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My point would be summed up by this... why do pro's not hit driver on every hole? They are obviously way, way better than any of us could fathom. If a pro is playing a course at like 7200yds. with an avg. driver of 285-290 that is pretty much the same as me playing a 6800yd. or so course with my avg. drive.
I've mentioned before that almost all the guys I play with hit driver on every hole at my club. They can't reach the trouble with a driver but I can. On a bunch of holes the left rough narrows in and then there is a bunker on the right, cutting the fairway down to 20yds. or less on a few at my exact driver distance. The yardage in from there is about 90-120yds. for the most part. My strategy would be to hit a club I hit shorter and straighter, lay back to 130-140 and have a 9i front pin, 8i back pin. All a perfect driver does is get me into PW/SW range and end up with a non-full club yardage a lot of the time.
Example, yesterday I nail a driver on the 360yd. first downwind. Dead straight and rolls to 40yds. out. Hard green with a front pin. Best I could manage was 15ft. past the hole with a 60*. Had I laid back for a full SW or PW I could have gotten the spin I needed to stop it closer.
You all have good points. If I couldn't hit my hybrid 240 yards, I would've been in deep crap.
BUT, playing a par 4 for bogey is better than hitting 3 off the tee. I still maintain that you will SCORE BETTER if you do not hit driver if you can't count on it. You won't shoot under par playing a long course with no driver, most likely, but bogey is better than a triple caused by you hitting a shot OB from the teebox.
When you play golf, you have to play with the game you have, not the game you want. I don't care how long the par 4 is. If driver is going to hurt you, tee off with an iron. Play for double if you have to. If you are hitting 3 off the tee, you're REALLY screwed.
I did go driver on some later holes where it was actually safer to hit it long and try to carry all the trouble. I'm not anti-driver. I'm anti-stupid
Todays drivers are very forgiving!
If you are always short and are hitting driver crooked that day than you're probably not going to play well throughout the bag and leaving driver in the bag is probably not a good solution for longer term success.
Some days you will score better than others, by giving up and hitting into a par 4 with a club that struck well leaves you with a second shot that will already require you to save par or even bogey is all around bad golf!
Obviously no one should hit driver on every hole, but somewhere between is a happier medium.
For you hitting hybrid off the tee on a 400+ yard par 4 you still have a shorter club into the green, others have no chance of getting there.
Like I said it pays to be longer off the tee
I'm not talking about people playing smart and not hitting driver because of trouble. I'm talking about people that don't hit driver because they're scared, or they think they can't. Golf would bore the shit out me if I played scared all the time and hit 3w, 5w, hybrid or whatever off the tee. The pros don't hit driver because the courses are set up so driver landing areas are small and they get punished if they miss. They also can hit long irons much more accurately than average players hit wedges. Stop comparing Joe weekend golfer to the pros. Apples and oranges.
Where most of us play, say 6,500 yards on average, I'll take 8i to wedge out of the rough over 4-6i out of the fairway every time. I'll make more pars and birdies from the rough with the shorter clubs than I will from the fairway with the longer clubs. Every time.
The problem is too many average golfers think they're playing smart, but end up hitting just as crappy of a shot with the "safe" club, and end up making a big number. If they hit driver more often, the low scores they make when they hit some good drives and end up with short irons in their hands, more than makes up for a big number or two from a bad drives. Plus they build confidence by learning what it feels like to make pars and birdies.
Kevin
There is a difference between a higher cap player who doesn't have the distance and a lower cap player who does, neither having great control. All I'm saying is that for me and a lot of guys, hitting a 225yd. 5W or 240yd. 3W is better than trying to hit a driver on a tight hole that's only like 380-390.
It's also a different game with real rough. I can hit an 8i out of the rough at my course too... I just have no fricken idea how long it will go, no control over the trajectory and absolutely no spin. That's the difference between sparse, burned out 1.5" rough and thick 3.5" rough.
Don't get me wrong, when I go to a course with 50yd. wide fairways and rough I can hit a mid-iron from, I'll bomb driver all day long. When I've only got 20yd. fairways and rough I can only really only hit a wedge out of sitting down, then the driver must be used carefully.
As far as hitting a bad shot with a 3W or whatever shorter club. That miss would have been a lot worse with a driver using the same swing.
That is all grand if you hit an 18.5* club 235 to 241. That is about 10 yards longer than I hit my driver. :laugh:
That just common course management, not a total do not hit driver scenario! Playing for bogey golf is ridiculous, go have some fun man!
See, that's the difference. I am playing bogey golf with a driver on a tight hole because it's 3 off the tee after going OB.
Heck I hit my 22* on a 500yd. par 5 off the tee. Then hit 5i, then hit a 60* wedge. Judging by where my ball ends up vs. others, I outdrive about 70% of the guys I play with using a 5W, 90% with my 3W and 99% with my driver. I've played with 2 guys longer off the tee than me this year... not counting Twofast. One is a 1.5 handicap the other a +.3.
Ez, why can't you break 80? 3wood is 260 in the fairway every time, I remember reading a bunch of posts about how well you strike your irons, you've said that the shortgame is your strongest point, etc etc etc. Do you have 55 putts per round?