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The announcers were saying that this is nothing uncommon and I don't think it is anymore on the tour either. But how do they drive it so far? Do they have secret techiques or something? lol Does anyone here have tips to hit it longer? Right now I can hit the ball 240 for the carry distance and i'm 5 feet 7 inches with a muscular/flexible built (i just turned 15). The short kid that's 16 named Tadd F. Hit the ball 350 and he's 5"1'.

he may have hit it 350 with the nice groomed fairways, but that doesn't mean he has crazy super human powers. Pga fairways get a lot more roll than your average course that you play. Your 240 may turn into 280 on those fairways. But they do have good mechanics, proper lag, and great wrist cock. None of that ever hurts either.

and just to be a &%&$*#............wait why am I giving you advice your a scratch golfer

Tadd didn't hit it 350 as the crow flies anyway. He cut the corner on the one measured at 350 and it bounced and rolled like crazy. The hole is a dogleg and is measured down the middle and around the corner. They took his yardage left to the hole and just subtracted to get his drive estimate. I doubt he carries it more than 260 or so.

The pros work constantly on swing mechanics, they have the best training and the best quantitative equipment such as launch monitors, etc.

Try to figure out what your clubhead speed with the driver is - a lot of places have golf simulators that can measure the speed. Then choose the loft of the driver which corresponds best to that speed. It may be much different than you think.

And then try to work on everything that increases clubhead speed - mechanics, strength training, the equipment itself (shaft flex).
Easy to say but not so easy to do. I have never hit over 350 and only rarely over 300 on level ground.

The short kid is better than anyone on this board...

They are all on roids...well maybe its just that they practice 24/7, and hit thousands of balls daily.

that would help.... man i wish i started playing sooner so i could be one of those guys making millions playing a sport for a living.

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My longest drive to date is 341 yds.

My second longest was 335.


Here's the "trick":

My 341 yarder was on the first hole of my home course. The hole measures 439 yds. I had a tailwind of about 15 mph., (almost all really long drives are downwind). The landing area is just beyond a cross-bunker about 240 yds. out.
I cleared the cross bunker as I usually do, but a few things helped as well.


1. I hit it dead flush, which is key.

2. Being downwind, there is less air resistance and thus the ball will not climb as high as it normally does, (this is the same reason why aircraft do not usually take off downwind), and this results in a more boring flight.

3. I hit a baby draw, which always produces a rather pronounced forward bounce upon landing.

4. I hit the edge of the fairway instead of the rough, which allowed the ball to bounce cleanly.

5. There is a slight downhill grade, (about 2%), just past the landing area and that accounted for a considerable roll.

So you see, there is really no "trick", but rather a combination of circumstances which all helped together.

With less tailwind, the ball would have climbed a bit higher and would have landed more softly and if I caught the edge of the rough, (which is common on this hole), it would have produced a normal drive of about 270 or 280.

My second longest was also downwind, (though not as strong a wind), and I also caught a downslope on the right side of the fairway, (also with a baby draw), which allowed a good initial bounce forward. It isn't brute force which produces great drives as much as it's knowing where to hit the ball to take advantage of the prevailing conditions. Naturally, it helps to have a good swing, good acceleration and a square hit on the clubface. But if you take a good look at the hole, figure out the best shot-shape and the best place to land the ball, you'd be surprised at what you can do.

Don't forget, a wide angle lens always makes everything on TV look flat. Because of that, when you see a long drive, it often seems as if it was just a flat out monster hit. What you might not see is a downslope, and elevated tee, a tailwind, firm fairway, and a number of other mitigating factors.

I'm not saying that the pro's don't have the ability to hit such drives. All I'm saying is that sometimes there's help that we don't see in addition to good planning and execution.

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By the way, my longest was hit with a Golfworks titanium 350cc driver head, ( a Maltby Logic Tradition), on a DG X-100 steel shaft and using a Pro V1 ball. My second longest was hit with an 80's vintage TaylorMade Burner steel head also on an X-100 steel shaft using a Titleist balata.

In this age of 460cc titanium/composite heads and graphite shafts, I just think that's an interesting footnote.





-JP

In the Bob Hope play-off Charley Hoffman hit his drive 363 yards on the Par5 531 yards 18th hole !!! That's some hitting, maybe the adrenaline was flowing a bit ?