't find the sweet spot and don't have a good swing path.  And, that's why I'm a high handicapper.

If my average was 240 yards that would indicate a much better swing and a high frequency of finding the sweet spot and that would translate to all my clubs.  I'd have a much lower handicap.

4 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

I don't think the ability to drive has that much to do with a low handicap although it may help a little. I have a much longer drive than someone I play with, however, because he can use a wood off of the fairway, and I can't, he normally catches me up after the second shot. I am not that convinced either that all low handicappers have long drives either. Far more shots are picked up off of the short game, than the drive. 

 

[Grumpter]

30 minutes ago, paininthenuts said:

Well, something is really strange here. We have a par 3 173 yard, over water. Unless there is no wind at all, we all use a driver, and most of us don't reach the green. Admittedly it is cold, and we are all over 50, and the green is a little higher than the Tee, but I can't help thinking that those of us from the UK are wimps, and those of you from the U.S are all supermen 

I don't see what is so strange about it. My guess is the players in your group are not long hitter by any stretch of the imagination and you don't have much experience outside your group. You might also be referring to 173 meters which would be about 190 yards. When it is cold I lose about 2 club lengths but others I have played with only seem to lose 1 to 1.5 clubs. Get out there and play with some lower handicaps and see for yourself.

conditions make a big difference. One course I play the 17th hole is a par 3 about 210-215 yards (not meters) every so slightly uphill and into the wind. I have had to it driver on a particularly windy day. The next hole is in the opposite direction about 275 yards to the center of the green which I can sometimes reach with a Driver... without wind. I can't hit it that far every time but have done it on multiple occasions with and without wind.

[iacas]

On April 6, 2016 at 9:29 AM, paininthenuts said:

I don't think the ability to drive has that much to do with a low handicap although it may help a little. I have a much longer drive than someone I play with, however, because he can use a wood off of the fairway, and I can't, he normally catches me up after the second shot. I am not that convinced either that all low handicappers have long drives either. Far more shots are picked up off of the short game, than the drive. 

It very much has a lot to do with it. It's virtually impossible to be a scratch golfer hitting it 200 yards off the tee (with all other yardages to fit).

20 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

Well, something is really strange here. We have a par 3 173 yard, over water. Unless there is no wind at all, we all use a driver, and most of us don't reach the green. Admittedly it is cold, and we are all over 50, and the green is a little higher than the Tee, but I can't help thinking that those of us from the UK are wimps, and those of you from the U.S are all supermen 

I'd hit a 6I or 7I. If you don't have much experience outside of your group, it would explain the ridiculous suggestion that people were confusing "feet" and "yards" earlier in the thread.

[Avalanche]

The head pro at my club started using Game Golf last season.  He said that before the season he figured he hit it around 270 on average.  But at the end of the summer Game Golf informed him that his average drive was 256.  He's not prone to exaggeration, and he certainly knows his stuff.  So I guess all of us, even the best golfers, tend to forget the snap hooks, slices and misses that get caught up in the rough and fall 40 or 50 yards short of our good drives.   

[Valleygolfer]

On 04/06/2016 at 1:49 PM, paininthenuts said:

Well, something is really strange here. We have a par 3 173 yard, over water. Unless there is no wind at all, we all use a driver, and most of us don't reach the green. Admittedly it is cold, and we are all over 50, and the green is a little higher than the Tee, but I can't help thinking that those of us from the UK are wimps, and those of you from the U.S are all supermen 

Maybe it's just because you haven't experienced it or gotten there yet. I rarely see a guy use a driver for that yardage. We have a few 200 yard par threes that I see driver used on frequently. My guess is that you have poor mechanics and flexibility.

[9wood]

On 4/6/2016 at 10:19 AM, paininthenuts said:

I am a really bad golfer, and I feel confident that if we ever met up for a round, I could prove it as well 

Just means you have a lot of room to improve. 

