Can an Average Guy Drive A Golf Ball 295 Yards? | Above Average Joe | GQ Sports

wow that's incredible where do you want the tea to end up on a good drive the t that's a very beginner question that's hilarious i've never heard that actually so props to you for asking something i've never heard [Music] i'm not a golfer but there's perhaps nothing sweeter than ripping a long drive like that and even though they say drive for show and putt for dough truth is there's real money to be had in driving farm the longest drive of all time was hit by a guy named mike austin how long was your longest drive my longest drive is 515 yards 1974 playing in the u.s national open seniors i'm not going to try to break it but the average tour pro hits at about 295 yards so i've got two days and i'm gonna try to get there i'm clay skipper and this is above average joe for this challenge i'll be following the rules of a long drive competition i've got two minutes to hit eight balls and the goals hit when it was 295 yards as always i'm going to need some help lots of help so i'm bringing in troy mullins an incredible pro golfer and one of only four women to hit the ball more than 400 yards that means she has some practice doing nearly impossible feats which just might come in handy and trying to get me to hit a ball 295 yards i'm meeting up with her at five iron golf in new york that's my coach right here to show her what i'm working with if anything at all i'm with troy mullins long drive champion you're gonna try to give me a 295 in about a day here that is the goal i haven't seen what you're working with yet so i don't quite know if that's possible so give me a goal for today what are we gonna try to get me to for today let's hit it over 200. all right then you feel good and then i'll feel good i'll feel a little more confident okay cool let's do it all right so to start things out yes there you go all right let's just see what you do on your own with no instruction wow pressure's on yikes that's okay another one 110. okay so let's start with three basics grip aim and posture let's talk about the different grips and how you get there so first thing we want this resting in these three fingers and this is going to control your club this whole thing so let's try yeah do you feel that so make sure this whole part is tight awesome now your right hand is going to give you direction right whether you turn the club over whether you hold it open that's all directional with that right hand so this is standard right where the v's of your thumbs are pointing at you okay but you kind of already have a strong grip and a strong grip means you show three knuckles and your right hand is a little more under and then lift it up for me and you have an overlap which is fine so make sure that connection is really good so i'm coming into the ball i'm gonna left hand grip it look at your target right hand grip it and make sure that this connection this v is connected so the second step is your aim great notice you have no awareness no where you're aiming none at all so there's different types of ball flight do you know what those are no okay so there's a straight ball which rarely anyone hits okay there's a draw which means it starts to the right and falls to the left okay and then there's a fade which is it starts to the left and end right well in a driving competition would you use a draw like in case there's wind or something typically you can sometimes get higher club head speed with a draw okay but if you have good club head speed and and you know athletic enough you can still get the same distance out of a fade okay so certain golfers like a dj or khan or akawa will only hit a fade but then there's also other golfers that will hit the draw because they think you can get more topspin and roll okay if we wanted to hit a draw i would have you close it so this is called a closed stance okay where your right foot drops back okay and then the fade is you bring the right foot forward but for you i just want to start square square the grip and square we want your feet parallel to what we've got here okay now let's talk about posture bring the driver up perfect do you see how your body is square uh-huh so we want to hit up on the ball yeah because up is going to give us some distance your head and your shoulders need to be in alignment so i don't want your head to go this way so we're going to start here and then go down i know that's useful but do you see how it opened up as opposed to that so i want you to imagine hitting this hall under here so like when you're looking at this ball look right here okay where should the ball be in my stance so because i have you square i want it to be inside your heel and like shoulder-width apart let's be athletic [Music] yeah position all right it's like basketball or something yeah run that way no there's no way your feet would be this narrow okay i like that yeah yeah but see how you went from like yeah okay feel a little bit more athletic less like i'm about to hit a golf ball and i'm terrified yeah yeah so what did we work on grip ball position posture what are we doing with the posture uh tilting just a little bit yeah and where are we looking on this ball right to the back and underneath all right we're gonna have to talk about the other stuff too we're gonna talk about takeaway i'm gonna take it away transferring my weight to this side but my arms aren't really doing much i'm gonna take it back all the way up until you get to like this position i kind of want to see where you're at from here okay slower now you're gonna bend this wrist just allow it to bend yep supple simple simple ready go bend that wrist cool extend extend extend yes there we go ready yeah ah it's in the hips yeah so your weight's still gonna be in this hip feel it as if you're crunching this pocket so when you come down you're going to have a separation of your hips and your shoulders okay so your hips are going to fire yep and then you drop it all down okay left arm straight straight bend the wrist the wrist awesome look at that that looks so good that looks really good now separate the hips hips down down down down yes lift up the left foot let's see go back can you lift it good now hit it hips yes so you're hitting a little to the right how can we get it to go a little bit back to the left shift my stance let's try that oh clay it's so close it's so close for anybody driving the ball one of the most important things is making impact right because you can get your club speed all the way up and hitting it toe or heel and you're really losing maximum distance okay if you want to see