Another thing to consider is that people who use Arccos are more likely to be serious golfers and therefore better, meaning that it might be less than 24% of golfers driving the ball >250 yards
Arccos said 15% and shot scope said 24%, which are guidelines - proportion of people who are using those tools that hit it that far. Stats are guidelines not exact markers, always have been always will be. So while you probably shouldn't follow them blindly, avoiding stats means you may be missing out, if you use stats propderly 😊 I was more concerned about whether the distance is carry or total, the latter being so wildly random based on ground conditions - back when I struggled to hit a 200yd 3 wood, I once found my ball over 400 yards away after my (3 wood) tee shot, because the ground was baked solid and the ball rolled soooo far! Took another 5 shots to hole it lol... 🤦🏻♂️
I needed to see this! Last round I crushed two drives in a row (par 5 followed by uphill P4). Right on the money. When I rolled up to both on my GPS I was disappointed (~265). I even turned to my partner at the second and said "Man I need to figure out how to get longer". Turns out I need to save my back/bank and stay around the practice green 😂
Yes. Or they play at 5000 feet! Down here at sea level my 225 carry bounce and roll out to 260 is a bloody good drive. Better than most. The number of people I know who average 275 is very very small. Surprising how many of these long hitters have a high handicap. Shit. Give me 25 more yards I'm dropping my handicap from 5 for sure. Par 5's will tremble when I step onto the tee.
@@golfsidekickextras I was on a golf forum. There was a guy claiming he changed his driver and now hits it 320 yards and he dropped his handicap from 21 to 2 in 3 months. I pissed myself laughing.
I’ve been using Arcos for the last year. It’s amazing seeing what distances you are hitting on course. My average driving distance is 255, but you can look back at the distances during a round and must holes I’m only hitting it 235 or so… it’s been really interesting.
250 is excellent. I’m on Garmin and average 225 playing off 11 hdcp. I know 230-240+ is a solid drive. I hit one/two of those a round. The others can be impacted by wind, slope of fairway, etc. If I can get my average up to 230-240 it could help me drop a shot or two as the approach is shorter on reasonable par 4’s;5;s. Bottom line is my lost shots tend to come from penalties (driver in the shizer) or a bad decision…that’s what really matters.
Great video sir. I hit driver accurately to 250 to 260. Woohoo. Love listening to your videos. Ty. Being a visually impaired golfer you help me a ton. Keep it up. Would love to chat with ya more about this hreat game
And how many people beat themselves up because their perceived Driving distance isn't "long enough"? This is an excellent video to help those who struggle with negative self talk to understand that actually 250 is not good. It's GREAT. Thanks for this video.
I use my driver 3-5 times per round. And generally that's 2-3 times too many. I've hit 300 yard bombs and average 270 off the tee IF it stays in play... big IF. This is why I'm happy to take 212-220 with the 5 wood and be in play more. My playing partners hate that I don't hit the big stick more. (I'm 6'5 305). I have learned to take the LPGA smooth swing opposed to the speed chasing Gorilla with a hammer approach, and it has faired out better.
230 average with 260 max last round. Was a great day and I outdrove everyone by 20 yards at least. 85% fairways hit. Some older chaps were taking 2 shots to reach my first. Warm day with no wind. Only the pros and scratch golfers are going over 250. Most average golfers don't use arccos etc so even these stats are generous. I use arccos. I can hit 300 on the range and have even done a 350 before but their is no way I'm doing that in competition. I miss and miss badly when swinging like that. I'd take on target 250 every day of the week as a great drive.
@@craigcrawford6749 well 339 is the longest in my arccos data followed by 298. The 339 had a tailwind. That's total not carry. That's 2022s longest drives based on arccos. I guess arccos could misread these but that's what it says.
Genuine question..i went to a trackman today for the first time (ive never played on a golf course) but i love watching golf, i hit 40 balls with this old driver that they had there and 26 if them went 233 to 242 that was with the roll so is that ok? Ive never had lessons or know any golfers lol but would like to try again
Numbers show a correlation between longer drives and lower handicaps, so it begs the question… do they drive it further because they’re better players, or are they better players because they drive it further?
