Drives

[Valleygolfer]

1 hour ago, mcanadiens said:

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.

I would say that 80+ hit in this range, driver wise that I play with. I occasionally get a few hockey guys that are deceptive long. I played with a college player that was super long. Man that is impressive.

[Pretzel]

On 4/6/2016 at 6:04 AM, 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. 

Measured the same way @saevel25 measures his distances, using a GPS unit called Game Golf.

There's a good off-topic bit in a "How far do you hit your irons thread" (found HERE) that gives a formula for "Internet Adjusted Distance", quoted below for your convenience.

 

On 8/18/2015 at 0:22 PM, uitar9 said:

The Internet Adjustment Formula:

 

IAD = ( [ ADD ] * .96 + [ EPS ] * [1/.12] ) / (1.15)

 

IAD = Internet Adjusted Distance (in yards)

ADD = Actual Driver Distance (in yards)

EPS = E-Penis Size (in inches)

 

Thanks. I took the liberty of reposting. Man, there is so much to learn about this game lol

EDIT: To give credit where credit is due, it was @Slice of Life who originally came up with it I believe. I just found this post with it first in the search.

[Gator Hazard]

I suck at golf so bad I don't even qualify for the worst handicap. I usually slice my drives or sky them. I'd say on average I hit it 220 to 230 if hitting good but on every occasion I've been paired up with strangers I always find a way to really rope a few. I'd say my longest grouping is about 250 but they are the exception. One time I know I hit it 285 but that is because on a 335 or so par four I wailed it and it went a bit left over the trees and hit the cart path that gave me another 40 or 50 yards. It was amazing. So yeah, I can hit the ball 280ish (if the gods are smiling and I get a cart path mega bounce and roll out on a dry fairway assist!). 

On April 6, 2016 at 9:52 AM, DaveP043 said:

I don't exactly agree with the "should be" part of this, but I'm sure its a valid average.  I play to 5 or so, but my typical carry on a reasonably well-struck drive is 230 to 240, and I'm one of the shorter hitters in my general handicap group where I play.  Not short in the big world of golfers, but shorter than many players with similar handicaps.  The reason I score as well as I do is that I rarely take penalties, play a lot of second shots from fairways or light rough, get on or near a lot of greens and have a decent game through the bag.  

The tendency for a better player to hit the ball longer is coupled by the tendency for the better player to hit the ball straighter too.  A better overall swing produces both distance and accuracy.  Add them together, and he's hitting shorter second shots from better locations, and that is definitely a recipe for better scoring.  I'll let others discuss the short game, but we've seen statistical evidence showing that short game and putting are relatively smaller difference-makers than the over all full swing game.  Its the better swing, and the resulting distance AND accuracy, that makes the biggest difference.

Hi Dave, yeah, but you are also 60 now so the fact you are putting it out there 230 at your age (not trying to hurt your feelings I'm not getting any younger either) is pretty darned good and I'll bet you hit your fair share of sweet ones around 250-260 or so even if they are the exception.  I'd take 230 all day to have half your accuracy!  

[MacDutch]

All depends on what your peer group is and who you play regularly. As an allmost 60 years old guy, I play regularly with younger people. A 250 yards drive is not really long for younger people who can hit it straight. For people my age, 230 is long, but not rare.

[Tod]

Some of us high-handicappers can put the ball out quite a distance. Occasionally. Sometimes it will even be in the correct fairway. It can help being tall. At 6'4" with a high swing speed, I can get pretty good distance. At 6'8" my 25 yo 10 handicap son can blow it well past me with his 3 wood. 

One thing I have noticed is that my son does overestimate distance based on landmarks and the scorecard as compared to GameGolf.

 

 

 

[Jakester23]

24 minutes ago, Tod said:

Some of us high-handicappers can put the ball out quite a distance. Occasionally. Sometimes it will even be in the correct fairway. It can help being tall. At 6'4" with a high swing speed, I can get pretty good distance. At 6'8" my 25 yo 10 handicap son can blow it well past me with his 3 wood. 

One thing I have noticed is that my son does overestimate distance based on landmarks and the scorecard as compared to GameGolf.

 

 

 

I think most of us overestimated our distance before game golf. I find a lot of scorecards to be wrong. 

[DrvFrShow]

For now, anyway, until I'm hitting my driver better it's retired to the bag on the golf course. I've decided to sacrifice the potential distance in favor of accuracy.

Here's the deal. I looked at my Game Golf stats. When my driver is on, I'll be in the 240 yd range with it. But when it is off, I'll be in the 180 range with it and it will be all over the course. My last outing I couldn't keep it in play. If you included the penalties I averaged about 120 yds. So I put it in the dog house and took out my 4 iron.

