Not exactly...I may have been longer than others of the same ability, but I still couldn't hit it out of my shadow relative to what I do now. I never won any longest drive contests in league nights or outings, and there were many in my league that were longer than me. I get several of those a year now (just depends on if I hit the fairway or not!)I am longer now than I have ever been, and probably in the top five in my league. I am in better shape now, more flexible, and have a much better mental approach to the game than I did back then. These all contribute to the distance, and of course I have about 4-6 years of "deliberate practice" logged also. :)Looking back it doesn't seem like it was any work at all, and it is a much funner game now than then.
To answer your specific question, when I "really caught one" I was still about 40 yards shy of my normal now. While I don't know exact yardages, I thought about the greens I routinely drive or end up close to the fringe now, and they are all 300-320ish. When it's wet and the ball plugs, I have paced off 270-280 yard carries. Those same holes years ago before Bertholy I can recall standing ahead of the 100 yard marker with a "1/2 wedge in" after drives I really tagged....so thats how I arrived at the number.
I remember when the distance first started to increase...it wasn't always repeatable but whenever it happened it was always like Bertholy described - WTF happened on THAT one? WOW. I remember hitting approaches from places I never before stood ( unless I flubbed my 2nd ! ) and thinking Geesh!
I hope this winter to "install an upgrade" by improving my spine angle ( as in maintain ), increase my shoulder turn, and finally get to habit level that little extra tug back at the top of swing while simultaneously beginning moving the lead knee forward.
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