Does this include female and male golfers? What age groups are included? The yardages for young to middle aged men is generally gonna be higher than seniors or ladies. Or even kids under like 15 yrs old. I'd be interested to see where these stats are coming from.
Im recently dove head first into golf in my 30’s after I retired from basketball 😂. On a simulator I’m hitting constantly 265-285 after I sorted out my terrible slice. My club head speed was 102-106. seems to add up but how does does this translate to actual play?
When I first started I hit it 180 off the tee. Now I average 250 (240 carry and then whatever roll out). I’ll say that the best returns were going from 180-215 (yards). After that, gaining distance has been nice (always great when you are 50 yards past your playing partners!) but it hasn’t impacted my scores much. So in conclusion, golf is a bit easier if you can hit it 210/220 off the tee but it’s not the be all and end all!
I hit it around 280 on average and even hit the fairway half the time at least but then I duff two chips and have a putting average of 2.4.... hence 24 handicap. Lots of work to do but frustrating as all hell
unless you can reach 520 yards par 5 in two (my goal now to shoot below par), hitting 250 consistently should allow you to shoot mid to high 70s. I did that while I was in the high school varsity team hitting 245 250 yards tee shot. Short par 4, I always used 5 wood. No need to hit driver and leave yourself with random 57 yards shot which is so much more difficult than 90 100 yards.
I rarely see people hit over 250 yards, most people have such stiff swings, especially in the wrists. I'm 57 years old and can carry 300 when I get a hold of one, and I'm not swinging hard.
You need GPS watch to find out how long you are. The signage on driving range is probably the most inaccurate way of measuring your distance. Most of people I play with average 220. We sometime bomb it to 250-260 max.
You should do a dispersion chart against those distances as well. I suspect fairways missed increases with distance... I think statistically the LPGA players are far more accurate off the tee...I can't remember a time I have seen one of the girls deep in a forest chipping out sideways.
If you read mark broadie's book called Every Shot Counts, (he's the dude that invented the strokes gained metric which is now used on the PGA tour) he's collected millions of shot data across all handicaps for the last 14 years and his data clearly shows that in average, Longer hitters are also usually more accurate than shorter hitters, which makes sense because to hit it far you need very efficient swing mechanics and the ability to strike the center often.
@@kourt2469 interesting theory... But I don't see world long drivers being that accurate. Plus with the new drivers out these days you don't need to hit the centre of the face for it to go long. Tour players strive to hit longer to cover hazards put in place by course designers
@@rooboy69 it's not a theory. It's literally fact. Backed up by millions of shots. And no of course World long drive competitions aren't considered in this data set 🤣 wtf kind of argument was that? Long drive competitions are a completely different sport. You can Look up the data yourself. This isn't my opinion this fact backed by data that you can easily look up if you want. You've provided nothing besides your feelings. If you take the average scratch golfer vs the average 10 handicap. The average scratch golfers is not only longer off the tee but also significantly more accurate. That's just a fact
250's a 3 iron homie, or a juiced up Cobra game improvement 5 iron. I've you're telling me I can break par using only Irons I'll keep the Woods at home.
I don't think I buy this for 2 reasons. 1. Arcoss driving data isn't exclusively drivers and is weighed down by hybrids and long irons. 2. This data also gets pulled down by terrible shots. Example. If someone's "good drive" was 275 had a round of ten perfect 275 drives, 3 layups of 225, and a mishit of 150, his average is going to be 250. He is absolutely not going to consider 250 a good drive even though that's his average for the day.
@golfsidekickextras I understand. What I am saying is that an average drive of 250 on arcoss is not indicative of what someone would consider good using their driver. See the example that I presented above. Those numbers don't lie that this player wouldn't consider 250 a good drive even though that was their average for the round. My good drives are 285 to 300. I have rounds on arcoss that I average 245 if I'm playing a number of positional tee shots with an iron. I get less than 245 sometimes if I shank one and have to add a 100 yard drive into the average with the rest of my drives going 275+.
