Long Hitter - I thought I was but am not!

[Snelly]

I am a relatively long hitter, especially with my new Ping i25 irons (thanks again GM and Ping!) and have always been a pretty good driver of the ball, especially if I am playing regularly.

Against this context, I played golf yesterday in an event and was drawn with a guy I know through county squash but this was the first time we had played golf together. He is off 3 and is 23 years old with a pretty whippy swing and hits the ball with a strong draw.

This may sound immodest and boastful and for that, I apologise but I would go as far as to say that it is quite rare for me to be outdriven consistently, even by better players that I play with. Yesterday though, in simple terms, he outdrove me on just about every hole. I played pretty well and hit some long drives myself with three over 280 yards (carry and roll) and one at 330 yards that was downwind. When we got to the balls in the fairway, he was 30+ yards past me! I had hit the ball as well as I possibly could and was genuinely surprised to be so far behind.

He really did strike the ball amazingly well and better than quite a few pros I have played with or watched at tournaments live.

Just shows that there are golfers out there who really do hit the ball “forum yardages.” Very impressive stuff and he was a great bloke too.

 

[ColchesterFC]

That's quite impressive but can he hit a 7 iron over 250 yards?

 

[Alex1975]

I do love watching a genuinely long hitter of the ball. Its not the be all and end all of golf but I would love to hit it a little longer!

 

[garyinderry]

got drawn with someone similar at our club recently. he said he had his driver swing clocked at 120mph which I would well believe. He pinged 3iorns most of the day which went an absolute mile!

he didn't play great and I gave him a short game lesson in scrambling. if I could hit the ball like that I would never be over par!

amazing to watch but a little sickening!

 

[Snelly]

That's quite impressive but can he hit a 7 iron over 250 yards?

No he cannot. He hits a high draw. He hits a 6 iron 195 though and it isn't de-lofted. Just absolutely smashed with a stratospheric trajectory!

By the way, he uses forged Mizunos of some sort.

 

[Alex1975]

No he cannot. He hits a high draw. He hits a 6 iron 195 though and it isn't de-lofted. Just absolutely smashed with a stratospheric trajectory!

By the way, he uses forged Mizunos of some sort.

Some fairly normalized lofts then...

 

[Spear-Chucker]

It's great to see a proper, proven, silly-long hitter playing the game. Something primeval about it in all honesty. Play regularly with an ex-long drive champion and it's hilarious to see what he can do. Genuine entertainment.

 

[Hunka Turf]

How did he score? Obviously he's pretty tidy off 3 but please at least tell me his short game was a bit suspect?

 

[Snelly]

How did he score? Obviously he's pretty tidy off 3 but please at least tell me his short game was about suspect?

He and his partner won the event. It was a better ball pairs format with over 60 pairs.

He should be off lower. His game is very good all round and he can chip and putt with the best. Wedges were the weakest part of his game as he had trouble with knockdown shots and half wedges from 100 yards in.

My suspicion is that he has one or two bad holes a round through youthful exuberance or the odd snap hook / ripped wedge. I would think he would go lower as he matures as a golfer.

 

[garyinderry]

thing I found amazing was even though this guy hit everything a mile in the air, the wind didn't seem to affect it. properly struck!

 

[Hunka Turf]

His game is very good all round

Great.

I played with with the other kind of long hitter last week. Plays off 14 and can absolutely rip it but 3 out of 10 ended up on a different planet!

 

[mcbroon]

I do love watching a genuinely long hitter of the ball. Its not the be all and end all of golf but I would love to hit it a little longer!

I played with a guy last year who hit the ball a country mile. If I really get hold of one, I'll hit driver about 260 in calm conditions. This guy was hitting his 3i past my best drives. He hit our par 5 15th (503yds) in two, hitting 3i twice. Quite staggering to watch.

 

[JustOne]

There's a par 5 (530yds) that I've only ever ONCE made it onto the green in 2 strokes, hitting driver and then 3-wood to do so.

A young lad hit hybrid - 6 iron on there :angry:

I've seen people get onto 600yrd par 5's in 2 strokes so by default there MUST be some long hitters out there.

 

[hovis]

Played with germanys long drive champion last year and although he was BORRING AS HELL. He drove his ball into a greenside bunker at 410. It was slightly down wind but no more than 5mph. He also had time to put his driver back into his bag before his ball hit the ground

 

[CMAC]

played with a 3 capper from Denmark 2 weeks ago that would hit PW to my 7 iron, drives were 40 yds past mine easily, I'm not as big a hitter as snelly and I'm unfortunately a lot older but I can do 250-260 regularly on parkland so it was an eye opener.

Plus I watched Gordon Sherry today stroke...and I mean stroke a 54* 160yds, he said 7 iron would be his 170yd shot but I asked him to do it with a 54* (charity event so money went to the charity), he stroked it smoothly 160

 

[Doon frae Troon]

On the Ron Conkers post I mentioned a Dutch golfer called Martin Roesink who was the longest driver of my younger era, longer than Brian Barnes and Bobby Cole.
Out of interest I looked him up in t'interweb and his average drives were given as 240 yards.

 

[williamalex1]

played with a 3 capper from Denmark 2 weeks ago that would hit PW to my 7 iron, drives were 40 yds past mine easily, I'm not as big a hitter as snelly and I'm unfortunately a lot older but I can do 250-260 regularly on parkland so it was an eye opener.

Plus I watched Gordon Sherry today stroke...and I mean stroke a 54* 160yds, he said 7 iron would be his 170yd shot but I asked him to do it with a 54* (charity event so money went to the charity), he stroked it smoothly 160

Is big Gordon thinking of competing again, he was very good player.
I recall him and Tiger playing in the Walker cup[ i think] ?? years ago, but he decided to opt for university and put golf on the back burner.Would be nice to see him back .

 

[SocketRocket]

Played today with an 18 year old who hits it a country mile. He hits a gap wedge my 8 iron distance and a 3 wood my driver.

We were all square at the turn due to my superior scrambling but he took me 2 & 1. I was just under so much pressure on the back nine as the course has many doglegs that he could cut off to the green. I'm 66 mind so not a bad fight.

 

[Foxholer]

I played with a reasonably new convert to Golf - he didn't use a Driver as he was 'a bit wayward'!.

He hit his 9 iron 190+! Ex Scotland A Prop/2nd Rower who had to stop playing because it was the sore neck was actually a broken vertebrae! Upper body strength, without too much bulk, is the key!