Am I the only one who hits my drives less than 250 yds here?

[Just_Hacking]

I probably am in the 200 - 220 range. If the conditions are right I can get the occasional drive out around 240 or 250. I did hit one a few weeks ago that measured out a 285 yards!! Okay, the wind was really strong and I was down wind and the ball ran, but man it felt good to hit a drive like that. And it came on the highest handicap hole and longest par 4 on the course so that made it extra special.

 

[Knot Right]

I am a firm believer that most golfers are using drivers that are not suited to their swings. Not even close. I'll hang around the putting green some times just killing time and watching group after group go off the 1st and 10th tee's. Many of them are my friends in the 50-75 year range and I know what equipment they are using.

A good many of them have a combination of things robbing them of distance. Even when they put a nice swing on the ball, I can see that they are using the wrong shafts and lofts by just watching the ball flight.

It's hard to convince them that they are no longer 10.5 degree and tip stiff player.......... and probably myself included.

I see a launch monitor session in my future.

 

[Hoosiermess]

At my best I might carry 230 assuming I hit it straight or with a baby draw but I haven't seen that swing since last spring. I think I might have rolled one out that far this year but right now I'm hitting a pull cut or a high leaky fade (adding loft) to pretty much all of my clubs, driver included. I'm much closer to 180-200 at the moment. Hopefully when I get more rounds in and loosen up I'll get maybe back around 220, with a dry fairway that works pretty well at my home course.

 

[golfboyblues]

When I was a young man and a 2 handicap I could move the ball out 250-260. Now that I am 73 years old I'm lucky if I can hit it 215 yards. I play the tees appropriate for my distance and still love playing golf. I believe the majority of players way over estimate how far they hit the ball. Want to improve no matter what your age? Practice your short game.

 

[Scorp]

We need to play.

I know what you mean what tees do you play? I'm thinking of moving up to the senior tees... I'm going to be 50 this year so... not a senior but my game plays like it distance wise.

 

[J4U]

Up in EP, heading out now for men's league, our first of the year.

Love playing up there! Tera and I want to get back up for a weekend soon. Have they got that par 3 in town re-worked yet?

 

[Smiter]

You’ve gotta remember that this place is populated by those that are avid enough golfers to spend lots of their spare time on a golf website. There are some really really good high level amateurs on here. There’s also some really high HC which is great and what makes this place so great. All are treated equally.

I’ve only been on Trackman once since my accident, I’ve been forced by the trauma to change my John Daly type swing (see my avatar pic, JB took it at the THP Bridgestone Championship). Let’s just say that I’ve lost a lot of CHS. I’ve still got enough and I think I’ve finally got a handle on injury, illness, and medication issues that I’m finding the center of the club much more this year. I’m averaging more swinging 15 MPH less just due to more consistent contact. It’s still plenty long enough for the short courses around me (out of my normal courses the longest one tips out at 6600 which is 400 more than next longest).

At that THP event, one of the participants was truly LONG. @PETE379 put on a clinic where he actually had his own gallery. Long straight bomb after long straight bomb, some of them clearing the 25ft fence at the end of the range. I had the CHS still then to occasionally hit a whopper but that was far from the norm since I couldn’t find the center of the club with any consistency whatsoever. That was cool to see a THP’er in his element actually have a decent sized gallery. Bomb after bomb after bomb. Someone from Bridgestone even did an on the spot adjustment to his club to optimize it for him.

So there are a larger percentage than the average weekend warrior on THP the put a hurtin on the ball. But there’s also some damn good golfers that don’t hit it deep but instead rely on a very good short game and tons of practice to be good (looking at you Mr @Sean )

 

[Luchnia]

I am a firm believer that most golfers are using drivers that are not suited to their swings. Not even close. I'll hang around the putting green some times just killing time and watching group after group go off the 1st and 10th tee's. Many of them are my friends in the 50-75 year range and I know what equipment they are using.

A good many of them have a combination of things robbing them of distance. Even when they put a nice swing on the ball, I can see that they are using the wrong shafts and lofts by just watching the ball flight.

It's hard to convince them that they are no longer 10.5 degree and tip stiff player.......... and probably myself included.

I see a launch monitor session in my future.

