Long drive guys on Golf Channel

[Rockford35]

Anyone else watch the two long drive champs embarrass themselves on "Playing Lessons from the Pros" on the Golf Channel today?

Sure, they hit drives 440 downwind, downhill, but both had terrible lies and ended up bogeying the holes after being 54 yards from the pin in one.

Just goes to show you, big drives are fine and dandy, as long as they stay on the short stuff.

These guys gotta hit the wedge more often.

R35

PS....as a side note, the one guy claims he hits his 8 iron about 190-200 at sea level......sick.....

[Bravo]

Originally Posted by rockford35

Anyone else watch the two long drive champs embarrass themselves on "Playing Lessons from the Pros" on the Golf Channel today?

Sure, they hit drives 440 downwind, downhill, but both had terrible lies and ended up bogeying the holes after being 54 yards from the pin in one.

Just goes to show you, big drives are fine and dandy, as long as they stay on the short stuff.

These guys gotta hit the wedge more often.

R35

PS....as a side note, the one guy claims he hits his 8 iron about 190-200 at sea level......sick.....

I'll tune this in. BTW a guy at my club was the CFO/COO of TGC for several years...

I need to get a few good stories from him...

[Duckhook Mallard]

I did see that one. It was interesting if nothing else. One thing I noticed - they mentioned how they have very different ways of producing club head speed. The shorter guy who was kind of squatty and bulky seems to use much more body rotation than the taller guy - kind of had a really violent swing. I remember the taller guy saying that he doesn't think "swing hard", he always thinks "swing fast" instead. I thought that was an interesting way to think about producing head speed, because our natural tendency is to try and swing hard but that typically ends up being counterproductive.

I was just thinking too - they must really slow down play. They basically have to wait a shot longer on every tee shot. On a hot crowded weekend when its slow anyway - imagine being stuck behind them while they stand on the tee and wait for the groups to clear the green on the par 4s.

- UGGGH! HIT IT ALREADY!!!

[Loop]

It''s nice to be long, but it's not easy to be on the fairway, even though you're very accurate.
Think about it. A 450 yard par 4, with a 30 yard wide fairway. The longer you hit, the more accurate you need to be. If you push the ball just 2 degrees to the right, it will make a huge difference when you drive it long, and can easily get into the rough. If you drive it short and push it 2 degrees, chances are you'll easily be in the fairway.

[Dave Ireland]

One of the european legs of the Remax Long Drive comp was held in Dublin recently. They aired some of it in conjunction with the Irish Open. The guy that won it on the day was from Holland, he shifted the ball 374 yards, with what I'd describe as a fairly conventional swing, he was about 6' 5" and used his extended leverage to good effect.

The guy that won the overall european section was a beast, he had a swing similar to Arnie P only it came across as a violent assualt on the golf ball, I think his shoelaces snapped as he swung out of his shoes.