[Thomas Dai]

When playing 18-holes at your HOME club/course how many times will you usually hit Driver from the tee?


And does this tell you anything about GCA, your game, equipment, anything else?


Atb

[hhuffines]

I hit between 10 and 11 drivers at the 2 courses I play the most.  The shorter of the two has 5 par fives and 2 long par fours. It has 6 par threes. The other course is long and requires a well hit driver to be in scoring position. 


Not sure about the architecture but the shorter course allows a "go for it" attitude without too much trouble.  I tend to hit my driver better than my 3 wood off the tee and that's mental.  Getting older has me clinging to the back tee as long as is feasible.

[Mark Pearce]

11 or 12.  I don't hit driver on the 4 par 3s, obviously.  I don't hit driver on the 1st, which is a utility/short iron, unless into the wind.  I don't hit it on the 11th, which is by some distance the worst hole on the course, because the fairway is only about 10 yards wide at driving distance and a miss right is a lost ball.  I play that hole with two utilities, frequently.  On a still day or with an easterly, I don't hit driver on 17, unless I'm driving it really well, in which case I may go over the corner of the dog-leg.  In the prevailing westerly I will hit driver, though.


All this tells me that I'm not long, that the course, or its maintenance is flawed (11 is just a dreadful hole, if they maintained the rough short right of the 1st green I might do what the flat bellies do and hit driver over the corner, risking a half wedge to a shallow green (from that angle) with serious hazards (deep bunker or racetrack rough) for a failure to control the ball out of short rough.  It also reinforces that the modern driver is likely to fly as straight as any other long club in my bag.

[Rory Connaughton]

10 drivers
3 4 woods
1 hybrid


It tells me that there are certain holes where there is a premium on distance and certain holes where distance is too great a risk for any perceived benefit.  It also tells me that slopes are a great defense and that the wind is relatively consistent so that driver is rarely a necessity on those holes that are normally 4 wood.

[Jason Topp]

13 of 14.  For me, distance is critical and I feel more confident that I will hit it straight with a driver than I do with a shorter club. 

[Carl Johnson]

I don't have a driver.  I hit a 3 wood (the new kind that actually has a head made of metal, not wood) off the tee on all holes except our four par 3s.

[Matthew Petersen]

I hit driver on probably every hole. Depending on wind or other factors, there's maybe one hole where I might not hit driver. Then again, there's a par 3 where I often hit driver too! For purposes of this exercise I'm considering Talking Stick North as my "home" course. The 12th is really the only one where I wouldn't always hit driver. Maybe sometimes on 5 i wouldn't, if I feel like I'm fighting a draw/hook, because the left side runs into trouble quickly.


It tells me that driver the best and most accurate club in my bag, frankly. I have always been a pretty good driver of the golf ball but until the past few years I was still more consistent with an old 3-wood. I would hit that club on almost any hole under 400 yards unless I had a specific reason to hit driver. But my driver has become more consistent and, frankly, my 3-wood less so. So now there needs to be a really compelling reason not to hit driver somewhere, whether that be some kind of cross hazard, a really narrow fairway or worsening angle, something like that.

[Mike Schott]

13 or 14 non par 3's. The second hole is a short par 4 with a very tight landing area past some cross bunkers. Best to lay up.


It tells me I am a short hitter.

[Peter Pallotta]

TD - it tells me that the vast majority of run-of-the-mill and garden variety golf/home courses provide plenty of fairway width, and certainly as much width as most of us want or need; and that we've created a myth here at gca.com that there was such a time as the architectural dark ages and that this era was characterized by narrow fairways that made the game much too one-dimensional for our refined tastes. It also tells me that we mostly play boring golf courses and uninspired designs that require no deep thought or careful strategy, and that instead require us to blast away incessantly in order to get any thrill at all -- but that we are seemingly quite content with that.  As well, it tells me that despite our disparaging of the card and pencil mentality and our mocking of "par" as a meaningful concept, most of us are nearly obsessed with greens in regulation (which is nothing less than par's twin brother), and so will do everything we can to try to ensure a mid-to-short iron approach shot into every green. This is turn tells me that, our occasional boasts and protests aside, we are enamoured of the aerial approach to the game, and that most of us could care less about 'inventing shots' or about 'bump and running the ball' onto the green (which greens, we secretly hope, are soft enough to have our aerial approaches stick right where they land). In short, it tells me that, tens of thousands of posts and millions of words notwithstanding, we currently have precisely the game -- and the golf courses and the equipment -- that we collectively want to have.  Thank you for asking the question. The answer caused me to reflect on myself and the nature of my golf game is a new way.
Peter   

[Brad Tufts]

6400 yards par 70

I hit driver on 1/2/4/9/10/11/12/15/16/17/18 (all of these are par fours over 370y or par fives)
3-wood on 5/14 (sometimes on 11 and 15 too depending on wind conditions)...5 and 14 are 360y holes, the other two just a bit longer.
Long iron of some sort on #6...hybrid, 4i, or 5i depending on wind...it's a 277y par four.

I think it shows we have plenty of width, and I'm willing to risk a slightly crooked tee ball for a shorter iron shot, 8i-SW play being my strength.

