Re: First 300 yard drives

Odd that you mention that today, Todd.

I hit a couple of 300 bombs today. 168 left from 480 (very slight dog right), and 160 left from 470 (fairly straightaway).

Oddly enough, I was simply making sure my turn 'away' was full and complete... and then just turing back as fast as I liked.

Re: First 300 yard drives

Yep, that's the thing I was trying to get. My backswing (all clubs) tends to be short, and the simple reason is I'm afraid of a full turn--afraid of not "homing" back in on the ball for impact. But today I decided to work on that and, as I said, got some good results and some awful ones. This is what the driving range is for!

The interesting thing was that on both of the successful long drives, my thoughts were completely target-oriented. On the 350 yard par 4, it's fairly straight (slight bend left) but there's this annoying set of trees that sticks out about halfway into the fairway, about 200 yards out, the tallest one smack in the middle. So you have a choice either to go over that tree, or hit to the right a bit, which is away from the green. So at that particular tee I wasn't thinking about the backswing much. I just remember thinking "I *know* I can hit it over that damn tree." And I just pounded it and watched it fly over the tree, with room to spare. The other long drive was similar, in that I was *certain* I could cut that dogleg.

There's something to be said for positive, goal-oriented mental imagery. On the holes where I was thinking "I need to turn my hip more" or "I need to get my hands higher" I'd end up shanking it off into the bushes.

Re: First 300 yard drives

I've learned two important lessons this past winter (that I still haven't fully incorporated into my game):

1) You cannot hit a ball well thinking mechanics.
2) It's better to be be 100% wrong than 95% right when standing over a shot.

For 1) I still hit a pretty good ball 'feeling' for a good turn a proper wrist set (rehearsed in my stance - looks like a Ben Hogan waggle)

For 2) the explanation is that you need to be fully committed to the shot - whatever shot you're trying to hit. The smallest seed of doubt will undo your shot faster than you can curse about it. How many chips, half-wedges, and chunked approaches have we hit, because we're not 100% convinced it's the shot to play?

The other thing I tried yesterday was this 'full swing with abandon' swing with irons, too. I picked up about two extra clubs swinging this way (example: 180 to go in light rough, jail behind the green. I grab my 5 iron (normally my 170 club). 'swing with abandon and a full turn'). I managed to hammer it with a fade OB - 10 yards behind the green. Drop another and swing again. Miss left (and long - again, 10 yards behind the green (so 15 or 17 yards from center)) So now, with this swing (which is probably the swing I should be using all the time) my 170 is now my 190. But both of those swings were simply 'feel the full turn' and turn back aggressively.

We may have to move you up to a stiff shaft if you're bombing out 300 yarders!

Re: First 300 yard drives

Somehow I don't think it's going to become a way of life. Both of these were straight as javelins, but the fact is I don't see many long hitters who hit straight most of the time. Even among the good players, where I play, most miss a lot of fairways when they go long.

A few weeks ago I played a round with a soft-spoken Irish fellow, a lefty who smashed a very long ball, with a wicked slice. When he hit his first tee shot, I thought we'd never see that ball again, but it came back in and hit the fairway--the first fairway is pretty wide. We only played nine, and he came in with a par for the round, which was impressive. But I noticed that he knew when to leave the driver in the bag. He only missed one fairway, as I recall.

Sometimes the beautiful straight 300 yd bombs do more harm than good by tempting you to think you can hit like that the other 90% of the time.