The Great Distance Debate

OK, so I'm browsing the forums and I see an awful lot of lies written here, such and such hits a wedge 150 yards, so and so hits a 7 iron 180 yards....

WHO CARES!!!!!

My question to the guys who profess such colossal distances with their wedge is: WHY? A second question is: Can you put it inside 10 feet everytime at that distance.

If your answer to the second question is yes, then good luck on the Tour. But if its no (I'm guessing maybe 95% of you) then why are you wasting a club in your bag.

Heres my distances, I'm a 4-5 handicapper (roughly equivalent to a 2 based on the US way of calculating, if guys in the US want a comparison) best round of 68, average score of about 72 these days, playing a 6400 yard track. I'm about 5'10" 31 years old and I would say quite physically strong,

Club Max Dist Average
Driver 290-300 260
3 Wood 250 230
2 iron 220 210
3 iron 200
4 iron 190
5 iron 180
6 iron 165
7 iron 155
8 iron 145
9 iron 130
Wedge 120
Gap 100
Lob/Sand 60

I am physically capable of hitting each club anywhere up to 20 yards further than the average, but whats the point? Par 4 says 440 yards. I hit a good drive at 260-270 and it leaves me no worse than a good 5 iron in. Now unless you are playing on the tour you wont have too many par 4's over 430 in any one round. I see many player in regional amateur competitions who really pound it but are useless with wedges because they always hit them too far. They are hitting a 52 wedge from 130 yards and they have no control because these wedges are designed to hit the ball up more than forwards so they either end up getting too much of the club under the ball and coming up short or they hit it a bit thin and it scorches along at about 20 feet and runs through the green. They seem to think that just because they have smacked their drive 300 yards they HAVE to prove their muscle with the wedges as well, rather than hit a smooth controlled 9 iron 130 yards to 10 feet or better. I was the same, every shot was full throttle. For example the card says par 4 360 yards, so rather than think, 3 wood and a nice 8 iron, I thought monster drive and a sand wedge. More bogeys than birdies.

I was taught the error of my ways when I played with a friend about 2 years ago, Bill is 67 years old below average height and above average weight but plays to a very respectable 6 or 7 handicap around a very hard course and is more than capable of shooting 70.

He hits a good driver to be fair (he has a G5 these days of course) probably 250 regular, but isnt all that long with the irons. And yet I watched him caress and sweep long irons and rescue clubs within yards of every pin 75% of the time. He always had an extra club in his hand everytime he played a shot, not once did I see him land in a bunker short when he hit a clean shot. Every ball was pin high or beyond. I felt pretty stupid when from 150 yards side by side, Bill had a 6 iron in his hand and I had a 9 I played first, every sinew taut and every muscle screaming in protest at how fast they were being asked to move at and ended up on the front edge maybe 10 yards short and 10 yards right of target. Bill strolled up and feathered a cutty 6 iron about 10 feet from the pin right over the top of it.

After 9 holes of getting cuffed (3 holes and a buck fifty down I think I was) I decided to give it a try myself and stopped swinging for the fences (with the irons anyway ) and all a sudden after dropping a club and swinging within myself I was finding more pins and leaving myself makeable putts more often.

I checked the numbers between halves and it was pretty interesting reading, 39 out 35 in. At the time I was a 7.4 handicapper and this was 2 under SSS. I started playing like this more often and by the end of that season my handicap was down to 6.3. That winter I decided to change my game and went to my pro and explained what I wanted to do. So he made my swing a bit more upright and a little shorter to build in more control at the expense of a little length and after much practice and not a few lessons I attacked the new season with gusto and ended up at a handicap of 3.7 and a club championship semi finalist. More of the same followed last winter (and despite some dreadful chipping and putting in the latter half of this season that saw me go up to 4.5,) I won the Club Championship playing Bill-Golf as I call it.

Moral of the story, unless you are a 16 year old who plans to practice 8 hours a day to keep his short game sharp as a tack, dont keep hunting more distance and the probable lack of accuracy that goes with it.

D.

