where does distance come from?

club head speed? solid swing mechanics? how do the guys on tour hit it so far?

Basic physics Liam, Newtons 2nd law of motion. Force = mass x acceleration. So the mass of the ball is fixed as is the mass of the club head, therefore it's purely down to clubhead speed (although it's a bit more complicated than that...)

Apart from the physics stuff it seems to be down to tempo and timing. The more desperate and frustrated I get the harder I try and hit it and the shorter and more offline it goes.

My husband looks like he puts very little effort in and strokes it off the tee and he can reach 300 yards.

Appearances are deceptive, Judy, your husband is a good player and, like the pro's, delays the hit thus masking the aggression.

I used to be able to do this, but my body now is completely unresponsive to any signals from the brain. Could be that the signals are no longer forthcoming.

The great John Jacobs said distance = club head speed applied properly.

John could you elaborate on what you mean by delaying the hit? Is this turning the lower body first on the downswing. I would guess I'm amongst the longer hitters (with irons definitely) but pros seem to be on another planet in this regard. As an example I hit my 7 iron about 165 but pro's seem to hitting 7 irons up to 200yards and beyond sometimes. Ps sorry for mentioning yardages as I know your disdain for them

I know that length should be all about physics but it must be about timing aswell. I have a swing speed of around 95 mph ( not quick ) and never reach parallel on my backswing, yet I can knock it out there. I am 6"2 which obviously helps, but I suppose I should just be thankful and work hard on shorter clubs and putting.

John D, all good players sequence the swing correctly to produce Lag, which is the vital part of producing power.

To create lag the secret is to make sure that the weight is being properly shifted FORWARD just before the club reaches its position at the top of the backswing. As this occurs a recentreing of the centre of the body will occur and the hands will automatically LAG behind the body.

The hips shift the hips rotate, the hands FOLLOW or LAG behind. The DOG wags the TAIL. In a great golf swing the hands follow the movements of the body and have no choice but to delay their hit.

TO create lag, sequence your downswing so that you achieve the following:

1. Weight begins shifting forward just before club reaches top of back swing.
2. The weight shift forward is a RECENTREING of your swing center that SHIFTS the hips FORWARD.
3. The hips rotate and clear, the legs fire through, the upper body follows, the hands follow, the clubhead follows last.

Hope that is relatively clear.

What John has said above is right (quite often is) but there was something I was shown on video in my swing during a lesson last night that is costing me some distance too. It's not dissimlar to the lag John mentioned above

Basically, at the point the clubhead is striking the ball it is ahead of my hands. It is a result of me releasing my hands too early. The hands should be ahead of the ball when the clubhead makes contact (roughly in line with the left thigh for a right-hander) as this maximises the clubhead speed at impact, caused by both flex and hands being at their maximum forward acceleration at the time. My hands were almost in line with my right thigh

Have a look at some of the greats (Snead, Hogan, etc) at impact and you will see exactly what I mean

Don't always agree with JP but the only thing that matters is LAG.

Don't forget that shaft type is important too.

Cheers jp.

Patrick are you simply talking about steel vs graphite?

John, no I'm talking about the flex (tho' my driver is graphite). I have Dynamic gold regular steel shafts on my irons 3-Sand wedge. My sand wedge will get me 110 yds however I have two Nike Lob wedges 56* and 60* which get me 60 & 80yds resp. The difference is the shafts as the nikes are v stiff. It's often said the stiffer the shaft the more accuracy but the flipside is loss of distance.

John, no I'm talking about the flex (tho' my driver is graphite). I have Dynamic gold regular steel shafts on my irons 3-Sand wedge. My sand wedge will get me 110 yds however I have two Nike Lob wedges 56* and 60* which get me 60 & 80yds resp. The difference is the shafts as the nikes are v stiff. It's often said the stiffer the shaft the more accuracy but the flipside is loss of distance.