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Average drives and iron hits to break 100 90 80

At the course I used to play, elevated tees and hard fairways, I would consistently hit my driver 260 to 275. Lots of roll. Now that I play in swamp, 250 makes me pretty happy.

I wonder how many measure their drives with a GPS? If you're basing distances off a scorecard or sprinkler heads, science can be a real kick in the Titleists.

Kevin
 
Well for me, I definately am not swinging out of my shoes or anything. But I understand your questioning the numbers. Being in the military, I move around alot and meet a bunch of people. I end up playing golf with a lot of them and I usually ask before we go play for the first time what they normally shoot. And almost all of them that say they shoot in the 80's or 90's (which is what I shoot) do not. I will go out there and easily beat them by like 10 strokes. Not saying that I am good or anything, because I am not. I am ok. But I notice people usually exagerate their handicap just like they do their driving distance.

My SS was just measured the other day and was 105 for my 3W and around 110 for my driver. I do seem to swing a little harder on my woods than my irons, so maybe that is part of the reason I see a bigger difference. My driver is not that accurate, only hitting about 35-40% of fairways right now. But my misses are not flying off into the next fairway either. They are usually just 5-10 yards off. I only lose 1-2 balls per 18. And like I said earlier, when I hit my driver well, it goes 270-280. That is not my average. I only get that maybe half the time. My driver is definately more eratic than my other clubs. So I use my 3 wood alot off the tee. Which goes about 230-240 but more consistently. Granted, I am not using a GPS or anything. I just use the course yardage. So for ex: If I have a par 4 380 yards and I drive it to the 100 yard marker, then my drive went 280. I know that isn't very accurate but I wouldn't think it would be that far off?

I was actually on the other side looking at it thinking if I am outdriving these guys by 20 yards, I should be hitting my 4 iron 215! But I only hit it 200. But I would trade my 275 yard drives for 240-250 right down the middle everytime anyday. Hell I don't care if i could only drive it 220 if I could be a 5 HC. To me it is all about getting better and lowering my HC. So either I am that awful or that article is just plain stupid. Because according to it, I should be a lot better!
 
Barberakb said:
Well for me, I definately am not swinging out of my shoes or anything. But I understand your questioning the numbers. Being in the military, I move around alot and meet a bunch of people. I end up playing golf with a lot of them and I usually ask before we go play for the first time what they normally shoot. And almost all of them that say they shoot in the 80's or 90's (which is what I shoot) do not. I will go out there and easily beat them by like 10 strokes. Not saying that I am good or anything, because I am not. I am ok. But I notice people usually exagerate their handicap just like they do their driving distance.

My SS was just measured the other day and was 105 for my 3W and around 110 for my driver. I do seem to swing a little harder on my woods than my irons, so maybe that is part of the reason I see a bigger difference. My driver is not that accurate, only hitting about 35-40% of fairways right now. But my misses are not flying off into the next fairway either. They are usually just 5-10 yards off. I only lose 1-2 balls per 18. And like I said earlier, when I hit my driver well, it goes 270-280. That is not my average. I only get that maybe half the time. My driver is definately more eratic than my other clubs. So I use my 3 wood alot off the tee. Which goes about 230-240 but more consistently. Granted, I am not using a GPS or anything. I just use the course yardage. So for ex: If I have a par 4 380 yards and I drive it to the 100 yard marker, then my drive went 280. I know that isn't very accurate but I wouldn't think it would be that far off?

I was actually on the other side looking at it thinking if I am outdriving these guys by 20 yards, I should be hitting my 4 iron 215! But I only hit it 200. But I would trade my 275 yard drives for 240-250 right down the middle everytime anyday. Hell I don't care if i could only drive it 220 if I could be a 5 HC. To me it is all about getting better and lowering my HC. So either I am that awful or that article is just plain stupid. Because according to it, I should be a lot better!
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Its funny, while you see people generally bragging and lowering their handicap, I see it the other way, sandbagging their handicap but increasing their driver distance. Its not about people lying about what they do in my opinion. Most dont even know what their handicap is. They assume a handicap is their average score. So they believe that if they shoot 90 they are an 18, or if they shoot 80, they are an 8. The fact is, that is not what a handicap is.

On the flip side, we see people hit drivers and say they drive the ball 275 and then the launch monitor says 240. Most cases it is not them lying or pounding their chest. Its merely that they are measuring from the tee box or score card to what they have left to the hole. That is NOT an accurate measurement of distance because many things can be different such as cutting the corner. Placement of tees, etc... There are more to it than that.

