How far do you bomb it off the tee?

[Javs]

7 hours ago, Off Map Oscar said:

I think there is a lot more that goes into it than just handicap was the point and it's a pretty diverse age group. The older guys over 50 are not getting 250 consistently. 

The under 45 guys are. I just checked my shotscope average, p average and longest for the last 15 rounds. My average is 248. My P average which i think means performance is 283 and my longest is 317. I also never tee off with a 3 wood. I have better consistency 80% swinging my driver off the tee to get to a dog leg turn or avoid a hazard. 

P average throws out stuff that is obviously a flub. Things that bring that average down dramatically and aren't indicative of what happens when you actually make contact.  The whole point of tracking data at least for me is to make better decisions on course. If I usually hit a club xxx far and I top one 10 feet now my average just lost 15 yards and the metric of average distance is useless for club selection.  So on the shot scope system if gives you P Average. Tossing out the junk. 

Which I don't use arccos so I don't know if that's an option that aeccos has or they use when publishing these "average numbers". If they don't toss the trash then it makes since that higher handicaps are not as consistent of ball strikers and there for the distance average is so low.

Which now that I've rambled. It's all comes back to the sample size and demographic that these stats represent.  I'm not saying they are wrong numbers i just don't feel that two data points is enough to measure myself against and say that it checks out. 

 

For example.  How about elevation.  

I'm 4500 feet. Are they correcting for that? I probably loose 15 to 20 yards at sea level.  

Great points and not going to argue. Except guys over 50 can drive it over 250 consistently. I’m 62 and I drive it 270 average and hit 4 or 5 over 300 every round. The bottom line this article shows most men don’t hit it as far as they think. However, if you can bomb it and keep it in play then your scores should drop. Much easier to hit 8 iron to GW then 5 and 6 iron!

[chisag]

... Interesting and a good starting point but so many factors are left out of those stats. There is a pretty big difference between a scratch player at 30 and 70. Elevation can add a good 10 yards. Hard fast fairways can add 25yds. Hitting a drive at 105* and 65* can be another 10yds of difference. 

... So a player in Phoenix at 105* with 1086' of elevation on hard fast fairways could gain as much as 50yds with the same swing speed, spin and trajectory compared to someone in the south near the ocean playing at 65* and sea level with lush watered fairways. 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by chisag

[Shapotomous]

3 hours ago, bens197 said:

This was something Ryan and I discussed often. He’s found his unicorn with the Stealth / NEMSIS combo. IMO it’s the most difficult club to find which is why I often see most golfers find one and stick with it. It took me a long time to find one I love and it’s so nice to have some reliability without wondering which side of the planet I’ll end up hitting it towards. 

A while back i saw an article that asked tour players which club they are least likely to swap out and most said their 3w.  

[Javs]

Just now, Shapotomous said:

A while back i saw an article that asked tour players which club they are least likely to swap out and most said their 3w.  

I could agree with that. I would say if you get a winning combo of club head and shaft then in a 3 wood it tends to stay in the bag. All other clubs can be benched!

[Off Map Oscar]

4 hours ago, Javs said:

Great points and not going to argue. Except guys over 50 can drive it over 250 consistently. I’m 62 and I drive it 270 average and hit 4 or 5 over 300 every round. The bottom line this article shows most men don’t hit it as far as they think. However, if you can bomb it and keep it in play then your scores should drop. Much easier to hit 8 iron to GW then 5 and 6 iron!

Yeah I wasn't saying older guys in general I was saying in my friend group. To be fair to the two guys I play with that are over 45 they are both retired navy and 100% disabled thru the VA. One has had 4 back surgeries and he gets almost 250 fairly regularly and his long shot is 265 to 270 when he gets it.  But he's also a 27 handicap which to my mind further brings into question the actual demographic of arccos 

[cnosil]

I think articles like this are simply just interesting.  As everyone is mentioning, there are a variety of factors that play into these numbers but we also have to realize that these numbers are pulled from a shot tracking system that has approximately 1 BILLION shots; per posts from Lou Stagner.   The purpose of the articles is to help people manage expectations and provide understanding that not everyone hits the ball 300 yards and most golfers are shorter than most believe.

[silver & black]

As a former 270+ driver of the ball, I can relate to the ego drain/deflation of having lost a lot of distance over the last two years. It isn't just with the driver.... it's across the bag. I have had to consciencely make better course management decisions and really concentrate on the short game to keep my scores as they were. I struggled a lot with this early on, but I have actually gotten better at scoring because of it. I still have those days where I can get it out there 250+, but it's usually more like 235/240 these days. If anyone wants to know.... I'll be 65 on the 25th of Sept.

[Off Map Oscar]

5 minutes ago, silver & black said:

As a former 270+ driver of the ball, I can relate to the ego drain/deflation of having lost a lot of distance over the last two years. It isn't just with the driver.... it's across the bag. I have had to consciencely make better course management decisions and really concentrate on the short game to keep my scores as they were. I struggled a lot with this early on, but I have actually gotten better at scoring because of it. I still have those days where I can get it out there 250+, but it's usually more like 235/240 these days. If anyone wants to know.... I'll be 65 on the 25th of Sept.

Happy early birthday!

[Tom the Golf Nut]

So here we have two charts. Driver distance by Handicap and Driver distance by Age group. Looking at myself at age 65 with a 0.5 handicap.  As long as I hit it between 206 and 265 I’m where I should be. 60 yards is a big difference. 
So what does this really mean?  It means play golf have a good time and try to keep it in the fairway. 

[chisag]

1 hour ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

So here we have two charts. Driver distance by Handicap and Driver distance by Age group. Looking at myself at age 65 with a 0.5 handicap.  As long as I hit it between 206 and 265 I’m where I should be. 60 yards is a big difference. 
So what does this really mean?  It means play golf have a good time and try to keep it in the fairway. 

 

... Haha good stuff Tom and even worse for me amigo as my driving distance is between 191 (4 iron) and 250.