Long Drives are Over Rated

[warbirdlover]

This week I've re-learned something I never seem to grasp. And that is... YOU DON'T HAVE TO HIT DRIVES 300 YARDS TO SCORE WELL IN GOLF.

I've been puking my drives out 230-250 (total yards) the last couple of years. Sometimes less. But usually in the fairway. I did break the norm and hit one 280 down the center today. (Did I mention the fairway on that hole gives you a nice downhill roll if you can reach it on carry...) :thumbs up:

I've been having driving problems recently and am just now getting back to norm. I dubbed one this week 140 yards. You know, those embarrassing kind where everyone is watching and forming an opinion of your golf game based on those drives. This was a short par 4. So I go up and take my iron and hit it on the green. Two putts and a par.

What's the difference if you are on the green (and near the pin) in two strokes? Long drive - short iron or short drive - long iron. Later in the day I did the same thing again. (Luckily I hit my irons/hybrids pure all day long).

And since I now know I can still get a decent score on a hole after I dub my driver it has taken the pressure off and I'm driving super good again.

Yes. I'd love to pound a drive 300+ straight down the center. But it ain't gonna happen anymore. And I don't need it to get enjoyment out of this game. Shot an 88 (42 & 46) yesterday.

 

[SilverUberXeno]

Very few people can hit their mid-to-long irons accurately.

 

[nututhugame]

Did you try setting up an inch farther back and hovering the club a little? how did that work?

Oh yeah,... you are way too consumed with drives! I think sometimes you brain freeze and get tense trying to kill the ball. I'm not picking on you cause we've all been guilty. Just sayin.

 

[xamilo]

A 320yd Drive counts as many strokes as a 3in Putt. Some people just never ever drive to a fairway, but they manage to par every hole by a neat long iron game. Some others (I include myself), drive it 250yd to the fairway and then spend four shots around the green trying to hit a flop and land it near the hole.

The advantage of a longer drive is you can use a shorter iron to approach the green, hence being more accurate (theoretically), but still it counts s jut one stroke.

 

[warbirdlover]

Did you try setting up an inch farther back and hovering the club a little? how did that work?

Oh yeah,... you are way too consumed with drives! I think sometimes you brain freeze and get tense trying to kill the ball. I'm not picking on you cause we've all been guilty. Just sayin.

nututhugame

None of those things was the answer. It was a grip issue and I was also closing the face on address. Duh. I guess I get consumed with drives from playing with you guys!! :emot-angel:

BTW... are we playing tomorrow? (Saturday)....

 

[nututhugame]

None of those things was the answer. It was a grip issue and I was also closing the face on address. Duh. I guess I get consumed with drives from playing with you guys!! :emot-angel:

BTW... are we playing tomorrow? (Saturday)....

Workin today, sorry. I'll talk to ya this eve...

 

[fisher]

Long drives are definately not needed if you are going to play bogey golf. If you want to make pars and birdies it sure does help to hit it far and accurate. I don't know many people hitting it 225 who are shooting in the 70s from the tips.

 

[LyleG]

A lot depends on the tees you play from as well. On tour for example you need to be long. The closer to the green the better your odds especially the faster and harder the greens are.

 

[warbirdlover]

Long drives are definately not needed if you are going to play bogey golf. If you want to make pars and birdies it sure does help to hit it far and accurate. I don't know many people hitting it 225 who are shooting in the 70s from the tips.

fisher

I used to play with a guy that played college golf and I never saw him over par (usually under) on the toughest courses and he played from the tips. He didn't hit his drives any farther then I do but he could hit four drives in the middle of the fairway (220-250) and you could cover them with a blanket. (Yesterday I had one bogey and five pars on the first six holes). At 63 years old and a physical mess I'm happy playing bogey golf.

A lot depends on the tees you play from as well. On tour for example you need to be long. The closer to the green the better your odds especially the faster and harder the greens are.

LyleG

I know the pros play longer courses and longer drives are a huge advantage but there are still the Corey Pavins around. And my (short or long) iron shots drop from the sky and rarely are more then a foot or two from the ball mark.

 

[SilverUberXeno]

How often does Corey Pavin win?

You're not going to see a shorter drive affect your score over the course of one hole, or one side, or one round, or even one week of rounds. But being 140 out instead of 170 out is going to make a BIG difference if you do it consistently. Of course, if you're hitting it all over the place, you're better off short and playable than long and looking for it.

There's a hole at my course that I think OUGHT to be the toughest hole on the course; a dogleg right around a pond that extends for the entire length of the fairway, trees and fescue on the left. Oh, and it's about 430 yards from the tips. There's a bunker short right as well, the greens slopes back-to-front, and it's not very big.

Hitting an accurate 250 yard drive here is fine, but you've got a touchy 180 yard shot in. That bunkers makes it tough to run it up onto the green, and there's not much room to miss it anywhere. This would be a MUCH easier hole hitting from 150 yards. The last time I played I (PERHAPS accidentally) hit it right along the edge of the water and really bombed it. Had about 140 in for the sake of hitting it sweet and cutting some distance off by challenging the corner.

From 140, you only need to hit an AVERAGE shot to be in a reasonable spot for birdie.

From 180, you need to hit a GREAT shot to be in a reasonable spot for birdie.

Again; it's hard to see the strokes you're losing. But the green is a lot "bigger" from 140 than it is from 180, regardless of how long the hole was in the first place.

Now, all that being said, if you're hitting the ball 230-260, you're probably going to be long enough to play virtually anywhere. Not many mortals face 430+ yard par 4's on a regular basis.

 

[warbirdlover]

I know that the longer you hit your driver the harder it is to keep in the fairway. At least the long hitters I've played with.....

The last three times out I've been deadly with my S59 irons and hybrids. No shanks, and ON the pin. My chipping has also been leaving me tap ins. I'm even putting good. I'm having alot of fun this week and enjoying it while it lasts.

 

[Bignose]

I know that the longer you hit your driver the harder it is to keep in the fairway.

That's just geometry.
If the fairway is 40 yards wide and the tee box is right in the middle (and assuming you aim right down the middle),

If you hit 200 yards, you can have an error of up to + or - 5.7 degrees and still keep the ball on the fairway.
If you hit 250 yards, you get +-4.5 degrees
If you hit 300 yards, you get +-3.8 degrees.

Considering the driver is usually one of the hardest to hit clubs, the margin of error gets real small real fast the farther you hit it.

 

[SilverUberXeno]

Bignose, I think those numbers neglect a MAJOR factor in drives: sidespin.

If you make a normal swing (one that is not in-to-out or out-to-in) with a face angle that is 2* closed, you will impart significant sidespin on the ball, as the face will be moving "outward" relative to the angle of the face. I feel that this is going to bring that ball MUCH farther left than the 2* miss the ball starts on.

Likewise, a 2* open face at impact will have the effect of the club cutting across the ball relative to the face angle, which will spin the ball outside the 2* miss that the face angle alone is imparting on the ball.

Very curious to know what those numbers would be if the spin is applied. We'll all be so paranoid that we'll be hitting putter off the tee.

 

[Bignose]

I should have been a little clearer. The number aren't the angle the face makes at impact. It is just the total angle offline from dead center the ball can be and still be in the fairway. I.e. if you pull-slice the ball and it starts left, but curves back to the center-line, then it is zero degrees of.

My point was that for a given width, of course the longer you are the more accurate you have to be as well, because the effective width of the fairway shrinks just because of geometry.

 

[slickpitt]

Give me a 9 iron into a green instead of a 4-iron and I'm going to score better 7, maybe 8 out of 10 times.