Would you rather?

[Swinglowandslow]

That is mighty impressive hitting for seniors, regardless of their handicaps. I know a couple of plus seniors at my club and I'm generally longer than them and I'm not near 300.

Links course ?

Blimey , that's some hitting for seniors. Is that junior seniors, (50s) or real seniors(70s)😁 In any event, I envy you. Wish I could hit that far.

However, it does show why I chose" driver ". Those hits mean very good drivers of the ball. I would wager that none of you goes seriously "off piste "
much more than once a round. Hence, greens in regulation is the norm for you all.
Highish handicappers like me can hit 210-230 when driving well, but I also hit too many drives off piste into unplayable places or lost balls. So, done for before I even get to the green on too many occasions. Improving my putting may likely be superfluous .

 

[User20204]

Blimey , that's some hitting for seniors. Is that junior seniors, (50s) or real seniors(70s)😁 In any event, I envy you. Wish I could hit that far.

.

Just to clarify, I meant plus handicap seniors (55 and over) and it wasn't me that said the 260 - 300 yard seniors, that was someone else in the topic that I was quoting.

 

[bladeplayer]

Driver . Gona be on or near greens from there making pars / birdies gona b easier for me

 

[Slime]

I played today and blobbed three holes ............................... all due to poor driving.
Two lost balls and one OOB, that's six shots gone in three hits!

 

[upsidedown]

Blimey , that's some hitting for seniors. Is that junior seniors, (50s) or real seniors(70s)😁 In any event, I envy you. Wish I could hit that far.

However, it does show why I chose" driver ". Those hits mean very good drivers of the ball. I would wager that none of you goes seriously "off piste "
much more than once a round. Hence, greens in regulation is the norm for you all.
Highish handicappers like me can hit 210-230 when driving well, but I also hit too many drives off piste into unplayable places or lost balls. So, done for before I even get to the green on too many occasions. Improving my putting may likely be superfluous .

The guy who is closest to the 300 max is 57 and the 1 handicapper who is not far behind him is 65 , and we're 60 and 59. Yes very few off piste excursions and when they do it's not by much so GIR stats are pretty good

 

[User20204]

The guy who is closest to the 300 max is 57 and the 1 handicapper who is not far behind him is 65 , and we're 60 and 59. Yes very few off piste excursions and when they do it's not by much so GIR stats are pretty good

I am not calling you a liar but I find if hard to accept someone at 57 hitting it 300 yards. We have some pretty big hitters at out club, the three biggest are all plus handicappers and the oldest is 30 and the youngest is 19.

The point I'm making is to hit that distance you need speed and at 57 you don't suddenly find speed nor are you swinging it at 115 - 120. If the guy at 57 is booming it out at 300 it has to be total length not carry and certainly not parkland and not on every drive.

 

[Wolf]

The guy who is closest to the 300 max is 57 and the 1 handicapper who is not far behind him is 65 , and we're 60 and 59. Yes very few off piste excursions and when they do it's not by much so GIR stats are pretty good

Sorry but I am calling this as a very iffy forum exaggerated distance to add validation to your arguments.

57 year old bombing 300yards on every (nearly every) drive.. Not seeing it I'm afraid, John Day leads Challenge tour at 297yds and the tour average is a mere 271yds, thats professional players playing in perfect conditions all the time, yet your mate is nearly 30 yards longer than most pro's and supposedly he has banging GIR stats to boot. Sorry but something doesn't add up to me, if he's that long and accurate all the time and hits all those greens, even as an average putter he'd be on tour mixing it with the big boys and not playing off of 1 at his local course, in the UKs dreary conditions, especially as people get shorter as they age, unless his name is Art Sellinger the former world long drive champ I just can't see it.

 

[User20204]

The 65 year old is not far behind him, come on man, lets get real here eh.

 

[robinthehood]

Sorry but I am calling this as a very iffy forum exaggerated distance to add validation to your arguments.

57 year old bombing 300yards on every (nearly every) drive.. Not seeing it I'm afraid, John Day leads Challenge tour at 297yds and the tour average is a mere 271yds, thats professional players playing in perfect conditions all the time, yet your mate is nearly 30 yards longer than most pro's and supposedly he has banging GIR stats to boot. Sorry but something doesn't add up to me, if he's that long and accurate all the time and hits all those greens, even as an average putter he'd be on tour mixing it with the big boys and not playing off of 1 at his local course, in the UKs dreary conditions, especially as people get shorter as they age, unless his name is Art Sellinger the former world long drive champ I just can't see it.

That's longer than everyone on the champions tour .......everyone.
100% BS

 

[Wolf]

That's longer than everyone on the champions tour .......everyone.

My point exactly.... Absolutely not a chance it's true imo

 

[upsidedown]

All play at 6400+ and our Sunday best drives would be between 260 and 300 depending on conditions.

So just to quantify , that is our very best efforts of the season , so, warm, firm fairways and run out ( not carry) Not the averages and certainly not all the time distance wise . I'm sure John daly who was quoted above in those conditions would be bombing it 350 +
The question asked was

Saw this question on Twitter - would you rather?

Hit the driver your maximum distance down the centre of the fairway everytime you hit it

Or

Hole every putt from 10ft and in

It wasn't until I started entering the top National Championship that I started to appreciate how well the top guys hit it and been privileged a couple of times to play against a couple of them . They do hit it a long way and I would only ever report on what I've seen first hand. Coxmoor this summer in the Team of Six being one occasion
What is has shown me is that the gulf between top amateurs and the Pro's is as huge as it's ever been .