I think you are on to something. Where do you think they miss it most in driver loft, or simply shafts to heavy and stiff that hit like boards, or would say it is equal? I have been looking into shafts myself for my driver, but I am already light at 50grams and basically senior flex. My loft is 10.5. I am fairly happy with my drives, yet I feel something is still lacking. I am wonder if I am torquing the shaft some, but probably is . My SS is up and down, but tends to hang around low to mid 90s. Sometimes I clip close to 100, yet on the course, I fully believe it is around 90-95.

 

[MagicSpell]

On my Arccos my average is 254. There is always a mix in my rounds of distances. My drive Of 27 yards yesterday didn’t help the average

I witnessed that monstrous 27 yard drive! It's like the tree caught your ball, wound up, and threw it right back at you...

As for my own driver distance, I've never really been a "big" hitter but used to send it pretty well when I was younger. Age and a faulty swing have brought that down quite a bit over the years but over the last couple of months I've been working on it in earnest with lessons. My last round I hit 8 of 14 fairways. Unfortunately, I still had several less than stellar drives. Not all the bad ones were out of play but they weren't necessarily stat monsters. In any event I still recorded the following drive distances on the round: 254, 227, 110 (pop up), 260, 270, 162 (fore right), 254, 284, OB, 290, 234, 320, 272, tree (another fore right). Obviously some of those were not fairway but certainly playable from where they were (except for the one OB drive).
Does all this make me think I can consistently drive it greater than 250? Nope. I know I can more often than not, but I'm not going to say I can until I can do it with more consistency. On the other hand, does it mean I should approach the tee thinking I'm going to drive it less than 250? Nope. I plan for success in my mental game.

 

[Knot Right]

I think you are on to something. Where do you think they miss it most in driver loft, or simply shafts to heavy and stiff that hit like boards, or would say it is equal? I have been looking into shafts myself for my driver, but I am already light at 50grams and basically senior flex. My loft is 10.5. I am fairly happy with my drives, yet I feel something is still lacking. I am wonder if I am torquing the shaft some, but probably is . My SS is up and down, but tends to hang around low to mid 90s. Sometimes I clip close to 100, yet on the course, I fully believe it is around 90-95.

The combination of flex and loft is were they miss it mostly. But to me, it looks like most of them are playing shafts that are too stiff along with the wrong shaft characteristics.

I have been out of the technical side for quite a while, but I have been doing a ton of research on the newer shafts just to catch up.

I would place more concern in the shaft characteristics over the weight unless you are customizing lengths. Flex -Torque - bend point mainly. The 10.5 loft head that you are using is a nice "middle of the road" loft that will react differently with each shaft you put in it.

 

[Nicegy525]

On firmer ground and if my swing is good that day, I can see distances of 240 ish total. However, I am usually a 200-220 driver. I hit a 300 yard drive once and still cant figure out how I did it. Must have caught a forward bounce and a favorable roll out.

 

[JaxHax]

Most of my drives end up in the 235-245 range since changing drivers this year - and I usually manage 2 or 3 drives in the 260-270 range per round.

 

[Luchnia]

On firmer ground and if my swing is good that day, I can see distances of 240 ish total. However, I am usually a 200-220 driver. I hit a 300 yard drive once and still cant figure out how I did it. Must have caught a forward bounce and a favorable roll out.

I hit one Sunday evening and it was up a long hill and somehow that sucker managed to make it right at 250. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the ball around 210-225 because I saw it go through around 210 and figured it might roll a little because it was uphill, yet I could not find it anywhere.

I was getting ready to drop and just forget it, thinking it was simply hiding from my sight (old eyes sometimes miss things), when I saw a ball glistening about 25 yards further up the fairway. I figured it was someone else's ball, but did not see anyone in the vicinity. After I got there sure enough it was mine.

How the ball got that far up hill is beyond me - had to be some hard ground there that it hit and rolled up.

 

[obedt]

According to Arccos Caddie and ShotScope, my smart average with driver is around 241 yards. And that's measuring roll so, yeah I'm definitely a short hitter by internet forum standards

 

[Snickerdog]

Played with a guy this weekend who asked me why I was playing my driver when I just hit a 3 wood off the deck a measured 232 yards. He said no reason to let the driver struggles bother me and just hit your 3 wood off the tee.

 

[Mr Moke]

I can get 200 total yds if it’s warm and the fairway is firm and dry, since I seldom play in those conditions my average is about 190.

