Re: How to figure out distances?

Technique #2 is horrible. The best plan is to head out on the course one evening, and drops a few of your gamer balls at the 150. Hit clubs until you find out which one carries to the middle of the green. If you don't want to hit into greens, find a par 5 and stand pace 50 yards from the 200 yard marker, then hit to the 100 yard marker.

Beyond that, the average golfer simply uses 10 yard increments from his 150.

What I've done is to do the same thing with all my clubs, standing my bag beside where I'm hitting. I then take my shag stick over to my grouping of balls, and stand in the middle of them, and shoot my bag. I know to pull my AW with impunity at 115. This system will also work with GPS devices.

The third option is available to a select few. Get on a Zelocity Purelaunch and go club by club hitting balls. This should give you each average yardage for each club - the more balls you hit with the club, the more 'pinpoint' your yardages.

Re: How to figure out distances?

If you are not able to do lowposts suggestions, I would take what distances you have from the range, rough out some yardage #'sfor each club, take those #'s to the course (on a very still day) and keep in mind that the clubs should have around a 10 yard seperation.

Then try and get a very accurate yardage to the center of the green on each approach shot, hit a full shot into the green and at the end of the round see how accurate they were for a good shot, etc. (obviously if the course allows you to hit extra balls that would be good.)

Re: How to figure out distances?

hi
you could always pace it out.
the standard army stride is 34inch so if you paced out 150 paces. thats 2 inch short of a yard in every pace so that is 150X2inch= 300. that is 26 yards or 30 paces so 30 from 150 gives you 120 yards.
easy when you get use to it, and i always check what i pace our against the 150yard marker on the course. and i find it does work really well.
cheers
bill

Re: How to figure out distances?

I think that after a golfer has golfed for a while, figuring out yardage, and the club needed is just a part of natural learning process. I own both a lazer, and gps range finders. I use them, but not on every shot, and not very often. After playing for as long as I have, when I get to my next shot I look at the situation for my next shot, After mentally factoring in all the variables, club selection becomes automatic. I get to my ball, I see a 9i distance, with an elevated green, which might make it an 8i, but I also have a second cut lie that says 7i. Too many times I have seen golfers say "120 yards, 9 iron." Then wonder why they were short, or long of the hole.

That is not to say one should not know how far they hit each club. They should, since knowing this informatiion is the starting point of the club selection process. My point is distance is only part of the shot process. You need to know when to add or subtract loft to make your next shot work. I know how far I carry the ball with each of my clubs with a full swing. The carry distance is all I want to know, since the roll after the carry is subject to too many (on course) variables. Maybe I have a full swing PW, but due to other on course issues perhaps a 9i will work better. Or, maybe a 7i, 3/4 swing, bump, and run will work better.


To find your carry with each club, you need an area to hit balls that has a soft landing area. This soft landing area will allow the ball to leave a ball mark when it touches down. Then you just measure the distance from the hitting area to the landing area.

One other factor that sometimes is overlooked. Seasonal changes need to be factored in. Example; Right now I am hitting my 5i 170 yards. Come winter time that same 5i is only going go about 155 yards. GJS

Re: How to figure out distances?

Thanks for all of the helpful answers. I just took the first step and bought a laser sight. I think I will just use it to record the distances that I am hitting each club then I will take the average.

Re: How to figure out distances?

That was me two years ago. Distance to the flag? Perfect. Yardage to the flag was my only consideration. Never mind wind, lie, pin position. I was (in retrospect) expecting to jug every approach on the fly. Highly reasonable expectation, I thought.

Now it starts with a yardage and evolves from there - but you can't pick a club if you have no idea which club to start with.

Re: How to figure out distances?


You do what...in the middle of a golf course????

Re: How to figure out distances?

I know what you're thinking... it's impressive that I get 115...

Re: How to figure out distances?

I know what you're thinking... it's impressive that I get 115...

Re: How to figure out distances?

Work out your 150 then everything goes from that in 10 yard intervals.

My 150 is a sweet 8 iron. If i'm not timing it well, that becomes a 7 iron, plus as said you have to factor in the conditions, lie etc. E.g A par 3 at my course is 140 yards ish, i've been on with a wedge before (downwind). The other day it was blowing a total hooly, I hit a 5 iron as well as I can hit a 5 iron and it was pin high.

That's one of the things I like about the game, the judgement.

Personally i'd get rid of all yardage charts and all that from the pro game. It's too perfect in some ways. 147 from that shrub and 142 from this rabbit turd, throw up a semi paced 9 iron to a zenith of 154.2 feet, soft landing 2 feet of backspin, birdie.............if you don't yip the putt.

RUBBISH. There's your 150 marker, work it out. and if your caddie starts pacing things out i'm going to chop off his legs.

There were a few incidents of under clubbing at the Open the other day with the pro's stood there dumbfounded and devastated that the data for their 7 iron in, hadn't correlated.

I'd like to see a bit more feel in game in general not just round the greens.

I'll get off me soap box now.

Re: How to figure out distances?

Bully, that's why a range with full-flight balls is totally important IMO, to scoring well. Not only for amateurs that need to figure out how far their slice is going today, but also to figure out which club is their 150 club. (For example, as the summer went on last year and my ball striking just got better and better, I went from an 8i in mid-April to a PW in the dead heat and thin air of summer, back to a 7i by mid-October as my ball striking and temps fell off.

If you've never hit into a 40mph wind (which in America is a 'wind hazard warning' and players are yanked off the course) then how can you possibly figure out what club to hit? If guys were smart on the range, they would have either been working low punches, OR hitting into the wind to get a feel for it. But since they rarely (if ever) play in those conditions on the US PGA Tour, they'd never figure it out. No wonder a 'hometown' player won it. No wonder Norman and the amateur Wood and Poulter finished higher - guys that have played those conditions.

I think, had Ben Hogan still been around (and, well, OK, younger too) he would have fared well, playing in those Texas summer winds.

Re: How to figure out distances?

Hi,

I think the best way to sort out your yardages is to find a level grass range or parkland where you can go and pace out 200 yards. All you need to do then is pace back at 10 yard intervals and mark each one . I use a stick which I attatch a piece of paper i.e 190 yds , 180yrds, down to 20 yrds.
In fact I did this yesterday. I then hit 10 balls from wedge through to 3 iron.I then measure the average carry distance for each club.Mine works out roughly 190 yds for 3 iron down to 120 yds for pitching wedge.As you can see there is roughly a 10 yard difference with each iron.
The other thing I did was chart the carry distance for my three wedges, 56, 58 and 60 degree.With the wedges I measure the carry for three swings.8 o'clock, 9 o'clock and 11 o'clock.Again I hit 10 balls for each swing.Basically the wedge distances are everything and I have 9 carry distances to choose from, varying from 20 yds through to 70 yards.
I only chart carry distance because the length of the shot will depend on firmness/ slope of ground/green.

I hope that helps Bogeygolfer.

Re: How to figure out distances?

I started testing out distances and I noticed a huge gap between my 4 iron and my 5 wood, like 50 yards. Should I get a 7 wood?

Re: How to figure out distances?

hi hacker
if i was you I'd get the loft checked by a club fitter.
it could be that the loft need adjusted on one of your clubs.
cheers
bill