Duke of Hazards wrote:

I read that article in WSJ too.... the numbers didn't look quite right. I find it hard to believe that all of those recorded shots were with the Driver, or at least on true 'driving' holes. I agree with the gist of the article, i.e. - that many golfers overstate their driving distance, but cannot believe that the average drive for a 10-hcp is 214, no way.

Yeah, the numbers are a little off.
But when i think about it.

At 36 cap... i was duffing 2 drives a round.
18, I duf 0.5 a round now... maybe it is the reason the AVERAGE drives were so bad... when you add a couple of shocking shots into it, they can be terrible.

Off matts or with those plastic/rubber tees... its always tough to be consistent, but who knows for sure.

I started GPSing every drive lately out of curiousity, so i'm going to keep a better eye on things. I want a laser now, so i can double check the distances.

The funny thing is, with a natural almost no effort swing i hit the ball further the other day, straighter too, so i'm not even going to swing anymore. I shot 43 on the back 9 this way, compared to the 50+ i shot on the front, i'm sold on the no swing swing.

http://youtu.be/VcOVb8bgArU

KVSmith59 wrote:

http://youtu.be/VcOVb8bgArU

I like how he hit a nice little draw with that shot, angling it down the fairway. That was pretty awesome.

But I also couldn't help but notice that he just missed, or even possibly clipped, the lower leaves. My version of that shot is about 2-3 feet higher. It hits a branch and, at best, drops right back down again.

what club do you normally use in that situation? A 4 iron would probably keep it pretty low. Maybe only take a half swing in order to get it out in the fairway. My friend actually uses a 3 wood and just worm burns in out of the trees....

Nice find on the video. I also like to smash the ball out hard and low w/3 wood. Choke down and come down hard like an iron. But you gotta commit.

I have played that course many times. Nice.

KVSmith59 wrote:

what club do you normally use in that situation? A 4 iron would probably keep it pretty low. Maybe only take a half swing in order to get it out in the fairway. My friend actually uses a 3 wood and just worm burns in out of the trees....

I usually use my 5i in that spot because it is my lowest lofted iron. I've tried hitting hybrids and woods from there with very little success. I either blast it past the fairway, or I worm burn it about halfway to the trees and need to do it again. The result with the 5i is usually one of those shots that look really awesome until it hits the branch. Maybe I need a 4i in my bag? My current set of irons has one. And I don't think I'd lose much in my game if I took out my 3h and played with a 4h and a 4i.

A lot of the time, though, is that shot has a limited amount of fairway to land on. I find those shots to be the most difficult of all. I just can't get enough touch on it with a low iron, and a high iron gets way too much loft.

if the ball isn't buried in rough, or you're sitting on dead grass, try your putter. If you have an old one sitting around, take it out to the course with you and try it out. If it's sitting good, you'd be surprised how far you can hit with a good whack

bkuehn1952 wrote:

Male amateurs who play to a 30 handicap average drives of 166 yards

Yep, that's pretty much me (on a good day).

ive read every post on this topic and it is amazing, I can only tell you i can carry a driver 230 on a great hit, 220 on a slight miss. never posted my average, but i would honestly say it would be about 230 to 240

Just hit, what I consider to be, a great drive in the cold windy weather last week. Measured it with my rangefinder from the ball in the fairway back to a guy standing at his teed up ball waiting for me to hit my 2nd shot. It measured 249. I haven't hit a ball that far since the temps dropped below 55 or 60 in November.

I agree, some guys think they average much more than they actually do. When I started measuring drives with my gps or my rangefinder, I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the numbers. I guess I always thought I hit it about 20 yards longer. These days, I'll bomb a drive straight down the middle. It will blast off the clubface and hit dead on the screws. I can't wait to get out to it to measure it while thinking, "that one has to be about 260 or 270." I am usually disappointed to find out it is only 235-240. Damn.

What's sometimes funny is to play with some young guys who think they hit it 280+. I tell them I'm playing the middle tees. They of course tee it up from the blues, 10-20 yards behind. They bomb their drives. Then I hit mine and it ends up same neighborhood as theirs. Maybe a little in front or slightly behind. I measure mine with gps at 225. They think theirs were 280. The math doesn't add up. I hate to burst their bubble, but if they ask, I tell them.

Certainly there are a few guys who can really put it out there. But it is not often you will find a guy that can put it out there 300+, is regularly in the fairway or very playable position, and yet has a handicap over 20. Not saying it doesn't happen. Just very rare. How can you hit a driver that consistently, requiring excellent hand-eye coordination to hit it dead nuts almost every time, yet you chunk and thin most of your approaches and chips with the same set of hands and eyes? Doesn't make sense.

On a side note, I can't wait to see how far I can hit my driver in the mountin air today. Tee time is in an hour.

Bryan K wrote:

On a side note, I can't wait to see how far I can hit my driver in the mountin air today

Cheat.

jpjeffery wrote:

Bryan K wrote: On a side note, I can't wait to see how far I can hit my driver in the mountin air today Cheat.

lol...I only had one super-sonic drive all day. They cheat on this driving range. It's downhill, which is freaking awesome. So on the first hole, I horribly sliced my drive with a final measurement of 202. Second drive, downhill with a backwind, went 286. It would end up being my only drive over 250 on the day. I had a couple of beauties on the back nine, but they were both just shy of 250.

But all of my drives went 200+, and two of my 5w shots even went 200+. Heck, one of my hybrid shots almost went 200 (I didn't measure that one, but I know I was 200+ from the green and left it just short).

So my average drive on the young season is in the 220-230 range.

And I hit one green in regulation (birdied it, too).

Lots of good thoughts shared on this topic. I am glad I am not the only one who sees a 250+ yds average for half the people here as being a "little high".

Btw, since I have been playing my new (to me) driver, which gets me quite a bit more roll, I have hit several drives over 250 (even one to 285 downhill with the wind) and my average has been climbing up to around 225, but I still hit the occasional pop-up for 175 yds!

Great subject. The reality of the golf SCORE includes all those lousy tee shots we wish we could take over. But we can't. So, we really should face up to the reality. The potential we have to drive the ball off the tee is really kind of secondary. Not immaterial, but secondary to golf.

In terms of ego and its first cousin, confidence, driving distance potential is of primary importance and as long as we have testosterone, we will consider driving distance a big deal. I do and judging by the four + pages of responses to this topic, so do many of us. So, driving distance potential is, at the very least, relevant.

But, for me the bottom line is that 300 is the new 250, and since I recall few mid-HC guys (truly) getting it out there 250 back in the day, it's a case of same manure, different pile.