My distance relative to body size

I have a question regarding club distance. I've been golfing for about 2 years now (this year being the first year i've played consistenly). I'm 5'10 and 210 lbs. I've got a fairly muscular build (bench 280, leg press 650 or so). I have this set of MacGregor MGX irons bought at Wal Mart like 4 years ago. My woods are an assortment of Wal-Mart brands bought at various times. My driver is a Knight 420cc 10*, Pro Select 3wd 15*, MacGregor 5wd 20*, and Knight 7wd 22*. My distances when hit straight are as follows:

Driver-245
3wd-220(tee) 205(off the deck)
5wd-185(tee) 175(off the deck)
7wd-175(tee) 160(off the deck)
5i-155
6i-145
7i-135
8i-125
9i-110
PW- 80

I was wondering, if these distances are fairly good. I've seen the chart that someone posted on here, and my distances seem to fall in the amateur category avg's. I feel that with my strength, I should be able to do more. Is strength relative to distance or am I thinking that I should be the next Long Drive champion, when strength is not a big factor. Thanks for any replys.

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Next time your on the links and are having a bad day just remember you're still golfing...You could be sitting at home and listening to the nagging wife...That always puts a positive spin on my bad outings....

Distance has little to do, unfortunatly, with strength. It is true that the touring pros are hitting it longer with strength trainning and they are in the gyms these days. But this is to gain only about 5-10% more. That's all.

What you are talking about here is the difference in 245 vs. 295 and thats about 25%. This kind of difference comes from technique.

So don't worry about the strength as much and work on the fundamentals.

What is probably the most impartant thing you can do if you have the time to work out is streach. Increase your flexability. Especially in the back and shoulders. These are the hardest areas to get loose after driving in a car and the first to get tired at the end of a round. Once your back goes, then your hands and arms take over and you loose control and distance. Flexability will increase distance more then strength. What happens is that you increase the length of your lever-arm, and as that length is added in a centerfugal rotation, the speed at the end of the club is increased. And that is where more force is put on the ball making it go father.

Another example would be the women pros, yes they don't hit as far as the men but they do drive that ball long. the top 85 or so all drive over 250 yards

One of the first thing golfers should learn it speed and technic what makes the ball go further.

Switch on the golf, ladies,seniors and juniors all hitting great distances. Look at Wie a 15year old girl playing against men.

Tour training is for strength to keep practicing everyday and for fitness to cope with four/five competitve rounds every week.


Hope this helps

Ian.

Just to repeat what has been said, distance comes from technique and flexability.

If you want to gain distance, go see your local instructor and sign up for a Yoga course. Laugh if you want, it will bring results.

If your shots are fairly straight, I wouldnt worry about getting more distance.

Say, your first shot is 245 (driver) and the second 145 (i6), that equals 390. That's pretty good if you're able to keep them straight. I mean how many longer (than 390y) par4 holes you find if you play from the whites?

However, if you want to gain more distance I'd say that you should get more club head speed. Concentrate on swinging with your body, not your hands AND using your wrists more through the impact. Quite often when a player is lacking distance his/her left hand and the club are in straight line already way before the impact -> you lose club head speed i.e. power. Remember to coil your body (in the top of your back swing you should see your left shoulder in front of you and then make sure that you see your right shoulder before you lift up your head after the impact) and keep the right leg "straight", because the power is in your body, not in your hands.

How much you bench press etc has little or nothing to do with that (look at Charles Howell III and his body). Healthy muscles are important, not how big they are.

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I shot 59 once. Sure! I remember it clearly, I was standing on the 13th green and heading to the 14th tee box and I had 59 shots in my card...

i'm bench about 160, i'm 5'7 180 ibs and my distance are

D:285
3w:245
5w:215
3:205
4:195
5:185
6:175
7:165
8:155
9:145
pw:135

so as you can see strength is not that big of a deal

Dirty,

Your distances are ok. Try a different ball and you may find a brand that gives you 10-15 yards extra. If you add a little width to your swing you will get a bit of distance there as well, but dont obsess about it. At 245 with the driver even a 450 yard par 4 is still well in reach for you. Concentrate on accuracy as well. If you chip and putt well (no restriction on how well you can do either of those) then your distance will matter much less.

D.

Shouldn't someone mention the speed of his swing in relation to type of ball used? I asked someone what makes a "lady" ball different. They told me swing speed and added that if someone with a high speed swing hit the low compression ball it wouldn't go as far because they would simply compress it too much. I've found that its mostly mental for me. There are times when I can barely hit a 5 iron 150 and times when I fly a 6 iron over the green at 155 out. What I found out is that when I tell my mind that I have to hit it 155, it usually gets there and sometimes even further. What I found out is that when I say to myself that I am going to hit this 8 iron 150, it automatically sends a message from my brain to my body and I usually turn more and swing faster. Which means I need to do this on a regular basis. But, what happens is I will be on the range... nail my pitching wedge 100 even, which is really all I want to be able to hit it since these shots are very common for me during a round. I always say that if I can get it to the 100 yard mark on the approach, I'm fine. I now think this is screwing me up a bit and I should hit the pitching wedge as far as I can and learn how to hit my sand wedge, approach wedge (52 degree) for those 80 to 110 yard shots. Psychologically I'm setting myself up for failure when I fail to make adjustments as I improve. 5 iron at 150 is not longer my choice. It should be a 7 iron and I should start forcing myself to hit it that far under optimum conditions. Or am I just sleepy and not making sense anymore? Its more psychological for me today and when I use the right techniques it flies. My clubs, the RAC HT's are not designed for high speed swings and it makes sense because when I swing nice and easy, they go high and just as far! It was amazing when I first discovered that trick. I was thinking, hey why is it going the same distance when I am barely swinging? Technology of the swinging stick plus ball= distance.

New to golf and getting better every day!

Since totally re-buliding my swing from scratch and learning the correct fundamentals, ive been hitting a lot further.

Im 5ft 8 dont work out, but am very sporty and flexably

I consistantly hit my 7i 180 yards in dry weather with a small bit of roll

and my 5i 200 yards same conditions.

This shows that a skinny wimp can hit the ball

Just need to take it to the course!!

Cheers John