Realistic numbers.

As part of a work league you get all kinds -- some players can break par on a good night and some are lucky to break 70 for 9 holes. Many of your average guys who play once a week have a trouble getting past 200 yards regularly and some can't hit it 200 yards period unless aided by strong wind.

I hit a drive a few weeks ago, absolutely crushed by my standards, and it ended up going 236 yards. I was playing with a couple other guys and a lady. I was about 40 yards past the guys who both had various degrees of mishits. The lady thought my 236 yard drive must have gone close to 300 yards. Nope, only to 230-240. Unless you play with very talented golfers who legit bomb it, most people are not hitting it even close to 300 and most recreational players I think have no idea how far 300 yards really is.

Dave
 
arccos is humbling. "dude, I tattooed that one." check the data: 255. :confused:
It’s why I love Arccos. It keeps me VERY aware of what my actual distances are. I’ve actually found a few guys I play with rely on me to tell them distances because of it.

Played in a tournament a couple weeks ago and had an ego golfer claim to hammer a drive almost 400 yards... of all carry.
 
It’s why I love Arccos. It keeps me VERY aware of what my actual distances are. I’ve actually found a few guys I play with rely on me to tell them distances because of it.

Played in a tournament a couple weeks ago and had an ego golfer claim to hammer a drive almost 400 yards... of all carry.
The average golfers that think they hammer it 300+ around here must be delusional is all I can think. If the average golfer could hit a golf ball 300+ yards in this thick VA air (especially this time of year with the tight grass) I would love to spend some quality time with them to see just how they do it.

In all the rounds I have played in the past year, I have only seen one occasion where a golfer hit the ball 300 yards and it was a young 16 year old golfer with his dad out practicing. He was hoping to play golf when he got into college and was working every chance he could on his game.

He could crush the ball and sounded like a rifle going off when he made impact. You could tell the contact was spot on. It was slightly over 300 and some odd yards to the flag and he put it right on the fringe at the green. Those type of drives are unmistakable and don't compare to the average golfer's drives.
 
I had a friend a few years back who'd I play golf with from time to time who wasn't a 300-yard hitter but every round he'd get a couple out there 280 or 290. He was a big, strong, athletic guy in his early 30's and he got that distance by pretty well optimized driver specs and by really going after it. I always found it impressive as heck playing with him.

But nowadays I occasionally see guys that would look like a shrimp standing next to my friend. And they hit it farther than him without even breaking a sweat. Some of them aren't even scratch or near-scratch players, they're just young enough to have grown up with modern coaching and training and I'm convinced coaches for the past 10-15 years have been teaching kids to swing driver in a way that produces more distance in a fundamental way.

What it means to drive it "long" for a 15-30 year old today is on a whole different scale than for guys who are in their 30's and 40's (and older) now.

I'll bet those kids have also grown up in the game with a rangefinder in their hands (not to mention video lessons and launch monitors and who knows what all). What are the odds that they are as delusional about distances they hit the ball as so many middle aged and older golfers are?
 
Simple. Ego. Something I had to get out of my head years ago to focus on the entire game, not just how far I hit it. I was young and dumb once. Now I am old and less dumb. Hopefully.

There's a guy in my league who thinks hes a long ball guy even though there's at least 10 people I know that hit it farther. Usually never cards an eagle during the course of the year. Never really shines are Par 5's. But is convinced because he swings hard that he is a monster off the tee. Even when the ball goes no where because he's skying it with tons of spin. But god help you if you try to explain club/ball dynamics to him. He's the "rip it harder and it will go farther" mind set. Probably hits it on average 250-260. Might get one to 280 once a round but they literally can go everywhere. He might hit 3-5 fairways a round.

Anyways, just to add context, I've been told my swing is smooth and looks slow until the ball punches off the face and ends up a long way away. I mention this because about a year ago, I played with him and 2 other guys that I know are ball busting good guys. He gets up and with the normal cockiness tries to rip the cover off the ball. Surprisingly, he pumps one down the middle like 275 or so. He picks up his tee and does the "booyah!" crotch-slap move which I am sure you all just played in your head. :D I get up and calmly put one by him in the air out to 300. It took all of 1.4 seconds before the ball busters started in on him and for the next 17 holes, he got more and more frustrated as his drives either went so far right or left he would have to go 2 fairways over OR he would finally get one straight and I would blow by him. Over and over again. He could not understand how someone 3" shorter than him ( 6'2" vs 5'10") who wasn't trying to rip the cover off the ball was out driving him. Absolutely screwed with this mind all day. At the end of the round, he stormed off after shooting the worst round of the year.

