OMG: Brother is driving past 250m on a R11

Hi guys,

Wanted to share some news Played 2 games over the weekend. My brother who used to drive about 200m (not impressive) had made some changes to his swing and is now driving past 250m! *wow* on hi R11 with 9.5, stock shaft.

It all started when Bro followed me to BFG. After hearing DGman's prep talk on Driver swing 101, he slowed down his swing and concentrated on keeping a fluid motion through the ball. Kept head behind ball and loosen grip strength by 50%.

Although he swings visibly more relaxed, he is hitting sweet spot very accurately now. Smash factor is really high despite unimpressive swing speed.

Perhaps this may work for others who are looking to get some distance off drives. Swinging too hard might by counter-productive. Seems to me that a smooth and natural swing is the way to go towards getting extra distance. My bro had measured stats at trackman. Whilst my swing speed was 10-15% faster than his, his smash factor was 1.4+.

Hope this was an intersting share Happy 2012!

Buw

its not the R11 making him achieve further distance, its the better swing with more consistent impact.

yep...a 'grip it rip it' type of swing is usually not as efficient as a fluid swing

Buweeza, what's your bro's swing speed?

wait. so was it lesson at BFG or R11 made him gain 50 metres more?

I think was both... Maybe TM paid him "advertising dollars" to endorse the R11...
Kidding!!!!

Sorry if post was abit misleading. Bro was always using R11, it was the swing change.

If I remember right, his swing speed off the trackman was in the 90+ mph region. Not sure if there was a bug, but clearly remembered that fella scored a 1.5 smash factor off one his drive attempts

mUAr_cHEe wrote:

wait. so was it lesson at BFG or R11 made him gain 50 metres more?

This is true. I'm a grip it hard and swing hard type.. remember my post where I used to drive about 220m (went down to 180-190m after reshaft). Smoothening out my swing I managed to get my drives back to 220m again, despite a shorter shaft.

Seems like smooth swing, higher smash factor beats higher swing speed.

scottycollector wrote:

yep...a 'grip it rip it' type of swing is usually not as efficient as a fluid swing

Not sure and are not convinced that a 90+ mph swing speed can hit 250m drive on a regular basis.....

Jim, it can happen provided the stars align at the moment of impact ~ just kidding, nonetheless the described scenario can happen.......



Eric, you may have a queue of students at the den for swing changes!!

Happy New Years Guys

Vinny wrote:

Eric, you may have a queue of students at the den for swing changes!!

There is a queue at the Den for everything! Putting, change grip, reshafting, storeroom, trackman, etc, etc...

but seriously.. for swing changes, pls go to a real pro. They are better qualified.

Beg to differ bro MC,

Eric has put me on the right track for my putting and some of my buddies (in the pro circuit) who went thru a putting stint with Eric recently as well.......

I was watching LPGA on golf channel yesterday, they showed swing speed, club speed and carry on the 17th hole. Notice many of them e.g. creamer, Kerr, gal had 93-96mph ss with 135-139 mph club speed, carry was about 190-210 yards. About the same as many of us leh but very straight and what looks like bit more roll.

The LPGA yardage also look like combi of blue/white tees: eg 415 yards par 4, 175 yrds par 3.

The difference is in their second shots, lag putts and up & downs rate. Sandra gal hit 4/17 fairways and yet scored 2 under. Creamer hit 11/17 and scored 1 under.

My take: very hard for me to add swing speed without ruining my tempo, I better learn to get > 1.45 smash and straighter.. The pro ladies has shown that they can score really low with similar driving distances like above avg social golfers.

jimmychoo wrote:

Not sure and are not convinced that a 90+ mph swing speed can hit 250m drive on a regular basis.....

I'm always interested in numbers.

Assuming level ground, no wind, club head speed of 99 mph, and smash factor of 1.45, we get ball speed of 143.55 mph. Under Singapore's air pressure and temperature, with optimal spin and launch angle, it will carry about 215m.

So, roll would be about 35 m to get it to 250m.

