Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

May i suggest an overactive imagination

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

Either you've got a serious swing flaw moving to the long irons, or your lofts are way, way out of spec.

Find a clubmaker, and get them checked.

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

The 8I-shot sounds nice. But what is the ball flight on the 3I?

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

Hi Louis,

First off, I'd personally like to have that 8 iron distance!

I've seen a lot of Playing with the Pros lately, and the word out of the mouths of the different pros, as they are making each approach shot, is they would hit the 8 iron, say 140 to 160 yards, depending on normal conditions, uphill, winds, etc. I believe a lot of top golfers could hit their 3 iron around 220 yards. There are instances in tournaments, when you see incredible distances being hit with certain clubs, such as 170 yard wedges, 200 yard 7 irons, but those are not averages. There could be winds, flyers, altitude...

But, how do your other clubs stack up? Are the other short irons (like the 9, PW, SW) consistent in incremental relationship distancewise with the 8? What is the distances of the other clubs between the 8 and 3 iron (i.e. are they all 180, or is the 3 the anomoly? As LowPost suggests, if one of the two distances is normal for the club with your swing, the loft may be out in the other club.

If you plug in your personal details, the following calculator should give an idea of what you should expect. It's an approximatation, but it should at least show where the anomolies are. I saw this in another forum and there was consensus that the calculator was fairly accurate, considering the abilities and quirks of each golfer.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/golfclubdistancecalce.html

Ted

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

post removed

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

Wow! 180yard 8iron, do they call you Tiger over there? I hit my 8i 145 and my 3 i 195. I wonder if you may be delofting your 8i. How far do you hit your 4i, 5i, 6i, and your 7i? You might want to have someone video your swing and see want the status of your impact position looks like paying particular attention to your wrist. Sounds like you may have ecsessive wrist bend with your flying wedge. Would love to see you hit your 8 iron. Bigdoct

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

post removed

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

The faster I hit a lofted club the more height and spin I generate and this maxes out height for distance. I would imagine if I put my driver shaft on my eight iron I would probably not hit it 180 yards but it would go over most big trees (although I have no tried it). If distance is created by some massive delofting (and this can only really be done by someone with long arms) then they are not using the club for the purpose it was designed and hitting out of their skin, sacrificing accuracy and consistency. It would make more sense to use the club correctly designed for you to hit this distance.

I am an above average ability golfer, 6 foot and fairly muscular. I can hit a good 8 iron shot around 140/150 yards but swinging easily and looking for accuracy would look for 135 yards. For those reading this thread and feeling a little like a seven stone weakling, please move to another thread before you start weighing up the wall and wondering how high you can pee up it .

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

post removed

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

1) Long arms allow you to get them way forward of the ball and reduce the clubs loft.

2) It got into distance by the suggestion he hit his 8 iron 180 yards.

3) I fully understand the mechanics of adding and reducing loft with a club and was not referring to Pros, I was more suggesting there is only one way to get 180 yards from a standard 8 iron and that is to massively deloft it and not many people have the physical ability to do that. Also, what is the point anyway.

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

post removed

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

Disagree as much as you like mate, 180 yards with an 8 iron is an exaggeration unless you have the wrong loft or can hit extremely fast with massive delofting. I have heard people boasting of tremendous distance with short irons but bye and large they are not measuring the distance correctly but rather making a guess based on unreliable data. This kind of talk does no good as it makes golfers who are doing fine start to question their abilities.

If you can hit tour type distances or better what is your handicap?

For those that want a more realistic idea of what to aim for please look at the attached chart:

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/spor...-club-data.htm

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

hi
i would say the distance chart that Brian posted is spot on,
i did once see a guy at the golf range hitting his own ball and he said they went further than the range balls and he could ht his 8 iron 175 yards but he was using the yard marks on the range board and i had not the heart to tell him the the range ball hit short due to the range only being 250 yards long but it had a 300 yard marker up and if you hit the range balls with a driver you could hit about 250-260 yards on the range which was about right but really the range balls were only going about 200-210 yards. but with a real ball you put it past the 300 yard marker and into the high fence that was only 250 real yards away.
cheers
bill

Re: 3iron = 8iron 180yrd!!

Hi Brian,

I posted a chart on another thread yesterday, which gives Tiger's distances for each club for 2007. There may be some differences to update to present, also, it's his normal swing, not his full out swing distances. However, I would say he would be in the top 5% of the big hitters on tour, but the table shows reality.

I said in another thread, that I've watched all of the "Playing Lessons" series on the Golf Channel. This is where well known pros play about 9 holes and virtually all shots taken are shown, with a running commentary by the players of what clubs they are using and for what conditions and distances. After seeing the incredible distances being hit by players on tournament telecasts in certain cases, I think we get conditioned to believe a 200 yard 7 iron is normal. But in these Playing Lessons, more often than not, the players would say - light wind somewhat in the face, 204 yards - 3 iron. One player, who also does golf commentary, bluntly blurted - yes, people, 3 iron, not a 7 iron as they say on television!. He hit a nice high 3 iron pin high.

I believe that the huge shots hit under the gun in a tournament are the abberations. The player is on a roll and he is really pumped and he wants to hit the critical shot as hard as he can, rather than take a shorter club and play a normal shot. There could also be massive flyers, winds, slight downhill lies which shut down the lofts, etc.

Adrenalin does wonders and so does intense concentration. I have always played stronger and better in tournaments, and when I had to pull off a tough shot. I took a more longer and deliberate backswing, and that along with being more tuned to the swing, allowed me to hit the ball better than in my usual casual rounds. My fellow competitors would later say - wow, you were totally wired, and I was because i would be totally drained after the round. I found it surprising to later learn that you are not supposed to shoot 10 shots under your handicap, as I would on occasion, because the statistics on that are supposedly something like 4000 to 1.

There are also times when we have hit "career" shots, but those are not the norm, and we can't do that all the time. Because I hit a 150 yard pitching wedge the few times, I can't count on jumping out of my shoes on every 150 yard hole, and getting a good result. The game is scoring.

That's my thoughts.

Ted