I’ve never been an advocate for long driving. If you offered me 10 yards extra distance or the comfort that I’d hit the majority of fairways, I know exactly what I’d take. But having seen the outrageous distances they now seem to hit it on tour, I could only wonder what a 9 handicapper like myself would do if I had that type of power at my disposal. To find out, I decided to conduct my own little experiment. I currently average drives of around 230 yards, not short by any means but certainly nothing to give Bubba Watson and co anything to lose sleep over.
The average length of a drive on the PGA Tour is 291.4 yards. Not only does that represent 5/6 clubs difference, these players will also have the power to hit wedge from places I would normally take a 6 iron. As much as I fully appreciate the importance of good putting, this must have a huge impact on scoring.
To find out what my ability could achieve if I had the length of a tour professional, I decided to take all my second shots, barring par 3s, from the same position a tour professional would find himself in if he hit the drive. I like to think that I am a relatively good ball-striker, and my scrambling ability has improved dramatically in recent years, so I have always been curious as to how much my distance has been holding me back, and how much of an advantage those big guys on tour have over me. Obviously they don’t hit every fairway, so I decided still to hit the tee-shots, but then preceded to place the ball 50-60 yards further forward reasonably well along that line. Inevitably this raised a few eyebrows from onlookers, but my determination to unearth my potential with a bit more power in my bag made me push on.
I typically average 80/81 around my home course. But recently, I have eliminated several weak points in my game and have been left scratching my head as to what makes the difference between a fairly solid golfer like myself, and the +1 handicappers at my club who smash the ball 280 yards off the tee. Armed with a skycaddie sg2.5 to measure the extra the extra yardage off each tee-shot, I set-off on my quest to delve into my potential if I had the personal trainers, custom fitted technology and athletic body of a Dustin Johnson.
To cut a even longer story short, it started very promisingly, I birdied the first and second holes, both par 4s, and was -3 after 8 holes, numbers that would normally be enough to make me dizzy. Despite a disappointing bogey 6 at the normally birdieable 9
th
, I was still getting the ball round and with birdies at 11 and a rare birdie at 14, I stood on the 17
th
tee back at -3. The last two holes are short regardless, so with the extra ammunition I was literally flicking lob wedge at both greens. I was therefore a bit disheartened to finish with two pars, but the fact that I bettered my personal best around my home course by three simply with a bit more power with the driver, it was a great answer to the questions in my head.
Please bare in mind that I was really on my game that day, and that this wouldn’t necessarily be a typical score even if I did blast it 300 yards off the tee, but I would definitely urge you to give this a go even if it is only for a few holes just to see whether or not it might be worth hitting the gym. :P
