Grip it and Rip it...

[PJ87]

Played in my second work society other day... got paired with a guy who has some serious distance behind him but the consistency was almost as bad as me! He plays off 19. Swing speed with his driver is apparently 120 mph (would I would say was correct) he either would smash his drive 300 plus yards to almost on the green on the par 4 or be 100 yards off the fairway.. every other hole almost..

Par 3 160 yards to the pin.. 8 Iron very good connection not thinned.. 200 yards. straight through the back onto the tee box behind the green

I asked about and apparently they have had it out with him a few times down the range trying to get him to slow down and hit half shots. All falls apart if he hits a half shot.. tops it or goes 100 yards and that's it. So he literally just plays 'grip it and rip it'

one par 4 (stroke index 2) 400 ish yards.. 7 iron and 9 iron onto the green, 2 putt bamn par.

first par 4.. out of bounds to left.. straight onto the railway tracks lol... second par 4.. temp green so its playing about 320.. drove through the temp green almost onto the real green dead straight

anyone else play with people like this? I personally would love to hit that sort of distance I was taking 2 to catch his drive most times.. unless it was out of bounds of course

 

[Imurg]

His name wasn't Slasher Nash was it...🤔👍

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

He's off 19. So no. Not for me. But I do occasionally play with this sort of player - and you can probably guess the range in which their handicaps lie.

 

[garyinderry]

Surely one day he might think about just taking a wood or iron off the tee if he has all that power and all those blanks on his card.

Can people really be that silly?

 

[USER1999]

Maybe he just enjoys his golf and isn't too hung up on the whole handicap thing?

 

[turkish]

My mate can hit the ball well... but also really really bad and has went up 0.1 almost every comp since he's joined my club... he's up to 20.0 after starting at 19.0... I've tried to say just start using shorter clubs and get the ball round but he refuses as he says he can hit any club just as bad (A fair point perhaps?)

He's 6' 4" and with his big arc hitting driver 300 yards is a breeze.... it's just total roulette which direction

 

[PJ87]

It was mad to watch.. I mean its great to hit 300 yards dead straight but if its once every 3 holes but in between is out of bounds id get bored

my fav was when I found a ball and said do you want this to replace some of yours? only plays pro v1s lol if I was going through that many balls id go to lake recovered pinnacles lol

 

[ScienceBoy]

There is more than one way to play the game, 19 isn't bad, can be improved through just a better short game and keeping the ball in play.

All a player like this has to do is learn to harness their ability if they wish to score better.

Currently they are playing naturally unleashed, which is fun and enjoyable.

I would expect any attempt to deviate results in tension, tentativeness and inhibition of ability.

Maybe they just need to understand where their power comes from and find a way to turn that into a better score, if they want to anyway.

Last thing any pro should do is try to stop them doing what they do best.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

I once played with a client who could hit a driver carry about 300 yards, would hit his driver about 320-330 with roll. Was amazing to see, just amazing the sound of the strike and the flight. He very rarely played but played off 5 on my days, took him a while to get some drives on the fairway but once flowing you could see that he could play to scratch a lot easier than shorter hitters like me.

The biggest problem at that kind of swing speed is that 1 degree open at impact means the ball is going a lot more wayward than someone who swings at 85mph etc. So a lot less forgiveness.

I would love to swing at 120mph plus and tbh I wouldn't care about lost balls and scores, I don't now, as I love going for shots etc. As someone said above not everything is about handicaps/scores, fun is so much more important to me, I love the ups and downs of golf and think it is great fun.

 

[Norrin Radd]

a chap at my club is a boomer ,he hits it further than i go on holiday ,he really does give it whack ,we measured a few of his drives one evening and the shortest was 330 wind against,he is built like king kong and dosent hold back at all. he plays off 14 now and can drive all but two of the holes on our course. but like the op ,he has a tendancy to be a tad off target at times ,and when it goes wrong ,boy does it go wrong. .
he has tried reigning it in but cant get any consistancy doing that.
he now hits lots of irons off the tee so it keeps his score going ,rather than smashing the big dog all over the shop.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I can grip it and rip it - but I spray it all over the place when I do (that may have come out all wrong). So I keep it steady.

 

[guest100718]

a guy n my regular group hits it miles, he plays of 14 . but its often a bit of a lottery on where it goes..

 

[Bobirdie]

I can grip it and rip it - but I spray it all over the place when I do (that may have come out all wrong). So I keep it steady.

Hahahaha

 

[ADB]

I don't buy the need to swing flat out or nothing...there is a big difference between slowing tempo and trying to swing slowly. He obviously needs some better tuition.

 

[Pin-seeker]

If that's how he enjoys playing the game then good luck to him.
It's not like he's doing it for a living.
Some people take golf way too serious imo.

 

[ScienceBoy]

I don't buy the need to swing flat out or nothing...there is a big difference between slowing tempo and trying to swing slowly. He obviously needs some better tuition.

That is very true but its about what the brain hears and how it converts that into actions.

Tell them to slow down or reduce tempo just gets turned into "tense up so you don't hit it so hard" or "take longer to do this this bit so we are out of sync"

You have to start at the belief, they believe they have to hit it hard to swing well. A good pro needs to start there and work out how to get the best out of the natural ability to get a good contact.

In the end we all know we can swing hard, but turning that swing into clubhead (and ball) speed takes ability. You cant just swing hard if that energy is just lost and not transferred to the ball.

The good pro will turn that ability to get energy into the ball into energy + direction control.

 

[Imurg]

I played in a Club Match years ago against a guy off 10 who was greenside on a 500 yard par 5 with a driver then a wedge......mammoth distance.
Trouble is he had all the touch and feel of a gorilla on speed......took him 4 to get down and my birdie won the hole..😁

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We played a guy in a match and he boomed it. When he got it right every hole was a drive and a flick. Get it wrong and he was out of the hole and the ball was in parts of the course even the wildlife haven't found. He was definitely in the all or nothing camp. He hit our 229 yard first with a 5 iron to three feet and 535 yard second was a driver and nine iron and a birdie. Two down after two and he didn't come in on a hole again until the 7th. We won easily. Great to watch when it came off, but why would you play such high risk golf? Do we have any forum big boomers playing Monday?

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Where is @SuperHans when you need him

 

[Lazkir]

I hit my clubs a decent length on a full swing, but if I hit a smooth 3/4 shot it goes roughly where I aim it. I lose about 15 or 20 yards when I do, but give me accuracy over distance every time!
Just a shame it's took me five years to realise it