I don't remember what I shot but I know whatever my score was, it was worth every one of them to watch him crumble as his sense of "big hitter itis" tore him up. No matter how far you hit it, there is always someone who hits it farther.
How old is the guy that said booyah, ridiculous
 
According to Garmin, my average drive with the driver is 248 for the last 10 rounds. My longest drive was a whopping 301 earlier this year on a downhill hole, i also had a 3-wood go 279. It can happen but just not consistent enough. My 20 year old son can hit it really far and it looks so easy. Another guy I golf with also can really crush the ball and it looks and sounds like a missile. Folks will constantly comment on his drives "like that is in the next county" or some other BS like that. It really pisses me off because some of my drives might be 10 or so yards short but I get nothing.:mad:
 
The vast majority overestimate how far they hit their clubs, not just driver. The reasons are explained above, but I think the biggest is that their minds hang onto their very best swings as their normal swings. This is one of the reasons that a system such as Arccos or Shot Scope is so valuable. The data gathered paints the true picture.

Last thing I will say... If you want to hit it far, come to the high desert air and play a round with me. Maybe I should do a YouTube series on how to increase your distance.
 
When I did a brief trial of the Arccos "Caddie", my impression was it does nothing to dissuade a golfer from trying to hit their irons much farther than they do.

For me 9-iron has long been basically a 120-125 yard club depending on the exact loft. And in fact Arccos's stats say something like 121 for my 9-iron distance estimate.

But the Caddie would suggest 9-iron on holes where I had 120 to carry a bunker and 140 to the flag. A few times it told me to hit 8-iron from over 150 yards. And it seemed to think for hitting less than driver off the tee I had the option of hitting 3-wood 210 yards, even though my Arccos driver distance estimate was I think 216 or 218.

That was during the first few weeks after they released the 2.0 Caddie app so maybe it got more realistic eventually. I quit looking at the phone during a round after a dozen rounds of those weird "Go for it!!!" club choice recommendations.

I know on the handful of occasions I've played private or resort courses with human caddies, they were far more likely to encourage taking plenty of club. Arccos Caddie seemed in my tryout to be as much ego service as real caddie-style advice.

P.S. The weird thing was, as I played with Arccos caddie I did start hitting my irons farther than usual. It seemed pretty cool for a few rounds but I was massively overswinging with my short irons and the results backfired far more often than the times I actually hit it pin high from 150 with 8-iron!
 
The average golfers that think they hammer it 300+ around here must be delusional is all I can think. If the average golfer could hit a golf ball 300+ yards in this thick VA air (especially this time of year with the tight grass) I would love to spend some quality time with them to see just how they do it.

In all the rounds I have played in the past year, I have only seen one occasion where a golfer hit the ball 300 yards and it was a young 16 year old golfer with his dad out practicing. He was hoping to play golf when he got into college and was working every chance he could on his game.

He could crush the ball and sounded like a rifle going off when he made impact. You could tell the contact was spot on. It was slightly over 300 and some odd yards to the flag and he put it right on the fringe at the green. Those type of drives are unmistakable and don't compare to the average golfer's drives.
And it’s about consistency too... my Arccos numbers have such a huge spread. I just checked and my longest this year is 308, but my smart range is 261.
 
There's a tale going around my club about the guy who drove his ball over the trees on a dog leg par 4 and ended up over the green somewhere. I have a hard time believing because it would have been a 310 yard carry, uphill about 10 yards, over trees, and into the wind. Yeah he was a young guy that could really hit the ball, but come on. I think it hit the trees and he found a ball over the green that he thought was his and it was actually from the practice green which was right there too.
 