__________________
Longniddry Golf Club Champ 2005.

In the Taylor Made Bag:

Callaway FT-3 Tour 9.5 Aldila NV 65S

Callaway Steelhead 3 Wood

Callaway Steelhead 5 Wood

Callaway X-16 3-PW

MacGregor Tourney 52 Degree

Cobra Phil Rodgers 59 Degree Rusty

Odyssey DFX 2-Ball

Callaway Tour iX

I've come to the same conclusion for this year.

Enough with swinging for the fences. Take another club, and swing easy.

These are definitely some wise words. I am 18 and am always thinking mechanically in terms of yardage. For example, I got 150 to the flag, no wind; I think to myself "well I hit a 9 150 so Ill hit 9". I either end up hittin it short or off target. I need to start being smarter and remove that ego.

Those are def wise words though.

Well said M'Man,

When some compare yardage - it's like when you blokes compare size. It's not quantity, it's quality.

By the way, your photo doesn't do your age any justice.

Well then on that subject....

If you had to choose which would you want more in your game?

Accuracy or Distance? and why?

Well Bryan,

Hmmmm, of course accuracy!

Personally, Id want distance. Look at Tiger Woods. In terms of Driving the golf ball, he knocks it down there about 310-330 often times landing in troubled lies, deep rough, behind trees or on straw. Thing is hes that far its doesnt really affect him. But if we're talking about approaches obviously accuracy. Driving the golf ball, distance for sure.

You have to remember that Tiger has an amazing short game, something you probably don't (not compared to him anyway).

Well, i dont know about you guys, but i find i get more distance and control with a slower swing than my max swing. Fairway woods are different i can let them rip but when i slowed my swing down and just thought about getting a smooth swing, i improved alot and made more birdies. A good short game can save alot of pars.
Using Stiff Shafts in all my clubs avg distance is:
Driver: 240mtrs
5wood: 200mtrs
3iron: 170mtrs
4iron: 165mtrs
5iron: 160mtrs
6iron: 150mtrs
7iron: 145mtrs
8iron: 140mtrs
9iron: 130mtrs
Pwedge:125mtrs
Swedge: 70mtrs
Lwedge: 55mtrs

Give or take..

As B. Rotella stated, "be cocky about the shot you know you can hit, not the one you think you should be able to hit"

Thats of course if we could all hit our second shot like Tiger does out of the rough or bad lies. If only we could.

Food for thought here by the looks of it. By nature I am a hitter of the ball rather than a swinger of the club and its hard to change your natural tendencies, especially when its getting tight down the stretch. I think the perfect example of what I am talking about here is Darren Clarke, a big strong guy with great tempo and power, but he altered his wedge game in particular to accommodate smooth 3/4 and 1/2 swings because the accuracy he achieved was key.

The power to hit a Gap Wedge 140 yards may draw wows from the 20 handicappers in your saturday morning fourball, but the ability to hit a 7 iron 140 yards to 6 feet will be a far more enduring gift.

Dont misunderstand me, I would love to be able to move a ball the distances some of the top amateur guys I meet can manage, but at the end of the day I'm 31 and probably never going to be longer than I am now, its time to put the tape measure away and concentrate on playing golf rather than bashing balls, remember your scorecard doesnt give bonus points for distance......

D.

__________________
Longniddry Golf Club Champ 2005.

In the Taylor Made Bag:

Callaway FT-3 Tour 9.5 Aldila NV 65S

Callaway Steelhead 3 Wood

Callaway Steelhead 5 Wood

Callaway X-16 3-PW

MacGregor Tourney 52 Degree

Cobra Phil Rodgers 59 Degree Rusty

Odyssey DFX 2-Ball

Callaway Tour iX

You are right about most people think distances are the key. I played with a mate of mine back when i was on a 25 handicap he had a 23 handicap, and he could outdrive tiger with ease. I am talking a pw 170 yards, his 4 iron was a good 260 yards, he would even drive the ball 360 yards. he would have to always wait for me to catch his first shot.

I have not played a round with him for 18 months, and he asked me the other day how long I am, and he laughed when I told him i am only a clublength longer then when we last had a round. he was thinking because he can blast it he was better than myself. but guess what I am now on a 14 handicap and he is still on 23.

When I read the yardage some of you guys are allegedly hitting I have two thoughts, envy, disbelief.

Personally it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside when I read a post describing how they hit a 340Yrd drive and then I check their profile and see they play to 26...