We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Driving The Ball

1) If we aren't talking distance, I feel I am a pretty good driver of the ball. I typically hit around 75% of my fairways per round with an average driving distance of 260. I've had 3 rounds in the past 9 where I've only missed one fairway.

2) Doesnt really hold true for me. My mistakes are typically on my approach shots, getting too aggressive and attacking too many pins, which in turn leaves me with tough up and downs.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
 
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.
Click to expand...

Good point. The courses I usually play on have a lot of woods left and right. Once I slice one into those, it becomes a blowup hole for me. But if I have side by side fairways, I can hit one way right and still have a playable lie from the next fairway over. Open courses are a lot more forgiving when it comes to wild hitters.
 
1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball? Not particularly.
2. Do those numbers (in the 1st paragraph) hold true for you? Pretty much to a T....I seem to miss OB or in a hazard 2-4 times per round. It's costly.
 
1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball?

Yes, I think I am a decent driver of the ball. 70% Fairways hit over the last 2 years with around 240-260 yard average.


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

Right now they are pretty spot on. My miss hits are pushes to the right when I don't clear the hips or don't
drive through the ball. Usually on the last few holes if I walk. Those misses always lead to bogies or worse.
But yesterday my pushes came on two dogleg rights and ended up being my longest drives. 271 and 274. I'm
sure they were only 245 or so straight but with the dogleg the GPS measures were 270+. On a straight
fairway they would have been OB, and with the penalties I would have never shot the 78 I shot yesterday.
First 78 in 35 years!:bananadance:
 
I'm pretty consistent at missing fw's, but generally not by a lot. That 3 to 5 yards off can be costly for a shorter hitter.
 
I love to hit driver! Does that answer the question?! Ha!

I'm in the same boat as most here, I have a few bad drives a round but it always seems to come down to the next shot on whether I blow up on the hole or not.
 
I am funky with my driver on the first 2 or 3 holes. Unfortunately my home course opens with 2 par 4s and a par 5 so it hurts me early.
 
My driver is definately not my favorite club. I have improved over the years, but I am hovering around 30% fairways hit, the higher percentage rounds usually have a few irons off the tee which inflates the average. That is a major weakness for me. I am good for at least 2 power fades off into the woods each round.

I think the numbers hold true for me.
 
I'm either really good or really bad. The numbers are probably pretty close, maybe a little more on the low side considering I'm not a very good golfer. I can have some that are right in the fiarway or within a couple feet, but a few times a round I end up in the trees, in another fairway or 100 yards out after topping the ball or sending it straight up in the air. Heading in the right direction, though. Fairways percentages are climbing.
 
I have gone from hitting 12 out of 14 fairways on a really good day, to not hitting a single fairway one day. Oddly enough, my scores are relatively close at the end. I can never get every part of my game to click together. Last round, I was taking hybrid off the tee on every "driving" hole in the back nine.
 
I think those #s are pretty accurate for me. For instance, yesterday I hit a bad drive on #2 and doubled, #11 and doubled, and #17 and tripled. Those were my worst holes by far and could have been avoided by making a better swing from the tee box.

Tapped from my Transformer
 
Had a really bad day ball striking wise on Friday.....I think I might have only hit 3 or 4 fairways all day...I am back to snaphooking the driver. Really made for a bad round.
 
1) I would say I am an average driver most of the time.

2) I would say as an average 3-4 is about right. When I am playing well I would say it is closer to 1-2, when I am playing poorly it is probably 5-6 drives a round.
 
Over the course of four days I can say I had one bad swing, off the tee, per side. I can fee it happening on the Amy to the ball and really have to ope I can catch up. But aside from I had a food driving weekend. My scores reflected it as I was in the 70s in all of my individual rounds.
 
After this weekend I can say that I feel I'm back to being an average driver. I went back to a TM Superfast Burner 1.0, widened my stance a little and now I'm hitting it straighter and longer, with just a couple of stinkers per round. It's a great feeling to get the confidence back with the driver.
 
Good driver of the ball? No, maybe just OK. I have to manage my way around the course most of the time. Try to keep the hook in play or use three iron off the tee.

Numbers are probably about right, 2-4 times per round there may not be enough room to the left or I just flat out miss the ball and hit it crazy places.
 
1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball?
No, my driving is really hit or miss. Very inconsistent. Last year, according to my stats, I hit almost dead at 50% of my fairways. On a good round I was in the mid 60% and a bad round was in the 30% range. A bad drive can really lead to a bad hole; however, I was able to get some good par and bogey saves last year with my short game even after some horrible drives.

2. Do those numbers (in the 1st paragraph) hold true for you?
Yeah, I would say I have at 1 or 2 poor drives per 9 and sometimes more.

This is a good thread. Driving is the second area of my game I really want to improve this year. Number one is obviously putting. The majority of my strokes lost so far this year have been on the green with stupid 3 bangers...
 
I had this thread on my mind while I was playing yesterday, specifically the big miss part.

Here were my big misses. Three of them, so I fit right into the 2-4 range. I was three over on the holes with the big misses.

1st tee par 5, a sweeping hook to the left rough. In thick grass and blocked out by a tree, so had to bail out. Bogey on the hole.

