Long Drive - Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer
Long Drive - Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer

In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will explain the secrets of trying to drive the golf ball over the magical 300 yard barrier. Firstly we will explore the club head speed that is required to hit the ball over 300 yards. We will also discover how a higher launch angle and a low spinning golf ball will help maximize distance. This can be achieved by utilizing a high tee and a sweeping angle of attack.

So one of the things that we see on television a lot when watching golf long long drives you're seeing guys now on tour a bridging over 300 plus with their drivers and obviously as an amateur if we could get that it would be fun that that can be a really good feeling. There was a round of golf that I saw a couple weeks ago that Rory Mcilroy played Firestone he hit 14 drivers in the round obviously without the part threes. Every single one went over 300 yards you and I can probably count on one hand how many times we hit the ball over 300 yards these guys on T.V. doing it 14 times in a round it's incredible stuff. It is yeah and what we've got or understand you know they're obviously at the top of their games physically very fit and technically wise they're you know at the peak of the spectrum but there are some things that each and every single one of these guys are doing to create this distance. So if you were to pinpoint a few pointers Pete what would they be towards getting those out to that 300 mark? I love the fact you've given me the 300 yard golf shot to hit you know this is this is not going to be easy. Right how can we hit the ball through 300 yards more importantly how can we hit the ball as far as we possibly can reaching our own individual potential. The first thing is club head speed is king there's no way with physics that we can get this thing to go over 300 yards without a phenomenal club head speed. I would suggest well in advance of a 110 nearer to 120 miles an hour about speed a standard golfer playing at club level probably gets it right about 95 to a 100 miles an hour so we got to try and find a lot of miles an hour we are going to reach 300 the key point for the club golfer here is maximize club head speed. P.G.A. tournament is a 113 P.G.A. tour average and that's taking everyone into account so.

OK so lots of club head speed anything else we need to do? Going to have a platform we need a platform to be able to generate this 113 or 110 whatever miles an hour of club head speed. So a really nice wide platform stance. I then need width in my golf swing if my golf swing is narrow and it's in here there's no way I'm going to create club head speed. No you're not going to have a massive arc the bigger the arc the more speed we can put into it. You can imagine if we made a club that was really really long the end of a club is moving far faster than the handle so by stretching my left arm out by stretching my arms away from my body here I create width and that's really what you see with the Mcilroy's of this world big and wide arcing swings. Anything else Pete what would we do? So I've got this wide base I got this big long arc I want to make a full shoulder turn to the top my back swing. It then comes down to this concept that if I've got loads of club head speed I still need to be able to strike that ball really well you know middle strikes you're always going to help us so we're looking for that middle strike on the club we want to hit the ball as close to the center as possible. The clubs the modern golf clubs very forgiving but they still perform best out the center. So the 300 yard Mcilroy tee shots we talked about they're all in the middle of the club face We're also looking for optimized launch conditions now get your head around that one optimized launch conditions we want this golf ball to take off quite high but to spin very little. So we know with launch monitors trackman's flight scope that type of technology that the best way to strike a golf ball to get that maximize distance is a high launch in a low spin. So we hit the ball relatively high up the club face on a really nice large tee I've this ball of quite high and again you see this on the best players in the world drive the ball 300 yards they've got a really super high tee. Are they hitting are they hitting down on it what's their attack angle like at the actual impact of the golf ball? They're very much going to hit up on the golf ball they really want to sweep this ball up into the sky looking at the camera here from the front on. I've got my ball well forwards I've got my right shoulder nice and low and I'm very much sweeping up to try and give it optimum launch conditions and get this thing up in the air. Very different to an iron or a wedge shot. Iron and wedge shot more back in the stance were going to hit down on this. We are going to hit middle of the face slightly high we're going to optimize the launch by hitting up I've got a golf club that's well suited to my game, and I think that's a big point isn't it. Definitely yeah I think you know getting something that works for you everyone will deliver the golf club differently to the ball. So having the right loft on the golf club for you the right length of shaft the right head shape and things like that is going to give you the best chance of getting out as far as possible so. So Talk about the proper fitting process. Yeah definitely it's something you know now that we with the help of technology why not go and get one to make the most of your driver. The last thing really is just to give it a dirty old great big boot isn't it. Yes we've got all that technical stuff all the club had an optimized launch but we got a we can't know you've got to commit to it make sure you've given it some speed swinging you know in a speed that is more control so you don't want to give it too much that you're not in control as well.

It's the moment we've been we've been working up to it we just tell everyone that it goes 300. Right now it's high launch cutting through actually into a bit of wind today and it's still getting through that wind so that would be the low spin with that high launch condition. It felt like I had to put more into that than my standard swing but I don't see many golfers been able to hit the ball 300 yards with their standard swing my standard swings more sort of a 260 carry and I think most good club golfers will acknowledge that you know 250 to 260 is a decent drive in terms of carry. Getting the ball 300 yards out there we might try and carry the ball 280 290 that's where we need the club head speed that's where we need the optimize launch that's where we need that swing that's a little bit less controlled maybe to hit that big. Yeah exactly are you making the most of all your attributes as you are making those swings like you said you're not going to get one out there that you're not giving it the full force if we can you know use our physical capabilities getting a wider stance being able to create a big turn and then provide some quick club head speeds in these right launch conditions we should see some close to 300 yard drive. Maybe for us but just to get more out of your drive I think if you listen to those tips and take some of those on board you should be able to start propelling the ball a little bit further throughout the air.

