Amateur driving distances decreasing

[Deleted member 1147]

According to the article on GM, and the cheeky so & so's choose a photo of me to prove it :angry:!

http://www.golf-monthly.co.uk/news/...92.163249899.1528111632-1681254769.1461586884

Looks like I'm going to need to be on a future GM opportunity to get my distance back - perhaps a new Rogue driver and a set of X Forged Irons :thup:?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

According to the article on GM, and the cheeky so & so's choose a photo of me to prove it :angry:!

http://www.golf-monthly.co.uk/news/...92.163249899.1528111632-1681254769.1461586884

Looks like I'm going to need to be on a future GM opportunity to get my distance back - perhaps a new Rogue driver and a set of X Forged Irons :thup:?

And don't come back on this forum until your drives get longer . This forum has a reputation to uphold, ha ha.

The good news for me is that I am closer to the average then I previously thought.

 

[patricks148]

could it be all those who bought this tracker thought they hit it a certain distance, and this proved they were well short of that??

 

[Deleted member 1147]

could it be all those who bought this tracker thought they hit it a certain distance, and this proved they were well short of that??

Possible - I've never used a shot tracker (just assume it flies 280 everytime)!

The weather in this country must have had a serious effect at the start of the year though. It was cold & damp for weeks at the start of the season, in some parts, which must have meant the ball wasn't flying so far and there was less run out. How do they take that into account?

 

[patricks148]

Possible - I've never used a shot tracker (just assume it flies 280 everytime)!

The weather in this country must have had a serious effect at the start of the year though. It was cold & damp for weeks at the start of the season, in some parts, which must have meant the ball wasn't flying so far and there was less run out. How do they take that into account?

Me either, can't really see the point i know where the balls go and how far i hit it most of the time, but the Ball is going miles up here at the moment, ground is like Concrete and running miles. went though the back or our 2nd yesterday, its 460 with a burn at 270 off the tee. Was 4 iron, seven iron. would usually be driver and hybrid.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Arccos analysed over 10 million drives hit by amateur golfers in more than 100 countries between 2015 and March 2018

That seems a pretty good spread of drives to me. This is not 30 golfers over a two month period.

 

[Slab]

Possible - I've never used a shot tracker (just assume it flies 280 everytime)!

The weather in this country must have had a serious effect at the start of the year though. It was cold & damp for weeks at the start of the season, in some parts, which must have meant the ball wasn't flying so far and there was less run out. How do they take that into account?

I guess knowing how far you can hit it in 30 degree dry conditions doesn't help much when its 10 degrees and raining
But as LT says the spread of data does seem much bigger than a few wet weeks in Feb/March

 

[Imurg]

It's one of the problems that all the shot tracking systems have - they can only give you total distance, carry + roll.
Balls can easily run anywhere between 0 yards and 70-80 depending on ground conditions.
This has to skew the overall results, especially if you have, as we did here, a very wet Spring that shortens overall distances with all clubs.
It's one of the less meaningful stats that these systems produce.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

It's one of the problems that all the shot tracking systems have - they can only give you total distance, carry + roll.
Balls can easily run anywhere between 0 yards and 70-80 depending on ground conditions.
This has to skew the overall results, especially if you have, as we did here, a very wet Spring that shortens overall distances with all clubs.
It's one of the less meaningful stats that these systems produce.

Yes, but this covered 10 million shots. For every drive in Feb that plugged there is one in August that rolls an extra 80yds. Looking at this many shots over a 3 year period, presumably many of the same golfers playing during this period, then those anomalies will even themselves out.

There are some stats that can be played around with, if you have 24 putts in 18 holes are you a brilliant putter or have your iron shots put you 2ft from the pin every time?, but drives are pretty simple and straightforward. Don't forget, 10m. That is a huge number, far more than any standard scientific study would look at.

 

[Imurg]

There are so many variables to out-and-out distance though..
Were shots uphill, downhill, with the wind, against it, bouncing off cart paths, clipping trees, onto fairways with long grass or short...
Agreed, over time and numbers you're going to get an average but it's a pretty meaningless average

 

[garyinderry]

Looking at raw data is pointless. on many holes you have to lay up short of bunkers, go over corners, into in wind, soft ground.


I regularly just clip my driver off the tee with a soft fade. I would drag the averages down a mile when in reality I am keeping it safe and putting myself in position. its not always a full blooded tour driver swing. Lol

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Yes but that is why the spread of shots is so important. If it was 100 drives or 1,000 drives then the information may be skewed a little. 10m though, that is evening out those discrepancies, those odd bounces etc. It is also based on genuine gps accuracy, not someone estimating the distance after they have hit the ball and walked up to. Real figures, not made up ones.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Yes but that is why the spread of shots is so important. If it was 100 drives or 1,000 drives then the information may be skewed a little. 10m though, that is evening out those discrepancies, those odd bounces etc. It is also based on genuine gps accuracy, not someone estimating the distance after they have hit the ball and walked up to. Real figures, not made up ones.

