What Is a Good Drive For a Recreational Golfer?
If you want to see something you just can't believe, go to a men's professional golf tournament and watch the pros tee off.
How they hit it that straight, and that far, I don't know.
What I do know is that I'll never catch up to that, nor will the recreational golfer.
What, then, is a good drive for those of us who play the game for fun? I think the answer most of you are looking for is, how far should I be able to hit the ball.
It certainly isn't 300 yards, and the one that went 260 last summer is to be enjoyed, not expected.
The pro who gives me lessons says that if you can drive the ball 220 yards, you can play.
That doesn't sound like much, but back in the days of wooden drivers and wound golf balls, 200 yards was a healthy drive for an amateur.
If you're playing the same course these days, and from the same tees, twenty more yards off the tee, which you would have given your eyeteeth for back then, is a pretty hefty hit.
Women, if you can hit it down the fairway 185 yards or so, that will do you all sorts of favors.
Here's another way of looking at the question.
Let's make the game as easy as we can for ourselves.
Set a goal on par 4s, because those are the holes on which the length of your drive is an issue, of hitting a 7-iron or less into the green as often as you can.
One way to do that is learn to hit your driver farther.
An easier solution is to play from the right set of tees.
Look at the scorecard before you play and select the tees that let you hit a short iron into five, or half, of the par 4s.
Thinking about it this way, it doesn't matter how far you hit your drive.
You're adjusting your starting point to the spot where the driving distance you already have is enough to play the course comfortably.
When you're always hitting 5-irons and longer into the par 4s, then you're letting the course overmatch you.
Your chances of getting low scores are small.
Pars and birdies are fun to get.
Playing from a course that is too long for you pretty much closes off par and birdie opportunities.
Why would you do that to yourself? So far, we've just talked about length.
Accuracy is important, too, probably more so if you want to make a good score.
How much lower do you think you would score if you were allowed to skip the tee shot and instead drop a ball in the center of the fairway, 200 yards from the tee, count it as one, and play from there? Yes, that would be a short drive, but it would be in the fairway every time.
You would always be hitting your second shot off a good lie, never out of the rough.
You would never have to use up your second shot to punch out of the trees to lie two at the spot where you should be lying one.
No water hazards or out of bounds to worry about, either.
So let's change the question to read, what is a good tee shot for a recreational golfer? The answer is, the longest shot you can reliably put in the fairway, played from tees that match up to that distance.
Re-configure your game along these lines and I guarantee you will shoot lower scores and have more fun.
How they hit it that straight, and that far, I don't know.
What I do know is that I'll never catch up to that, nor will the recreational golfer.
What, then, is a good drive for those of us who play the game for fun? I think the answer most of you are looking for is, how far should I be able to hit the ball.
It certainly isn't 300 yards, and the one that went 260 last summer is to be enjoyed, not expected.
The pro who gives me lessons says that if you can drive the ball 220 yards, you can play.
That doesn't sound like much, but back in the days of wooden drivers and wound golf balls, 200 yards was a healthy drive for an amateur.
If you're playing the same course these days, and from the same tees, twenty more yards off the tee, which you would have given your eyeteeth for back then, is a pretty hefty hit.
Women, if you can hit it down the fairway 185 yards or so, that will do you all sorts of favors.
Here's another way of looking at the question.
Let's make the game as easy as we can for ourselves.
Set a goal on par 4s, because those are the holes on which the length of your drive is an issue, of hitting a 7-iron or less into the green as often as you can.
One way to do that is learn to hit your driver farther.
An easier solution is to play from the right set of tees.
Look at the scorecard before you play and select the tees that let you hit a short iron into five, or half, of the par 4s.
Thinking about it this way, it doesn't matter how far you hit your drive.
You're adjusting your starting point to the spot where the driving distance you already have is enough to play the course comfortably.
When you're always hitting 5-irons and longer into the par 4s, then you're letting the course overmatch you.
Your chances of getting low scores are small.
Pars and birdies are fun to get.
Playing from a course that is too long for you pretty much closes off par and birdie opportunities.
Why would you do that to yourself? So far, we've just talked about length.
Accuracy is important, too, probably more so if you want to make a good score.
How much lower do you think you would score if you were allowed to skip the tee shot and instead drop a ball in the center of the fairway, 200 yards from the tee, count it as one, and play from there? Yes, that would be a short drive, but it would be in the fairway every time.
You would always be hitting your second shot off a good lie, never out of the rough.
You would never have to use up your second shot to punch out of the trees to lie two at the spot where you should be lying one.
No water hazards or out of bounds to worry about, either.
So let's change the question to read, what is a good tee shot for a recreational golfer? The answer is, the longest shot you can reliably put in the fairway, played from tees that match up to that distance.
Re-configure your game along these lines and I guarantee you will shoot lower scores and have more fun.
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