Increasing Distance

I really would have to agree with Martin's comments regarding distance, if you can get the ball out there 250 yards and you are playing a 425 yd. par four you are still approaching with a mid or shorter iron according to the info. you provided.
I hit it out that distance with the driver with fairly good accuracy, the difference being I'm 62, I'm 5'7" and weigh 150lbs. We all know it's " different strokes for different folks " a lot of dedicated practice time on the range helped me increase my distance. I made the following adjustments, I relaxed my grip, I limited the amount of turn of my right hip on the backswing. I envisioned my right shoulder being behind my neck at the top of the backswing then left everything behind, so to speak, and started the downswing with no conscious movement of the hands or arms but with a move to the left with the left hip.
Now my friend that being said I'm not telling you I gained 40-50 yards on my tee shots, far from it, but I did notice a definate increase in the area of 15-20 yards. That in itself made a significant difference especially on the longer par 4's. I wish you the best of luck in your quest.

One thing I just thought of, a Speed Stick tells you what your maximum speed is but fails to tell you when you reach it. I wonder if it is possible that you are "releasing" your lag a little bit early which would put the max speed before you hit the ball.

Regarding The Speed Stick- no it doesn't tell you where the max is hit. I have always felt I released the longer clubs ie driver, 3 wood too soon.

Distance... I am responding to several comments here. It has been stated that 250, 260 is just fine. I have a great short game so, that is the equalizer. I still have to maintain though, and this is through personal experience: If I am hitting a 2h into the green that was designed to accept a short iron approach and my opponent/playing partner is 40-60 yards ahead of me, it is a tall order. The longer the club, the harder it is to control distance because you have to factor in roll. In my rounds at Pinehurst #2 last year, playing from gold tees, I consistently had 200-230 left for approach on the long par 4's. I was using a lot of 3irons, 4irons and 2h's for approach. Pinehurst #2's greens are not big to begin with and approach shots have to be hit to a small area on the green to stay on the green. I need the length to be able to at least see the flagstick and to be able to utilize the pin location sheet they give you on the first tee. The 16th hole is now a par 4 of 525 from a new tee. I hit driver 260 in fairway and had 260-270 left- a 3 wood. Lack of length puts a big strain on the short game. Playing against scratch golfers that hit the ball long leaves me at a big disadvantage on these LONG golf courses. I am simply implying that I know, not think, but know that my scores will be lower when I drive the ball far enough to be able to get a 5,6 or 7 iron (or less) in my hand to approach long par 4s.

Over the last few days, I have been working at slow speed to sequence my swing. I think I am getting the hang of it because I am noticing now at impact my right foot is well up off the ground. I have much better lag and am feeling like my power is better at this slow speed than it was at top speed with the swing that was out of sequence. I will gradually speed it up until I can do 70-80% and still be in proper sequence. I am using the Power Hitter driver and 5 iron. Weighted clubs to slow the swing and train the muscles. It is much easier to train and work on fundamentals with the slower swing until I get it fixed.

I’m with you. Why limit your potential to the distance your have? I don’t think that distance and accuracy are necessarily mutually exclusive nor do I think improving your technique is a hindrance to accuracy. IMO, there’s no such thing as "too long" any more than there is any such thing as "too accurate". You obviously have no intention of limiting your potential. Good luck.

Very tolerant of you to ignore being called a liar earlier, too.

There is a distinction between honesty towards others and lying to one's self. I can be honest when I tell you what I believe in yet believe in lies all day long. Only through my honesty to others can others see if I lie to myself.

It was clear to me that the original poster was quite honest about his intentions and especially about his beliefs in view of the help he was seeking. I believe him. I see no reason to think that he is lying to us. He would not benefit from that anyway. In that sense, he has the foundation for progress. Only through honesty can we progress. When we lie to ourselves, progress is impossible.


We lie to ourselves even though we believe in our lies. Misinformation, misunderstanding, confusion. We believe it but it's still a lie. Once we're able to see through it, we can progress. I'm dealing with this very mechanism right now on the subject of diet. It's complicated but suffice to say that many believe the lies profoundly because of misinformation and confusion and that is precisely why they can't progress, why they fail.

I did not call him a liar.

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The nearer the pin I get from the Tee box, that includes a driver the better I play, maybe I should start hitting my driver shorter and take a 4 iron out instead of a wedge for my second shot, now that makes sense NOT!

Getting back to the main problem distance of the tee. The optimum distance for any drive is taken from the top of the arc to the floor, if you fall between here then you have the correct driver in the bag if not you must get it sorted ok.

Top of the arc to floor 38% minimum Top of the arc to the floor 42% Maximum

Now if your arc is say 30 % from top of the arc to floor then you need more loft or you need to hit it more on the up to maximize your potential and if its above 45% then you will loose run out .

You will need to go to your local fitting shop/range to check your settings.

Regards Cliff

BTW I’m 54 and can only Drive it 340 yards against the wind.. Dam I just woke up again!

(My longest Drive was 6 years ago I hit it 365 yards yup no bulls%$£
But I did hit a tree stump about 240 yards out on the right hand side of the dogleg lol.. I then chipped it OB over the green with a wedge! Great game lol)

I'm with Martin.

If you look at Luke Donald, he uses a driver with a regular shaft. Why? Because he wants to be on the fairway. And he can control the ball better. He doesn't hit the ball anywhere near as far as a lot of the American guys, but how many American pro's are below him in the world rankings. Most of them. Who is just behind Luke Donald at the moment - Angel Cabrera.

Anybody seen Bubba?

Just a thought. I play with a guy who has a much quicker swing than I do, so much more athletic, that's what 10 years of despatch riding and age will do to you. But he hits it no further than I do. Why? Because he hits it too high. The speed the ball comes off his clubhead at must be 30 mph faster at least than mine, but he only hits it 260 , same as me (I reckon it'd be 300 in American weather) . God it's cold!!

Put another jumper on lol

Luke is a great player, I was lucky enough to play against him when he was about 14 years old at BGC he was great then too... But I have seen Luke on tour hit safe with a 3 iron into the trees so make as it what you will.

Angel Cabrera is one of the longer hitters,but much older too maybe not so wise ?

When I was a nipper/young man still in school I threw the javelin quite good. We had a young lad there a big lad that put the shot he picked up my javelin and threw it about half as far as I did, it’s called technique/timing what ever you like to call it but he was never going to throw it further than me no matter what he did. Each to his own.

You are spot on here ol m8.. at the top of the backswing then left everything behind that is the way to gain distance for sure.

Tom makes a great point though - if he has 210 yards left into a hard/dry green as a result of a 250 yard drive, he is going to face some problems at the next level.

Course management is important guys - we all know this - I don't usually disagree with Martin, but I have to in this case. I can't hit my 3h so high that it lands softly with backspin....but I can with a 7 or 8 iron - as can most of you.

So let us try to stay on task here guys - keep the tips coming, the game is just not able to be played without proper course management.

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this might be a repeat post. I am new to the forum and not very familiar with posting replys. I would like to request you to share your Diet recommendations. My e mail is joealmario@yahoo.com. Thanks.

I probably need to specify that the message about the diet was directed to Mr. Martin Levac ' s comment about getting better at golf.He specified he would share it privately. My apologies for the errors in posting I am new to this and very technologically challenged.I am trying to learn as fast as I could to be able to participate better. sincerely Jotay1944

Martin, will you e mail me your diet recommendations. I have been haphazardly posting and I think I finally got the sequence of how to reply to postings.i admire you insight and philosophy about golf. I am so distance challenge right now.Maybe I should look at it from a different perspective. Jotay1944. Email is joealmario@yahoo.com