Keeping Notes

On my pro's advice, I have written down my approx distances for each club for full, half and quarter swings and taped it to the front of my scorecard holder for easy reference.

He says it's ok but as I'll be playing in my first competitions later this year - what do we all think? It's a big help.

Dont know if this affects you or not - but the range I go to has some slighty heavier balls so maybe you need to take that into account also, I once heard the dude at the range say the signs were 10yards (or was it 10%) closer to allow for this.....I'm no expert on driving ranges and the balls and stuff but the place that teaches my lil son has the yardage marked out very well and they also use the "real" type of golf balls (hope this all makes sense) !?!!?

Personally I would stick with where the ball lands the reason being the roll will be different for say:

Summer fairways

Winter fairways

Summer fairways with rain

Winter fairways with frost

etc etc etc

Once you know your yardages for landing you can "give or take" on a particular day depending on the conditions...

I'm with you Paul, I am old school and have never looked at yardages, even on the tee, I have always trusted my eyes and have always had the ability to feel the distance.

How many times have you seen a top Pro check the yardages with his caddy, select the club and then put it miles over the green. It is all nonsense. Trust your eyesight and learn to feel the distance with whatever club you wuish to play, after all a good player then has the choice of much more than the fourteen allowed. Think about it.

John

My experience tells me that the majority of players always come up short and this is because they always think they hit the ball further than they actually do. Everything is geared, in their minds ti a full shot, whereas I am always looking for something that will simplify the shot and make an error less likely. Forcing a shot is one of the most common fault when it is totally unnecessary.

John

But all pro's do use extensive yardage books. I will always by a stokesaver for a new course I play (I have about 20 now). If they have the yardages in front of them, theymust have an idea of the club they need. If its then of adding or taking away for conditions,then thats fair enough, but I would think they have a base to start from. You hear the commentators say, ''this would normally be a 7 Iron,with the strong wind behind,he will use 2 clubs less''. Surely this all has to relate to some predetermined knowledge of distances.

Yes, they all extensively use yardage charts etc, etc. and one would be tempted to follow suit if one could see the benefits, but as I have already pointed, even with this information they still manage to come up short or go over the green on a regular basis.

I used to play a lot of Pro-Ams with Christy O'Connor (Snr) throughout the winter in Spain and Portugal during the seventies and that man could play every club in the bag to a short hole and get them all on the green. That is what I am talking about - FEEL.

John

But if he played that hole in a major tournement, and the conditions and pin posistion was the same all 4 days. He'd surely use the same club, the one he knows gets him that yardage in thos conditions.

I think its a bit of both.

Say he has a 190 yard hole. A flat hole with a pin bang in the centre,in benign conditions, he may use a 5 iron.

The next day the wind is blowing towards the hole,and the pins tucked behind a bunker, then he might go for a 8 iron, a try and generate some backspin (which he hates by the way ). It is about feel to a large degree, but surely even the pro's have a defualt distance they know each club achieves.

Your assessment of this is just your theory and we all know that theory never equates to what happens in practice.

If I were to see consistent shotmaking in regard to length then perhaps I might agree with you.

It seems that you cannot get your head round the backspin problem. As they have no idea how much spin they are going to generate then it is a haphazard method, wouldn't you say.

John

I think you would be silly to ignore marked yardages,some course designers engineer the greens to look further away than they are,or even hide the greens behind hills.Surely these markers are a weapon in your armoury to be used to your advantage,and a base to make a decision.

It is haphazzard. But the many things in golf are. If they didn'twant spin, then they would play shots that generated less spin. With mylimted ability, I knowin theory how to generate less spin. Spin can be a lottery.

Great advice Brian.

Is this your own quote or from some where else ?  if it is can it be re-used

'After a while you'll develop an 'eye' for the distance and a 'mind' for the conditions that will affect the shot.'