Embellishing Driving Distance: When 260 Equals 300

[EmperorPenguin]

Embellishing distances happens all the time on the golf course, and we are all disgusted when men brag about how far they can hit the ball with the driver. Where I live on the California coast, balls do not fly very far and there is little to no roll. 250 is far, and 270 is very far. Quite often we hear from fellows who claim to average over 300 yards, but wait a minute: a 300-yard average means that for every time you drive the ball 260, you drive it 340. I suppose that people merely tend to reckon how far they think they drive the ball without any consideration to actual measurement, and they tend to report their best driving distances, too. A 300-yard average is easy to challenge because only thirteen guys averaged over 300 yards in 2013 on the PGA Tour. When you meet the fellow at your local club who swears on his mother's grave that he averages over 300 yards, he most likely based that average on rough measurements, and if the tee markers are up ten or so yards from the plate, that helps his claim of driving it 300 yards for that hole.

 

Some of these fellows I don't understand. Do these guys also know how long 6" is? I will say that in all my years of playing golf, never once have I come across a fellow who averaged 300 yards with the driver. Maybe I have seen a couple drives that actually measured 300 yards, but those drives were aided by wind or downhill. I know one fellow who played golf for the University of Michigan who did hit it 300 on occasion, but those were his best drives; by his own admission, his average driving distance was about 275. One of my friends who played #1 for the Razorbacks was a little guy who drove it about 270 on average. Dan Pohl finished the 1980 season with about 275, and that was with the older ball and older equipment. John Daly was the first to finish a year with an average over 300 back in 1997--and the only man to hit it past Tiger Woods in his first full season.

 

Nowadays, you have only about a dozen or so guys on the PGA Tour who can average 300 yards per year. If the bully/chump at the local muni claims to hit it 300 or longer every time with the driver, instead of knocking the chip off his shoulder it may be a better idea to stroke his ego a little and say that he is in the league of golfers like Luke List, Jason Kokrak, J.B. Holmes, Dustin Johnson or Nicolas Colsaerts. Yeah, go ahead and add Bubba Watson to that list, and if he is even more delusional you might want to test him by adding Jamie Sadlowski, too.

 

As for here on GolfWRX? Before some of us may raise our hands to claim the true 300-yard average, I can say that the only one here I can believe will be Monte Scheinblum, whom I did see strike the ball at a PGA Tour Stage One Qualifying Tournament at Bayonet GC about twenty years ago. Driver and 3 iron into Number 4 (630 yds)? Good Gawd!

[MadGolfer76]

[Mitchell]

This is not going to go over well....Why the concern by others about claimed distance? You can either post a better score than someone else or not and that is determined on course, not on internet forum, or talking in the grillroom.

[mokedaddy]

Who cares? But you did send a shout out to my guy Dan Pohl so I had to post.

[Grapehunter]

I love lamp

[Hot Rod 71]

What I see the majority of golfers do to determine their driving distance is to take the yardage of a hole and subtract their distance after their drive tot he center of the green. For instance, a 540 yard hole, 240 yard to center after the drive, results in a 300 yard drive right? Not really.

The problem is usually in how one measures driving distance. If a range finder or GPS is not being used to do so, then it is likely one's distance is way off.

[LUMA]

I averaged 281 today... true story.

I usually average 305 tho...

[jewofgolf]

I've said it before but will again. Plenty of amatuers competing at a high level hit solid drives with no help from wind or downhill 300+ total.

If you think 270 is really long, you need to get out and compete to see the big hitters.

[LUMA]

[quote name='Grapehunter' timestamp='1393131906' post='8726250']
I love lamp
[/quote]

Do you really love the lamp or are you just saying it because you saw it?

[goobers80]

[color=#800080]Jim Furyk hit one over 300 yards in Arizona , which probably flies shorter somewhere else in the world ands longer in Colorado. It definitely depends on where you are in the worlds. Those Hawaii tournaments with 80 yards of roll versus , US Open courses after rain.[/color]

[color=#800080]300 yards happens , but i thinks the focus shoulds be who is *carrying* the ball 300 yards. That woulds have to be a low numbers. I am a girl ands i even broke 300 yards with roll or certain conditions.[/color]

[Gxgolfer]

Here is one of the many similar topics
[url="http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/961129-actual-distances-or-the-lack-of-therein/"]http://www.golfwrx.c...ack-of-therein/[/url]

and

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/859586-wrx-big-hitters-who-is-for-real/page__view__findpost__p__8645727__hl__%2B300