There's a tale going around my club about the guy who drove his ball over the trees on a dog leg par 4 and ended up over the green somewhere. I have a hard time believing because it would have been a 310 yard carry, uphill about 10 yards, over trees, and into the wind. Yeah he was a young guy that could really hit the ball, but come on. I think it hit the trees and he found a ball over the green that he thought was his and it was actually from the practice green which was right there too.
Or maybe it hit a cart path and bounced the rest of the way. ;)
 
Or maybe it hit a cart path and bounced the rest of the way. ;)

The green was right there in the landing zone over the towering trees. Again....it would have been a 310 yard carry, uphill about 10 yards, over trees, and into the wind. I see the ;)...:)
 
I lost this ego post Convid. It helped me hit more shots and play smarter. I ahve 195 in. Old me would have hit a 4h or 5 H because once in a blue moon I will pop one that far. Realistically I am taking my heaven wood or even a soft 3w and trying to roll it up. Results are much better now.
 
A youth spent playing on a rock hard course with a largely fictional scorecard gave me a really inflated idea of how far I hit it off the tee that was hard to shake even after I knew better. Those 300yd head high 1 irons were helped by the scorecard being 50 yards off and and the 50+ yards of roll.

Also I didn't really consider that I was playing nothing but run-up shots seeing that flying the ball to the hole was inadvisable unless you wanted to see something bounce really high. So punching an 8i from 160 or so was normal and a sigh of my amazing power even though I was probably playing it off a mound or a hillside anyway.

The first time I played a course with an irrigation system was a really rude shock.
 
I think the main problem I see is equating longest shot someone ever hit with their average distance.
 
How old is the guy that said booyah, ridiculous

Real age? 36ish, single, never been married, no family. Mental age? Frat boy.
 
The vast majority overestimate how far they hit their clubs, not just driver. The reasons are explained above, but I think the biggest is that their minds hang onto their very best swings as their normal swings. This is one of the reasons that a system such as Arccos or Shot Scope is so valuable. The data gathered paints the true picture.

Last thing I will say... If you want to hit it far, come to the high desert air and play a round with me. Maybe I should do a YouTube series on how to increase your distance.
Utah to gold and ski would be great
 
I think the main problem I see is equating longest shot someone ever hit with their average distance.

Agreed.
Also, often times the "longest shot" was played from an elevated tee box.
 
A youth spent playing on a rock hard course with a largely fictional scorecard gave me a really inflated idea of how far I hit it off the tee that was hard to shake even after I knew better. Those 300yd head high 1 irons were helped by the scorecard being 50 yards off and and the 50+ yards of roll.

Also I didn't really consider that I was playing nothing but run-up shots seeing that flying the ball to the hole was inadvisable unless you wanted to see something bounce really high. So punching an 8i from 160 or so was normal and a sigh of my amazing power even though I was probably playing it off a mound or a hillside anyway.

The first time I played a course with an irrigation system was a really rude shock.

I played the same kind of course my first few years. I had a Taylormade 3-wood of some kind (whatever they were making back in the mid-90's) that was my "driver". To this day my longest drive ever is probably a 280-something yarder I hit with it one summer during a drought. They irrigated the fairways but not the rough, so it had browned out and was basically hardpan with a thin dormant/dead layer of Common Bermuda on top. I came OTT and pulled one into the "rough" and inadvertently cut the dogleg on a 400-yard Par 4. Ended up waaaay inside the 100-yard marker. It was probably 150 of carry and the rest roll.

I still remember the next shot, too. Hit a sand wedge which landed in the middle of the green, bounced over and rolled out so far I had another sand wedge shot back toward the green from the fairway of another hole. I think I made a 7 or 8 or something on the hole. Hardpan giveth and hardpan taketh away.
 
If you're a long driver, you don't have to tell anyone, you just have to hit the ball. Word will get out.

Truth !
 
If you're a long driver, you don't have to tell anyone, you just have to hit the ball. Word will get out.
This.

So much this.

I used to make note of who talked smack about having a hard shot when I played competitive hockey. Usually they couldn't hit 100mph on a Kawasaki Ninja.

The guys who could shoot hard and heavy without a release that took forever, well, we goalies figured out who they were rather quickly, without anything being said.
 
I hit one 336 today. So for a common golfer that turns from a fluke, to 'I can hit it 330' to 'I hit it 330' very quickly. Like others have said, it's too often equated with average. Which was 289.5 for me today, and even that's well above my true average.
 
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This.

So much this.

I used to make note of who talked smack about having a hard shot when I played competitive hockey. Usually they couldn't hit 100mph on a Kawasaki Ninja.

The guys who could shoot hard and heavy without a release that took forever, well, we goalies figured out who they were rather quickly, without anything being said.
Didn't take us dumb defensemen very long either :beat-up:
 
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