I am in the same boat as Indiana Jones. I am 46 and possess a good, sound swing. For whatever reason (age- maybe) I have lost a lot of yardage over the last couple of years.

I wanted to hit the ball even further, so I started working out regularly over 2 years ago. I have stayed with it. But I still cannot gain any distance. I was carrying the ball 270-275 3 years ago, now I carry it 250 and I am stronger and in better shape than then.

I have tried all the gimmicks on the market, have ordered all the long driver training aids and have decided that good old fashioned hard work on strength and flexibility training is the only way to gain yards.

The idea of getting to the top of the backswing in a fully loaded manner is done easy enough; I am loaded up with most of my weight over my right side and coiled fully against my right knee and feel lots of coil in my right side and a big stretch away from the left side. On the video I look great.

Then this "delay of impact" or "lag" escapes me completely... how can anybody do this? The downswing happens so fast that I can't delay anything. From the top I concentrate on letting the club fall into position then I go hit it... thats it. I can't do any more than that.

So I am done with all the training aids except my weighted club, weight training and flexibility excercizes. If I don't gain any yards by next spring, thats it, thats all I can do. BTW- I do have a good short game and I am very good with the wedges. But- its more exciting to be able to hit a 550 yard par 5 in two or hit something less than a utility club to long par 4s.

Reality hit me like an open-handed slap to the face last week. I played Torrey Pines South (Home of the Buick Open and the 2008 US Open). There are several long par 4s in the 440-480 range from the blue tees. The black tees are just too long for me to play from. Anyway, I hit NO LESS than a 3 iron to all of those par 4s after GOOD drives. My playing partner (9 years younger and bombs it off the tee) was hitting 5-8 irons to the same holes. I used to be the guy looking back at my playing partners, now I am the one looking 40-60 yards up the fairway and seeing their balls up there and waiting for me to hit. Another thing- one of my playing partners was an LPGA player... My best drives were only 5-10 yards past her's and she outdrove me every time that I did not catch it solid cause she hits it solid every time. And yes, she played from the same tees as us men. I should have remembered to bring my skirt like Fred Funk...