 

[PJSprog]

No, not me. I used to get out around 240-250 regularly when I was younger and in better shape. Now that I'm old and fat, I drive somewhere between 200-225 on good days. I'm OK with that, so long as it stays in play.

 

[golfunfiltered]

I'd imagine most internet golfers average around that number.

 

[BigMac]

It's 185 for me. Confirmed on a launch monitor at my local golf store a couple of months ago... I wanted to know my driver swing speed. It's low 80's.

I had no idea what my swing speed was before I got fit(ted) earlier this year. I've been hitting R flex shafts for years and was wondering if maybe I needed to go to a senior flex. Turns out my swing speed is 87-90, and I was fit(ted) into a R flex shaft for my new driver.

 

[Luchnia]

Played with a guy this weekend who asked me why I was playing my driver when I just hit a 3 wood off the deck a measured 232 yards. He said no reason to let the driver struggles bother me and just hit your 3 wood off the tee.

I noticed lately I have been hitting my 5 wood off the tee around 220. Not sure why in the world I pull that driver out of the bag sometimes only to hit it about the same distance and usually not nearly as accurate. I hit the 3 wood off the tee once and sailed the ball way out there and the guy standing beside me said, why do you bother with the driver? Will I ever learn.

 

[Luchnia]

I had no idea what my swing speed was before I got fit(ted) earlier this year. I've been hitting R flex shafts for years and was wondering if maybe I needed to go to a senior flex. Turns out my swing speed is 87-90, and I was fit(ted) into a R flex shaft for my new driver.

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I hit the senior flex shafts and wondering if I should be hitting regular since I swing in the low to mid 90s most of the time. I hate to go back and be fitted again. Golf can be so much work

 

[JonMA1]

You’ve gotta remember that this place is populated by those that are avid enough golfers to spend lots of their spare time on a golf website. There are some really really good high level amateurs on here.

I agree.

A little off-topic, but it's a pet peeve of mine when folks automatically call BS on claims of a certain distance as an average. While there are certainly a high percentage of golfers on the internet who either knowingly or unknowingly exaggerate, there are also a lot of folks who really do average well over 250 yards. These same folks will bring HC into the equation as though outliers don't exist. I know of one individual who averages well over 250 and doesn't have that great of a game. He's just very athletic and doesn't play often enough to get better.

 

[BigMac]

I agree.

A little off-topic, but it's a pet peeve of mine when folks automatically call BS on claims of a certain distance as an average. While there are certainly a high percentage of golfers on the internet who either knowingly or unknowingly exaggerate, there are also a lot of folks who really do average well over 250 yards. These same folks will bring HC into the equation as though outliers don't exist. I know of one individual who averages well over 250 and doesn't have that great of a game. He's just very athletic and doesn't play often enough to get better.

I've heard that a lot of the Long Drive competitors don't have much of a game other than being able to hit the ball a long ways. It's great that they can smash a drive 400+ yards, but there are still a few shots needed after that to get the ball in the cup. They also don't care much about accuracy - as long as they can get 1 or 2 of their 10 balls in the grid, they could be in the running. If only 1 or 2 out of every 10 of our drives were in play on the course, we wouldn't stand much chance of having a decent handicap.

 

[Luchnia]

I agree.

A little off-topic, but it's a pet peeve of mine when folks automatically call BS on claims of a certain distance as an average. While there are certainly a high percentage of golfers on the internet who either knowingly or unknowingly exaggerate, there are also a lot of folks who really do average well over 250 yards. These same folks will bring HC into the equation as though outliers don't exist. I know of one individual who averages well over 250 and doesn't have that great of a game. He's just very athletic and doesn't play often enough to get better.

My youngest son sort of fits this. He is around 6' 5" tall and he can totally CRUSH a driver. Swings that sucker like a baseball bat. I like it when he makes a good drive as you can hear the ball whistle while it is moving through the air. I think his SS at times is around 1tweens when he was last clocked at the fitters. Not sure he can still do that though as he has gotten a little older now.

 

[ddstanford]

I know what you mean what tees do you play? I'm thinking of moving up to the senior tees... I'm going to be 50 this year so... not a senior but my game plays like it distance wise.

I play the whites or the blues so far. Our course is pretty short from the whites and about normal from blues.