According to Game Golf stats, my typical drive including mishits is 215 and they can be all over the place. My grouping with my 4 iron is 203 yds and tight in the fairway. It's a 20 degree loft, essentially a 2 iron. So in reality it's only costs me 12 yds or one club on average, but it does rule out that potential longer drive in favor of consistency. I hit the 4 iron off the tee better than I do my 3W for some reason. And I can hit it off the deck - it goes straight there too. I don't understand this. Hybrids? Don't get me started. 

I'll keep the driver on the driving range until I figure out what I'm doing wrong. I think I'm on the right track since I had a streak of a dozen good shots with it yesterday at the range. But it'll stay in the bag until I can repeat that from session to session. Right now I want to actually enjoy playing a round of golf rather than spend time looking for the ball and then figure out how best to get out of the woods.

[Cpt Morgan]

I use OptiShot 2 to practice, and I use "Track My Golf" app. If I'm on a 450y Par4 dead straight, no hazards, and my tee shot goes "X" and I have "Y" left to center of green and "Y" via my GPS app says 145y then I know I hit a 305y drive. It's pretty simple.

[Fourputt]

1 hour ago, Cpt Morgan said:

I use OptiShot 2 to practice, and I use "Track My Golf" app. If I'm on a 450y Par4 dead straight, no hazards, and my tee shot goes "X" and I have "Y" left to center of green and "Y" via my GPS app says 145y then I know I hit a 305y drive. It's pretty simple.

You assume that the tees are in the right location for the card yardage, and that the yardage on the card is correct.  Both could be off.  I've seen it many times on many courses.  I think it's a management ego thing, the course owners/managers want the players to think they are playing a longer course than they really are - it gives them a bragging boost.

[Lihu]

28 minutes ago, Fourputt said:

You assume that the tees are in the right location for the card yardage, and that the yardage on the card is correct.  Both could be off.  I've seen it many times on many courses.  I think it's a management ego thing, the course owners/managers want the players to think they are playing a longer course than they really are - it gives them a bragging boost.

I've found this to happen more often on private courses. The more expensive the longer the course

My home course seems to be correct as they use it in SCGA tournaments and qualifiers. There are permanent markers to show the proper tee off locations. Even so the tee boxes could be setup up to 300-400 yards shorter on any given day because the greens keepers move the tee markers around. Some purists always play the permanent ones.

[Fourputt]

24 minutes ago, Lihu said:

I've found this to happen more often on private courses. The more expensive the longer the course

My home course seems to be correct as they use it in SCGA tournaments and qualifiers. There are permanent markers to show the proper tee off locations. Even so the tee boxes could be setup up to 300-400 yards shorter on any given day because the greens keepers move the tee markers around. Some purists always play the permanent ones.

I don't know for sure about the hole lengths on my home course (I know that they are close because I've checked several on Google Earth), but the fairway yardage marker plaques are all installed professionally with a surveyor quality laser, so they are dead on.

[Cpt Morgan]

1 hour ago, Fourputt said:

You assume that the tees are in the right location for the card yardage, and that the yardage on the card is correct.  Both could be off.  I've seen it many times on many courses.  I think it's a management ego thing, the course owners/managers want the players to think they are playing a longer course than they really are - it gives them a bragging boost.

Not entirely correct. Before I used to have OptiShot 2, I did solely rely on a handheld GPS rangefinder (Bushnell) it was accurate within 1-2 yards. I had originally acquired accurate club distances via a hitting bay at my local PGA Superstore. Once I lasered the distance, say I was 160y out, I knew that my 8i played right around that, so I would club select based on that. Now, same principle, as I stated before; on a 450y Par4 and I laser in a 145y left to pin, I know that my previous shot was 305y. And yes, even before I tee off, I take a measurement (whether it's laser or GPS app), and at my home course it is not always accurate, but it is very close. I usually will just use my GPS app to pin point bunkers, haz, trees, I find the "Track My Golf" is VERY good.

OptiShot 2 is very accurate and I like that there are various courses and conditions to choose from. I mainly just use it as a driving range, and I do have the Zepp Golf app which is very accurate at analyzing swing plane and tempo.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Cpt Morgan

[Slice of Life]

On 4/9/2016 at 10:26 PM, Pretzel said:

Measured the same way @saevel25 measures his distances, using a GPS unit called Game Golf.

There's a good off-topic bit in a "How far do you hit your irons thread" (found HERE) that gives a formula for "Internet Adjusted Distance", quoted below for your convenience.

 

EDIT: To give credit where credit is due, it was @Slice of Life who originally came up with it I believe. I just found this post with it first in the search.

 

That is correct, I crunched the numbers for the internet adjustment formula lol