Forum > Technique, Tips & Tuition

Shaun Smith

I am looking for a good and as accurate as possible way to find my distances, I recently upgraded my irons and the distances are significantly different.

When I go to the range it seems a false indication and when on the practise ground I tend not to go full hearted and concentrate on the rythm.

 Is there a set routine that anyone has or is it just a case of practise, practise, practise?

 I look forward to your comments and ideas.

John Pettitt

Richard Lane-blackwell

David Marshall

Well Richard. Let's take a hypothetical situation. You are on the first tee and there is water in front of you going to a distance of, say, 240 yards to the fairway. Therefore you know you have to use a club that will carry the water, by at least 20 yards. You know you can hit a driver that will carry 260 yards. However if you can only carry 230 yards when using your driver, and roll another 30 yards then you know it's not the right club.

Ditto for fairway bunkers, hazards, greens etc. Using other clubs, naturally

Martin Goodman

Russell Middleton

Patrick Bourke

Shaun Smith

Russell Middleton

The main thing is to ignore any shots you don't hit correctly.

Out on the course if you hit a bad shot you may be in a pond/bunker or other hazard.

But if you take the correct club for the distance and you make a good contact then the ball will reach.

Russ

Loud Mouth b.a.

Shaun,

I too recently changed my irons (Mizuno MP32 to Alpha C1 Pro) and agree with you that distances can significantly change.

If readers will forgive a slight aside I would like to draw attention to a mistake which I made on changing my set:

My new irons were fitted with steel shafts and the shaft in my 3 iron snapped off along the top hosel line. Notwithstanding they being brand new it turned out to be impossible to source an identical shaft as they had been discontinued. It's almost criminal how regularly component manufacturers change their products these days; make components obsolete; and sometimes irreplaceable.

So, I chose to buy a new set of graphite 0.370" tip sized iron shafts  and at the same time ordered a 2 iron head from the USA manufacturer. Unfortunately though my 3 Vokey wedges turned out to have 0.350" hosels  so they are still steel shafted!

So, I now have 7 spare shafts for my irons (bar wedges) - a bit over the top but I won't be caught out again by breaking a shaft and having to replace the entire set. It's a big job setting up irons correctly and before I began building my own gear my last club builder charged me £350. labour for that job.

The moral being if you change your irons then get a couple of spare shafts in stock to cover breakages as you may not be able to source spares later on!   

14th March:

Broke another iron shaft. The 4 iron head travelled exactly 100 yards down the driving range. What's the record for broken head flight? I'm claiming 100 yards as the UK Seniors' record until someone beats it!  

Shaun Smith

Has anybody ever heard of a boom box?

Apparently you can hire these from a good pro/shop and it sits behind you on the range and gives a really accurate guide to the distance. I think I might pursue this a little more when the weather is hotter and hopefully this will give me a good guide. I am asking all these questions and as yet have not played a competitive round with the new bats! Who knows maybe it will all come together in a comp..... it hasn't yet in practise.

Wayne Santorini

David Marshall

You total Chav, Waynetta....Mk 3 Escort indeed, in your 30's

Shaun Smith

How can a guy who had a boom box and a mk3 escort be off a handicap of 0?

I would have thought you would be more at home with robbing cars and grannies!!

Wayne Santorini

oohhhhh that hurt Shaun

Was the lifestyle in East London then David, not like you provincials with your long hair and flairs!!!

Shaun Smith

David Marshall

Long hair and flairs in the 80's???

Man you were behind the times.  My hair was shorter in those days, and I used to go out with sophisticated crumpet.

Not that you would know anything about having any hair or sophisticated crumpet. Your idea of a perfect date would be a bag of chips and a fumble on the back seat of your Escort with an Essex bird with no brains  

Wayne Santorini

Christopher Watmore

Colin Coote

Shaun, you need to play the same way as you practice otherwise you do not get the full benefits of most of your practice sessions.

As for distance, all down to having a good memory and being able to analyse the following, distance, ball flight etc, weather, hazards, type of shot required to get too where you aim, how you are playing, and then select your most suitable club for the shot.

As for working out distances each club hits the ball.  You need to know the min & max carry and the min & max total distance including roll.  So you need to play with the same type of balls.  I play pro V1x (pre 2006) & am trying some others at present that provide different ball flights, carry, roll etc. off all my clubs but will give me similar distances and control of the outcome of my shots.  NXT Tour, HX Hot, AD333.  When i've found the best one of these 3, or maybe not, they may all be very similar.  I will know the difference in carry, distance etc between all of these and my 1x.  

I will only gain this knowledge by trial and error on the course, on a still warm day in July i expect to hit my max. distance with any ball.  my 1x is presently hitting over 12 yds short of that distance for my mid to short irons, so i have to go up at least 1 clubon what i know. 

I gained this knowledge of distance per club last year in July by comparing all my irons hitting into the middle of a practice green that was not to firm and had a bit of bite to it.  160 yds away using AD333's at the time.  I tried my 8 iron andlanded short of the green but it rolled a few yds. Carry av. 140yds with 5 yds roll,  went with 7iron, hit the green with a lower trajectory with a shade over 150yds carry but with a good 10 yds of run. Tried my 6 iron, just over pin but no control and it ran off the green, plus 170yd total. I then went closer to the green  and played 9 iron, 135yds in total with more than 3 yds of runon the green.  PW did 120yds with minimum run. I knew there was too much information to remember so i took a written record of what i found.  You are best doing this on the practice ground, and practice what you intend to use on the course.

every round i play i use the same principles and i then assess how far i am hitting above or below expected distances. 

