Are most people exagerating their long drive exploits

[mikelz]

I don't know about "most".
I do know I've seen a lot of stuff that just sounds like pure bragging.
If only telling you I hit it 290 with ease would make it so.

[Sherpat]

If only telling you I hit it 290 with ease would make it so.

Lol...indeed!

[JonnyGolf]

I believe people don't intend to exaggerate, they see a long drive and believe due to markers etc. that it went a longer distance than it did.

That's a really interesting observation, being able to see pros play your home course. We have a couple of mini-tour players that play in a Weds afternoon money game and people always come away saying, "wow, that's why they're pros." And these guys can't even make the Nationwide tour."

[Mark19]

It looks like the only people who feel that people lie about carry and swing speed are jealous. I have a high handicap because I only get out maybe 5-10 times a year. So the short game lacks obviously.

I have a swing speed of 121 and have a deep carry. Ive driven over the green on 290 yard holes. If anyone doubts me in SE mass Ill gladly show you.

[Mhinderaker]

Last time I had my SS measured was back in september and I was at 108 average.

I also live at elevation which is definitely a big difference. I can carry the ball about 240-250 when on vacation in say South Carolina, but here in Utah, I can definitely get an extra 20-30 yards out of it.

[powerfade]

This is becoming an old subject lol, it's been discussed numerous times, with no definitive answer.

Just as someone noted that body size has little to do with driving distance, handicap/index levels also have little to do with it. I personally think a lot of indexes are completely for show, established at easy courses. Whatever floats your boat.

It amazes me how much people exaggerate this stuff online. I post on a lot of car forums and a unifying this is people are always talking about their 125mph swing speeds and 300 yard carries.... not realizing that those are HUGE drives. Like the above poster said.... 250, 260 on average... thats a pretty big drive. 280 is looong. These exaggerators are insulting the skills of the real deal tour players if anything.

It always amazes me how some people on these forums cannot fathom a non-pro jacking drives over 280. The only time I hit a 250 yard drive is if I mis-hit it.

LOL!!! (I'm actually serious. I own a SkyCaddy and it doesn't lie.)

[ArjunGFX]

It looks like the only people who feel that people lie about carry and swing speed are jealous. I have a high handicap because I only get out maybe 5-10 times a year. So the short game lacks obviously.

We're not jealous, we're realistic.

Lets talk stats for a minute. I've played golf since I was 8... I'm 23 now and my handicap has fluctuated between 2 and 4 since I was 17. So over the years I've played with a lot of great players, including many pros and many juniors who can BOMB the ball. I haven't played tooo much on the West Coast and down South, but I'll leave them out of this discussion because players in those areas do hit the ball a lot longer... there is no doubt about that. I can average 260-280 including roll when I play in Arizona, and I have friends that can average in the 290-300range as well. However, you sir are part of a true minority - a New England golfer that can fly it 290. I'm from Mass as well, I'm curious, which course/hole is the green you're talking about? I believe you because you sound pretty adament but in all my years of golf in New England I've met LITERALLY (so few I can't even remember any specific ones except for one ex hockey played that I've seen fly it 290ish on average) a handful of golfers that average above 280 including roll (whatever roll we get..) on their drives. I know you guys are out there but I'm always mystified that Northeastern, non tour players who can fly the ball 290 are sooo commonplace on online forums, and sooo rare in real life. I post on several forums and it seems like the average drive of people who do a lot of web surfing is around 290 or 300... maybe it's all the typing?

[JaY_B]

Just as someone noted that body size has little to do with driving distance, handicap/index levels also have little to do with it. I personally think a lot of indexes are completely for show, established at easy courses. Whatever floats your boat.

I can't work out if your agreeing or disagreeing with my post, as what you said has little relevance to what I said, but oh well Of course body size does not directly effect the distance you hit the ball, although being bigger certainly helps, Just look at Andres Romero or even Richard Sterne, they hit it plenty long and are not big by any means. I don't think handicap indexes are for show to the same extent that you imply in your post, no matter how 'easy' a course is you still have to hit good shots and hole good putts etc, and my course is also by no means an easy course, if that was what your implying. And also would I do not have a problem with anyone who is not a pro hitting a long ball, ask me and I will crank one out 280 for you now, but hitting it hard is not as important to me as scoring well, and also I couldn't care less how far you hit it, doesn't interest me, if you hit the ball 300 yards but play off 25, don't expect me to congratulate you, as you have achieved nothing, now someone who shoots 3 under with a bag full of irons and no woods, well done son!

[powerfade]

I can't work out if your agreeing or disagreeing with my post, as what you said has little relevance to what I said, but oh well

Easy junior...it's only a golf forum.

