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Handicap and Distance

If it makes you feel less strong Daveyboy, I played a comp at Royal Porthcawl off the back tees at went long with my 6 iron at the 215 yard par 3 4th. I also made the par 5 5th in 2 and my second shot was an iron up a steep hill for those that know it ....I won't state the yardage for that hole as I will be chased out of town and hung!

*generally hit my 30° 1/2" longer ping i20 6 iron 175 yards.
 
Liqdaddymac said:
If it makes you feel less strong Daveyboy, I played a comp at Royal Porthcawl off the back tees at went long with my 6 iron at the 215 yard par 3 4th. I also made the par 5 5th in 2 and my second shot was an iron up a steep hill for those that know it ....I won't state the yardage for that hole as I will be chased out of town and hung!

*generally hit my 30° 1/2" longer ping i20 6 iron 175 yards.
Click to expand...

Yep that sounds like a normal 6 iron spec... Not trying to sound strong just stating that a high handicap player can have decent distance. I accidently carried an 8 iron with the wind 190 yards and over the back of a green a few weeks back. Does that mean I use my 8 iron for the next 190 yard shot I have? Defiantly not.

Oh well winter will be in full flow soon and we will have to deal with the distances the shorter players have during there summer :rofl:
 
DAVEYBOY said:
So Hawkeye... Is the S3 wrong or am I lieing? Why would it be unbelievable really? A 298 yard drive is unbelievable LOL maybe 350+ yes but 298 really? And a 200 yard 6 iron??? I would use my 6 iron for anything from 175-185 normally so is 15 yards extra with some wind truly unbelievable. The wind didn't suit my shot shape but it gave me 15 yards. If it had of landed on a summer fairway it could of rolled out up to 220 yards, would I be hung for quoting a 220 yard 6 iron?

This forum makes me laugh when I comes to distance threads.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying you don't hit it that far, they are just very long distances for a club golfer and are in my opinion unbelievable, total distance maybe but carry? When people start quoting carry distances further than half the PGA tour get in total distance, I become a bit of a cynic. However, if you do you do and good luck to you.
 
Who really actually cares about Distance anyway.

It's how, not how many!

I actually played with an ex Scotland A Rugby player who was trying to reduce his distance! 9 iron 190! As a Prop/Second Rower he just had/has huge upper body strength - without the massive bulk that gets in the way of a Power Lifter at the same club. But he stated that he struggles to break 100 because his touch is 'awful'.
 
Distance -schmistance. In his book Golf My Way Big Jack gives his driver distance as 250yds+ and his 6i distance as 155yds-170yds. Go figure.

In the club Captains Day longest 5i competition I once hit a 5i 215yds - running and gently right to left sloping fairway - and I drew it. I came second by a few yards to my buddy . And I (still) don't hit the ball 215yds with a 5i.

Don't know why we bother with distance stuff here - it's almost always contentious - and frustrating for honest john posters of their yardages.

Truth is that for most of us distance doesn't really matter.

BTW - note how non-specific Big jack was about how far he hit is 6i. This tells me he would know the distance he had to hit a shot but he would choose his club and swing to suit what he wanted to achieve and the feel of the shot he wants to play. By which I mean he doesn't say he hits his 6i 170yds - but says that sometimes he will. He could have said he hits a 6i shots on average 162.5yds (to be precisely imprecise). Blimey - that's a bit feeble. :)
 
DAVEYBOY said:
So Hawkeye... Is the S3 wrong or am I lieing? Why would it be unbelievable really? A 298 yard drive is unbelievable LOL maybe 350+ yes but 298 really? And a 200 yard 6 iron??? I would use my 6 iron for anything from 175-185 normally so is 15 yards extra with some wind truly unbelievable. The wind didn't suit my shot shape but it gave me 15 yards. If it had of landed on a summer fairway it could of rolled out up to 220 yards, would I be hung for quoting a 220 yard 6 iron?

This forum makes me laugh when I comes to distance threads.
Click to expand...


I have not got a problem with these distances.
Fair play if you can bang it out there.
Just going back to the OP
I have had many a higher handicapper than myself drive past me,and I have no
problem at all with that,mainly because it wont be by much.
However most people seem not to understand an average.
Hitting a drive 300 yards then the next one 260 straight away brings the average down
to 280.
Im sure most on here[apart from Tiger 295]:o have hit 300 yards at some time,but
come on,most on here have seen other players games and have realised it doesn't happen
too often.
As ive said before I have been on a few forum meets,and I havnt seen a longest drive over 300 yet.:eek:
 
pokerjoke said:
I have not got a problem with these distances.
Fair play if you can bang it out there.
Just going back to the OP
I have had many a higher handicapper than myself drive past me,and I have no
problem at all with that,mainly because it wont be by much.
However most people seem not to understand an average.
Hitting a drive 300 yards then the next one 260 straight away brings the average down
to 280.
Im sure most on here[apart from Tiger 295]:o have hit 300 yards at some time,but
come on,most on here have seen other players games and have realised it doesn't happen
too often.
As ive said before I have been on a few forum meets,and I havnt seen a longest drive over 300 yet.:eek:
Click to expand...

