What is happening when a shot goes unexpectedly farther than normal?

[cutchemist42]

Looking at Gamegolf shot dispersion and just recall a few extreme outliers on the high range. I remember these shots as well as having the same shot shape as usual. I know what leads to extreme outliers on the short side but with no conscious effort to swing harder or anything like that, and trying to exclude weather, are they just perfect circumstances? I mean, I would never gameplan for this happening ever again and considered it a 1/1000 fluke.

As an example of the one that truly stood out, I play my 5iron all the time on this hole for a 160 shot and I consider myself a weak hitter.

 

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/cutchemist42/round/964338?hole_id=24709789

Edited July 25, 2016 by cutchemist42

[Grinde6]

27 minutes ago, cutchemist42 said:

Looking at Gamegolf shot dispersion and just recall a few extreme outliers on the high range. I remember these shots as well as having the same shot shape as usual. I know what leads to extreme outliers on the short side but with no conscious effort to swing harder or anything like that, and trying to exclude weather, are they just perfect circumstances? I mean, I would never gameplan for this happening ever again and considered it a 1/1000 fluke.

As an example of the one that truly stood out, I play my 5iron all the time on this hole for a 160 shot and I consider myself a weak hitter.

 

http://www.gamegolf.com/player/cutchemist42/round/964338?hole_id=24709789

If there wasn't much wind that day, I would say you could have compressed the ball a little more than what you usually do and maybe it carried to that 165-170 range and just kept going, hit a sprinkler head, etc.  Lots of factors could have played into it, but I would say it hit the back of the green and flew an extra 20 yards or so.  But you most likely hit it well and compressed the ball pretty good.

[newtogolf]

Could be a number of things;

• Weather can affect how far a ball travels
• Your irons could have a hot spot that you don't typically hit
• As @Grinde6said you could have compressed the ball a bit more than usual or delofted the club.
• Could have been the lie that caused a flier.

 

[RH31]

What happened? You made your perfect swing.

It happens to me every so often, especially with irons. It's almost always when I'm making a smooth 3/4 swing. Perfect everything(for me) and the ball may carry 15 yards farther than a normal shot.

Happened to me yesterday with my gap wedge(110) carried 120 or so.....led to a double bogey.

[WUTiger]

It could depend on having mean impact a groove lower than normal on the iron face. You might have picked it clean - got excellent contact without thinning it and having a lower line drive.

Also, you said you made "no conscious effort to swing harder..." You may have made a relaxed swing that simply fell in the slot better than some other shots.

If it lands on the back fringe instead of 10 feet from the pin, just lag up and tap in for a par. Life is good!

[TourSpoon]

It sounds like you had everything connect, with great angles, right in the middle of the club face and struck Nirvana! It also sounds like you have enough realistic experience to recognize this as the outlier and not to program it into your brain as your new 5 iron distance which a lot of people I see do. They hit one career shot and think that is the new normal. 

 

[natureboy]

In this case, I suspect the location of the shot on the tee had something to do with it vs. a fairway lie - especially if you tend to hit a hair fat from the grass.

Was the ball teed? How high?

If the ball is contacted a bit higher on the face than normal, you may have gotten a bit of an 'effective' flier from a reduction in spin due to vertical gear effect. May have also put the ball closer to the sweet spot than you normally get too.

Edited July 25, 2016 by natureboy

[jkelley9]

This will happen to me when I have the optimal club release. My distance hog is that I don't release the club well into the ball, and I kind of just pull it through. It works, but when I relax and get a good swing with a great controlled release through my hands I can feel the difference and it does go MUCH farther. 

[Valleygolfer]

What has been said and the course dries out in the summer causing more roll out.

 

[mcanadiens]

Like I've previously mentioned to you @cutchemist42, you and I seem to hit the ball a similar length. Our swings (definitely my swing) have some flaws that limit the distance on the majority of our shots. Once in a while we screw up and hit it a heck of a lot longer than usual. I had a freak 5-wood go 220 not very long ago. Emphasis on the word freak.

The pain in the ass part is that it shows you what is theoretically possible. 

[No Mulligans]

Certainly you caught that one really well.  

For me, my freak long shots were both hit well and got an unusual extra amount of distance after they land because of a big bounce and/or kicking forward from a downhill slope and/or a fast fairway.  Also, I get extra distance when I swing really fast (duh) and I pull it a bit.

[cutchemist42]

13 hours ago, natureboy said:

In this case, I suspect the location of the shot on the tee had something to do with it vs. a fairway lie - especially if you tend to hit a hair fat from the grass.

Was the ball teed? How high?

If the ball is contacted a bit higher on the face than normal, you may have gotten a bit of an 'effective' flier from a reduction in spin due to vertical gear effect. May have also put the ball closer to the sweet spot than you normally get too.