Do these systems weed out the obvious nightmare, mis*****: tops, duck hooks etc and if someone is hacking back into play with a mid-iron would it discount that as not being a "normal" shot, or are all shots counted?

 

[Papas1982]

Do these systems weed out the obvious nightmare, mis*****: tops, duck hooks etc and if someone is hacking back into play with a mid-iron would it discount that as not being a "normal" shot, or are all shots counted?

I know that myRoundPro rules out any extremes. Can’t remeber the exact ruling, but it’s along the lines of the average of the middle 75percentile. So doesn’t count the longest or shortest 12.5%. That imo would account for the extreme uphill or mi***** and the downhills and cart paths etc.

 

[rksquire]

These seem about right to me, it's very rare I see genuine big hitters at our club or during inter-club competition; I always come back to our 17th - 430/440 yards and very few hit it in 2. I know of one genuine 300 yard hitter at our club; I also see other guys with a good, powerful swing that people comment on but in the end their ball does not go much further than ours, if even.

Our 7th is flat, and straight and plays 400 from the whites. There's a burn at 175, a few guys are concerned about carrying that; there's a bunker at 216 - most guys are concerned about running into that. A few see neither of those obstacles. The path doesn't concern me, I am happy to carry the bunker and know on average I can (220 carry) - people say I'm a big hitter, but I'm not - I'm marginally above a realistic average. Measured stats for this year have my drives at 233 yards typical, 291 long (great swing, tempo, weather, hard fairway - just perfect) and 130 short (everything wrong!).

So on balance, these findings would be about what I'd expect.

 

[HowlingGale]

These seem about right to me, it's very rare I see genuine big hitters at our club or during inter-club competition; I always come back to our 17th - 430/440 yards and very few hit it in 2. I know of one genuine 300 yard hitter at our club; I also see other guys with a good, powerful swing that people comment on but in the end their ball does not go much further than ours, if even.

Our 7th is flat, and straight and plays 400 from the whites. There's a burn at 175, a few guys are concerned about carrying that; there's a bunker at 216 - most guys are concerned about running into that. A few see neither of those obstacles. The path doesn't concern me, I am happy to carry the bunker and know on average I can (220 carry) - people say I'm a big hitter, but I'm not - I'm marginally above a realistic average. Measured stats for this year have my drives at 233 yards typical, 291 long (great swing, tempo, weather, hard fairway - just perfect) and 130 short (everything wrong!).

So on balance, these findings would be about what I'd expect.

Completely agree with this. People think I'm a big hitter but I'm not usually much further forward that people.

Played on a freezing cold day in March and absolutely creamed a few drives. One was downwind. My playing partners were talking about how it was 280 - 300. I knew it wasn't.

When I pointed out they were only hitting their drives about 150-170 they were incredulous. We measured it and I was correct. My drive was about 230.

Is the reason the average is going down maybe due to the average age of golfers increasing? Just a thought. Not scientific or anything and I have no evidence of an ageing golf population.

 

[Crow]

From what I can see another problem with the survey is that it isn't necessarily a drop in distance for a particular set pf golfers, rather the average of all the golfers taking part.

Perhaps when first introduced the system was bought mostly by keen and good standard golfers so the stats reflected their ability level with longer drives. As time has gone on and the system has become widely used, more average ability players have started using it and so the overall average distance has fallen.

 

[MadAdey]

It's not exactly the most scientific way to measure this. Crow made a good point above, if it was primarily used by low handicap/better players to start off with and now more beginners are using it then you are going to see a drop off in distances. Most low handicappers are hitting around the 250+ mark, most beginners are hitting around the low 200 mark.

 

[duncan mackie]

From what I can see another problem with the survey is that it isn't necessarily a drop in distance for a particular set pf golfers, rather the average of all the golfers taking part.

Perhaps when first introduced the system was bought mostly by keen and good standard golfers so the stats reflected their ability level with longer drives. As time has gone on and the system has become widely used, more average ability players have started using it and so the overall average distance has fallen.

This would be a significant factor in my opinion.

Similar issues have existed with average handicap stats over the decade's, and stats such as 90% of golfers will never break 100...

I completely agree that a hugenpercentage of people who play golf have no realistic understanding of their average carry distance with most of their clubs (massively overestimating) but that's another matter entirely!

 

[jim8flog]

Statistics

I would have only thought it was relevant to those that have played golf for a fair few years.

Newcomers to golf particularly the increase in number coming to golf later in life must skew the data.

On a personal note I know I have dropped my own driving average about 20-30 yards in the past 5 years due to an ageing body. (and 10-15 yards for irons).