I always try to safely carry any hazard with at least 5yds in hand on minimum carry of any selrcted club.

I know what i expect from my clubs with which ever ball i use.  

i found that going onto Pro V1x did not get me to hit longer per club, just carry further and stop shorter.  At present the ground is too soft to play for maximum roll so longest carry is best. 

Alan Fairweather

John Pettitt

You can disagree as much as you like, Alan, of course is is essential to know how far one cartries any club.

One has to work out whethere the ball needs to be stopped quickly or whether a run out will be OK, but without the most essential one of knowing the carry for each club then everything else is just down to luck and good fortune.

The flagstick position and any intervening hazards will decide the shot requirement and then the player has to make the decision on which club, and how to flight it, to achieve the desired result.

Modern golf course design has taken away all the old fashioned aprons and run ons are not easy to achieve with any accuracy as the ground conditions vary so much.

Personally I get very little run so I tend to fly everything all the way in, or attempt to.

Alan Fairweather

John Pettitt

So it would appear, Alan that you have no need to know any exact distances for your clubs as you play on the links, where it is all down to touch and a feel for distance.

I have been fortunate to have played plenty of golf on links courses during my 55 years of playing this wonderful game and there have been many occasions when I have been able to hit a links green and stop it, after all, the pros manage to do it a lot of the time.

Club selection on a links course is entirely different to that when playing a parkland/heathland course.

Wayne Santorini

Colin Coote

Good afternoon all, i forgot to add the following,

When i strike the ball well (i won't say perfect) and consistently i find i have better control into the greens with longer carry with minimal roll depending on the club.  But when i just don't quite make a consistent strike and the ball comes off the club face with a lower trajectory, i have found that so long as you have a fairly clear path to your target and the fairways are not soft the ball will travel a very similar distance to your consitently struck balls all be it with a lot of run.  So it is an advantage to know the max. distance you can make your ball travel with your consistent strike.

As for hitting high shots into greens on Links or any other type of course, i would believe it is the weather conditions that determine the most appropriate shot required at any given time.  I have found playing shots into headwinds & crosswinds in excess of 20mph does have serious effect on the distance and direction of the ball flight.  So i always keep the ball down when possible.

I once played an 7iron into a strong wind at a local driving range and the wind took it straight up and back over my head 50 yds. I've hit big drives that have only just got over 100yds when they were expected to go over 250yds all because of hitting into headwinds.  I've played 80yd PW shots into a cross wind and ended up further away than when i played the shot.  So there is a time and a place to pitch it at the pin, or run it at it.

I've played a couple of courses that were not links but were just inshore and the greens were too firm to hold the ball from my pitches into the green.  But there again i don't play for a high degree of spin.

Horses for courses

John Pettitt

So it is an advantage to know the max. distance you can make your ball travel with your consistent strike.

It would be an advantage if it were possible, but your later paragraphs confirm that even you cannot do this, because, as you rightly say, there are many other factors to consider.

Colin Coote

???????

John, any figure anyone puts on carry or max distance can only be viewed as a ball-park figure, i would assume most golfers have a general idea on their distances and i would be confident in saying they rarely judge it perfect for whatever reason.  The main objective is that you get the ball on the green and keep it there.  its very annoying when you land the ball on the green and it rolls to far and slips of the back or side.  All because of misjudging distances or over clubbing it because the greens are too firm.

If you hit into a firm green (in hot dry summer, or freezing March) and you get little control you have to expect extra roll so overall total distance is increased.  You need to take this into account, as with weather conditions and other things like sloping greens.

It is an advantage if you can be  confident of how the ball will react on the green. This helps with shot selection.  

if there is the chance your ball is carrying and rolling further than you calculate, you always have other options available. Even take a lesser club.  This is the beauty of the game, you can make your shots to fit what you are looking at.

Always assess the risks with any shot, and then be confident and fully committed to whatever you choose to do.  As far as i'm concerned Golf is not about picking the same club to hit a certain distance everytime.  

So long as you make the right decisions before and during the shot the end product should be ok.

And you do need the right swing and clubs and the ability to use the clubs to their best effect.

i've seen many golfers using expensive clubs that are unsuitable, also seen many golfers trying to play shots that they clearly do not have the right technique to complete successfully on a consistent basis.   Until golfers hit consistently they can never expect to have consistent distance or carry control.

John Pettitt

David Lythgoe

You need a start figure in order to work out any formula.

Knowing how far you CARRY any given club gives you that start figure.

Then knowing how much to add or take off in any given conditions gives you distance control, on any type of course.

The "old way" used to say that each club differed by 4* and 1*= 3yds so each club hit the ball 12yds further. Yes, that is carry.

TheLyth

John Pettitt

My goodness, Lyth, a long while since I heard that, it was always the yardstick when I first started playing.

Of course there is not that amount of difference now, more likely just afew yards ifference between clubs. I flight the ball relatively low anyway.

Alan Fairweather

Graham Veitch

Steve Cowle

Hi Shaun,

Try and find an indoor facility near you that uses a launch monitor, you have probably seen them used on TV. When hitting balls this will then give you an accurate reading on the clubhead speed, spin and carry v. roll distance.

It may cost you around £50 for a session but well worth the money. They can then advise you on whether the clubs are properly fitted to you.