The secret to 400yd drives

[JBones]

Yesterday I hit my longest drive ever of 406 yards. I'm such a nice guy that I've decided to share the secret to hitting it 400 yards. First, you have to have a 446yd par 4. Second, it has to have a decent dog leg left that is lined by houses and has a concrete cart path. Third you have to absolutely crush the ball with draw. Now, you put those all together and you get this....bomb one, but way overcut the corner, with more hook than draw, hit the roof of a house (that is 30yds OB), which launches the ball onto the cart path, and three bounces later you are 40yds from the pin.

 

LOL, this is a true story. The co-worker I played with told EVERYONE in the office today that I hit a 406yd drive........he did not tell them how it happened. Today I have been referred to as "the beast".

[Moecat]

I love that story ... I could use a drive like that every so often!

[revkev]

So should we assume that this is how you'll be playing that hole from now on?

[BK in TEXAS]

So should we assume that this is how you'll be playing that hole from now on?

He has to at least TRY

[JBones]

So should we assume that this is how you'll be playing that hole from now on?

It was probably the only time I will ever play the course, there was literally OB on every hole and the fairways were only about 20yds wide. It was a course that had a city (Louisville) built around (practically on) it. If I do play it again, I will try this same strategy.

[RoverRick]

This is so funny because today I was playing with a retired judge who just took up the game again after a 30 year hiatus. He has a pretty high handicap and does not hit the ball far but is getting better. Also playing with us was a 25 year old former high school football star who could absolutely bomb the ball, but had no control. Because of construction one of the par 3's, the tees were moved up to 68 yards from the flag not the normal 175. The young guy was saying it was a par 2 because it was so short. I said, 68 yards is a difficult number for me, into a 17 mph wind and was going to be happy with a par. I hit mine the proper distance but left myself a difficult putt and made par. The young guy came up 30 yards short of the green and made double bogey. But the judge hit a full pitching wedge and it bounced a couple of times and hit the flag and .... stop about a foot from the hole.

 

The reason this fits this thread is I said that if that would have gone in, it still would have been a hole in one. Also, he would have never told that tees were moved up. He could honestly say that he made a hole in one an a hole that is a 175 yard par 3.

[Damon]

Yesterday I hit my longest drive ever of 406 yards. I'm such a nice guy that I've decided to share the secret to hitting it 400 yards. First, you have to have a 446yd par 4. Second, it has to have a decent dog leg left that is lined by houses and has a concrete cart path. Third you have to absolutely crush the ball with draw. Now, you put those all together and you get this....bomb one, but way overcut the corner, with more hook than draw, hit the roof of a house (that is 30yds OB), which launches the ball onto the cart path, and three bounces later you are 40yds from the pin.

 

LOL, this is a true story. The co-worker I played with told EVERYONE in the office today that I hit a 406yd drive........he did not tell them how it happened. Today I have been referred to as "the beast".

 

Ha ha! You sure the tees weren't up 7 yards from the scorecard and it was only a 399 yard drive?!?!?

[apprenti23]

Great Story! Too bad your golf ball prob didn't travel a true 400 yards... Distance is measured in a straight line, not a dog leg shaped line...

[JBones]

Great Story! Too bad your golf ball prob didn't travel a true 400 yards... Distance is measured in a straight line, not a dog leg shaped line...

I'm going by PGA tour commentators distances, ok. LOL

[JMiller]

I started bursting out laughing, I could only imagine what the people in the house thought when they heard the contact on their roof.

 

I had a experience out at duke one day it was a slight downwind day on number 2, hit 19* hybrid over cocked my draw around the dog leg I get up there and have 80 yards left in the left first cut of the rough. The hole on the card is 428 so somehow I managed to hit a 348 yard bomb around the corner with a 19* hybrid... I fail to mention that there is a cart path left that it had of hit but I didn't see it since the hole is blind around the corner down hill.

 

Sometimes you don't question it and are thankful for the wonderful bounce getting you back into play.

