Determining club distance

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has any advice on the best way to determine the distance you hit the ball using each club (i.e., club yardage/distance).

1. I've always thought about the total distance (carry + roll) for each club. But, I heard a golf pro (on the golf channel) mention that the only stat you should know is the carry distance. Do you think this is right? I would think that you should know *both*.

2. What's the best way to determine the carry distance? I've been going to the range and trying to "guestimate" the distance based on a group of shots (I hit 10-12 shots and ignore the two best and two worst). But, when I go to the course to play, I find that the distances (based on the range) are not correct (either too short, or too long). Someone told me that the problem is that the range uses different balls (i.e., made to last, not perform) and are "dead". This person suggested that I add 10-15 yards for each club.

But, another person said to ignore completely the driving range results because the yardage markers should not be trusted. Instead, the distances should be determined based on actual course play (but, that assumes you can get accurate readings based on sprinkler heads, etc). I suppose the new laser range finders (or even GPS devices like the Skycaddie would be very helpful).

Finally, one other person suggested using a launch monitor to determine distances. Can you use these for things other than driver/woods? I'm not sure if the cost would be worth it.

I know that golf pros have access to driving ranges and practice using their actual ball and have access to a great number of other aids. What should amateurs use?

Any suggestions would be very helpful. I'd like to hear what people think.

Hans.

Best suggestion for on course play, Buy a GPS. The ones you will need for this will be relatively cheap and you can lock in Cords for each shot if you want and hash it all out at the end of the day. ou can leave it in your cart or mount it to your pull cart. Dont know legality however.

When I got serious about golf, I too needed to know my distances. So, I found that out by going to a schoolyard near my home.

I would load up a shag bag with 50 balls and head down to the school. This particular school yard was big enough to hit a full driver without going off the property. But I chose the far corner where there was a baseball diamond. A baseball diamond makes a good practice target because the infield grass can represent the green, the infield dirt represented bunkers and anything outside of those areas was just a piss-poor shot.

Anyway, when I first started to figure all this out, I chose what I felt was my "150" club and I would pace off 150 yds. from the center of the infield grass to a point somewhere out in the field. I was lucky enough to have the advantage of a football field nearby and the yard lines helped as reference points. I'd hit a bag of balls at the infield and then go see how many actually stayed on the grass and if the majority, (say about 30 or 35), were more or less in the same area, then that was my distance. Naturally, if most of the balls were beyond the infield, then I'd back up a few yards and try again. If most were short, I'd move up.

Over time, I dialed in all of my distances for all of my irons, right down to my 1-iron, which I used to carry back then. For instance, I knew beyond a doubt, that my 9-iron was good for 138 yds., My 8-iron was 152, my 7-iron was 163, and so on. This was all back in the 80's before the livelier ball and more upright lofts we have today. (Today, my 9-iron is my 150 club, my 8-iron is 162 and so on. It takes a lot of time, but after a few weeks, I was so confident in my distance knowledge that short pins, sucker pins, water, etc. were no trouble at all because as long as the markers on the course were right, I knew just what I'd need to clear whatever lay ahead.

Not only that, but practicing to such a target has the added advantage of improving accuracy overall. I used to try to get all 50 balls on the infield grass and my best ever effort was 42 out of 50 with an 8-iron. On average though, I'd look to get at least 30 or more on target. I used to hit anywhere from 3 to 5 bags per night.

Yes, it's a lot of work, but man , the payoff is spectacular.

Practicing this way beats ANY driving range hands down! Not only because you can more accurately assess your true distances, but it works wonders for your accuracy as well, because walking after errant shots gets old real fast.

If you can find a field such as a school yard or other sports fields to do this on, I guarantee your game will improve and you'll never go to a driving range again.

A friend of mine and I are going to do the same thing. We thought it would make more sense to stay in one spot and accurately measure off the distances with a surveyor’s wheel tape that he has. We're going pick a spot and measure off in 15-yard increments and mark with cones.

I'll hit 10 shots with an iron and he'll measure the yardage to the nearest cone, write down the group’s distance and then pick the balls up with a shag. Then I'll do the same thing for him.

We only need to do wedges, irons, and hybrids. From hitting 3 wood and driver off the tee we know exactly how far we hit those.

Your suggestion sounds great. Unfortunately, all of the fields that I know of (parks and schools) explicitly ban "playing or practising golf". So, that idea is pretty much out. I think I can do something like that in my backyard to determine different wedge shots (a la Pelz). It will mostly be partial shots (but that's better than nothing). Anything longer than 75 yards might be tough in the backyard.

Thanks for the suggestion.

If you can play the course when it's not busy hit a few balls from the yardage markers and pace them off to see how close they are. weather conditions also need to be noted. I'll go in the evenings to do some practice and not worry about finishing the round if it gets dark. Remember they mark it to the center of the green.

That's a great suggestion. I've always been a "morning" golfer because I hate playing a 5 hour plus round of golf (and waiting). Also, I've been worried about not finishing the round. Now that I think about your suggestion, not only will it might help me get in a few more rounds of golf (awesome!), but it may help me make better use of the golf that I do play. Now that I'm using the end-of-day round for "development" purposes, I won't be afraid of playing a partial round - thanks.

My pro when i was younger had me find my "150" club. Back when I started caring, it was like a 4-5 iron. I found that once I learned my 150 club, the rest started to fall in line for me. It should work for you now, too.