Short hitting player: How much more roll would I get on a professional quality fairway than a public course?

[Jacktgolf]

I'm curious about the fact that professional fairways play way faster than public golf courses. I carry the ball around 246 and rolls out to 250. I'm a high spin player. How much more roll and distance would increase on a professional quality fairway? I don't need an exact number, but I would like an estimate on the general distance increase on a professional quality fairway. With a carry of around 245, how much roll would I get with 3500 spin with driver?

[mcanadiens]

Aren't bounce and roll often more of a function of how soft the fairway is rather than the quality of the grass on it. 

 Playing one of my munis in an mid-August drought is going to see the ball roll like a marble on ice. The same shot in the spring showers at a country club may plug. 

[Jacktgolf]

What I meant by "quality" was the speed, whether it plays slow or fast.

[WUTiger]

18 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

Aren't bounce and roll often more of a function of how soft the fairway is rather than the quality of the grass on it.

Given the same geographic area and soil conditions, I would suggest that the better courses would fall in the middle for runout on drives. Some of the everyday courses would have splotchy fairway grass that would deflect or deaden the ball as it hit the fairway; others would have harder soil where the ball would run out a long way.

[No Mulligans]

47 minutes ago, Jacktgolf said:

I'm curious about the fact that professional fairways play way faster than public golf courses. I carry the ball around 246 and rolls out to 250. I'm a high spin player. How much more roll and distance would increase on a professional quality fairway? I don't need an exact number, but I would like an estimate on the general distance increase on a professional quality fairway. With a carry of around 245, how much roll would I get with 3500 spin with driver?

That is not a fact.

You carry 246 and it rolls out to 250?

Did I just get caught by a troll?

[David in FL]

2 minutes ago, No Mulligans said:

That is not a fact.

You carry 246 and it rolls out to 250?

Did I just get caught by a troll?

Why?  At 3500 rpm, it could easily back up!

 

[iacas]

You might get less roll on a PGA Tour course.

It's really a matter of two things, in order:

1. How firm the fairways are.
2. How long the fairway grass is.

Some public courses are MUCH firmer (water is expensive) than the typical PGA Tour course.

[Jacktgolf]

Thank you for your replies. I appreciate the feedback.

[Pretzel]

15 minutes ago, David in FL said:

Why?  At 3500 rpm, it could easily back up!

I've had a drive back up on a wet fairway when I had a higher spinning driver/shaft combo. It happens.

As far s how much roll you would get, like @iacas mentioned it would depend. Many PGA Tour courses might have their fairways mown a bit shorter than your municipal course, but the reason is that they can spend a fortune to provide all the extra water this requires and it doesn't really affect their bottom line as a high end venue. This has the same effect of often making the fairways softer. If they play a course with firm fairways and short mown grass, then it will bounce and roll much further than your drives, but if they play on a course with soft fairways that have average length grass, it could even end up rolling out less.

[Vinsk]

I played many goat ranch courses in West Texas and I can tell you hard pan fairways give you a hell of a lot more roll than many of those PGA TOUR courses!

[Marty2019]

How much roll I get depends on whether there's a fairway bunker in the way.   If there's a fairway bunker, the ball will continue to roll until it's in the bunker. 

 

 

[Lihu]

13 hours ago, Jacktgolf said:

I'm curious about the fact that professional fairways play way faster than public golf courses. I carry the ball around 246 and rolls out to 250. I'm a high spin player. How much more roll and distance would increase on a professional quality fairway? I don't need an exact number, but I would like an estimate on the general distance increase on a professional quality fairway. With a carry of around 245, how much roll would I get with 3500 spin with driver?

Try this.

https://flightscope.com/products/trajectory-optimizer/

10 yards instead of 5.

punched in 150, 10, 0, 0, 3500, 0, hard

[No Mulligans]

14 hours ago, Lihu said:

Try this.

https://flightscope.com/products/trajectory-optimizer/

10 yards instead of 5.

punched in 150, 10, 0, 0, 3500, 0, hard

I put those in also, 245 carry 266 total.  Did I get a different result?  I'm getting 21 yards of roll, not 10

[onthehunt526]

245 yards carry is not short. It's actually pretty good. It's pretty close to my carry distance. 

But to answer your question see the post from @iacas above.

[Lihu]

8 hours ago, No Mulligans said:

I put those in also, 245 carry 266 total.  Did I get a different result?  I'm getting 21 yards of roll, not 10

Hard, medium and soft should give different results. You need to enter numbers again to reset the parameters.

[Patch]

Fairway firmness, and up/down  slopes will determine roll out. I play at TPC Summerlin sometimes. A few times, a day after the pga has been there. I get the same distances when ever I play there. 

Biggest difference I've seen have been on the greens. Even a day after the pga, the greens are still pretty quick. 

A good example of firmness, and roll out. I sometimes hit balls on a nearby dry lake bed. I hit balls to the blow sand areas to get my carry distance. The ball usually plugs in the soft sand. My driver carry last time I was out, was 220. (max) When I hit the same ball, and the landing area was the hard pan, I was getting 280 numbers. Yep, 60 yards of roll out on a flat surface. 

 

[JuanTheGolfer]

One thing that seems to be missing OR I missed it, it the angle of descent of the ball.   The steeper the angle to less roll-out.  The flatter the angle the more rollout.   IIRC, the best angle of descent for a driver is in the 36-40 degree range to maximize carry and roll.

So yes all the other factors mentioned are important, just add this additional part.

From personal experience, I have been launching my Callaway EPIC too high and the angle of descent was too steep.   By reducing my launch angle I was able to reduce my angle of descent and pick up 10 yards more of roll out.

[Pablo68]

If I were only getting 5 yards of rollout on a driver, I'd worry more about going to get fitted for a driver by a qualified person than how much I'd get if I played a PGA course.