What arent they telling us?

I have almost always hit the golf ball longer than everyone that I have played golf with. And in the last month I have really packed on distance, Im driving a truly honest 260+ which is a long way for an amateur. I credit alot of it to having a very long turn and alot of flexibility. But how do players like Charles Howell hit the ball soooo far, I was watching him at the driving range at last years masters and he was crushing balls. The pros are hitting so much farther than us and with all of the training equipment, videos, tips, and exercise we still arent hitting the ball 300+ yards (even though some might think they are). How do you really get clubhead speeds well over 100mph without sacrificing accuracy. What arent they telling us?

Practice. Years and years and years of practice. What they're not telling you is that the 300 yard bombs (for most of the PGA guys) is their 'grip it and rip it' swing. Most swing at 80%, and still hit it 280.

The other interesting thing about PGA driving distance is that they also figure in roll. So on those hard, fast, PGA fairways, you can easily get another 50 yards of roll. Add 50 yards to my 240 yard carry, and I'm hitting it 290.

For guys that can carry it 260 or 270, add 50 yards to that, and you're well over 300.

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A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

OK , So .... How do you "grip it and rip it" 'Cos I'm verry pleased with myself when i break 200!! If I try to hit harder I just get a fader , sure it travels a good 220 but then I have to chip back about 100 just to find fairway. :-)

Roger

hi
like lowpost says its practice and there ability to put the sweet-spot on the ball time after time. it the hittin on the sweet-spot the gives them the extra yards and the same ball shape in the air time after time and thats down to hitting 1000s of balls day after day.
its something we cant do as we dont have the time to put the hrs in the pros do. there life if hitting balls on the range then in 5 rounds of golf each week and how many of us manage 2 rounds a week.
like lowpost says hit at 80/90% and find your distance at that. then you alway have that little extra there if you need it but it wont be as controled as the 80/90% swing.
bill

Billreed i dont agree that its from the sweetspot! You dont need to hit the sweetspot these days to hit 280+. I was watching pro's at celtic manor like robert karlsson and stuff and they dont always hit out of sweetspot! Tiger definatly doesent with driver! Im 120pounds and 16 and hit it honestly 270 average! This summer i was hitting 2/10 drives 290+. And I wasent always hitting in center of club, its from flexiblity, LOTS of clubhead speed created by LAG and fast hands and hips!

They have PERFECT equipment for there games, PERFECT fairways they dont hit it as far as eevryone makes out! THEY ARE HUMAN!

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Full time Golfer and aspiring tour pro.

One question: Is your drive set up for your swing? I had a big problem with fading and slicing until I got a driver set up with the right shaft flex, kickpoint and all the other technical stuff that LowPost could probably explain better. My problem was having a shaft that was too flexible for my swingspeed. I shifted to a stiff shaft and had my driver set to a 1 degree draw bias and now my drives are straight. In fact, most times I get that little draw that I've been trying to find for 3 years. Now I can hit the ball at 100% when I want to and the ball still goes straight.

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Golf is a game of inches. 36 inches = 1 yard
I think you put that one about 2160 inches too far right. LOL

Classic Tour Highly High Bore (Cleveland HiBore clone) 10.5 degree, Gramman TP440 stiff 3.5 torque shaft
KZG Maraging Power 9.5 degree steel shaft #1 "fairway wood"
Knight Virage woods, irons and wedges
Knight putter
Cheapest double titanium balls I can find. lol

hi rharris
the sweet spot on all clubs is only the size of this icon "" and the closer you get the better the ball flight. the more you miss the sweet spot the less distance you get so if you miss all over the face of the club you could have a diffrence of 5 yards right or left on each shot with the same club. more with the drive, and it also afects the spin too. a sweet spot hit puts the most backspin on a ball and that over rides the side spin, any miss hit to the right or left adds more side spin and less distance. if you look at most pros clubs and more so the wedges you will see a worn spot on the face the size of a ball, it wornas its the spot they almost always hit the ball on, it the same with the driver, they use impact tape to make sure they hit on or as close to the sweet spot every time, the pros are very athletic and fit and train to hit the ball long but if they did not hit the sweet spot there game would suffer. they have the advantage of having there clubs tune'd so they do hit the sweet spot more often.
in plez book he has a bit about pros hitting there wedges and he says its the same pattern with all there clubs, hitting 50 balls and the pattern is so close, high handicap player are 3 times larger hitting spot on the club face.
you know when you hit a good shot as you can feel it. sometime you dont even feel the ball being hit, you also feel if its more of the toe or heal. i sure you have that feeling too and know where on the club you hit the ball before you look at the face.
next time you pratice take some talc and rub it on the face and it shows you the where you hit the ball, its cheaper than impact tape.
pros do hit the sweet spot more often than other golfers, thats why there so good and we are not.
bill