[b101]

On 06/04/2016 at 6:49 PM, paininthenuts said:

Well, something is really strange here. We have a par 3 173 yard, over water. Unless there is no wind at all, we all use a driver, and most of us don't reach the green. Admittedly it is cold, and we are all over 50, and the green is a little higher than the Tee, but I can't help thinking that those of us from the UK are wimps, and those of you from the U.S are all supermen 

We're not all wimps! (We'll just ignore the horrible mishits at the left end - most of which are shots off the crown from my first few months of golf in ten years )

A brief aside - I know this will seem like it, but this isn't meant to be one of those bragging posts that you mention in the OP, merely trying to explain my Game Golf stats and show some evidence for what I write.

To be honest, I play on a course with very hard fairways so I gain a lot of rollout, so a number of them can be taken with a pinch of salt, but I did go through a phase toward the end of last year when I'd regularly have a 290+ drive in each round. Problem is, it wasn't consistent as I used to hit down on the ball. I'm trying to start hitting up on it now and it's starting to get better, but my swing speed has gone down as I get used to the technique. Additionally though, I got properly fitted for a shaft that fit my swing and was 44.5 inches rather than 46 inches and have taken regular lessons on improving my swing - part of these have been making the swing shorter and more controlled, so whilst I've lost a bit of speed there, my average Smash Factor is up.

In terms of carry, I'll be around 230/240 at the moment on a good hit. My swing speed is 103 or so mph, but I lose lots in terms of poor strikes. I've yet to play with someone my handicap who can outhit me on a good strike, but I have played with much more consistent players, which is my goal. I'm off 12, but if I can get the driver to fly 240 consistently, I'm pretty sure I'll be a single digit as everything else is above average for my level.

Here's a clip of a 326 one, I think. 

Like I say, not meant to be a bragging post, but I guess this is the sort of thing you were after. I'm not tall at 5'8, but I have a lot of leg strength and a decent core, hence some of the speed. The aim is more consistency though and the overswing above scares me a little to look back at!

Maybe that helps; hope so.

[natureboy]

1 hour ago, b101 said:

In terms of carry, I'll be around 230/240 at the moment on a good hit. My swing speed is 103 or so mph,

In my limited experience of fairways in northeastern U.S. that is a redonculous amount of roll on a 230/240 carry. Are you sure you're not using the old small ball? 

[billchao]

I'm terrible at driving, but rest assured you can totally hit a 260 yard drive 60 yards right of center. The trick is to hit it over the trees lining the hole.

[b101]

7 hours ago, natureboy said:

In my limited experience of fairways in northeastern U.S. that is a redonculous amount of roll on a 230/240 carry. Are you sure you're not using the old small ball? 

Haha, nope! However, whilst my carry at the moment is 230/240, that's with the slightly shorter, more controlled swing that I've been working on - I think I've had it up to around 260/270 at times (hard to know totally given the rollouts. Also, we play very firm fairways (think about when you watch the Open) which will give you a good helping hand. Very different to the parkland courses you guys have where the driver almost stops in its pitch-mark!

[Lihu]

On April 6, 2016 at 8:04 PM, paininthenuts said:

Now I post on a few forums, and regarding this subject, they are all the same, and I refer to drives. I constantly here about peoples 250/300 yard drives, and wonder if they have ever actually measured them. I have now got to the point that I halve the distance  anyone gives me. Earlier I read a thread where someone refers to a badly sliced drive that went 220 yards. I play with a fair few people (some low handicappers), and to be honest, a well hit drive rarely goes 220 yards., let alone a slice. Is it possible that some people have got confused with feet and yards, and are really hitting the ball one third the distance they think they are. 

That's why many of us use Game Golf!

Yes, plenty of people drive between 250-300 yards, but the vast majority do not. This thread kind of started off devolved into a "I can't do it so no one else can" thread. Very strange...

[Valleygolfer]

12 hours ago, natureboy said:

In my limited experience of fairways in northeastern U.S. that is a redonculous amount of roll on a 230/240 carry. Are you sure you're not using the old small ball? 

I don't think that we get as much roll out here, maybe for a bit in the summer. There are areas of the country that are more dry than here.

[mcanadiens]

In playing with a wide variety of people over the past several years, I'd say about 30% of my partners hit a legitimate 250 or better. Some are more accurate than others.

Maybe 60% are somewhere in the same general range as myself. That's to say, poking them 200-230 when not a complete mishit.

Finally there are the 10% that don't. Generally, these are usually beginners or the elderly. Of course, those old guys hit them straighter that I could dream of.