how far.

Simon, if you are struggling with distance, take a lesson or two from your local instructor. If you are swinging quickly and still not getting over 200 yards, you have some mechanical issues that need to be fixed.

Well, I hit it about 270 yards which is short by modern day standards but i'm quite a small guy. But it's plenty long for me to break par, so I'm not worried about distance.

To answer your question:
- I coach lots of players in their teens that drive it close to 300 yards and more-and-more of them every year. In the college and top amateur ranks that sort of distance is not that uncommon.
- According to a friend of mine who is a coach at a college in the US, 8 of the 15 players in his squad have handicaps of +3 or better and they all drive 300 yards on average.
- A friend of mine, who is an ex-pro that now works for an equipment company in Japan drives it about 330 yards with his new Fusion driver.

So, really - the game is getting longer and longer and in the near future, you'll see LOTS of players driving 350 yards or more. Not that long ago (maybe 7 or 8 months) I was speaking to Gary Player and he thinks drives of 400 yards are on the horizon!

__________________
Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

And that is only because the equipment gets better or because the swing technique has improved ??

And if it's the equipment: is it mainly the club or the ball ??

A bit of both actually but the main 'cause' is equipment, no doubt about it. Bigger and better drivers have allowed golfers to develop a technique that is far more powerful and accuracy of impact is not as important as it was say 15 years ago when drivers where 260ccm - they are almost double that now.

The golf balls also go further ...

The golf courses are in better shape and modern US courses are designed with big hitting in mind, creating more opportunity to rip the driver.

But - I know that this is going to cause a storm - I don't many of the modern day players (the last 5 years) could drive it nearly as far with a first first Bertha driver and an 1990's Titleist 90 Wound. In fact, I'd put money on that someone like Bubba or JB couldn't even get a centre hit with thier current swings.

__________________
Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

Well, because I have a fairly high ballflight my drives are mostly carry (maybe 5m's of run). So in the winter, I average about 250m (275yards), but in the warmer months when the air is thinner and the ground is harder
I get a heap of carry and even a little run on, so I'd say about 270-290m (297-319yards).My longest would be around 365m (400yards)

Thanks Gord, yep I have taken about 3 individual lessons after the set of 10 beginner lessons, working on my swing. I guess there's just a lot more that needs to be worked on :P

That's also why this topic got my interest. I wonder if I were to go back to day one and just picked up a driver and swung it, could it have been much worse than now giving that I'm only currently getting around 170yds, and that's after working through so much technical details in my swing :P

And that's why I asked, if an average Joe was given a driver, a ball and a tee, how far would he be able to whack the ball?

what do ya mean???? I'v seen JB hit his 3wood 330yds and that head isn't that big. he also hits his PW about 170ish. they are not super accurate, but when they have an "on" day, watch out.