@josemiller not taking an issue with what a drive is. I generally take issue with people misunderstanding the biases that are in arcoss data. Another example... the conclusion that everyone generally comes up short in approach shots. The data indicates exactly that but tends to miss that most public courses tilted toward the approach to assist with stopping power actually encourage you hit err on being shirt because the chip shots are 3 to 4xs easier chipping at a pin you can see vs flying the green and trying to chip on the exaggerated upslope that was created in the back of the green to create the tilt toward the approach shot
Roll doesn't count. Shotscope is bullshit. I saw a TH-cam woman golfer hit over 300 with a 97 mph swing. It's all B's. Most dudes I see on the golf course are barely hitting 200-210.
Just knowing the distances guys at my club hit consistently, this stat is hard to believe. Granted, we're all mostly single digit handicaps and most everyone has the latest and greatest driver technology so probably not statistically representative, but there's a LOT of guys easily over 250 yd carry with their drivers (heck, some of these guys are on social security and pull 5 iron for the 215 yard uphill par 3).
It’s odd that your club has mostly single digit handicappers, statistically that’s very unusual given the handicap distribution of the golfing population. What’s your total membership and how many are single digit? Just curious.
@@wanderingbrummie couldn't find a great way to figure out actual numbers on that, but in our most recent tournament, there were 6 flights and I was in the 4th flight as a 4.3 handicap.
There is a difference between the club as a whole and clubs or societies within the club. These societies can be mixed, low handicap or even mid handicap and higher to keep it fun for everyone. I used to play in a scratch game where everyone just played off scratch. Maximum handicap to join was 3. I’ve played in mixed from plus handicap to 24. But there is no way a golf club, unless it’s very private by invite only for low handicap, has majority low handicaps. Anyone under 4 handicap is gonna be top 5-10% of the whole club
@@golfsidekickextras exactly what I was thinking, just doesn’t make sense that a normal club would be mostly single digit. Also, them all having the latest driver wouldn’t explain it since gains in distance from new driver technology have been minimal for years, especially for low digit players who hit the sweetspot all the time. I used to think I hit it a lot further than I actually do, if you don’t use GPS to measure exact distances you can easily be off by 20 yards or more. I’ve played with lots of low handicappers, a good number didn’t hit it more than 250 but they were lethal from 150 in. That’s where their scores were built. Nice vid.
Well.... I have hit it 250, probably a handful of times... But, I can also count the number of strokes, over par, on one Hand... Short Game!!! Practice, if you truly want the score, to Improve...
Another thing to consider is that people who use Arccos are more likely to be serious golfers and therefore better, meaning that it might be less than 24% of golfers driving the ball >250 yards
gg's. another example of how stats can be inaccurate because they are open to so many variables.
great point
I was thinking exactly this
Arccos said 15% and shot scope said 24%, which are guidelines - proportion of people who are using those tools that hit it that far. Stats are guidelines not exact markers, always have been always will be. So while you probably shouldn't follow them blindly, avoiding stats means you may be missing out, if you use stats propderly 😊
I was more concerned about whether the distance is carry or total, the latter being so wildly random based on ground conditions - back when I struggled to hit a 200yd 3 wood, I once found my ball over 400 yards away after my (3 wood) tee shot, because the ground was baked solid and the ball rolled soooo far! Took another 5 shots to hole it lol... 🤦🏻♂️
If this is men and women combined, that would explain a little.
I needed to see this!
Last round I crushed two drives in a row (par 5 followed by uphill P4). Right on the money. When I rolled up to both on my GPS I was disappointed (~265). I even turned to my partner at the second and said "Man I need to figure out how to get longer". Turns out I need to save my back/bank and stay around the practice green 😂
so are you saying that everyone in the forums who say they average 275 or 290 or 300 are lying?
Yasss queen
Yes. Or they play at 5000 feet! Down here at sea level my 225 carry bounce and roll out to 260 is a bloody good drive. Better than most. The number of people I know who average 275 is very very small.
Surprising how many of these long hitters have a high handicap. Shit. Give me 25 more yards I'm dropping my handicap from 5 for sure. Par 5's will tremble when I step onto the tee.
even at 5000 feet, very few are hitting it over 250
@@golfsidekickextras I was on a golf forum. There was a guy claiming he changed his driver and now hits it 320 yards and he dropped his handicap from 21 to 2 in 3 months. I pissed myself laughing.
sounds legit
Take 250 everyday.. Thank you for the free Christmas gift. Knowledge...
