The real difference between you and Tiger

I found this article very interesting. I, too, know a couple of guys in my regular 4'some who think they are long hitters. they are both 8 HC(they say so). And they say their drives go around 280. But when we play, they usually overdrive me like 10 or so yards. and my drive goes no more than 240 these days(in this wet land of CA's winter). The funny thing is... one guy alway say at the end of the round,,, "not too bad since i hit a couple of good long drives". when asked, he says they were close to 300. But they were actually more like 260 including the roll.

This article actually gives me some resting comfort...know that i'm not too bad for amateur golfer, at least in terms of distance. hehe

sweet article thanks for the link.ya the gap off the tee is massive even between the very good amateurs and tiger and co.and then theres accuracy, chippping, iron play, fairway woods, bunkers, putting and......................................damn their alot better than us!!!1

Keep in mind this is probably an exception to the norm, but another way at looking at it.

After coaching a golf team this past fall with a very skilled junior player, I saw the difference between a pro like Tiger and him as being more in the short game and around the green rather than with the distance or any other part of the game. He did not have the high ball flight that tiger can get, but his distance would have been in the same ballpark. What keeps this junior player at scratch instead of being better is not having the short game skills that a top notch pro has. Could he change this? Maybe with a LOT of hard work. I guess in the end that is what seperates the best from the rest.

I think we would all agree that MANY people overstate their distance. I have played with some customers who are not good golfers, but when I catch one on the tee, my distance maxs out at about 280 under favorable conditions (hard fairways, elevated tee box, down wind, or any combination of those). We will get to my ball and they will sometimes say "That has to be close to 300" well I guess it is closer to 300 than 200, but I am very quick to point out that I do not hit the ball that far.
Until someone has been on a reliable launch monitor, they have no idea what their stats truly are. I get a lot of grief from my playing partners that I really lash at the ball, but it is more a function of a bad swing that looks like there is a lot more "oomph" behind it that there is. According to launch monitors, my swing speed is around 100-105 tops. When I do try to really pick it up to 110 or so, I actually lose distance and accuracy. I thought the common thought on tour was that the pros, even at 115-120 mph swing speed are only going at about 85% of what they could uncork in order to keep everything in sync.

Here is something I think became even more evident this weekend at the Buick. Tiger is not only incredibly gifted in terms of athleticism, flexibility and strength, but he is also one of the best grinders out there. The announcers said he had his "C" game this weekend. I am sure he took a bit of offense to that, but still look at what he did. I will go on the record again as a person who does not root for tiger, but WOW. I hope someone from the board here wins the new Buick!!!

Good point about the effects of trying to go all out on shots. You can see it with Tiger and even the announcers mentioned it. When he tries to really destroy a ball it's all over the map. But you watch a lot of his tee shots with his driver late in the round yesterday and there was much more control and they were straighter. I always tell myself not to kill it when I get up there because I know a nice smooth swing for me is going to put me out there with a good lie for my second shot.

Living here in the Northeast, sometimes it can be quite a while between swings during the winter months. My sole focus when spring rolls around is tempo. Nice smooth takeaway, nice smooth transition at the top and getting the right acceleration at the right time through the hitting zone.

Good article, but they missed some other differences. Super hot swedish model wife, 40 million dollar private estate, and how about the $500,000,000 plus he's made in the last 10 years. It's good to be Tiger!

Yeah...he has that on me but at least I don't have to brush my hair down to cover my thinning hair when I take off my hat.

I'll take the cash.

Funny about the hair thing, us mortals have to delight in the little things like...

I don;t have to drive a buick!!! Ha, take that Eldrick!

i couldn't agree more. tiger's distance is very very impressive but he stands above everyone else with this short game. if you look at players on mini-tours (nationwide, hooters, etc.) and see their driving stats tiger would be middle of the pack or so, but the reason he is making more money than god and they are still grinding away trying to get to the PGA tour is the short game. its nice to bomb it 350, but its even nicer make to shots like tigers on 16 at augusta last year.

Great article! I sent it to all my guy friends who love to boast about their 300+ yard drives off the tee. Hopefully the article will keep their mouths shut for a few months [read: days/weeks] when they're out there on the links.

The difference between Tiger and me??? Are you kidding Me??

Tiger's got chump change compared to me. 100 Million? I carry that for lunch money. Tiger's 40 milllion dollar house/compound matches my guest house. My house is 40 million all right, 40 million square feet that is. Probable value is estimated at 887 billion dollars. See what I mean? His yacht is a spam can compared to my USS Aircraft Carrier. And don't even mention the cars. I don't care what kind, or how many, I'll just say this....If I need to go anywhere, I just jump in my BlackHawk Helicopter.

And don't even mention the game. I actually have to GIVE him strokes. He's a member at Isleworth??? That place is a bonafide goat tract. I'm a member at Pine Valley, Augusta National, and Sand Hills.
Tiger's a +9 at Isleworth because everytime we play together, I let him pick up the 3 footers. He always takes the "gimmies". I get tired of him putting a long one, walking up to the 3 foot leave and sheepishly looking at me asking, "Is this good?". Sick of it. But he's sick of me driving it 80 yds by him all the time. I can tell by the look on his face when I say to him, "Hey Eldrick, did you see that drive I hit LAND where yours ENDED UP?" His face always gets red with jealousy.

He jets all around the world, enjoys the love of his wife, has a ear-to-ear smile and while he can afford anything and everything, probably pays for very little of it. So you see, the real difference between Tiger and me is that Tiger doesn't wake up from his world. And every weekday morning at 6:30am, I unfortunately do....

I think we all think we hit the ball farther than we think we do. I know i thought i was at the 270 or so, but after the gps came out i found i was lucky to be in the 250 range. I thought on a given luck hit that i made it past 300. the longest drive i hit had been 280 or so. I have since changed drivers and i have hit some now over 300 but it is very seldom. I have tried and tried to break the 300 and with todays equipment i made it, but the pros are now reaching the 400 yard mark on their good hits. So we are not about to catch up to their standards on our luckiest day.

I read that article last year...very interesting.

Not sure I'd have much fun from the tips at Torrey Pines.