[revkev]

While I didn't add it because I read this post as a funny comment on the game and its oddities it is important to realize that you can't just take the card distance and the distance into the green and assume that's how far you hit the shot - this is especially the case with doglegs but it's true of all drives - sometimes the tees are up significantly and you don't realize it - sometimes the pin is in front - we should all be aware of this - A hooked drive around the corner of a sharp dogleg on a 400 yard hole that leaves 100 in may have actually only gone 265.

 

Be that as it may this is a funny story and I'm sure that was the point. Oh and I still want to know if you'll be playing the hole this way next time.

[JohnBarry]

Jack would be proud...POW!!!

[RoverRick]

I hit about a 400 yarder a couple weeks ago in a scramble with a driver off the deck. I did not measure it for sure, but if we are talking about the distance the ball actually travels, and not the net gains than this was a true 400 yarder. And we did not even use my ball.

 

We were about 260 from the green and had a good shot just short of the green. I hit a driver off the deck that was really, really hot. It travelled about 150 yards and hit a tree trunk at the edge of the fairway but was on line to the green dead center, it bounced back towards us, missing us but hitting the golf path and bouncing back down the hill and stopped 100 yards behind us. So, 150 to the tree plus 150 back to us plus 100 passed us is a 400 yard driver off the deck.

[JMiller]

Given score card are measure straight up the middle of the fairway and come to a point in the dog leg where they stop turn and measure in a straight line into the green you can use a toll like http://www.measurelinks.com/ that will allow you to draw points on where you ball was in straight lines.

 

Given in my story you can't cut the dogleg as there are big trees up the left side my ball likely did travel a long ways curving from the center to cart bath left back to the right from a kick. I was mostly posting it as a joke and I don't actually try to hit a 3yard wide paved path to get more distance.

[revkev]

My comment was not directed at anyone in particular JMiller - it's why I selected a hole that was an entirely different yardage than the one you described - all the stories are funny - I just want to make sure that everyone here is aware of what many of us, yourself beyond a doubt, already know.

 

I'm sure that all of us have stories about bad shots that have worked out - a chunked iron that somehow ran all the way onto the green, a skull over a green that hit a ball washer and came back - those kinds of things - we also seem to forget those stories when we catch bad breaks - I'd say the breaks even out over all and I don't worry about them when they occur - had lots of bad ones of tuesday. how does landing in a honker of a divot off the tee on a long par 5 grab you? - that will even itself out at some point.

[BK in TEXAS]

...... you can use a toll like http://www.measurelinks.com/ that will allow you to draw points on where you ball was in straight lines.

That site is great!!! It's actually making me rethink my whole approach to my usual course.

[Kanoito]

I took the day off and went to play 18 today. First tee BOOM! 380 yard drive!!! 180 forward and 200 into the sky counts as 380, right? RIGHT???

[JohnBarry]

I have never been able to measure my biggest slices, but I am sure they got some "good" bounces!

[Krismond30]

That's awesome! Cart paths can be very helpful, I've used them a few times to get extra distance.

[GolfSpy WD]

I had the exact opposite happen to me the other day. I hit a driver square in the middle of the face with a bad swing path. The ball went straight into a tree, ricocheted left, hit another tree, then another and came to land about 5 yards away from me

[RoverRick]

I had the exact opposite happen to me the other day. I hit a driver square in the middle of the face with a bad swing path. The ball went straight into a tree, ricocheted left, hit another tree, then another and came to land about 5 yards away from me

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, one of the guys bladed a wedge and the ball hit a tree and it came back and he caught it(in self defense). He dropped it and said that since he caught it, it did not count as a stroke. I told him that actually, since he caught it, under the rules of golf, he could drop it and add a two stroke penalty, but since he was hitting 4 on a par 3 and I had a 15'er for birdie, it did not make me much difference anyway, he was still deep in the woods. If he wanted to hit 4 again, or 7 like he should, I was going to win the hole. I am not sure if he carded the 8 he counted or the 11 he should have but at that point it does not really matter. He should have never gone looking for that ball anyway. Sometimes it is best to just let it go.

 

 

Edit: I made the par. And since it was match play who cared what his score was.