6th tee, uphill par 4 - another sweeping hook and a huge one at that. Just short of the native grasses, but had a shot from an uphill lie in the rough. Got that one almost the fringe and parred it.

10th tee - Huge push right on the on the longest par 4 on the course. I usually get one of these a round it seems. Blocked out by trees again and had to hit an open face wedge laterally to get out and over them. Still had 170 in and left myself a downhill lie. Doubled the hole.

Looking back, would I have changed anything (other than the outcome)? Maybe a little. All three holes are ones that I put a little pressure on myself to hit one out there a long ways. In other words, I was thinking about the second shot before I hit the first one. First hole can give a shot at the green in two with a good long draw. 6th and 10th need a long drive as well to have a clear look at the green. Next time maybe I'll try to avoid getting ahead of myself.
 
Hawk said:
I had this thread on my mind while I was playing yesterday, specifically the big miss part.

Here were my big misses. Three of them, so I fit right into the 2-4 range. I was three over on the holes with the big misses.

1st tee par 5, a sweeping hook to the left rough. In thick grass and blocked out by a tree, so had to bail out. Bogey on the hole.

6th tee, uphill par 4 - another sweeping hook and a huge one at that. Just short of the native grasses, but had a shot from an uphill lie in the rough. Got that one almost the fringe and parred it.

10th tee - Huge push right on the on the longest par 4 on the course. I usually get one of these a round it seems. Blocked out by trees again and had to hit an open face wedge laterally to get out and over them. Still had 170 in and left myself a downhill lie. Doubled the hole.

Looking back, would I have changed anything (other than the outcome)? Maybe a little. All three holes are ones that I put a little pressure on myself to hit one out there a long ways. In other words, I was thinking about the second shot before I hit the first one. First hole can give a shot at the green in two with a good long draw. 6th and 10th need a long drive as well to have a clear look at the green. Next time maybe I'll try to avoid getting ahead of myself.
Click to expand...

That's a good point there Hawk. If I'm staring down a par 5 (or long par 4 sometimes), I put too much pressure on myself to smack the crap out of the ball sometimes. Often ends up poorly. I'm going to make an effort to play from the fairway more this year. If that means I'm not hitting par 5s in two, then so be it. Heck I've got a better chance at par on a 4 if I take three shots to get on, with the third shot being up close, than I do if I have to re-tee due to an errant tee shot.
 
JonD said:
That's a good point there Hawk. If I'm staring down a par 5 (or long par 4 sometimes), I put too much pressure on myself to smack the crap out of the ball sometimes. Often ends up poorly. I'm going to make an effort to play from the fairway more this year. If that means I'm not hitting par 5s in two, then so be it. Heck I've got a better chance at par on a 4 if I take three shots to get on, with the third shot being up close, than I do if I have to re-tee due to an errant tee shot.
Click to expand...

True that. What's telling is that the on the other par 5's I wasn't in that frame of mind and could have probably taken a run at the green on two of them if I wasn't a wuss. The other one wasn't a big miss, but I caught a bad break and had to work a little more. It's a fine line, because I do drive the ball better when I just swing away. I tend to slow down and hit weaker shots when I concentrate on steering the ball.
 
Hawk said:
True that. What's telling is that the on the other par 5's I wasn't in that frame of mind and could have probably taken a run at the green on two of them if I wasn't a wuss. The other one wasn't a big miss, but I caught a bad break and had to work a little more. It's a fine line, because I do drive the ball better when I just swing away. I tend to slow down and hit weaker shots when I concentrate on steering the ball.
Click to expand...

Definitely a fine line. My best driver swings are always loose (best word I can think of). I'm still swinging fast but it's more of a fluid motion. When I try to muscle up, I tend to strangle the club and focus on hitting the ball instead of swinging through it. Never ends well. If I lay off too much though, a lot of times I don't finish my swing and out come the high fade/slice shots. Sometimes even the low hooker depending on what I do with my hands when I let my brain get in the way... That's usually when I start teeing off with the 3/5 woods.
 
1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball? Yes, I think I am a pretty good driver...maybe a bit better than the average player.
2. Do those numbers (in the 1st paragraph) hold true for you? Those numbers are very close for me. 1-3 is probably even closer.
 
1. Do you think you are a good (forget about distance in this case) driver of the ball?
Click to expand...


It's probably the most consistent part of my game. I have off days but it's rare for me to hit one out of bounds. My bad drives typically leave me with a shot out from the trees (there are a lot of them on my home course) that will often times lead to a bogey.

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

I'm just under that, typically 1-2. On off day for me would be in the 4 range (which happened on Friday incidentally).
 
When I'm playing well, I can pick a side of the fairway and hit it almost every time. It's not very long but I can put the ball where it needs to be. When I'm playing Okay, I will have the 2-4 poor tee shots you describe. When it goes bad..... the ball goes about 50 yards out and about 200 yards left. Can't recover from that.
 
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.
Click to expand...

It's the internets. We are all awesomer.

Seriously though, I'd hazard a guess that PGA tour event fairways are a little harder to hit from the tees they play compared to us.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top