Re: Is it just me?

hi robin
unless they have accurate measuring equipment then the claims have no integrity!
i treated myself to a gps golf device solely to help me gauge the distance i hit each club, i use it in social rounds or when playing solo.
on average this year i have driven the ball 257 yds and the longest was 287.
its not a level playing field some use better equipment, some play where the warm drier weather will aid distance and some will just have better swings

its all cobblers anyhow i outdrove a couple of low handicappers a few times yesterday yet they still got down in less shots than me.

at club level anything in the 220-250 yd mark is sufficient

Re: Is it just me?

As a high handicapper, my average is probably about 250 but that's carry+roll. And maybe not so straight. Sure, I've sometimes hit it 290 and 300, but I also hit it 190 and 200. And where I play, *nobody* who regularly hits the ball long is finding many fairways.

In my opinion, for the vast majority of us, the long drive is one of the most dubious "prizes" in golf. I have no data but I'd bet that for most amateur players, long drives add strokes to their game. That is, most of us would score better if we left the driver in the car. That doesn't apply to low handicappers (single digits, maybe), but that's already less than 5% or so of golfers.

Todd

Re: Is it just me?

hi
i agree with Todd that that most high handicapers try and hit there drives to far and swing to fast and hard and end up in the the deep stuff, i swing at about 80/90% and only hit my drives about 250/260 yard's and thats carry and roll but i do find the fairway more often than the deep ruff, if i swing hard at a wide fairway and give it 100% i always seem to end up having to take a wedge or a high number iron to get out the deep ruff. if i go to the range and really belt it out there with the driver i can sometimes get close to the 300 yard marker but only 2 out of 10 balls ever go anywhere near where i want then too. if i swing within myself (80/90%) i can put 8 out of ten balls near the 250 yard marker.
bill

Re: Is it just me?

Long drives to an amateur are like candy. The bottom line is not how far you can hit any club, but first how accurate you are, then how well you score with all those clubs.

A great drive for me is 240 yards, with a 10.5 driver. That is my great drive, so I see quite a few in the 230 range. My 3 wood is good for 200. I still carry a 2i that I hit 185, and I hit my 5i right at 155. These are short distances to be sure when compared to the younger, single digit ball strikers. However, I can still score well with these club distances, and I break 80 about 40% of the time. A score higher than 85 is just a bad day, as far accuracy is concerned for me. That, or maybe my short game went back south to a warmer climate. My point is you can score well, and still be a short hitter.

Some golf writer wrote an article about club distances. He used a 6800 yard, par 72 course as an example. If you throw out the 36 putts, you are left with 36 other strokes to shoot par. You would need to average 188+/- yards with those longer clubs. Throw out some shorter par threes, (300 yards worth) that 188 average comes down to around 180. Now, if you make a few putts, and you average 30 putts a round, that 180 average now moves down to around 155 for the other 36 strokes that make up par. As far as the par fives go, you take a 600 yarder, minus 2 putts, you are left with 3 shots that average around 200 each. A few 1 putts for par, and that 200, comes down to 150 for those 1 putt, par 5 holes. Now if you want to break 80, and you add 7 strokes to your game for a 79, the above averages are even lower. The 188 becomes 145, and the 155 become 139. These numbers above are all relative, and I only use them as an example. I sure hope my math is accurate...lol

Distance for the amateur is great, but shorter, more accurate shots will serve you much better in the long run, coupled with a strong short game. Anyone can develope a good short game equal to most of the best players. Add in some good course management, to a good short game, and a accurate long game, you will score better than 90% of the amateurs you will ever play with.

Obviously if you are a professional who lives off your golfing abilities, you need those longer distances to compete, in addition to a great short game, and an even better course management thought process. GJS

Re: Is it just me?

I believe it.

I am virtually certain that if I played 18 holes with nothing longer than my 4i hybrid in my bag, I'd post my personal best score. Granted, my personal best is a 96--not hard to beat. But it's hard for *me* to beat, since I haven't done it yet!

Teeing off with my 4i hybrid, I'd probably get 200 yards, but I hit that thing pretty straight. I don't think I'd miss any fairways. With my driver I'll almost always hit longer, unless I scuff it or something, but there's a good chance I'll find the rough. Where I usually play, the rough isn't too punishing, but it's enough to make it hard to get a lot of distance on the 2nd shot, so the distance I've gained off the tee I probably lose on the 2nd shot. So far, then, it's a wash. But some of those missed fairways will leave me not just in the rough but behind trees or in other interesting real estate. In these cases I *might* make a cool recovery shot, but more likely I'm giving up a stroke, one way or the other.

If I *really wanted* to play the card and get the lowest possible score, I'd either leave the driver in the car or I'd take it out for only those few holes where the fairway is huge and the rough is fairly harmless.

So why don't I do that? Because I play mainly for fun, and it's fun to grab the driver and smack one out there. It's even fun to go to the practice range and try to straighten out those drives. But if I were playing for any kind of serious money (and that in itself would be insanity), I'd have a whole different outlook.