Worse still if you follow your 300 & 260 and hit the next one OOB or lost, your average driving distance is now 186 yards !
 
pokerjoke said:
I have not got a problem with these distances.
Fair play if you can bang it out there.
Just going back to the OP
I have had many a higher handicapper than myself drive past me,and I have no
problem at all with that,mainly because it wont be by much.
However most people seem not to understand an average.
Hitting a drive 300 yards then the next one 260 straight away brings the average down
to 280.
Im sure most on here[apart from Tiger 295]:o have hit 300 yards at some time,but
come on,most on here have seen other players games and have realised it doesn't happen
too often.
As ive said before I have been on a few forum meets,and I havnt seen a longest drive over 300 yet.:eek:
Click to expand...

I have no issue with 300yd drives, 300yd carries are another thing altogether. When Daveyboy said he hit a 500yd par 5 in two with driver 6i I thought nothing of it, it's doable with the right conditions. When he said the course was soggy and drives were stopping like wedges I start to become a bit cynical. however, as I said if he did he did, but they are quite unbelievable distances to hit a golf ball in the air.
 
HawkeyeMS said:
I'm not saying you don't hit it that far, they are just very long distances for a club golfer and are in my opinion unbelievable, total distance maybe but carry? When people start quoting carry distances further than half the PGA tour get in total distance, I become a bit of a cynic. However, if you do you do and good luck to you.
Click to expand...

Seems like a bit of a contradiction. Not calling him a liar but you don't believe him?
 
Region3 said:
Seems like a bit of a contradiction. Not calling him a liar but you don't believe him?
Click to expand...

You forgot to highlight the last part of the sentence which is quite important if you want context. I find it hard to believe he can carry a drive 300yards, not that he can hit one that far. Still, what I think is irrelevent, not even sure why I bothered replying TBH. I don't really care how far he or anyone else hits it.
 
HawkeyeMS said:
You forgot to highlight the last part of the sentence which is quite important if you want context. I find it hard to believe he can carry a drive 300yards, not that he can hit one that far. Still, what I think is irrelevent, not even sure why I bothered replying TBH. I don't really care how far he or anyone else hits it.
Click to expand...

Nobody should care how far anybody else hits a golf ball, and everybody's opinion is relevant to a discussion imo.

I didn't forget to highlight another part as I thought I'd made bold the bits that confused me.
If I misunderstood or took anything out of context then I apologise. :)
 
I'd say that in my experience "better" players hit the ball further on average, maybe because they normally hit the ball from the middle more often (out of the screws as it were).
I've known single figure players who struggle to reach 230 off the tee, and have played with high teen handicappers who can knock it past me. But on average me, and the other lower players that I know, hit it further than those higher than us.

If that is what normally happens it still doesn't mean we shouldn't believe it when someone does differently. We've all massively under & over hit shots, and not been fully able to explain it. So much goes into a golf shot that if you change a few variables the end results can change hugely. Wind, slope, strike, power, humidity, altitude, adrenalin are just a few of the things that can make a difference.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DAVEYBOY said:
So Hawkeye... Is the S3 wrong or am I lieing? Why would it be unbelievable really? A 298 yard drive is unbelievable LOL maybe 350+ yes but 298 really? And a 200 yard 6 iron??? I would use my 6 iron for anything from 175-185 normally so is 15 yards extra with some wind truly unbelievable. The wind didn't suit my shot shape but it gave me 15 yards. If it had of landed on a summer fairway it could of rolled out up to 220 yards, would I be hung for quoting a 220 yard 6 iron?

This forum makes me laugh when I comes to distance threads.
Click to expand...

JUst curious, but why do you play regular shafts in your irons?
 
My observation is that the low handicappers at my place tend to drive about the same as me....just they have fairway wood/hybrid/iron in hand at the time...that said, I play with a 25+ handicapper who almost certainly averages further with his 6 iron than his driver because of consistency.
 
I'm more impressed with the 200 yard 6 iron than the 300 yd drive. I couldn't dream of hitting my 6 iron that sort of distance. Very jealous!
 
DAVEYBOY said:
Yep that sounds like a normal 6 iron spec... Not trying to sound strong just stating that a high handicap player can have decent distance. I accidently carried an 8 iron with the wind 190 yards and over the back of a green a few weeks back. Does that mean I use my 8 iron for the next 190 yard shot I have? Defiantly not.

Oh well winter will be in full flow soon and we will have to deal with the distances the shorter players have during there summer :rofl:
Click to expand...

Cranked lofts on the burner though ;)

Your 6 is actually more like a 5 iron, which makes the distance much more believable
 
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