I’ve been using Arcos for the last year. It’s amazing seeing what distances you are hitting on course. My average driving distance is 255, but you can look back at the distances during a round and must holes I’m only hitting it 235 or so… it’s been really interesting.
250 is excellent. I’m on Garmin and average 225 playing off 11 hdcp. I know 230-240+ is a solid drive. I hit one/two of those a round. The others can be impacted by wind, slope of fairway, etc. If I can get my average up to 230-240 it could help me drop a shot or two as the approach is shorter on reasonable par 4’s;5;s. Bottom line is my lost shots tend to come from penalties (driver in the shizer) or a bad decision…that’s what really matters.
Great video sir. I hit driver accurately to 250 to 260. Woohoo. Love listening to your videos. Ty. Being a visually impaired golfer you help me a ton. Keep it up. Would love to chat with ya more about this hreat game
And how many people beat themselves up because their perceived Driving distance isn't "long enough"?
This is an excellent video to help those who struggle with negative self talk to understand that actually 250 is not good. It's GREAT.
Thanks for this video.
so many - the biggest waste of time
get that little stone into the little hole in as few as possible
I use my driver 3-5 times per round. And generally that's 2-3 times too many. I've hit 300 yard bombs and average 270 off the tee IF it stays in play... big IF. This is why I'm happy to take 212-220 with the 5 wood and be in play more. My playing partners hate that I don't hit the big stick more. (I'm 6'5 305). I have learned to take the LPGA smooth swing opposed to the speed chasing Gorilla with a hammer approach, and it has faired out better.
Im really digging the extra channel content!
Love the stats! Maybe you can give the median drive distance by handicap range?
230 average with 260 max last round. Was a great day and I outdrove everyone by 20 yards at least. 85% fairways hit. Some older chaps were taking 2 shots to reach my first. Warm day with no wind. Only the pros and scratch golfers are going over 250. Most average golfers don't use arccos etc so even these stats are generous. I use arccos. I can hit 300 on the range and have even done a 350 before but their is no way I'm doing that in competition. I miss and miss badly when swinging like that. I'd take on target 250 every day of the week as a great drive.
You've never hit 350, ever.
@@craigcrawford6749 well 339 is the longest in my arccos data followed by 298. The 339 had a tailwind. That's total not carry. That's 2022s longest drives based on arccos. I guess arccos could misread these but that's what it says.
Genuine question..i went to a trackman today for the first time (ive never played on a golf course) but i love watching golf, i hit 40 balls with this old driver that they had there and 26 if them went 233 to 242 that was with the roll so is that ok? Ive never had lessons or know any golfers lol but would like to try again
you can play any golf course up to 6,800 yards with that drive
@@golfsidekickextrasbrilliant thank you, went today hit 278 carry and starting hitting irons straight 6i 210 so Friday I'm having my first lesson
Is that summer or winter driving ? Quite a big difference I would imagine.
This is one of the reasons you are my favorite golf TH-camr.
Numbers show a correlation between longer drives and lower handicaps, so it begs the question… do they drive it further because they’re better players, or are they better players because they drive it further?
Correlation is not causation
Are we talking carry or total distance
Is that carry distance or overall? I can carry 200 but roll to 250. Average around 220 after roll. Last week tho in 32F my ball only carried 180.
Total
Does this include female and male golfers? What age groups are included? The yardages for young to middle aged men is generally gonna be higher than seniors or ladies. Or even kids under like 15 yrs old. I'd be interested to see where these stats are coming from.
Shotscope
Im recently dove head first into golf in my 30’s after I retired from basketball 😂. On a simulator I’m hitting constantly 265-285 after I sorted out my terrible slice. My club head speed was 102-106. seems to add up but how does does this translate to actual play?
great numbers! it could translate but until you hit the course with a tricky tee shot in front of you, it's hard to tell.
When I first started I hit it 180 off the tee. Now I average 250 (240 carry and then whatever roll out). I’ll say that the best returns were going from 180-215 (yards).
