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Driving Distance Survey

220-230
43
6'3"
210
2-3 rounds per week.
 
Some guys polled in late, so this will be the last tally. No new info here. Age affects driving distance negatively, and height positively, but not by much.





Thanks to Deuce for helping out. Here's the stat values, I hope I got them right. Who says you can't learn a non-golfing thing from THP?

Thanks to all who participated. We all have the chance to be better.
 
Distance: I have always thought that I hit the ball around 290-ish. Yesterday, I used Arccos for the first time, and 275-ish was the real number.

Height: I'm 6'3" (210 pounds)

Age: 47

How Often: I play once a week, but go to the driving range daily (usually hit 30 balls; almost never hit driver at the range though b/c it's a shorter range, with a main road behind the end fence).
 
rbarthle17 said:
Part of the height factor will be how that height is made up from and used. It's true taller people will have more leverage but I believe that a longer torso, regardless of height, is an advantage. You can generate more power via the longer torso but do it with shorter clubs because of a shorter trunk.
Click to expand...

The opposite can be true too. I tend to drive the ball farther than most and Im 5'11 and have a short torso but really long arms. My thought is that my long arms create a longer swing arc giving me more time to build club head speed into impact. I think there can be many different factors that lead to more distance, although flexibility seems to be the one contant

rbarthle17 said:
Part of the height factor will be how that height is made up from and used. It's true taller people will have more leverage but I believe that a longer torso, regardless of height, is an advantage. You can generate more power via the longer torso but do it with shorter clubs because of a shorter trunk.

Flexibility is also crucial for everyone. I have seen large but inflexible people get out driven by people 2/3 their size.
Click to expand...
 
When it comes to distance knowing how, when and where to generate speed in the swing is key. Also hitting the sweet spot is key.

In high school, the long hitters were on the range and just goofing off seeing who could hit it the farthest. Our coach walked over and asked what we were up to and if he could join. Our coach was around 55-60 and played on the PGA tour. All he had was his 3 wood and hadn't warmed up at all. First shot, he flies it over 300y and beats most the team. He then proceeds to give us a lesson about how hitting the sweet spot is the most important component to consistent distance.
 
I originally posted 270 yards as my average, but after reading some more posts wondered if I was fooling myself. Today I hit driver on 12 holes and measured all of them using my neo xs. This included balls on and off the fairway, but all were playable on a fairly open course. My shortest was high on the face straight up 240 and my longest was exactly 300 in the right side of the fairway on the wide open 18th. After crunching the numbers my average for 12 drives was 270.25 yards. Of the 12 shots, two were push fades that would have gotten me in trouble for sure on a tighter course, but I was happy with my results.
 
1. What is your average driving distance? 250-260
2. How old are you? 34
3. How much do you currently weigh? 245
4. What is your height? 6,4
5. How many times a week do you regularly play golf? 3
6. In addition to playing, how many times a week do you hit the driving range? 3
 
1. 290
2. 38
3. 173
4. 6'1
5. 1-2
6. 1-2
 
TMax14 said:
I originally posted 270 yards as my average, but after reading some more posts wondered if I was fooling myself. Today I hit driver on 12 holes and measured all of them using my neo xs. This included balls on and off the fairway, but all were playable on a fairly open course. My shortest was high on the face straight up 240 and my longest was exactly 300 in the right side of the fairway on the wide open 18th. After crunching the numbers my average for 12 drives was 270.25 yards. Of the 12 shots, two were push fades that would have gotten me in trouble for sure on a tighter course, but I was happy with my results.
Click to expand...

Well, that's definitive. It's one more thing you know about your game.
 
deuce said:
So theoverswinger was kind enough to send me the data, and I performed some linear regressions and Pearson correlations on it to see if there were any statistically significant relationships between driving distance and the collected variables. I'm no mathematician, so I'll try to explain them as well as I can. Linear regressions are performed to see if one value (a response/dependent variable) can be predicted by looking at another value (the predictor/independent variable). Correlations are similar, but are not used to examine predictive relationships, instead correlations simply demonstrate whether two values behave in similar ways (i.e., are significantly related).

When looking at the data, correlations are presented by an r value. If r = +1, it indicates that both values behave similarly. If r = -1, it means that one value increases in proportion to the others decrease. If r = 0, it shows no relationship between the two values. Regressions are presented by an r-squared value. The r-squared value shows the proportion of the total variation that is explained by the analysis. Lastly, these data are presented with a P or probability value, which is the chance that said relationship could have occurred randomly. Typically a P < 0.05 (or 5%) is considered significant, but it's an arbitrary (though widely used) cut-off. When I look at my data, I prefer to use a cut-off of P < 0.01, and some journals go so far as setting it at P < 0.001.

At any rate, here is the data. I have higlighted the significant findings:
Variablerr-squaredP value
Age-0.420.17< 0.0001
Weight0.060.000.5
Height0.210.040.02
Game frequency0.060.000.5
Range frequency-0.010.000.9
BMI-0.040.000.6

So as we can see, if we use a cut-off of P < 0.05, we have two statistically significant results (in other words, these relationships most likely didn't happen by random). First, there is a negative relationship (as determined by correlation) between driving distance and age. As one gets older (age goes up), one tends to hit their drives less (driving distance goes down). The r squared value shows us that this relationships however only explains about 17% of the variability in the data, so there are additional factors that come into play when determining driving distance. The other significant relationship is height, and it's a positive relationship which means taller people tend to hit the ball further. The r squared value, while significant, is extremely weak, explaining only 4% of the variability. All the other variables show no significant relationship with driving distance. I don't think either of these findings are shocking.