where you're connecting with the ball and where you're hitting it on the face you can use like a foot spray or a dry shampoo anything that has towel okay and so this will show you where i'm striking the ball we get to see if you're actually hitting the sweet spot which is i have a hunch about that the center of the face just try and focus on hitting the center of that face okay let's see so here's the problem yeah so so he's hitting it back here sweet spot right there on the left this is the sweet spot uh-huh dead center remember we're gonna weight transfer to the right okay and then let it go weight transfer okay there we go that's closer not quite the sweet spot it's closer oops go better where did we hit it underneath no same spot yeah yeah okay make this thing look good felt good right let's see yeah oh yeah really feel impact [Music] whoa look at the ball speed jump all right i got angry on that one okay so you have helped me tremendously as we can see obviously that was a lot today so what should i do a lot and i'm impressed that you came away thank you really let's work on a routine so i want you to step into the ball every time with that grip with a target in mind for you a little bit left of center okay is fine i want you to work on ball position so inside the heel for you is great and then work on that weight transfer i think for you i want to get you connected uh-huh rather than just thinking it's an arm thing it's a full body thing if you're not doing core and not flexibility you're really missing out on distance tomorrow when you stretch in the morning i'll do my best okay good since troy said i needed to get stretched out i figured i could use some yoga luckily troy hooked me up with beth cook an expert yogi who had designed a program of stretches specifically for golf she could loosen me up i might have a shot at hitting it just a bit further draw your right knee up and over to the left and you can cactus your right elbow out to the side supine twist it'll get you all ready for your swing it'll loosen up the hips loosen up the low back this one's real fun we call this one toe breaker roll up to the tops of your toes and lift your knees up dip one knee down a little bit and then the other knee down so it opens up the top of your feet it gets into your ankles these are just better ways to stay grounded so you can plant yourself into the earth or your swing we're going to take something called kapalabhati breathwork known as skull shining breath it clears out any nonsense in the brain any junk that's caught in your brain what's it called kapalabate also known as breath of fire also known as skull shining breath i'm gonna stick with breath of fire so hands in two little cups and you'll reach them up towards the sky you'll take a big breath in through your nose one time exhale all the way out through your mouth one time and then as you exhale your navel is going to pull up and in as you shoot the breath out your nose it looks like belly pumps so this breath work tends to mimic anxiety like a panic attack which buffers you and gets you ready for putting yourself under pressure in real life the breath of fire tomorrow should i actually like sit down on the golf course and do that i say yes okay go for it clear out your energy it'll flush out your mind and then you're clear good to go good luck out there thank you i hope i make you proud unfortunately i can't stretch my way to 295. and after five iron i'm starting to think this just might be one of my hardest challenges to date so noticing just how desperate my situation my producer sent my practice swings to colin murakawa winner of the 2020 pga championship getting his golf skills to rub off on me might be my only hope for hitting 295 tomorrow hey colin thank you so much for hopping on a call with me i see you were actually on the course there i think you've been told about my challenge but the goal is for me to hit a 295 yard drive i'm curious when you hear 295 and is that like oh that's pretty routine because i think for for someone like me who doesn't play on a golf that's like damn that's far 295 sounds short to be honest when you see the tour driving distances for us you're actually just seeing two holes that they measure our distances off and they average those two i think that's a great goal it's going to be farther than the majority of people you're ever going to play with but for us 295 pretty average on on the short end for sure i'm sorry to tell you that no i appreciate the honesty and i appreciate you putting it so gently and diplomatically uh any advice or tips you have how to get their swing to a place where they can hit 295 i think one of the biggest things is contact can you hit center of the face and i think that's where it starts because if you can't hit center of the face i promise you we're not even gonna hit it or carry it 290 because it's just we don't have the speed the clubs aren't made to be hit off the side of the face uh where you know a majority of people do hit it off off the tee you've seen some of my swings yeah i've seen a couple i think one went straight right and you're indoors uh so very dangerous for uh other people around oh so your take away i wouldn't really change anything about your takeaway and that's what's really good because a lot of people have crazy takeaways you have flexibility you have rotation um that's the biggest thing how do you get to a full swing here right how do you get to your backswing that's that's step one i would have guessed you were actually you know a golfer that has played for quite a quite a bit obviously troy mullins has kind of done her work with the first lessons uh she gave to you so props to her the next move on the downswing is where i kind of just like cringe um which is probably bad but you do this thing called casting so you take it back you take it great and then you cast it like you're casting a fishing line you lose all your power you look at some of the longest drivers bryson d chambeau cameron champ i love because they hold the position from when they're at the top and they hold it down so they hold this wrist position and they just keep rotating until they get to the ball i'm not saying you need to hold it all the way as long as you can but just by casting like this when you go like that it just i i knew you're not going to hit it far that's going to be a hard thing because think about it you still have to get all the way back to the ball you've lost all your power on your backswing once you cast like this and now you have the entire space from about shoulder height all the way to the ball to somehow generate more