[Bill Brightly]

292 yards by Phillip Farley of Harvard playing at Pinehurst.

Hmmm, must have been Firm and Fast that week!

Source: "Strange as it Seems" section of Bergen Evening Record, July 30, 1928.

Cool footnote: Headline on same page: "Babe Ruth has eye on banging out 600 homers"

[J_ Crisham]

Nonwatered fairways,lack of rain in this sandy region-its possible. I once had a caddie at one of America's more private clubs who claimed he hit one 411yds- that I felt was a stretch! Especially when he was impressed when we bunted our drives .

[TEPaul]

Back in a time like the 1920s I doubt there was anyone who was capable of carrying a ball in the air much more than about 230 yards in neutral conditions.

But the flip-side to that is there don't seem to be many today (certainly in America) who can imagine how much farther a golf ball could and did travel in the old days once it hit the ground.

[Bill Brightly]

Tom,

Quite true. And how many golfers under the age of 50 can envision playing a top American course with no irrigation system?

[Jim Nugent]

Back in a time like the 1920s I doubt there was anyone who was capable of carrying a ball in the air much more than about 230 yards in neutral conditions.

Which makes Marion Hollins' drive over the chasm -- to create CPC #16 -- all that more impressive.  

[Dan King]

"Professor Tait once worked out a theory that the gutta-percha ball could be driven no further than 191 yards. His son, Freddie, tore that theory to shreds. One of the finest golfers of his time, Freddie drove the green of the thirteenth hole at St. Andrews, a distance of 341 yards, and the shot was said to have carried 250 yards."
 --Robert T. Sommers

Cheers,
Dan King

Long drives, if it be not the most deadly, is certainly the most dashing and fascinating part of the game; and of all the others the principal difficulty of the Golfer to acquire, and his chief delight when he can manage it.
  --H.B. Farnie,  1857

[Rich Goodale]

TEP and others

Dan's account of Freddie Tait (a hugely talented and respected golfer who died tragically in WWI) is probably true in that there is a huge ridge on the 13th of the Old Course at about 250 yards from a 341 tee which needs to be carried to have any chance of reaching the green.  Also, Archie Simpson had a 340 yard drive on (I think) the 6th of the Old Course around the turn of the century.

Those guys were good!

[BCrosby]

There were accounts from the 1920's and earlier of 400+ yard drives. Under the right conditions, people could go long.

But there are also a number of driving contests and measurements from the 1920's. It's clear from these that a very long drive was 250 and that averages (these were the best golfers of the era) were around 230.

However you want to frost up your glasses, they hit it a lot shorter than we do now.

Consider that there were some 7000 yard courses during that time. If you do the math, a course today would have to be about 8200 yards to play to the same relative length.

Bob

[Dan King]

I hate to correct you  Rihc, (why do we say that? If I really hated to correct you I wouldn't bother.) but you don't give many opportunities so I got to jump on them when I can.

Rihc wrote:
Freddie Tait (a hugely talented and respected golfer who died tragically in WWI)

Mr. Tait actually died at Koodoosberg during the Second Boer War in 1900. He was a member of the Black Watch.

According to Wikipedia (I had to go there to see the name of the battle where Tait died) Tait's 250-yard carry drive was January 11, 1893.

Cheers,
Dan King

We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.
 --Queen Victoria (Dec. 1899, on the Boer War during Black Week)

[Rich Goodale]

Thanks, Dan.  You are right.  Somewhere I've got some good stories about Freddie as a golfer, but I can't find them right now.

Cheers

Rich

[TEPaul]

"Which makes Marion Hollins' drive over the chasm -- to create CPC #16 -- all that more impressive."

That's true but I think anyone who knows much about Marion realizes she was a total animal. Would you want to piss off someone who looked like Marion in a dark alley? There was a pretty fine polo player from Long Island back in the early 20s named Hazard Whiffensmoot who made the mistake of playing polo AGAINST Marion. HazardS never played polo again!


"According to Wikipedia (I had to go there to see the name of the battle where Tait died) Tait's 250-yard carry drive was January 11, 1893."

That's true but it really doesn't count. Freddie hit that drive with one of those Titleist NXTs he just happened to find lying on the course.

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