All of my par 3 tee shots are teed up. I never use a new tee, just finding a head with a bi of wood is enough for me. I have about all of the flat sided part of the tee out of the ground. This ball had my same ball flight, just longer overall in every part of the flight it seemed. Maybe it did take a weird hit somewhere, but this is one where I thought "wow, howd that happen? that felt great"

[natureboy]

1 hour ago, cutchemist42 said:

All of my par 3 tee shots are teed up. I never use a new tee, just finding a head with a bi of wood is enough for me. I have about all of the flat sided part of the tee out of the ground. This ball had my same ball flight, just longer overall in every part of the flight it seemed. Maybe it did take a weird hit somewhere, but this is one where I thought "wow, howd that happen? that felt great"

Well on that course you had to have seen the whole flight and landing of the ball. Did it carry normal distance and take a crazy bounce and roll forward or did it carry unusual distance too? Was there any trail wind? Any jet wash? ( - JK - a nod to the interesting course routing)

The 'that felt great' is an indication that you nutted it. Maybe you could do a little work with impact tape or foot powder spray to see where your normal impact on an iron face is from the grass vs. the tee and work to try to make that your 'normal'. You probably also managed to de-loft it a bit vs. your regular dynamic loft at impact. Good sign of things to come, hopefully.

By 'flat sided part', do you mean the part in green or in yellow:

[cutchemist42]

15 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Well on that course you had to have seen the whole flight and landing of the ball. Did it carry normal distance and take a crazy bounce and roll forward or did it carry unusual distance too? Was there any trail wind? Any jet wash? ( - JK - a nod to the interesting course routing)

The 'that felt great' is an indication that you nutted it. Maybe you could do a little work with impact tape or foot powder spray to see where your normal impact on an iron face is from the grass vs. the tee and work to try to make that your 'normal'. You probably also managed to de-loft it a bit vs. your regular dynamic loft at impact. Good sign of things to come, hopefully.

By 'flat sided part', do you mean the part in green or in yellow:

Since that round was a while back, I dont actually remember the wind, and yeah no jet wash haha. (Its a Canadian Air Force course I play on through my dad) My eyesight is pretty bad and I actually dont remember how it looked once it reached that far.  I remember thinking I knew I cleared it.

Foot spray of tee vs non-tee might be an interesting experiment I had never thought of. I keep some in my bag but only ever used it for my driver and irons, but never compare the difference.

I also meant the yellow part.

 

Edited July 26, 2016 by cutchemist42

[natureboy]

20 minutes ago, cutchemist42 said:

Since that round was a while back, I dont actually remember the wind, and yeah no jet wash haha. (Its a Canadian Air Force course I play on through my dad) My eyesight is pretty bad and I actually dont remember how it looked once it reached that far.  I remember thinking I knew I cleared it.

Well that's potential fodder for a 'big bounce and roll'. That course looks like it could get baked out in a hurry, and you've had some pretty hot / dry weather in central Canada this year, yes?

The amount of elevation above the ground your tee height  gave the ball may have moved it a bit closer to the sweet spot, but not likely above the sweet spot, toward the top of the face. Probably combination of bounce/roll and unusually good impact conditions. Hopefully you have more of the same in the future.

[Gator Hazard]

3 hours ago, mcanadiens said:

Like I've previously mentioned to you @cutchemist42, you and I seem to hit the ball a similar length. Our swings (definitely my swing) have some flaws that limit the distance on the majority of our shots. Once in a while we screw up and hit it a heck of a lot longer than usual. I had a freak 5-wood go 220 not very long ago. Emphasis on the word freak.

The pain in the ass part is that it shows you what is theoretically possible. 

You're last sentence:  exactly, but more importantly it shows you what potential you still have and can achieve. I love it when I catch a ball like that and it takes off. It's exciting, it shows me that I have it in me and just need to keep learning and practicing to make it more consistent. 

The biggest difference I see between this year and last year is that my misses and mishits are a lot better. When I messed up before I missed the ball entirely or dribbled it out a few yards, now my mishits in general still at least go somewhere and generally straight. 

[Piz]

A purely struck shot, particularly with an iron, is a glimpse into the future.  You can do that.  It demonstrates what the oft-repeated advice to "let the club do the work" actually entails.  The secret to hitting the ball farther, with less effort, is to use less effort.  

[Patch]

Yeah, it's pretty much a great swing and impact position when these great ball flights happen. 

I remember two of them. First was 40 some years ago. I pured a PW for about 180 yards. It was a "wtf?" moment. I even check to see what club I was using. I normall hit that club 140 back then.

Second was a 150 yard shot to the pin from a fairway bunker. I needed to catch it thin with my 5i just to get reasonably close. I also needed to lear the top edge of the bunker. I knocked it past the green, up on to the next tee box. The ball went straight and even spun back a little. Maybe 200 yards +/-.  

The second one was the one that got me started hitting the ball a little on the thin side.