2018-11-09

In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will explain the secrets of trying to drive the golf ball over the magical 300 yard barrier. Firstly we will explore the club head speed that is required to hit the ball over 300 yards. We will also discover how a higher launch angle and a low spinning golf ball will help maximize distance. This can be achieved by utilizing a high tee and a sweeping angle of attack.

So one of the things that we see on television a lot when watching golf long long drives you're seeing guys now on tour a bridging over 300 plus with their drivers and obviously as an amateur if we could get that it would be fun that that can be a really good feeling. There was a round of golf that I saw a couple weeks ago that Rory Mcilroy played Firestone he hit 14 drivers in the round obviously without the part threes. Every single one went over 300 yards you and I can probably count on one hand how many times we hit the ball over 300 yards these guys on T.V. doing it 14 times in a round it's incredible stuff. It is yeah and what we've got or understand you know they're obviously at the top of their games physically very fit and technically wise they're you know at the peak of the spectrum but there are some things that each and every single one of these guys are doing to create this distance. So if you were to pinpoint a few pointers Pete what would they be towards getting those out to that 300 mark? I love the fact you've given me the 300 yard golf shot to hit you know this is this is not going to be easy. Right how can we hit the ball through 300 yards more importantly how can we hit the ball as far as we possibly can reaching our own individual potential. The first thing is club head speed is king there's no way with physics that we can get this thing to go over 300 yards without a phenomenal club head speed. I would suggest well in advance of a 110 nearer to 120 miles an hour about speed a standard golfer playing at club level probably gets it right about 95 to a 100 miles an hour so we got to try and find a lot of miles an hour we are going to reach 300 the key point for the club golfer here is maximize club head speed. P.G.A. tournament is a 113 P.G.A. tour average and that's taking everyone into account so.

OK so lots of club head speed anything else we need to do? Going to have a platform we need a platform to be able to generate this 113 or 110 whatever miles an hour of club head speed. So a really nice wide platform stance. I then need width in my golf swing if my golf swing is narrow and it's in here there's no way I'm going to create club head speed. No you're not going to have a massive arc the bigger the arc the more speed we can put into it. You can imagine if we made a club that was really really long the end of a club is moving far faster than the handle so by stretching my left arm out by stretching my arms away from my body here I create width and that's really what you see with the Mcilroy's of this world big and wide arcing swings. Anything else Pete what would we do? So I've got this wide base I got this big long arc I want to make a full shoulder turn to the top my back swing. It then comes down to this concept that if I've got loads of club head speed I still need to be able to strike that ball really well you know middle strikes you're always going to help us so we're looking for that middle strike on the club we want to hit the ball as close to the center as possible. The clubs the modern golf clubs very forgiving but they still perform best out the center. So the 300 yard Mcilroy tee shots we talked about they're all in the middle of the club face We're also looking for optimized launch conditions now get your head around that one optimized launch conditions we want this golf ball to take off quite high but to spin very little. So we know with launch monitors trackman's flight scope that type of technology that the best way to strike a golf ball to get that maximize distance is a high launch in a low spin. So we hit the ball relatively high up the club face on a really nice large tee I've this ball of quite high and again you see this on the best players in the world drive the ball 300 yards they've got a really super high tee. Are they hitting are they hitting down on it what's their attack angle like at the actual impact of the golf ball? They're very much going to hit up on the golf ball they really want to sweep this ball up into the sky looking at the camera here from the front on. I've got my ball well forwards I've got my right shoulder nice and low and I'm very much sweeping up to try and give it optimum launch conditions and get this thing up in the air. Very different to an iron or a wedge shot. Iron and wedge shot more back in the stance were going to hit down on this. We are going to hit middle of the face slightly high we're going to optimize the launch by hitting up I've got a golf club that's well suited to my game, and I think that's a big point isn't it. Definitely yeah I think you know getting something that works for you everyone will deliver the golf club differently to the ball. So having the right loft on the golf club for you the right length of shaft the right head shape and things like that is going to give you the best chance of getting out as far as possible so. So Talk about the proper fitting process. Yeah definitely it's something you know now that we with the help of technology why not go and get one to make the most of your driver. The last thing really is just to give it a dirty old great big boot isn't it. Yes we've got all that technical stuff all the club had an optimized launch but we got a we can't know you've got to commit to it make sure you've given it some speed swinging you know in a speed that is more control so you don't want to give it too much that you're not in control as well.

It's the moment we've been we've been working up to it we just tell everyone that it goes 300. Right now it's high launch cutting through actually into a bit of wind today and it's still getting through that wind so that would be the low spin with that high launch condition. It felt like I had to put more into that than my standard swing but I don't see many golfers been able to hit the ball 300 yards with their standard swing my standard swings more sort of a 260 carry and I think most good club golfers will acknowledge that you know 250 to 260 is a decent drive in terms of carry. Getting the ball 300 yards out there we might try and carry the ball 280 290 that's where we need the club head speed that's where we need the optimize launch that's where we need that swing that's a little bit less controlled maybe to hit that big. Yeah exactly are you making the most of all your attributes as you are making those swings like you said you're not going to get one out there that you're not giving it the full force if we can you know use our physical capabilities getting a wider stance being able to create a big turn and then provide some quick club head speeds in these right launch conditions we should see some close to 300 yard drive. Maybe for us but just to get more out of your drive I think if you listen to those tips and take some of those on board you should be able to start propelling the ball a little bit further throughout the air.