How far do you hit the golf ball?

It’s probably not the distance you tell your buddies at the bar. It’s definitely not the distance of the time you hit the cart path three times and a sprinkler head to get it out there 340. How far do you really hit your driver?

It’s an important number to know, not only because it impacts target selection off the tee, but it should determine what tees you are playing and its one of the easiest skills to improve. We’ll discuss each of these later in this newsletter, but first… How do you know how far you hit the ball?

According the the USGA, golfers overestimate their driving distance capability by over 7%. For the average male, thats somewhere between 14-20 yards. But driving distance is easy to measure with tools like TANGENT Golf that will do it in the background. Simply start a round and let the automatic shot tracking do the heavy lifting to unlock a nice driving distance report at the end of the round.

You can filter the above plot by club, and for me, my median distance for Driver is 268 yards. Comparing that to my target of an Elite Amateur and I’m right on schedule. An Elite Amateur averages around 267 yards off the tee.

This means driving distance is not really an advantage for me, it’s simply not holding me back from my goals. It’s an area I’m looking to improve in 2025, but more on that later in this newsletter. Diving deeper in to the Driving section of the Player Report in TANGENT Golf, I can tell driving distance is not an advantage for me. For the last 20 rounds, I’ve lost 0.5 strokes on average to my target of an Elite Amateur and 0.2 of that was due to distance. As I chase my goal to win the US Mid Am, I need to turn this into more of a strength.

For you, you might see a bigger loss in the distance category indicating a bigger opportunity to improve.

TANGENT also provides dispersion plots which is a good way to understand any inconsistencies in distance and dispersion. Keep in mind that the Driving Distance and dispersion you see in TANGENT is going to be different than what you see on a launch monitor. These are real drives that you hit in an open environment. That means they include elevation, wind, and roll. You’re also not throwing out your worst drives.

This is important. This is what your driver really does when you’re playing golf. Not when you are swinging out of your shoes trying to convince yourself to spend $650 on the latest driver. And NEWS FLASH… If you want to increase your distance, you are better off spending a couple hundred dollars on speed training than you are on a new driver… but we’ll talk about that later.

Note: Performance analytics require a subscription in the TANGENT Golf app.

Are you playing the wrong tees?

We’ve all seen that guy… Playing from the tips to get their money’s worth. They struggle to get off the tee and even when they do… They have a long way home. But its not just that guy playing the wrong tees.

80% of golfers think playing from the wrong tees is a problem, but almost none of them think they are part of that problem.

Golf courses have different tees for a reason. It makes the game more accessible and more fun, while accounting for skill level. Playing the right tees means more chances to hit greens, more birdies, and less frustration. If you find yourself constantly hitting hybrids or woods into par 4s… You’re probably torturing yourself.

A good rule of thumb is that your drives should cover at least 60% of the hole distance on par 4s and 5s. This would mean you’re going to have mostly mid irons and less into par 4s, which is what they have on the pro circuits. There will still be a couple long par 4s that challenge you, but you’ll have more chances to score… and isn’t that what we all want?

If you don’t know where you stand, TANGENT Golf can help you figure it out. Under the Analytics Tab in the Driving section is a ‘% of Hole Covered’ option.

Clicking that allows you to dive into how much of the holes is covered by your tee shots, including a round by round break down. Overall, I cover 62% of the hole with my drives in my last 20 rounds, but at the bottom of the below graphic you’ll see several rounds in the 50s.

I recently moved back to start playing the tips for two reasons. First, my % of hole covered was often creeping up to the 70s, meaning the golf courses were short for me. Second, I’m trying to play in USGA events this year to qualify for the US Mid Am and I need to get used to playing from further back. In US Am Tour events I’ve played in the past, we tend to play shorter distances in the 6800 yard range.

But looking at the above plot for the rounds I’ve played from the tips… I’ve got to get faster. I don’t want to be in the 50s for ‘% of Hole Covered’. That will put more stress on my long irons, which is not a strong suit of mine.

So how do I get out of the 50s if I can’t move up a box? Well… I have to get longer.

How do you get Longer?

If you made it this far, hopefully I have your attention. The best way to improve your handicap potential is to hit it further. There is a direct correlation between how far you hit it and how low you can go. However, being long is not just about speed.

There are three main factors that are going to impact how far you hit a golf ball:

1. Strike quality

2. Launch conditions

3. Speed

My swing speed for the last couple years has been between 101-105mph. Not elite, but not bad for a scrawny 40 year old. In fact, I routinely outdrive my buddies that have much more club head speed.

How? Because I hit it in the center of the face and have optimized my launch conditions.

As forgiving as the newer big driver heads are… They are still less efficient when you miss the center or hit down on the ball.

Strike Quality

If you don’t know if you’re hitting the center, you should be doing the Impact Drill in TANGENT Golf. It’s pretty simple, but by spraying the face of your driver with foot spray or using impact tape, you can develop the skill of knowing where on the face you hit a golf shot. Being able to recognize this via sound and feedback to your hands is critical to evaluating a shot in your post shot routine on the golf course. Once you get good at recognizing where on the clubhead you hit the ball without spray or tape, you can start logging strike quality in the TANGENT app, particularly for mishits.

Launch Conditions

Once your strike quality is solid, you want to make sure you have good launch conditions. In general, to maximize flight you want to launch it between 16-18 degrees with about 2000 rpm of spin with as much ball speed as you can muster.

To do that, you generally have to hit up on the ball. The best drivers in the world (like a Rory McIlroy) hit up on the ball anywhere from 5-7 degrees.

If you don’t know where you stand, launch monitors that you can use from home are getting more affordable by the day. Or you can go to your local golf store and get some time on their setup to learn your numbers.

Speed

Now that you’ve optimized the speed you have, it’s time to get faster. The faster you can swing the club, the more potential energy you can deliver to the ball to create ball speed.

Getting faster is easier than ever with tools like TheStack. I’ve been using them for months and have already gained 10mph on my driver potential speed (despite battling through a broken finger). I like TheStack because not only is the quality of the speed stick itself fantastic, but the app and guidance that encourages you to stick to the program is second to none. Constantly changing swing weights and setting personal bests for speed is rewarding, fun, and you see it translating to more speed.

If you use this link, or promo code TANGENT, you’ll get a discount to get started and I promise you’ll get faster. Especially if you’ve never done speed training.

And this isn’t just for competitive golfers. Seniors are setting speed records all over the place with speed training.

But will speed training mess up your swing?!?!

Actually, it’s more likely to make it better. I’ve personally found that working on speed has improved my mechanics and actually narrowed my driving dispersion.

So there you have it, hit it in the center, on the up swing, with a bunch of speed and you’ll play better golf.

If you’re a true golf nut and want more how to improve your driving distance, check out this article by Adam Young. Adam Young is a TANGENT power user, best selling author of The Practice Manual, and golf teaching pro that’ll help you take the next step in your golf journey.

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