[Matt_Cohn]

285.

At sea level I can carry the ball 260 without much worry. Anything longer than that involves some uncertainty.

It's very difficult for me to hit it 300 yards without some helping factor - breeze, bounce, elevation, etc.

[Rick Sides]

I was just wondering, are we talking the average of your drives or how far you sometimes hit the ball?

[BVince]

I'm a pretty athletic person with good hand - eye coordination and I'm pretty big, 6'1 210 lbs. and on a good day I hit it 240.  I have to laugh at some of the people on this web site and many other people who claim to hit it 280 plus yards.  The average golfer with the exception of maybe some of the head professionals on this site are over estimating their drives by at least 2o plus yards.- I am glad that a lot of the guys on here are being honest.

At first glance, it seems to me that this post is intended to call people liars.  One must be very careful in that approach as it could easily offend people.  Honor and integrity should be held in the highest regard.

[A.G._Crockett]

I average about 250 carry and roll combined. 

A little over a year ago, I did a driver fitting to get "optimized".  I ended up with a 9* with an S flex, and did in fact pick up 15 yds. or so, but in EVERY direction!  That club didn't last long...

So now, I'm back to a 12* driver with a flex in between an S and an R, and happily hunting short grass.

[Steve Lang]

  The older I get, the longer I used to be..  225±10 now, when i was a 5-6 index 10 yrs ago, it was 245±10 yds

but yesterday it was 235-250.. love those slopes

[Jon Heise]

As long as I dont quack one, 260-280 is a fairly regular range for me.  There are occasional 310 and 190 yd drives too. 

[John Moore II]

Someone will need to point out where the change came. I just looked in a copy of the USGA Handicap Manual and it still has the 250-470-690 numbers. And this is from the 2008-2011 manual. I mean, something might be wrong, but those are the numbers, directly from the USGA website.

[TEPaul]

"Re: How far do you drive it?"

If I really want to step on it I can get it way the hell out there but if I want to play strategically I'd say I max it out around 217! Unless I can get some real F&F and then I'd say 239.

[Tom Huckaby]

Someone will need to point out where the change came. I just looked in a copy of the USGA Handicap Manual and it still has the 250-470-690 numbers. And this is from the 2008-2011 manual. I mean, something might be wrong, but those are the numbers, directly from the USGA website.

JKM:  those are the current numbers.  I guess you misunderstood my statement about a change being made...The numbers were LESS than that a few years ago; that is, the change to which I refer changed it from lesser numbers to those you see now.  I don't recall exactly when the change happened, but I think it was in the 2006 revision.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I was just wondering, are we talking the average of your drives or how far you sometimes hit the ball?

Rick,

If you look at my first post, I noted my own inconsistencies - so how about this

Swing Good - 260 yds                                                  9%
Swing Bad (well average more and more) - 230 yds 90.9%
Swing Perfect and Get Help - 300 yds plus!                   0.1%

[Patrick Hodgdon]

I'd say my average carry is around 275 and on a good day 295. (John Conley can confirm)

I shocked even myself by carrying the entire length of the water on 17 at Calusa Pines with a helping wind which was around 350 yards accounting for the dogleg. Have had some big big drives at Superior National in Lutsen, MN as well that were downhill as well (370ish).

That being said I'd give up 20-30 yards to hit my irons with more accuracy and consistency.

I'm an A+ scramble player with my length and short-game though which is a sad claim to fame for a golfer. Room for improvement though.

[John Moore II]

Someone will need to point out where the change came. I just looked in a copy of the USGA Handicap Manual and it still has the 250-470-690 numbers. And this is from the 2008-2011 manual. I mean, something might be wrong, but those are the numbers, directly from the USGA website.

JKM:  those are the current numbers.  I guess you misunderstood my statement about a change being made...The numbers were LESS than that a few years ago; that is, the change to which I refer changed it from lesser numbers to those you see now.  I don't recall exactly when the change happened, but I think it was in the 2006 revision.

Tom--I am not trying to argue, but I have seen those same numbers for as long as I've been in golf. Like we have said, maybe John VB can comment here, but I think those 'par' distances have been the same for quite a while.

[Matt_Ward]

Jeff F:

Thanks for weighing in given your close proximity to players to top caliber.

Like I said previously, real distance is based upon what you carry the ball consistently in the air -- ground yardage is quite inconsistent and will depend upon the nature of the turf and how dry it plays at a given time of year.

[Ash Towe]

On the 18th hole at my home course there is a bunker 210 from the tee.  I can still carry it but it is not guaranteed.  Advancing years are beginning to catch up.
I have played with Grant Saunders and he hits it beautifully.  I f you get the chance to play with him, take it.

[Pat Burke]

Upon further review...  Played Victoria (Riverside CA) today, and on the 14th, was told by my host that the carry was 277 on the left side.  Got all my chins and cheeks into a good one, but up the right side (an additional 5-10)  I am now certain that 277 + carry is a NO GO!

[Tim MacEachern]

My best drives, 230 carry and usually around 30 roll.  Average probably about 210-215 carry.

This question has me thinking about course layout.  There are only four holes on my home course at which you could get a good idea of your carry distance viewing from the tee -- that is, fairly straight drives where you can see where the ball lands.  We have a lot of doglegs and hidden landing areas.