power all through your lower body i think if you watch a lot of golfers that you you really won't find any if you know if even if one that does that i know there's so many parts to a golf swing but i'm curious how you address the ball how you approach the ball i just take me through what you're thinking and how a good swing should go i mean obviously driver longest club in the bag um so you know guys slightly have a wider base a wider stance but it's all about ball position you know you have to get comfortable with that ball position kind of up forward almost on your left heel kind of just inside everyone varies you see some guys that are on their left toe some guys that are just farther inside left center but keep it up in that front part of your stance because that's obviously what i told you earlier is going to help you hit up on the ball that's what you're trying to do you're trying to hit up on it create loft club has enough loft you're not trying to get the ball up but to get that distance that you want the ball to to go that 300 yards you've got to hit slightly up on it tee it up high you know balance is gonna be the biggest thing like i said how do you get back to center contact are you gonna start on the toe heel center i'd mess around with everything i mean where do you make contact with the club troy applied some dry shampoo and i was hitting it like way to the not the toe whatever the opposite of the toe is the heel near the hosel so i would start it i'd start it really far on the toe that looked like it went 2.95 i hope so another thing i definitely want to get your take on is i'm anxious i'm like i want to get 295 but i'm a head case so what tip do you have about like how to calm my nerves how to get out of my head how to zero in on the ball uh to be honest you know nerves i i think everyone has them it's all about kind of channeling that nervous energy into something else you know how do you channel nervousness into excitement so you should be excited about trying to hit at 295 not nervous uh that you're gonna fail we all fail especially you know if you're scared of failing you're you're absolutely in the wrong sport you know we we lose way more times i mean obviously tiger probably has the best winning percentage out of anyone but even then you know we're losing so much more than we win so for us it's about finding the positives finding the enjoyment of of just slowly getting better i'm doing my best to make it proud out there between you and troy i got i have some great uh coaches on my side here i think you're going to be just fine [Music] all right i'm almost ready for my final challenge boys taking hits back there troy yeah you know are you familiar with the breath of fire what is it do you want to learn it okay it's a little goofy but you got to buy into it okay okay so full inhale full exhale in through the nose out through the mouth okay exhale and then we're gonna pump for uh for a hundred a hundred yeah okay ready yeah okay inhale pump you don't feel the fire this is it final showdown yep we know the distance 295 what are the rules of a long drive championship the rules are you have two minutes to hit eight balls and it has to be in the fairway and it has to be 295 okay but i'm hoping for 240 260 from you i think that would be great how many rounds do you usually have in a real tournament well in the final championship the women can have up to 10 rounds here we go in a day i don't want to kill you so i say we do about four rounds and see how you do okay when does it two minutes start can i tee the bulb and then it starts you can tee it up back up like we talked about envision your shot and walk into it and the time starts okay any last minute tips here i think you should step back check your line and walk into every shot with a purpose okay and then kind of let go of all the swing thoughts i told you and let it rip all right all right it's straight it's good 122. all right you landed over the hill 2 10. take it [Music] oh a little bit out of our fairway maybe a little bit left same thing all right pick it up [Laughter] that was so good all right you got your site yeah three two one [Music] all right you got it in the fairway 219. wow wow clay give me that one i'll give it to you oh man 211. what ah that's out of bounds oh clay that was so good about 240. wow oh now we're so close i like the aggressiveness oh man it's rolling 2 30. all right we'll take it round three here we go out of bounds these are all really good just leaking a little bit oh oh it's okay you teed up a little far from it yes that might have gone 290. oh 207 inbounds all right clay final round wow around how do you feel feel loose good all right i'm gonna lose let's do the same thing all right all right so you hit it straight no rush you got time look at that target all right maybe t just a little bit lower so far that's three dead straight so i'm really not upset you can take a breath take a breath oh yes oh my god it's so good 267 inbounds all right this is your last ball out of rounds oh man all right coach most importantly are are you proud i'm so proud well this is a credit all to your coaching all right what was my max distance 267 today all right look it's good yesterday uh-huh it felt good once it just started like loosening up and ripping it and i actually surprised myself i got like a little angry at the ball i heard a grunt in there yeah which was really cool uh-huh yeah it was good thank you of course this was so much fun this is awesome technically i failed but this is about the happiest i've ever felt failing now i think i've caught the bug i may actually end up playing some golf or just at least hitting drives a big thank you to beth cook for loosening me up to the good people at five iron good people here at centennial golf club and most importantly to colin murakawa and to troy mullins he's not only a wonder driver but a wonder coach and got me to do something i never thought i could do so thanks to her thanks you guys for watching until next time signing off

Channel: GQ Sports

Views: 1,101,288

Keywords: 295 yard drive, 300 yard drive, above average joe, average joe, clay skipper, clay skipper colf, clay skipper gq sports, collin morikawa, drive, drive golf, driving, driving golf, driving tips, golf, golf challenge, golf drive, golf driver, golf driving, golf gq sports, golf range, golf tips, golfer, gq, gq golf, gq sports, gq sports new, how to drive, how to golf drive, long drive, long drive competition, long driving, sports, troy mullins

Id: Q1tia5AZkwI

Length: 20min 54sec (1254 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021