After that, gaining distance has been nice (always great when you are 50 yards past your playing partners!) but it hasn’t impacted my scores much.
So in conclusion, golf is a bit easier if you can hit it 210/220 off the tee but it’s not the be all and end all!
wow big insights playa
It’s weird because according to TH-cam comments most people hit it 300 yards most of the time and bomb their 7 irons 220 as well lol
I hit it around 280 on average and even hit the fairway half the time at least but then I duff two chips and have a putting average of 2.4.... hence 24 handicap. Lots of work to do but frustrating as all hell
unless you can reach 520 yards par 5 in two (my goal now to shoot below par), hitting 250 consistently should allow you to shoot mid to high 70s. I did that while I was in the high school varsity team hitting 245 250 yards tee shot. Short par 4, I always used 5 wood. No need to hit driver and leave yourself with random 57 yards shot which is so much more difficult than 90 100 yards.
240 yards with what feels like a half swing. The moment I try swinging faster they all end up OB
I rarely see people hit over 250 yards, most people have such stiff swings, especially in the wrists. I'm 57 years old and can carry 300 when I get a hold of one, and I'm not swinging hard.
Bull
@@craigcrawford6749 send me your email, I'll send you a copy of my radar readouts
You need GPS watch to find out how long you are. The signage on driving range is probably the most inaccurate way of measuring your distance. Most of people I play with average 220. We sometime bomb it to 250-260 max.
In the 2% baby.
I play with more guy’s who hit it 250 off the tee into the scheizer than into the short stuff. Most of them can’t get up and down.😂
You should do a dispersion chart against those distances as well. I suspect fairways missed increases with distance... I think statistically the LPGA players are far more accurate off the tee...I can't remember a time I have seen one of the girls deep in a forest chipping out sideways.
Agreed
If you read mark broadie's book called Every Shot Counts, (he's the dude that invented the strokes gained metric which is now used on the PGA tour) he's collected millions of shot data across all handicaps for the last 14 years and his data clearly shows that in average, Longer hitters are also usually more accurate than shorter hitters, which makes sense because to hit it far you need very efficient swing mechanics and the ability to strike the center often.
@@kourt2469 interesting theory... But I don't see world long drivers being that accurate. Plus with the new drivers out these days you don't need to hit the centre of the face for it to go long. Tour players strive to hit longer to cover hazards put in place by course designers
@@rooboy69 it's not a theory. It's literally fact. Backed up by millions of shots. And no of course World long drive competitions aren't considered in this data set 🤣 wtf kind of argument was that? Long drive competitions are a completely different sport. You can Look up the data yourself. This isn't my opinion this fact backed by data that you can easily look up if you want. You've provided nothing besides your feelings. If you take the average scratch golfer vs the average 10 handicap. The average scratch golfers is not only longer off the tee but also significantly more accurate. That's just a fact
@@kourt2469 Rory and Cameron Young are 118th and higher in fairways hit on the PGA tour in 2022.... Look it up😂
Im trying to get to 220-230 consistently that would make me feel like a baus
As long as my "chocolate bullet-hole" is pointing to the ground i don't think i will ever get over 250. Unless i hit a hard-pan and downhill.
I don’t hit driver too well, so 250 is pretty dang good for me
Played with a guy who hit a 365yd drive. My wimpy 250yd drive seemed like nothing in comparison 😅
It’d be great for me!😊
I self learnt golf 10 months i broke 250 yards twice today
I can only hit 200 yards once in a while. Average drive 150-170. 20-25 handicap.
Golf is much more enjoyable when you can hit 200+ off the tee box
I'm 12 handicap average drive 200 yard carry, if i could get 250 I'd be a single digit easily,
IF you play the right tees 250 is MORE than enough to be scratch
250's a 3 iron homie, or a juiced up Cobra game improvement 5 iron. I've you're telling me I can break par using only Irons I'll keep the Woods at home.
If you don’t know already that you can break par without woods then it doesn’t matter if i say you can
@@golfsidekickextras Just been in denial this time whole, blaming distance for my lack of short game :)
I play off 8n and I am one of the longer players in my club. A well struck, accurate tee shot is 250m carry. Numbers don't lie boyfriends!
