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Driving The Ball

1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball?

No, I would not consider myself a great driver by the ball, just by the sole fact that I consider myself pretty decent at getting myself out of trouble. When you have practice at getting out of trouble, that is usually not a good sign.

2. Do those numbers (in the 1st paragraph) hold true for you?

I would say those numbers hold true to me. I can usually go back over my round, look at a couple of holes and start with "If I had driven the ball better on this hole or that hole". Frustrates the heck out of me.
 
1) No.

2) Absolutely.

When I can put it in play off the tee, I really believe I can put up a number. But, when standing on the tee, I'm as far from confident as possible.
 
1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball?

For the most part, yes I am a pretty good driver of the ball if we throw out the distance equation. According to Golfshot, in the last 20 rounds I am a little better than 65% on FIR.

2. Do those numbers (in the 1st paragraph) hold true for you?

Yes, they do very much....I can't tell you how many really good rounds I have ruined by those 1-3 swings with the driver....right now...if I hit 8/13 fairways....3 of those misses will be just off the fairway in the rough...the other 2...will be hooked off the planet either OOB or into a water hazard. Those are the ones I need to work on controlling.
 
Driving The Ball

Wow! I would say everyone here so far is an extremely good driver of the ball. The top driver of the ball on the PGA tour this year cord accuracy is sitting on 72.63%. There are some very good players hovering around the 50% mark.
Oddly, I do consider myself quite a good driver, despite having by far the worst stats in this thread so far. According to my stats on shot zoom I hit just 41% of my fairways. If I include the drives that end up in the short rough, that number would be considerably higher.
 
I think I might hit an average of 2-4 fairways a month.
 
1. I think I am a pretty decent driver of the golf ball. My game is all about playing away from trouble and I may not hit every fairway but my misses are generally playable and in a decent spot.

2. The 2-4 number might be a little high, I think I'm probably more like 1-3. I think the biggest part in eliminating those punishing shots is the ability to shape my drive. My goal is a straight-ish shot, but if there is trouble on one side or another, I will set up so that if I miss, it goes away from danger. If there is trouble long, I'll hit my fairway wood. It might be a boring style but it has made me fairly consistent.
 
Mark_UK said:
Wow! I would say everyone here so far is an extremely good driver of the ball. The top driver of the ball on the PGA tour this year cord accuracy is sitting on 72.63%. There are some very good players hovering around the 50% mark.
Oddly, I do consider myself quite a good driver, despite having by far the worst stats in this thread so far. According to my stats on shot zoom I hit just 41% of my fairways. If I include the drives that end up in the short rough, that number would be considerably higher.
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As indicated in the opening post we're not talking fairways only. We're not talking down the fairway in the rough or bunker, we're talking bad lousy drives that really cost you with perhaps a lost ball, an OB, in the woods or weeds or water, way off mark and basically out of play or a bad flop/miss that went 30yrds to the womens tee's. I think if a bogey golfer or worse were to be up the hole far enough and be in play 6 to 8 out of 10 ten times they might refer to themselves as good driver of the ball even if a lot of them are in the rough.

You said yourself if you counted the rough your number would be much higher too. At 41% fairways, if you counted all decent playable balls perhaps you might be (just guessing) up at 75% of your drives that give you a chance at hitting the green with the next shot on the average par 4 and then i'd say you were a good driver of the ball even though 41% fairway.

I am just speculating here but I would think pros are trying to really get on the ball with most drives and also know that they can recover from the rough or not so good situations much much better than us so the risk of not being in the fairway for them is not as great as it is for us. Their average mishits are also not nearly as often as bad as ours. I wonder what there percentage is of (not fairways) but just being in a decent position for playing the next shot is. I don't know but I'll bet its ridiculous high for them. So I think what we as amateurs or bogey golfers and worse can consider consistent and good is a whole huge difference from them.
 
Mark_UK said:
Wow! I would say everyone here so far is an extremely good driver of the ball. The top driver of the ball on the PGA tour this year cord accuracy is sitting on 72.63%. There are some very good players hovering around the 50% mark.
Oddly, I do consider myself quite a good driver, despite having by far the worst stats in this thread so far. According to my stats on shot zoom I hit just 41% of my fairways. If I include the drives that end up in the short rough, that number would be considerably higher.
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People compare the numbers to the tour and truthfully its an unfair comparison. Frankly its an unfair comparison to compare to others playing elsewhere. Everybody plays different courses and most are not playing at the tour caliber courses for their statistics.
 
JB said:
People compare the numbers to the tour and truthfully its an unfair comparison. Frankly its an unfair comparison to compare to others playing elsewhere. Everybody plays different courses and most are not playing at the tour caliber courses for their statistics.
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agreed. It's hard to look in to numbers like FIR%. If I played courses like True Blue more my driving % would be much higher than my home course. To me a good driving day is not making the mistakes that cause you penalty strokes or even punch out shots. I can be in the rough and still consider it a good drive.
 
JB said:
People compare the numbers to the tour and truthfully its an unfair comparison. Frankly its an unfair comparison to compare to others playing elsewhere. Everybody plays different courses and most are not playing at the tour caliber courses for their statistics.
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Agreed I don't look at FIR, I look at my misses and how playable/unplayable they are. Example last round I had 7 bad tee shots that all cost me a stroke or two at least. So that's 7-14 strokes added to my score just from the tee box. For me there is no way to shoot decent taking those types of penalties off the tee box.
 