[Alex Miller]

10 times - par 71 6,500 yards


The 4 non-drivers are typically 2 2-irons and 2 3-woods. I really like it as I feel it provides more variety and I don't typically hit any other clubs more than 5-6 times.

[Matthew Essig]

With 4 par 3s, I hit driver anywhere between 10-13 times. The variance has a lot to due with the wind, weather, ground conditions, and distance I'm playing from. It is nice to note, though, that you aren't forced to lay up. The architecture allows options; if there is no wind, I could hit the 10 drivers, or be ballsy and still hit 13 drivers. The only hole where I regularly hit 3 wood is because there is no advantage gained from hitting the driver on a 90 dogleg, so I make sure to put the ball in play. I believe something more could have been done with hole. As a result, it is my least favorite on the course.

[Bill Seitz]

At least nine times, as many as 13 times (we have five par 3s), usually somewhere in between depending on the tees I play, but I'll assume back tees for this.  Depends a bit on the wind for (Kingsley) holes 4, 6, and 7, while on 13 it usually depends on the pin.  I'll lay back for pins in the bowl or the shelf on the right, but I'll hit driver if the pin is front/left. 


I can't say as it really tells me anything aside from sometimes driver is the right club for a hole, and sometimes it isn't.

[JJShanley]

14 times, on a course that measure 6,600 from my tees.


I carry a three wood, but we're not on good terms just now.


Driver is my most comfortable club, for the first time ever.

[James Brown]

11-12 of the 13 par 4s and 5s depending on the wind. 

[Sean_A]

I look for a way to hit driver on every hole other than ones where its too much club.  At my course that is 14/14 non par 3s and sometimes 1 par 3.  The choice of driver so often tells me that 6500 yards is plenty of course for me.  It also tells me I wish my home course was easier.

Ciao

[Scott Warren]

10 drivers
3 4 woods
1 hybrid

4 woods on 2, 4 & 5 and a hybrid on 16?

[Ken Moum]

I hit 15 drivers in nearly every round,  which includes one of the four par threes.

But I had a revelation recently.
I score better if I stop trying to get on in regulation.

The regular tees where I play are ~6400 yards,  which is pretty long for someone who rarely hits it over 215.

My index is 11.8 but I've hardly played lately and haven't broken 90 in several rounds.

So a few days ago I played with the goal of just putting the tee ball in play, and hitting the next shot or two solid.

Missed every green, made a few one-putt bogeys, a no-putt birdie and shot 85.

Not sure what that means.

[Scott Szabo]

Typically 12 out of 14 unless the wind is up.  My home corse has very wide fairways.

[John Connolly]

TD - it tells me that the vast majority of run-of-the-mill and garden variety golf/home courses provide plenty of fairway width, and certainly as much width as most of us want or need; and that we've created a myth here at gca.com that there was such a time as the architectural dark ages and that this era was characterized by narrow fairways that made the game much too one-dimensional for our refined tastes. It also tells me that we mostly play boring golf courses and uninspired designs that require no deep thought or careful strategy, and that instead require us to blast away incessantly in order to get any thrill at all -- but that we are seemingly quite content with that.  As well, it tells me that despite our disparaging of the card and pencil mentality and our mocking of "par" as a meaningful concept, most of us are nearly obsessed with greens in regulation (which is nothing less than par's twin brother), and so will do everything we can to try to ensure a mid-to-short iron approach shot into every green. This is turn tells me that, our occasional boasts and protests aside, we are enamoured of the aerial approach to the game, and that most of us could care less about 'inventing shots' or about 'bump and running the ball' onto the green (which greens, we secretly hope, are soft enough to have our aerial approaches stick right where they land). In short, it tells me that, tens of thousands of posts and millions of words notwithstanding, we currently have precisely the game -- and the golf courses and the equipment -- that we collectively want to have.  Thank you for asking the question. The answer caused me to reflect on myself and the nature of my golf game is a new way.
Peter   

+1


I started to count, then I read Peter's post, then I stopped.

[Dave August]

From my "usual" tees (6600 yds) -


Five drivers (I should really only hit it three times, but I like to hit driver).
Two hybrid tee shots.
The remainder are 3w tee shots.


If I move back (to either 6700 yds or 6950 yds), the driver comes out more often, as one would expect.

[noonan]

12 - 6000 yard par 72

[Josh Stevens]

Does this not speak more about clubs than the course?

As a few said here, driver is their best club.

Adam Scott said this in an interview earlier in the year - in the old days, drivers were actually hard to hit, so you only used em when you had to crank one out there, as there was a better than even chance it would skoot sideways.

Now you cant miss and it has become the "go to" club.  This is perhaps half the distance issue - its not just that driver now goes so far, but that is also so easy to hit.  Golf would be different if it went far, but if that distance came with a 50% risk of the ball ending up two fairways over

[Colin Shellard]

6 or 7 times for me - this can vary depending on the wind direction though.
Couple of Fairway woods and the rest of the long holes are a 2i.


The course places a premium on accuracy over length, and I'm still able to get the driver out there so not always needed. Need to stay out of the penal fairway bunkers - you aren't getting on the green from any of those...

[BHoover]

I hit driver as often as possible. I don't work all week to lay up off the tee when I play on the weekend.

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