driving distance

[willie]

I have been playing golf for about 20 years and every year a company brings out a new driver promising greater distance. By now I think I should be hitting 600yard drives. I think they are fooling us all. Took my old driver out the other day for a change and was hitting it further than my brand new model.
Any comments.
Willie
The point I am trying to make is you can buy a new driver every year but its not going to get you a lot more distantce as every company claims .

 

[ScienceBoy]

I have been playing golf for about 20 years and every year a company brings out a new driver promising greater distance. By now I think I should be hitting 600yard drives. I think they are fooling us all. Took my old driver out the other day for a change and was hitting it further than my brand new model.
Any comments.
Willie

I think as long as someone is confident with the driver and it generally gets them where they need to be then it is right for them. With a good swing and plenty of practice anyone could hit any decent driver well with little difference. With those above points I think you would have to hit 50-100 shots to start telling the difference without video analysis.

 

[Imurg]

Could be that your old driver has a "hot" face and a COR of over 0.83. These were the drivers made illegal some years back.
Not sure us mere mortals could see much difference but a Pro could gain many yards with the high COR drivers.

Or it could just be that you hit it better....

 

[chrisd]

Hi Willie an welcome!

By now I think I should be hitting 600yard drives.

By the standards in this forum you would be quite a short hitter!!



Chris

 

[MVP]

I have been playing golf for about 20 years and every year a company brings out a new driver promising greater distance. By now I think I should be hitting 600yard drives. I think they are fooling us all. Took my old driver out the other day for a change and was hitting it further than my brand new model.
Any comments.
Willie
The point I am trying to make is you can buy a new driver every year but its not going to get you a lot more distantce as every company claims .

I totally agree.

 

[golfstick]

i drove our 534yard par 5 the other nite......with my 3 wood

 

[MVP]

I drove 7 miles to the golf course last month

 

[SharkAttack]

Have a look HERE There is a comparison between 7 clubs from a hickory to a modern fitted club. The average distances 203yds to 256yds over 90 years or less than 30 yds from one of the last of the metal shafted persimmon drivers until todays custom fitted graphite shafted titaniun heads. This show that all of the advances in technology have been worth it for all the extra distance we now get , the real advantage is probably the dispersion of the shots.

Shark

 

[willie]

Wow 90 years I hope you are not talking through experience.In another 90 years we will be driving to a par three on the moon. The improvement in dispersion has been the best benifit keeping you in play no matter how long you drive. Willie

 

[golfcitydweller]

i think ur right willie - the only advantge with the 460 heads is the off-centre hits are better, we have been conned by the golf companys and r&a about the `spring effect` heads - the only thing thats improved is the `stock` shafts there fitting gcd

 

[Toby_LeRhone]

Factor in average height increase; between the mid 19th C and present date (150 years) the average male Englishman has grown 5" from 5'5" to 5'10". Height equals longer arms plus longer clubs equals longer swing circumferance equals higher clubhead speed equals greater distance for same rotational speed. Not to mention greater athletic potential (and correspondingly greater rotational speed)..


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height#History_of_human_height

 

[SharkAttack]

Factor in average height increase; between the mid 19th C and present date (150 years) the average male Englishman has grown 5" from 5'5" to 5'10". Height equals longer arms plus longer clubs equals longer swing circumferance equals higher clubhead speed equals greater distance for same rotational speed. Not to mention greater athletic potential (and correspondingly greater rotational speed)..

Lucky Ian Woosnam is Welsh then (5' 4 1/2") as he hits it a country mile. Maybe hes has the arms of someone 5'10"

 

[Toby_LeRhone]

Factor in average height increase; between the mid 19th C and present date (150 years) the average male Englishman has grown 5" from 5'5" to 5'10". Height equals longer arms plus longer clubs equals longer swing circumferance equals higher clubhead speed equals greater distance for same rotational speed. Not to mention greater athletic potential (and correspondingly greater rotational speed)..

Lucky Ian Woosnam is Welsh then (5' 4 1/2") as he hits it a country mile. Maybe hes has the arms of someone 5'10"

Lucky he's a more accomplished ball-striker than average. Interesting, I bet he would not be proportunately longer if he was 6 inches taller.

 

[funkyfred]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the balls. Dont they now go straighter and longer? so how much is it down to the club makers or is it the ball makers?

 

[muttleee]

Lee Trevino once commented that the mowers that are used to cut the fairways these days are better than the mowers that were used on the greens when he started out. So maybe the average drive gets a bit more run these days.

 

[robbest3offthetee]

Not in this weather matee....

 

[Oddsocks]

interesting thread, and my 2 pennies worth.

In 2008 i was using a calloway 416 Hot faced driver, distance would be around 230-240 carry but dispersion rates were great, its was an awesome driver so accurate. the only reason i changed was a player in our society kepts bleeting my driver wasnt regulation. Not sure why he was threatened by my little 416cc when he had the latest and greatest cobra 460cc and he always won our longest drives. whether this was down to the hot face or the round shaft flex (reg) is another thing,

In 2009 i got my hands on a G5 460cc stiff, my distance was around 10-15 yards longer which im putting down to the shaft, but the dispersion got a little worse, i would find that i would try and hammer the driver, causing some creative 2nd shots.

In 2010 i upgraded the G5 to a TM Burner 09 in stiff, dispersion was alot better and it was a few yards longer than the G5.

But.... and its a big but, on a bad day, i can be having real trouble with the 460cc tm, reach to my friends bag and with no effort at all hit the old 416 cally (On loan to him) bullet straight. In all honesty if it wasnt for the fact that people still bang on its no conforming i would be using it still today. The 20/30 yards that i get from the 460 isnt worth the consistancy that ive lost, and im sure shaft technology and head technology outweighs any gains of a little 416 hot face club. By using this i would put myself at a distance disadvanatge, but im still not allowed to use it.

I honestly think some of these old "hot faced" or "non confirming rules" for banned models should be revoked now anyway, a club that was non conforming in 06/07 will now be far less technically advanced than a 2011/2010 spec conforming driver.

 

[bobmac]

Oddsox, take a look at this

http://www.randa.org/en/Equipment/Equipm...p;action=search

 

[MashieNiblick]

Oddsocks, if you are talking about the Great Big Bertha II 415, Callaway made 2 versions, one conforming and one non-conforming. The non-conforming ones were marked 415+. Callaway did this with a few of their drivers during the transition period. The R & A site in the link above gives details. Conforming version is this one.

http://www.randa.org/en/Equipment/Equipm...p;action=search

I have the conforming version and agree it is a great club. Really easy to hit, long and accurate and in my view looks the right size. I always thought the max size should have been set at about 400 rather than 460. I liked it so much I bought matching 3 and 5 woods.

You can pick up the conforming version pretty cheap if you want to have one as back up. On ebay sometimes sellers aren't clear whether it's the conforming or non-conforming version but you could also try Golfbidder. Also be aware that they made a version with a smaller head which isn't marked "415"

Having said all that, I recently got a bargain HyperX which is my Chrissy prezzie. I thought with my recent layoff I might benefit from maximum forgiveness when I get back playing again. Time will tell. It'll need to be good to beat the GBB II.