Yes, they do hit the sweetspot alot more than average golfer I didnt say that. But they dont hit it as much as we think they do, obviously you see the olazables, tiger, vijay and the rest but they are THE BEST! We cant compare ourselves to them they are 1 in a billion! Ok average player shouldent compare themselves to ANY tour player, but when I went to watch celtic manor wales open (european tour event) I watched monty and a few others and yes GREAT BALLSTRIKERS, then i watched players such as Jose Manuel lara, jose filipe lima, Jarmo Sandelin and a few others and I saw them hit quite a few shots off toe or heel or bottom! I saw many of them hit driver shots off the bottom and stuff and push it out to the right and have the club flying out there hands they caught it so far off the toe, i saw it all! We only see the players on tele 95% of the time and the players shooting 59-66 each week!

The sweetspot on a driver is pretty damn big these days! And its definatly bigger than the smily face icon!! On an Iron its more like this size __________ the size of a golf ball.

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Full time Golfer and aspiring tour pro.

Hi Augolfer,

We all want to achieve the big hit. Why dont we? Well, to my mind we are average players who may get to play once a week, whereas the pros are earning a living by playing most days a week, most weeks a year. Also these guys are in the gym everyday after pounding 1,000 balls.! They also have the benefit of being coached by the likes of harmon and leadbetter. Now can you see why we are at such a disadvantage?

hi rharris
if you check you will find all the hype about drivers with big sweet-spots is not true, the true sweet-spot is only this big " " and not like they make out, all tell you there drivers have bigger sweetspots or are more forgiving, yes new drivers are more forgiving but do not have a bigger sweet-spot as you cant make it bigger without breaking the rules on club-faces. i do agree the the top pros we see on tv are the best but the rest of the player that dont make the cut do hit a lot of bad or not so good shots at time.
bill

" " the sweetspot is bigger than that!

On my irons im guessing the sweetspot is about this big ________

On my Driver (cobra F speed, biggest sweetspot in golf) its about this big _______________

When I play well I hit the sweetspot 80-90% of the time and its not possible for a human body to hit a sweetspot " " that big that often!

The sweetspot must be the size of a golf ball, surely!

Surely not.

The sweet spot, gents, is the size of a pin head. Scratch that. A pin point. The sweet spot for any given head is where the x and y axis centres of gravity meet. This is where the most force is.

Now the hype about a bigger sweet spot is really a term to mean less distance loss for missing the sweet spot (aka the intersection of the 2 COG's). Obviously some club heads do this better than others.

Hi , I obviously still need to find the sweet spot. I like the powder idea , I will probably use engineers marking blue spray and find out where I hit. I havent checked , Is the sweet spot marked on the club face or do I need to work it out? I think the is about right , and the idea of the pin point sweet spot holds water too. It seems logical that there is only 1 spot on the whole club face that gives the best result.

Roger

hi roger
i dont like the sound of engineers blue have a look on ebay for impact stickers you get get packs that have ones for woods,irons and your putter.
a lot less messy i would think

hi aroachr
to find the sweet spot take a ball on one hand and the shaft in the finger and thumb of the other and tap the face of the club with the ball. you will find a spot the club swings back more and twists less. this will give you a rough idea where it is on your clubs. its not always in the middle some it 1/4 inch more to the toe than the middle or lower.

thanks lowpost for telling me its like a pin head i did now this but was trying only to show that its small and not like some club makers would like you to think. there results are with some computer hitting balls that are always hits on the sweet spot and very rarly miss hit like we hit it.
bill