Thanks again to theoverswinger for sharing the data, and I hope this post proves helpful.
Click to expand...

wow I haven't seen p values in a long time. used to program data analyses for research trials. not for a long time now.
 
1. What is your average driving distance? 260 ish

2. How old are you? 29

3. How much do you currently weigh? 95kgs (~210lbs)

4. What is your height? 6'4"

5. How many times a week do you regularly play golf? Once

6. In addition to playing, how many times a week do you hit the driving range? Once every couple of weeks
 
You guys want to hear a crazy stat?

Of all the swings taken on the THP FlightScope (not including my own) at all of the THP Events, get togethers and local range testing.
The average carry distance is 221.

I guess that tells me two things.
1. Where people play they get obscene amounts of roll.
2. #OutingApproved is awesome.
 
Either A) you miss typed and meant 321 or B) your flightscope needs to be recalibrated....no way we hit it that short lol

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk
 
JB said:
You guys want to hear a crazy stat?

Of all the swings taken on the THP FlightScope (not including my own) at all of the THP Events, get togethers and local range testing.
The average carry distance is 221.

I guess that tells me two things.
1. Where people play they get obscene amounts of roll.
2. #OutingApproved is awesome.
Click to expand...
And if I had jumped on in Pittsburgh or KC. That average would have come down a bit more.

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk
 
JB said:
You guys want to hear a crazy stat?

Of all the swings taken on the THP FlightScope (not including my own) at all of the THP Events, get togethers and local range testing.
The average carry distance is 221.

I guess that tells me two things.
1. Where people play they get obscene amounts of roll.
2. #OutingApproved is awesome.
Click to expand...


thank gawd I stayed off of it, i would have drug it down even more
 
i think my carry is right in the neighborhood of jb's thp average, and my total was recently confirmed on a lm. after watching a guy with a plus handicap swinging 115-120 still come short of 300 2 out of 3 times, then hit one 310, it makes me appreciate #outingapproved.
 
1. What is your average driving distance? 260 including rollout.
2. How old are you? 45
3. How much do you currently weigh? 195
4. What is your height? 5' 11"
5. How many times a week do you regularly play golf? once
6. In addition to playing, how many times a week do you hit the driving range? once
 
JB said:
You guys want to hear a crazy stat?

Of all the swings taken on the THP FlightScope (not including my own) at all of the THP Events, get togethers and local range testing.
The average carry distance is 221.

I guess that tells me two things.
1. Where people play they get obscene amounts of roll.
2. #OutingApproved is awesome.
Click to expand...


A 221 yard average carry is respectable - certainly it's longer than the average golfers carry distance.
 
Just found my last launch monitor report.

With my current setup I'm averaging:

Swing speed: 111mph
Ball Speed: 161mph
Spin: 2321
Carry distance: 272y
Total distance: 298y

So my 300 wasn't too far off depending if you want to count roll out. I understand not counting roll because it doesn't travel.

Most will want to call me out and label me as an internet golfer. That's fine. It's true I'm an internet golfer, but not because of my distance claims....?
 
JB said:
You guys want to hear a crazy stat?

Of all the swings taken on the THP FlightScope (not including my own) at all of the THP Events, get togethers and local range testing.
The average carry distance is 221.

I guess that tells me two things.
1. Where people play they get obscene amounts of roll.
2. #OutingApproved is awesome.
Click to expand...

Until we all meet and hit from the same tee box, we'll just have to accept the info given here at face value.

Still, I think it's a healthy thing to want more length. Who doesn't? As to how we can be longer, that's now up to us.

For me it's better swing technique and practice. And once that's done, save up for a serious bomber.
 
theoverswinger said:
Until we all meet and hit from the same tee box, we'll just have to accept the info given here at face value.

Still, I think it's a healthy thing to want more length. Who doesn't? As to how we can be longer, that's now up to us.

For me it's better swing technique and practice. And once that's done, save up for a serious bomber.
Click to expand...

Im not discounting anybody. Merely pointing out stats.
Tons of THPers meet all over the country, from all over the world at THP Events. Including the all expenses paid Grandaddy of em all.
 
JB said:
Im not discounting anybody. Merely pointing out stats.
Tons of THPers meet all over the country, from all over the world at THP Events. Including the all expenses paid Grandaddy of em all.
Click to expand...

I honestly thought I was a short player because I was always the shortest in my group (2 pros, 1 almost pro, and someone who should have played in college)...then I realized that I was comparing myself to a group I shouldn't have been looking at.
 
JB said:
You guys want to hear a crazy stat?

Of all the swings taken on the THP FlightScope (not including my own) at all of the THP Events, get togethers and local range testing.
The average carry distance is 221.

I guess that tells me two things.
1. Where people play they get obscene amounts of roll.
2. #OutingApproved is awesome.
Click to expand...
You should hook it up to the Internet, that tends to make it longer. Lol
 
Wow when did this thread go full on Will Hunting.

Math hurts .


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