1). I would say I'm about average for an amateur. On any given tee shot, there is about a good of a chance of something great happening as something horrendous. Fairways in regulation are probably less than 50%.

2) I would say that is about right for me. I have a few drives per round that lead to doubles or worse. It is rare when I play 9 or 18 when I don't have at least one penalty shot from a mishit from the tee. For example, I played 9 yesterday and had two huge miscues on the tee, with one ball going OOB, another in a lateral hazard. One was with an iron off the tee trying to play safe.
 
Jeff Spicoli said:
1). I would say I'm about average for an amateur. On any given tee shot, there is about a good of a chance of something great happening as something horrendous. Fairways in regulation are probably less than 50%.

2) I would say that is about right for me. I have a few drives per round that lead to doubles or worse. It is rare when I play 9 or 18 when I don't have at least one penalty shot from a mishit from the tee. For example, I played 9 yesterday and had two huge miscues on the tee, with one ball going OOB, another in a lateral hazard. One was with an iron off the tee trying to play safe.
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That's the worst! Nothing more demeaning than trying to play safe and still ending up with a penalty. :banghead:
 
JonD said:
That's the worst! Nothing more demeaning than trying to play safe and still ending up with a penalty. :banghead:
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That's what I get with trying to use my brain.
 
1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball?

Yes on most days i will hit most of the fairways or the first cut but i am know to have an off day and will get a bit wild

2. Do those numbers (in the 1st paragraph) hold true for you?

Yes for the most part if they are avg out some day i do not make any major mistakes then others that is all i seem to be doing
 
I consider my a very good driver off the tee. I'm typically in the fairway or close to it with no "big" trouble to affect my second shot..... On average I'd say I have about 1 really bad swing with my driver per round that results in a penalty stroke.
 
Great topic. I'd say in general I hit a couple of poor tee shots with my driver in a average round. At times I think I am pretty decent with the driver off the tee, but it comes and goes like the wind sometimes it seems. JB you will have to post the missing segment of the "special person" that deals with the driver off the tee and why the bad shots happen.
 
Except for the distance I think I am a good driver. I usually hit 8 - 10 fairways and the others are generally in the left rough. I do have those occasions when I will lose one OB or in a pond but, since at my course most of the water and ALL the OB is right my misses are usually playable.
 
1). Yes, I think I am a decent driver of the ball. 76% Fairways hit over the last 2 years with around 250-260 yard average.


2) Unfortunately the other 25% are usually misses that do often cause me fairly large numbers (doubles and sometimes triples). This plus the fact that I'm only 40% GIR with 20% scrambling is probably preventing me from breaking Par in my lifetime....
 
1) I think that I am about average from the tee box. I have some nice tee shots most of the time, but end up with a few WTH was that, kind of shot every now and then.

2) I believe the 2-4 bad tee shots is pretty accurate. Yesterday was a great example. I was crusing along hitting great tee shots for the first 5 holes, then the next 3 were struck like I jad never swung a club before. Not sure what the issue was, but it turned back around right after that and was great the rest of the day. That is a typical round for me.
 
I am fairly consistent off the tee, baby fade that seems to find the fairway or just misses. The problem comes into play when I hit a draw on accident and then penalty strokes come into play. I also play quite a few courses that are more forgiving so that helps.

I would say 2 shots a round that may put me in a bad spot.
 
1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball?

I used to be. I was very consistent and hardly put myself in trouble but lately I have been trying to add clubhead speed and a little distance and I think its really hurting me more than helping. I need to get back to that consistent driving. I dont think its bad to miss the fairway but its a not a good thing to constantly put yourself in scramble mode all the time.

2. Do those numbers (in the 1st paragraph) hold true for you?

Right now they are pretty spot on. I get myself in some bad spots and end up paying the price. Just last week I was out playing nine holes and thru 6 I was even par. I then tried to wind up and crush one on a par 5. Topped it into the creek. Took a 9 on that and then it went downhill. I need to get back to just getting it into play and then take it from there.
 
1. I'm an inconsistent driver of the ball. I hit a lot of really good balls typically. But when I miss, it's often big.

2. 2 a round in real trouble has been average lately.

Snap hooked from my Galaxy S3
 
1. I don't consider myself a great driver of the ball. I do usually keep the ball in play though. If I lose focus I can send one off the planet, however!

2. This is a tougher question to answer. My tee shots are not always what contributes to my "blow-up" holes. While I may have 2-3 tee shots that put me in trouble I don't always equate them with additional strokes. As an example, in today's round (9 holes) my worst score (quad) came on the hole with my best drive. Striped long and in the fairway. 2nd shot was pulled left but still playable and less than 100 yards to the pin (par 5 hole). Then the wheels came off with a shorted wedge, another wedge which landed on the fringe and rolled off the false front down to a valley, an overcompensated 3rd wedge that went in the bunker, a shot out of the bunker which hit the green and rolled down the valley again, another chip on, and finally capped with a two putt.

Getting rid of holes like that has nothing to do with my driving accuracy, lol.
 
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