You brought up your impressive index level then said you're baffled by all who 'say' they can drive it further than you. It's probably safe to say there are many golfers on the forum longer than you. Don't be baffled. BTW - I was using an analogy by comparing body size/distance and index/distance. All of which really have nothing to do with each other. If my implication about indexes doesn't apply to you, then don't worry about it. I've played easy courses and thought, I'd be a low single digit index if I played there all the time. I do believe a course has a lot to do with a person's index. For those who challenge themselves on difficult courses and play to an index they are proud of...good for you and me. Those that don't...just watch out who you play against.

[JaY_B]

Easy junior...it's only a golf forum.

I brought up my handicap simply to help you understand the level of players I play with in competition, I was not trying to impress you, what 'baffled' me is how all the high handicap players hit it further than some of the + 2's I have played with (but as I have also said before the argument of how far people do and do not hit it will never be solved, so I will not digress from the point of this post, in order to argue that point).

Obviously some courses are easier than others, I was saying that you still have to play well to shoot low scores, regardless of how hard the course is. It would also be a lie for me to tell you that the course does not affect a golfers handicap, I have often considered going to an 'easier' course in order to get my handicap down, but as you said in your post "just watch out who you play against". I would rather play to 5 at a hard course, than move to an easy course and play off 2. Easy son, this is a golf forum, therefore, we talk about all things golf!

[powerfade]

Hey, being a junior and playing to a 5.4 is pretty impressive in my book.

There's really no arguement that there's some exaggerating going on. Even if we had a Sand Trap Open and everyone showed up, I'm sure we'd hear many excuses as to why people are not living up to their posted distances.

It would be comedy to have some of the 'big hitters' get called out on the forum by their golfing buddies.

[lovemylabs]

Exactly. The reason why I'm not on Tour by now is because a 300 yard drive is still useless if it sends the ball out of bounds.

Dude seriously, here is the scenario, you play in a tournament, you consistently smash 300 + drives, and you finish in the middle of the money somewhere. This real hot chick is checkin you out, and from behind you walks the winner(of the tournament), who most drives were 280 or less but his short game was beautiful, and his cheque is like four times yours. who does the chick dig now?

I'm just kidding with you I really don't care if people are lying about their distance, the only people their cheating are themselves. now remember if your not drinking beer while golfing, your not truly golfing.

[lovemylabs]

sorry to all if that last post rambled. I'm in a very cold Ohio with a cold and heavily medicated, and not makig sense as we speak. good golfing to all the unsick.

[MasterOfTheBogey]

This thread is getting kind of old. Just people bickering now, but the last time I checked hitting a Ball 300 + yds. doesnt give you a tour card. Like a said previously - you can hit it a mile, but what does it matter when you turn to crap inside of 100 yds.

I drive the ball 280 + avg. with roll, if I wanted to lie, I would say 300 +

God let this thread go peacefully. Amen

[stiffiron]

I drove from Ann Arbor to Toledo once. Caught it really square and solid.

It took me just over an hour...

lol

[ganjagolfer]

Mike Austin's record 515-yard drive has yet to be approached in thirty years. Which begs the question: Did it—could it—really happen?

T+L GOLF asked the engineers at Focaltron, a golf-performance company in Sunnyvale, California, to simulate the drive to see whether Austin's story flies. After plugging in all the known data—that day's wind and weather conditions, the altitude, the persimmon driver and the two-piece ball—here's what they determined:

At an altitude of 2,030 feet and a temperature of eighty-eight degrees, Austin would have needed the day's maximum wind gust of 27 m.p.h. behind him, an astonishingly low launch angle and spin rate and a swing speed of 150 m.p.h. to carry the ball 445 yards before it started rolling. (Indeed, Austin's swing was once measured at 155 m.p.h.; by comparison, Tiger Woods swings the club about 120 m.p.h.) A few lucky bounces might—just might—have yielded another sixty or so yards. Plus, by cutting off the slight dogleg, Austin shaved ten or more yards off the hole. If all these variables came together, the 515- yard drive could have occurred. Or perhaps, as Austin's biographer, Philip Reed, suggests: "Something unquantifiable may have happened that day. It's like the moment when a mother lifts a car to save her child from the burning wreckage. Whatever Mike did that day seemed to defy everything we know about the golf swing."

[ganjagolfer]

some mike austin clips

the man who cracked the code

mike austin in skeleton outfit

still popping em at eighty

[wachesawgolfer]

Well i'm one of those high handicappers and my drives average around 250, verified by yardage markers, hazard distances and gps on golf cart. Now have i ever hit it farther yep, two weeks ago on a 345 par for i hit it 30 steps from the front of the green. What I'm saying here is are these people claiming to hit it long every time out or once in a round or two, there's a big difference there. Heck everybody gets ahold of one every now and then.

This is what we read all the time and it really makes no sense to me at all. To drive the ball 250 into play puts you about a 7 iron or less in on most holes. On the par 5s and short 4s its really a wedge. If someone has the athleticism to hit a drive that well which requires a lot of timing and balance, it just seems odd they cannot hit a wedge on the green and knock the ball in the hole in two putts most of the time thus yielding a single digit handicap. In a word something is amiss and I suspect its the average driving distance into play.