If playing in the LPGA, the air pressure and temperature numbers would be different, yielding better numbers than our humid tropical weather. Also, the roll is longer typically.

How does one actually know how far they "drive" on the golf course?
Length of hole is never accurate especially when tee boxes locations vary

At mbgc we can get the readings from the buggy's gps. Usually holes toward clubhouse downwind, away from clubhouse headwind.

Sometimes I aim bushnell to the guys at the tee box behind me

I am of the view that folks who had gotten such superman distance....they should not give strokes to others.

Before technology gave us range finders and trackman, we measure by looking at scorecard and measure distance remaining to tee. Of course this will not be entirely accurate but can be a rough estimate.

There was a 465m Par 5, my bro's drive landed about 10m behind the 200m blue marker. He used a fairway wood for 2nd shot, ball ended up behind the green. It was a blug flag position for that hole. So probably he had a drive close to 250m.

In the same round, there was a 380m Par 4, Bro shot landed about 20m behind red marker (100). He used a 9-iron for the 2nd approach to green.

Of course not every drive was past 250m, but I think safe to say he averages 230+. Also, the swing speed of 90+ was from my memory. He wasn't really wearing golf shoes nor gloves when we were at the trackman so probably his real speed is faster. Also, those swing stats was before he made some changes to his swing, his driving distance then was around 200-210m. I'll persuade him to get his stats measured again at BFG

JonL_TK wrote:

How does one actually know how far they "drive" on the golf course?
Length of hole is never accurate especially when tee boxes locations vary

Driving distance is always an estimate.....

Numbers would serve as a good reference, but IMO what's crucial in bringing down the numbers would be the approach to the greens where it keeps the numbers down. Taking into consideration course condition, weather and a host of other underlying factors. It all boils downs to the golfer's ability, creativity and imagination to circumvent what he/she is up against.

pushslice wrote:

I was watching LPGA on golf channel yesterday, they showed swing speed, club speed and carry on the 17th hole. Notice many of them e.g. creamer, Kerr, gal had 93-96mph ss with 135-139 mph club speed, carry was about 190-210 yards. About the same as many of us leh but very straight and what looks like bit more roll.

The LPGA yardage also look like combi of blue/white tees: eg 415 yards par 4, 175 yrds par 3.

The difference is in their second shots, lag putts and up & downs rate. Sandra gal hit 4/17 fairways and yet scored 2 under. Creamer hit 11/17 and scored 1 under.

My take: very hard for me to add swing speed without ruining my tempo, I better learn to get > 1.45 smash and straighter.. The pro ladies has shown that they can score really low with similar driving distances like above avg social golfers.

No offense meant and with due respect, the Ladies tee if shorter than us, Male.

They are just consistent & accurate than the Average golfers

17 fairways?

Vinny wrote:

Beg to differ bro MC,

Eric has put me on the right track for my putting and some of my buddies (in the pro circuit) who went thru a putting stint with Eric recently as well.......

ok. putting. i don't deny. Master has changed me from a 5-putt-chee to a 3-putt-chee.


but wait a minute, i thought we are talking about driver swing here. i just want to put the general public in the right track here. I do not think anything can replace a golf pro in terms of major swing changes.

mUAr_cHEe wrote:

ok. putting. i don't deny. Master has changed me from a 5-putt-chee to a 3-putt-..

Dun put yourself down la.


































Sometimes u 1-putt for bogey.

We were playing at RCC, lake course. Sat morning and Monday afternoon.

Driving distance does not translate to good scores though He played a 94 & 96. One particular Par 4 was quite funny. I think it was the hole 17, handicap index 1. It is a boomerang shape hole and from tee a good tee-shot will get you to the red marker. Bro had a good shot and everyone was cheering as the shot flew towards the red marker.. unfortunately it went over the fairway and into the water hazard behind. It was a LMAO moment.

buweeza wrote:

Driving distance does not translate to good scores though He played a 94 & 96.

thats very good wor... wish i was shooting 94s and 96s now...