Wolf, I believe you're quite close to Woodhall. If you get a chance pop along and watch Richard Latham, Simon Ostrom or Les Toyne and you'll see what I've seen . For their ages these blokes are seriously good .

 

[User20204]

So they only hit it 300 downhill on concrete with a 40mph tailwind, even I can do that 🙄

 

[upsidedown]

So they only hit it 300 downhill on concrete with a 40mph tailwind, even I can do that 🙄

😆😆

 

[ScienceBoy]

Driver for me, very happy with my putting so no need to help me more than the V-Easy did.’

There isn’t a V-Easy for driving so picking that all day long.

 

[jim8flog]

A comment on here about hardly ever missing a 10ft putt made me look at the PGA tour stats.

In the current season the best player on the tour made only 35% of their putts in the 5 to 10 ft range.

Makes one question our memories of how good we are when it comes to putting.

 

[TheDiablo]

A comment on here about hardly ever missing a 10ft putt made me look at the PGA tour stats.

In the current season the best player on the tour made only 35% of their putts in the 5 to 10 ft range.

Makes one question our memories of how good we are when it comes to putting.

I have no idea where you got that stat from but it's wrong!!

Not much of a sample size yet this season, but last year the leader in this category was 67% and the guy in 100th was at 56%

Reading your post another way, maybe you looked at Lanto Griffin, top of the FedEx so far? Nope, he's at 68% in this stat

 

[Imurg]

I think a lot of people are forgetting how close 10 feet is...
Ok, you're not going to hole them all from there, but getting it there in the first place is the hard bit
3-4 steps isn't a big distance and to be able to get the ball inside that in 2,3 or 4 shots, depending on the par of the hole, is no mean feat for a lot of us and having a ball 240/250, or whatever, in the middle of the fairway is, in my opinion, worth more as it gives you more chance of putting the ball on the green with your next shot.
Once on it, most of us will take no more than 3 putts ( exceptions accepted)
Mostly we'll 2 putt, occasionally 1 putt.
That's the way I see it.

 

[clubchamp98]

I h

So just to quantify , that is our very best efforts of the season , so, warm, firm fairways and run out ( not carry) Not the averages and certainly not all the time distance wise . I'm sure John daly who was quoted above in those conditions would be bombing it 350 +
The question asked was


It wasn't until I started entering the top National Championship that I started to appreciate how well the top guys hit it and been privileged a couple of times to play against a couple of them . They do hit it a long way and I would only ever report on what I've seen first hand. Coxmoor this summer in the Team of Six being one occasion
What is has shown me is that the gulf between top amateurs and the Pro's is as huge as it's ever been .

Wolf, I believe you're quite close to Woodhall. If you get a chance pop along and watch Richard Latham, Simon Ostrom or Les Toyne and you'll see what I've seen . For their ages these blokes are seriously good .

ave played the Lancashire seniors the last couple of years and can back up what Upsidedown is saying.
Some of these seniors are seriously good .
Played at my home course three years ago and one guy had 56yds into a 357yd par four.
One thing I noticed with these lads is how well they had looked after themselves they looked very fit.
And after a few handshakes how strong they obviously were.
Several shot in the sixties that day ,that’s very good at Grange Park.

 

[Orikoru]

I think a lot of people are forgetting how close 10 feet is...
Ok, you're not going to hole them all from there, but getting it there in the first place is the hard bit
3-4 steps isn't a big distance and to be able to get the ball inside that in 2,3 or 4 shots, depending on the par of the hole, is no mean feat for a lot of us and having a ball 240/250, or whatever, in the middle of the fairway is, in my opinion, worth more as it gives you more chance of putting the ball on the green with your next shot.
Once on it, most of us will take no more than 3 putts ( exceptions accepted)
Mostly we'll 2 putt, occasionally 1 putt.
That's the way I see it.

This is one of things I was saying (many pages ago). I'd say my average first putt is definitely outside of 10 feet, and my average second putt after lagging the first one has be 2 or 3 feet I should think, a good number of which you'd make anyway. So I just don't see a huge benefit in that option, as opposed to hitting every fairway at good distance which would save me more shots - even on three wayward drives on a round that could cost you 6 shots at least.

Possibly for very low handicappers the putting might be of more benefit, if they are regularly hitting approaches to 8-10 feet. But for anybody else the driving is the logical option.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

GIR / nGIR is where the big saving would be and up/down ratio would increase massively.

I reckon on my good days, when I miss say 6 greens in regulation(whether close or say within 10-15 yards of the green), if I could hole every putt within 10ft, then I would get up and down everytime.

Normally on a good day, my up and down is around 50% of the time....so an easy 3 shots saved. (I can miss a green from 40 yards out, so hitting the driver to my best, wont massively help GIR)

On top of that I would not 3 putt once from long distance and I would not miss the great iron shots to the green on par 3 & 4s giving me less than 10ft, and in addition the birdies chances sunk on par 5s that I can get near in/on 2 and can chip/putt within 10 foot again. Probably worth 2-4 shots on my good days.

That's probably say 5 plus shots easily saved on my good days(probably more ).... putting is king IMHO, for the question asked,for me and I am not the most accurate driver of the ball . Driving may save me 2 shots on a good day IMHO.

Therefore putting would reduce my handicap the most on the good days