How to Hit 300 Yard Drives: The Secret Recipe, Revealed

Updated April 19, 2022
300 yard drive on golf course
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    300 yard drive on golf course
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A 300-yard drive is a milestone for any golfer who strives for distance. What seems like an insurmountable feat is actually achievable for amateur players if you’re willing to put in the work. Here are the ingredients to hitting it long and some secrets to crossing the 300-yard threshold.

Launch Monitor Numbers: The Recipe for 300 Yard Drives

If your goal is to hit 300 yard drives you need to know how your launch monitor data correlates with your progress. Whether you’re hitting with the help of a TrackMan, SkyTrak, Swing Caddie, FlightScope, or other technology, these are the numbers you should target to work towards 300 yard drives.

The recipe for 300 yard drives
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    The recipe for a 300 yard drive
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Swing Speed: 105 MPH or more. It is possible to hit 300 yard drives with a swing speed slightly under 105 MPH, but that would require everything else working in your favor.

Launch Angle: 12-15 degrees. A launch angle in the 12-15 degree range ensures your ball isn’t launching too high, or too low, either of which will prohibit maximum distance. This penetrating launch angle will maximize your carry and roll.

Backspin: 2,500 RPM or less. Backspin, while incredibly useful on approach shots, is not beneficial for chasing distance off the tee. In fact, many players trying to achieve peak distance use a low spin driver and golf ball to reduce their spin off the tee and maximize distance. 

RELATED: The Best Low Spin Drivers You Can Buy

Ball Speed: 160 MPH or more. Ball speed is the rate at which the gof ball travels after it leaves the clubface. If you’re working on increasing your ball speed, stay motivated by the fact that minimal gains result in real distance. Each MPH of ball speed equals two to three yards of additional distance.

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Keys to Hitting 300 Yard Drives

There are several areas of your golf game that you’ll need to address in order to get to that magic number of 300. If you have your equipment, technique, and fitness dialed in, you have a good chance of hitting some 300-yard bombs.

Equipment

Using golf equipment produced in the last five years ensures that you’re playing technology that will help you maximize distance. This is particularly true for your driver. Clubhead and shaft technology continuously improves, so playing a driver with the most forgiveness and longest distance significantly helps your cause.

In addition to clubs, playing the right golf ball for your game is critically important. Any player with a moderate to fast swing speed should play a golf ball with a compression of 90 or more. Pairing a lower compression ball with a faster swing speed, anything in the mid-90s or higher, will cost you serious distance.

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Swing Mechanics

As with all aspects of your golf swing, distance is achieved with proper practice technique in addition to getting the most out of your body and your equipment.  Concentrate on your posture, body turn and clubhead speed to achieve the most distance possible.

Posture: Before you even pull the club back, if your posture isn't stable you will not be able to achieve a full takeaway or finish. Here's a good exercise to work on your posture and help you hit the ball farther.

  • Cross your hands behind your back and run them as far down as you can. This forces your shoulders to straighten.
  • Now, bend forward at the waist and unlock your knees. This gets you the proper spine angle and knee bend, assuring that you're not over or under compensating for either.
  • You'll know you've achieved proper posture if you can feel most of your weight in the balls of your feet.

Body Turn: Using a proper body turn allows you to get your hips, shoulders, and core working in your backswing and follow through. Here's how to optimize your turn to maximize distance.

  • The top half of your body should rotate in your backswing, not sway. Likewise, your body should turn through the ball on your downswing, not sway.
  • Concentrate on keeping your body in a constant, yet fluid motion, throughout the entire swing.
  • Think of your body as the dog and your golf club as the tail. Don't let the tail wag the dog, meaning don't let the club get ahead of your body. The dog should always wag the tail.

Clubhead speed: Here is a great drill that will increase your clubhead speed by increasing the amount of torque in your swing.

  • Find a box or even a larger bucket used at driving ranges.
  • Take your normal stance and place the box or bucket on the ground between your legs.
  • Concentrate on never letting your legs touch the box or bucket. This forces your upper body to rotate and create torque instead of your lower body moving and reducing torque.
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Golf Fitness

A proper workout regiment geared towards your golf muscles is one of the best ways to help you drive the ball farther. While you won’t see instant results, building your golf muscles over time helps you become more flexible and powerful. Focus on strengthening your back, legs, core and arms.

The great thing is that you can tone your golf muscles with no equipment, or, with items as simple as a yoga mat, resistance band, or a medicine ball.

Back: Seated Row (3 sets of 10 reps)

  • Take a resistance band, sit on the floor, and wrap the band around the bottom of your feet or a fixed object.
  • Hold the two ends of the resistance band in each hand and with your arms fully extended, pull back and then bring them back to the extended position.

Legs: Side Plank (5 sets, 15-30 seconds each)

  • Lay on your side with your elbow under your shoulder and your forearm touching the ground. 
  • with your legs straight and feet stacked on one another, raise your top leg and hole the position for 15-30 seconds.
  • A yoga mat will make side planks more comfortable.

Core: Russian Twists (3 sets of 25 reps)

  • Using a medicine ball, sit on the ground on on a yoga mat.
  • Make sure that your sitting on your bottom with your back and legs off of the ground. You coure should feel tense. 
  • Take the medicine ball, hold it on your stomach, and rote it from your left hip to your right hip. This will help create the rotation needed in your golf swing.

Arms: Bicep Curpls (3 sets of 10 reps)

  • Stand straight and tuck a resistance band under your feet.
  • Grab both ends of the resistance band in each hand and curl your arms in towards your body.
  • You can choose to alterate arms or curl both arms at the same time.
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Distance Averages on Professional Tours

According to PGA Tour statistics, 17 players averaged 300 yards or more off the tee during the 2021 season. The leader for the year, Bryson DeChambeau, averaged 314.5 yards per drive. Of the 200 players included in that statistic, the shortest hitter averaged 267.6 yards off the tee.

No LPGA Tour players averaged 300 yards or more in 2021. The longest was Anne van Dam, who averaged 290.8 yards. That does not, however, mean that 300-yard drives don't occur on the LPGA Tour. In fact, 2021 rookie Patty Tavatanakit blistered a 323-yard at the ANA Inspiration. Tavatanakit, along with players such as Lexi Thompson and van Dam or no strangers to hitting the 300 mark.

Amateur Averages

According the the USGA’s 2020 distance insight report, the average driving distance for male amateur golfers in the U.S. is 216 yards, and 56% of amateurs drive the ball 200-250 yards. Meanwhile only 31% of amateurs hit the ball further than 250 yards.

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Start Hitting Bombs

According to 2020 research by golf tech company, Shot Scope, the average player with a 10 to 17 handicap only drives the ball 223 yards, with even single digit amateurs averaging 243 yards.

Hitting 300 yard drives will take a lot of work and dedication, but keeping the ball in the fairway is just as important as hitting those distance marks.