People with the numbers lie
@@golfsidekickextras lies, damn lies and statistics
I don't think I buy this for 2 reasons. 1. Arcoss driving data isn't exclusively drivers and is weighed down by hybrids and long irons. 2. This data also gets pulled down by terrible shots.
Example. If someone's "good drive" was 275 had a round of ten perfect 275 drives, 3 layups of 225, and a mishit of 150, his average is going to be 250. He is absolutely not going to consider 250 a good drive even though that's his average for the day.
‘Numbers don’t lie’
‘Data proves…’
@golfsidekickextras I understand. What I am saying is that an average drive of 250 on arcoss is not indicative of what someone would consider good using their driver. See the example that I presented above. Those numbers don't lie that this player wouldn't consider 250 a good drive even though that was their average for the round.
My good drives are 285 to 300. I have rounds on arcoss that I average 245 if I'm playing a number of positional tee shots with an iron. I get less than 245 sometimes if I shank one and have to add a 100 yard drive into the average with the rest of my drives going 275+.
Why is it that everyone who takes issue with this stuff drives it 275+ on average 🧐
@josemiller not taking an issue with what a drive is. I generally take issue with people misunderstanding the biases that are in arcoss data. Another example... the conclusion that everyone generally comes up short in approach shots. The data indicates exactly that but tends to miss that most public courses tilted toward the approach to assist with stopping power actually encourage you hit err on being shirt because the chip shots are 3 to 4xs easier chipping at a pin you can see vs flying the green and trying to chip on the exaggerated upslope that was created in the back of the green to create the tilt toward the approach shot
@@scottw9267 for 80% of golfers, a 250 yard drive would be considered amazing. That is not that controversial
220-230 carry with a 260-270 total 🤷🏻♂️
I'm at 200-210 as a female and feel like I suck.
That’s long
being a 40 HC with a 250 yd drive>>>>
im leaving w something
Only need a 200-220 drive straight then iron in. Done
This big drive bs is nonsense
Roll doesn't count. Shotscope is bullshit. I saw a TH-cam woman golfer hit over 300 with a 97 mph swing. It's all B's. Most dudes I see on the golf course are barely hitting 200-210.
you sound like a blast
Just knowing the distances guys at my club hit consistently, this stat is hard to believe. Granted, we're all mostly single digit handicaps and most everyone has the latest and greatest driver technology so probably not statistically representative, but there's a LOT of guys easily over 250 yd carry with their drivers (heck, some of these guys are on social security and pull 5 iron for the 215 yard uphill par 3).
of course
It’s odd that your club has mostly single digit handicappers, statistically that’s very unusual given the handicap distribution of the golfing population. What’s your total membership and how many are single digit? Just curious.
@@wanderingbrummie couldn't find a great way to figure out actual numbers on that, but in our most recent tournament, there were 6 flights and I was in the 4th flight as a 4.3 handicap.
There is a difference between the club as a whole and clubs or societies within the club. These societies can be mixed, low handicap or even mid handicap and higher to keep it fun for everyone. I used to play in a scratch game where everyone just played off scratch. Maximum handicap to join was 3. I’ve played in mixed from plus handicap to 24. But there is no way a golf club, unless it’s very private by invite only for low handicap, has majority low handicaps. Anyone under 4 handicap is gonna be top 5-10% of the whole club
@@golfsidekickextras exactly what I was thinking, just doesn’t make sense that a normal club would be mostly single digit. Also, them all having the latest driver wouldn’t explain it since gains in distance from new driver technology have been minimal for years, especially for low digit players who hit the sweetspot all the time.
I used to think I hit it a lot further than I actually do, if you don’t use GPS to measure exact distances you can easily be off by 20 yards or more.
I’ve played with lots of low handicappers, a good number didn’t hit it more than 250 but they were lethal from 150 in. That’s where their scores were built.
Nice vid.
More stat drivel
I’m happy to say I’m an 8% kinda guy. But honestly playing smart is harder than just smacking a ball.
Well.... I have hit it 250, probably a handful of times... But, I can also count the number of strokes, over par, on one Hand... Short Game!!! Practice, if you truly want the score, to Improve...