What I was saying was that my SS and iron numbers are close to the same as yours and others on here, yet people are hitting balls past me by 40 yards. I want to learn how to do that. I mean our driver SS is virtually the same. You are slightly faster than me if I dont amp up on one, but you are outdriving me by close to 40 yards on average. Something is not right with my game I am guessing.
 
Dang, maybe I need to swing my driver harder. I'm with JB on this one. I'm hitting 7 iron as long as most people on here (160-165), but my drives (carry only) are around 210-230 on average, and roll out to about 230-250, which leaves me 30-50 yards shorter than most others on here. I strive for accuracy, am hitting 56% of FIR currently, when I hit the rough it's usually only a few yards off the fairway, and average 1 penalty per round (but usually not from driving the ball). Maybe I should be jumping out of my shoes a little more with the driver and sacrifice some accuracy, or am I just not comfortable swing the long stick hard? I'd LOVE to add another 20-30 yards, as I think my GIR would then soar (currently at a pitiful 27%). Swinging harder usually brings out my swing faults (hip slide) and a nasty push.
 
Interesting JB. When you say driving distance you mean carry and roll right? I went shopping for a 3 wood recently. I hit the diablo edge and TM superfast 3 W. I was getting 105 SS and carry and roll distances of 230-240. All I have used on the course is the course yardage, so maybe that has inflated my numbers. I also play a cheaper 2 piece ball which might increase distance a little. And with my driver I go past parrallel. Not sure if that matters. I think that hurts my accuracy but i find it's a hard habit to break.

Just send me one of those nice GPS units and I would be glad to post up my exact #'s for you to evaluate :pray:
 
Barberakb said:
Interesting JB. When you say driving distance you mean carry and roll right? I went shopping for a 3 wood recently. I hit the diablo edge and TM superfast 3 W. I was getting 105 SS and carry and roll distances of 230-240. All I have used on the course is the course yardage, so maybe that has inflated my numbers. I also play a cheaper 2 piece ball which might increase distance a little. And with my driver I go past parrallel. Not sure if that matters. I think that hurts my accuracy but i find it's a hard habit to break.

Just send me one of those nice GPS units and I would be glad to post up my exact #'s for you to evaluate :pray:
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Im not disputing your numbers, and I hope you dont take it that way. But I do think that if you used a GPS to measure your drives you would see a dramatic difference (longer or shorter) in what you are getting by just measuring what you have left to the center of the green from yardage markers and score cards.
 
Oh, I don't take it that way at all. I actually find all this very interesting. I have been looking at buying a golf buddy platinum but I'm too cheap to shell out $350 for a GPS. Have you ever used or reviewed one of these? I hear they are pretty good, and have no fees. Only knock I am hearing on them is that most of the courses don't have the full overhead hole view yet.
 
Barberakb said:
Oh, I don't take it that way at all. I actually find all this very interesting. I have been looking at buying a golf buddy platinum but I'm too cheap to shell out $350 for a GPS. Have you ever used or reviewed one of these? I hear they are pretty good, and have no fees. Only knock I am hearing on them is that most of the courses don't have the full overhead hole view yet.
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You can get GPS units for a lot cheaper. The bushnell yardage pro XGC is pretty cheap and its real nice. You can check out the review on it on the home page. Or goggle yardage pro xgc hackers paradise and it will be there.
 
Barberakb said:
Oh, I don't take it that way at all. I actually find all this very interesting. I have been looking at buying a golf buddy platinum but I'm too cheap to shell out $350 for a GPS. Have you ever used or reviewed one of these? I hear they are pretty good, and have no fees. Only knock I am hearing on them is that most of the courses don't have the full overhead hole view yet.
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my gps is called golf guru. It doesn't have overhead views, because when I got it at the time few did. However, all of the downloads are free. The yardages are accurate. It allows me to keep my stats and driving distances on there. My home course wasn't on there, I put in a request to have it mapped and sure enough the next day I received an email from them saying I was all set. If you don't want to shell out a lot of money, check them out. They do have a unity not with overhead views as well.
 
man i would kill for some of you guys's distances... ive even taken power swing clinics to increase distance... ive gained about 10-15 yrds but its really screwed my game all up... im happy as hell when i get it to 230 with my driver or anything straight 200... whats weird is ive surprised myself a few(very few) times with big bombs... i just wish i could duplicate it more often
 
I don't think that there is a good answer to this one. But, if pressed, I'd say to break 100, you would have to be able to hit the ball at least 350 yds in 2 shots, ie, driver and an iron or hybrid. So, on in three, and 2 putts, for a 5 or bogy golf.
 
Breaking a 100 is about keeping the ball in play for me and not going OB off the tee. This weekend I only had 2 OB drives and 3 into hazards.
 
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