Todd

Re: Is it just me?

Interesting replies guys.

My "pick up the tee nonchantly" on the fairway drive is 230-250 including roll which ties up with what you all say and compares favourably enough with most of what I see on the course (though I do use a pay & play hackers course).

My mate "T" can out drive me by 40 yds++ but he's big, strong and plays off 8 (and if he throttled back and traded yards for accuracy he'd be close to scratch); I wouldn't be surprised if a number of the posters on here also hit close to tour distance (you can name them yourselves).

However as I alluded to in my OP what does surprise me is the number of high caps who claim that sort of length as routine give all the robot generated evidence out there to the contrary for average swing speeds.

Last week's round was only the 3rd time I've had my driver out on a course in about 5 years - and (seeing it is new) only the 3rd time I've used a 460cc brick on a stick on a course.

I'm working on the big stick at the moment to the neglect of my short game but once I get the balance right again I hope to bring my score down by the 5ppr I'm over my target at the moment.

Reassured & never really THAT worried of London

Re: Is it just me?

What puzzles me is how I'm ever able to hit long drives. I've never had my swing speed clocked, but when I look at videos it looks pretty slow to me.

Re: Is it just me?

I am a short hitter. I am only 5 foot 6 and 160lbs, hit my 7i about 135-140. For some reason though I hit my 5w a good distance ave about 210 yds with it and have been known to get 240 out of it on occasion when the conditions are right. I have seen people who hit it a long way but they are few and far between. I often sit ahead/or level with my FCs when they hit driver and me 5w. I am doing an experiment right now to see if I can hit a 3w as well to eek out a few more yards.

My distances:

3w ???
5w 200-210
7w 170-180
4h 155-165
6i 145-155
7i 135-145
8i 125-135
9i 110-120
PW 95-105
AW 75-90
SW 60-75
LW 40-55

Re: Is it just me?

If I've got this right (?) I've never claimed a 'yardage shot' here or anywhere else, because I literally have no accurate idea how far I hit the damned thing. I know my 150 club (5I or a very gentle 4H if it's uphill!) because of the 150 yards markers at our course and likewise for the 100, but until last week when, like Slats, I got a GPS device (Nokia N95), I had no way of accurately knowing.

I do feel very doubtful of some of the claims you hear and read - only recently, someone I was playing with was telling me his friend regularly drives 350, and I remembered that thread on here about the longest average drive on tour being something like 302.

I don't struggle to think of lots of 'low teen' handicappers at the club who don't swing hard and don't swing fast, and yet have perfectly acceptable games. For the time being I'm more than happy with what the rest of my family say about - He swings like a girl

Re: Is it just me?

Interesting thread...

As a 15 marker, I'm unsure if I'm classified as a high cap or a low cap...

That aside, I have an unofficial long drive (unsubstantiated by anything more technically advanced than being paced out beyond the 150m marker) of around 365m. The qualification to that is that it was in the middle of summer, hard ground, and down wind. Was an ambrose day and we hit SW seconds into a 460m par 5. This was a few years back and I was off 19 on the day in question.

Have driven more than my share of 310m - 320m par 4's as well.

All of this is carry & roll type stuff.

TBH I have absolutely NO idea how far I carry my driver on a consistent basis, because I am still trying to achieve consistent results with it...

As I have said before in other threads, I have always been considered a longer hitter than most and I attribute this to my days playing competitive tennis. Strong forearms and wrists and I guess I must have that "lag" thing down, even though I have no idea what it is I'm actually doing.

I get somewhere's between 220m-250m carry & roll with my 1iron and only reason I take my 1W and 3W with me are because I want to challenge myself to improve my consistency with both clubs. Only thing I know for sure is if I don't hit em, I won't improve.

Our 6th (and rated easiest) hole is listed on the card as 245m (268yards approx) from the bricks and I can fly that with my 1W, so I guess I'm somewheres about 250m carry with a well struck shot.

My 3W and 1I are similar in distance, but different in trajectory and i'll take either after considering shot type I'm after.

And I agree with GJS, I have a mate who plays off 6 and I hit my 6iron further than he hits his driver. He hates me for that, and bottom line there is "short game". He is almost automatic for an up and down from anywhere within 50m. Me on the other hand.... My short game woes are well documented here.

I'm in it for the fun, the day it stops being fun, I'll stop...

Cheers

Re: Is it just me?

Robin,

The quick answer is: No, you are not the only one by far!

The linked article is a good read and very enlightening:

Golfers

Re: Is it just me?

A good read, Brian. Is it me or have you read every golf article on the internet?

Re: Is it just me?

LMAO....hey women have known for years that men can't determine length correctly...after all most men believe six inches is nine, so by that calculation a 300 yd drive is actually 240...lol

Re: Is it just me?

Robin,

It's not how, it's how many? It's not the quantity, it's the quality - a female's perspective...........

Couldn't care less about how anyone else is doing it in the group. The short game is the important part.