[Mark Chaplin]

How far do I drive it?

Into the bunkers that used to be out of reach for me but are now irrelevant to the best players.

[Tom Huckaby]

Someone will need to point out where the change came. I just looked in a copy of the USGA Handicap Manual and it still has the 250-470-690 numbers. And this is from the 2008-2011 manual. I mean, something might be wrong, but those are the numbers, directly from the USGA website.

JKM:  those are the current numbers.  I guess you misunderstood my statement about a change being made...The numbers were LESS than that a few years ago; that is, the change to which I refer changed it from lesser numbers to those you see now.  I don't recall exactly when the change happened, but I think it was in the 2006 revision.

Tom--I am not trying to argue, but I have seen those same numbers for as long as I've been in golf. Like we have said, maybe John VB can comment here, but I think those 'par' distances have been the same for quite a while.

JKM - I concur the par distances have not changed; however I do know we made slight changes to the distances we use for course rating a few years ago.  The changes may have been in the defined carry and roll.   In any case they weren't significant enough to change the defined par distances; but they did change for how we did course rating.

My point does remain that the system does continue to get tweaked; we can expect a new revision to the course rating manual in 2012 season for sure, sooner if they decide massive changes are needed for some reason.  It's not out of the realm of possibility that they would tweak the distances again; and if they did so more significantly, defined par distances would have to change also.

[John Kirk]

I will say this:

I feel sorry for everybody who has done the swing anaylsis/optimization thing.  'Cuz once you're optimized, you've got nowhere to go but down.

I love knowing that I play with an old, outdated driver, that probably hits the ball with the wrong trajectory, with the wrong spin rate, with a shaft that's probably wrong for me, that's probably the wrong length...probably with the wrong ball, too...I see nothing but upside for that day when distance starts to matter.  That's a day I'm starting to see and I'm glad I saved that ace in the hole for when it matters.

Weep for me.

The swing optimization confirmed what I had already determined through feel.  Light, standard firm shaft.  My previous driver had a 55 gram shaft with a 6.0 stiffness.  New driver (meaning 3 years old) after optimization exercise was 53 gram with a 6.0 stiffness.  It proved to me that a player can intuit the proper fitting.

[JESII]

...or at least fit his swing to his equipment...

[Kyle Henderson]

I play a 7.5 degree Ping G5 which I still hit too high. I've been hitting a lot of fairways with an average carry of 240 to 260 depending on the day. Every so often I have days where I'm piping it an extra 20-30 yards. If I play with Jon Spaulding, I figure on being 20-30 yards behind him.

If I swing out of my shoes I can hit it over 300, but I'm more likely to hook one into the junk at about 220. At the King's Putter this year, that 220-yard hook was the only shot I had.

The real tragedy is that my 150 club is a sky high 5 or 6 iron that spins back upon impact. Can't figure that one out...

[John Kirk]

Probably both, Jim.

I have never been able to get Titleist driver airborne, and I attribute that to a stiff, heavy shaft and the way it is connected to the clubhead.  I've always hit Callaways well, likely because of lighter shafts and the small amount of shaft inside the clubhead.

Gotta go for a few hours.

[John Moore II]

Someone will need to point out where the change came. I just looked in a copy of the USGA Handicap Manual and it still has the 250-470-690 numbers. And this is from the 2008-2011 manual. I mean, something might be wrong, but those are the numbers, directly from the USGA website.

JKM:  those are the current numbers.  I guess you misunderstood my statement about a change being made...The numbers were LESS than that a few years ago; that is, the change to which I refer changed it from lesser numbers to those you see now.  I don't recall exactly when the change happened, but I think it was in the 2006 revision.

Tom--I am not trying to argue, but I have seen those same numbers for as long as I've been in golf. Like we have said, maybe John VB can comment here, but I think those 'par' distances have been the same for quite a while.

JKM - I concur the par distances have not changed; however I do know we made slight changes to the distances we use for course rating a few years ago.  The changes may have been in the defined carry and roll.   In any case they weren't significant enough to change the defined par distances; but they did change for how we did course rating.

My point does remain that the system does continue to get tweaked; we can expect a new revision to the course rating manual in 2012 season for sure, sooner if they decide massive changes are needed for some reason.  It's not out of the realm of possibility that they would tweak the distances again; and if they did so more significantly, defined par distances would have to change also.

Fair enough. I did not realize you were talking about the course rating manual. I did not know that had changed either.

[Steve Lang]

...or at least fit his swing to his equipment...

nail hit on the head by Jim Sullivan's simple post..

a wise old clubmaker showed me back in 1994 how I and most folks fit or adapt themselves to their clubs.. measured my clubs and watched my swing.. then gave me a big bag loaded with a bunch of random marked test clubs (3-5-7-9) and said go to the range, swing away for a couple of hours, and find the ones that hit or play the best.. compare to existing clubs.. after about two hours I'd narrowed them down.  Upon return we checked the specs of old versus range found clubs and found length and lie and shaft stiffness differences of note..  never played stock clubs since..


p.s. was a 12 index when that occurred. got down to a 5.3 after due diligence.. more than half of that improvement was due to clubs helping consistency

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