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How far should I be hitting driver?

Clugnut

Gimme some roombas!
Aug 13, 2006
3,423
1
I'm thinking I'm not getting enough out of my drives here of late. I hit the ball great yesterday, in a sustained 20-30 mph wind. Hole one, a par five into said wind, was a 520 par five. Know I had no chance, I hit 3 wood. GPS measured 232 yards. Pretty good. I also hit a similar 3 wood on hole 10, which runs parallel to one. Also tagged a 3 wood 280 down wind. So, I'm thinking I have a swing fault or spin issue with driver. I'm playing my driver at 44 inches, and my 3 wood at 42.5. I'd like to go down to 43.5 inches on the driver.


So, how far should I be hitting driver? I hit my 8 iron (39 degrees) from 150, but thats about my max.
 

FATC1TY

Taylormade Ho' Magnet
May 29, 2008
2,878
0
Only thing I can think of is you get way less spin from your 3-wood than you do your driver.

Are you drives really high?
 
OP
Clugnut

Clugnut

Gimme some roombas!
Aug 13, 2006
3,423
1
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  • #3
Nah, they seem to be about where they should be, just 20 yards short. I'm really not hitting driver further than 3 wood right now. I'm at least one club longer than my playing pards, but not with the big dog. I out drove him several times with the 3, though.
 

BigJim13

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Moderator
Aug 13, 2006
11,840
3,154
Nah, they seem to be about where they should be, just 20 yards short. I'm really not hitting driver further than 3 wood right now. I'm at least one club longer than my playing pards, but not with the big dog. I out drove him several times with the 3, though.

Have you considered more loft? Only reason I ask is that when I was playing a 9.5* I was consistently outdriving my driver with my 13* 3w. I changed the bag up and went to 10.5* of loft for my driver and 15* for my 3w and saw a huge improvement in distance and direction of my drives.

As an experiment, I grabbed a 9.5* R5 TP off 3balls to try out lower loft now that my swing has improved a bit, same result. Driver and 3w were very close and I was way offline with the driver more. I guess I am just comfortable with 10.5*.

You may want to give a 9.5* head a try.
 

Pa Jayhawk

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2005
7,196
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Have you considered more loft?
With an 8.5* Driver, that would be my first question. Although there is a lot of other questions on how you hit the ball to achieve launch angle and spin. Unless you have a swing speed well in excess of 110 mph, that seems like a low lofted driver with no further information.

Probably wouldn't surprise just on observation if you hit your 3w as far as the driver without more information.

FYI, I hit my 40* modified 8i 125 out of the fairway and 135 off the tee and hit my 12* driver about 220-230. When I hit my 8i about 145-155, I hit a 10* driver about 265 yards and it was proportional to my other clubs. Hit a 3w about 240 at the time. Current Driver is 44", my 10* was 44.5".

I believe at the time my 10* was appropriate, or if anything was too much loft. Same goes for my current 12*.
 

ezra76

Well-Known Member
Feb 5, 2006
12,412
16
I'm assuming you have the same lofts as my Titleists. 150 is pretty well smack between my 7 and 8i. I can go either way and choose based on how high and how much spin I want.

I'm at just over 250carry with my driver and pretty low spin. If I can hit a fairway, I usually get 265-275 out of it with roll. 3W is 42.5 and obviously long being a TEE 13*. I hit that thing very low like a frozen rope. Carries 230-235 and will run out to basically whatever. I've had it run out over 310 before but usually gets 10-15yds. extra.

At that Callaway demo the rep said they can judge too much spin by when the ball stays at apex for too long. So if it just sits there in the same spot for 4-5 seconds before dropping it's the spin that's doing it. That's exactly what my Speedpro used to do. It was accurate and carried about the same as the SQTP but carry and roll the SQTP destroyed it.
 

FATC1TY

Taylormade Ho' Magnet
May 29, 2008
2,878
0
That what my driver does... Just goes up and hangs out. I used to shoot ropes with it, and never got it to get really high.

Then I learned how to swing, sorta. Now I have enough time to watch it go, decide if it's going one way or the other, find my tee, pick it up and pocket it.

I can turn around and see it bounce, hopefully in the fairway.

How would getting MORE loft make you hit it farther? Learn something new everyday I suppose.
 
OP
Clugnut

Clugnut

Gimme some roombas!
Aug 13, 2006
3,423
1
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I have the same head in 10.5 degree. I might switch back to it for this weeks round and see if that help. Felt as if I had the same problem, though.

Side note: When I had the FT-i LCG in the bag a month or two ago, I just was crushing it when I hit it. It was easily 30 yards past my 3 wood, but I couldn't stop topping it.
 

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