Question about figuring out club distances

So trying to figure out my average distances with each club.  I'm at the driving range and I realize this is far from accurate.  Sure they have flags marking 100, 150, 200 etc.  But am I the only one who can't really look 150 yards out and tell exactly how many yards my ball is from the flag?  Maybe it's poor vision.  I'm 20/20 with contact lenses, but depth perception isn't always great.  I'm basically guessing.  I can tell it landed between 2 flags, but that's about it.  That leaves a 50 yard margin of error!

Am I better off going to a simulator?  The new irons I bought, I tested out at a simulator when I bought them and I found it to read pretty short compared to what I'm actually seeing on the course.  Like a good 30-40 yards different.

So, any tips?  How do you guys learn your distances?

I had a pretty good feel for the old set.  I was 160 with my 6 iron and -10 yards per club 7-PW.  Well my last few rounds have been with the new clubs.  On one hole I'm in the fairway 10 yards short of the 150 marker.  I pull out the new 6 iron.  I hit it 10 yards past the green.  175 yards at least.  Then a few holes later, I'm right at 150 yards.  Pull out the 7 iron.  I'm short by 10 yards!

It's really the 7 iron that baffles me.  I expected to get a little more distance with these new clubs and it appears I am with the 6 iron.  The 7 appears to be consistently short though.  The gap between those 2 clubs seems to be around 20 yards, most times more.  I haven't really had too many chances on the course to hit the 8 or 9.  My PW seems to be similar to the old one.

I'll add that I am still pretty bad at golf.  Pretty much a beginner still.  It could very well be that my swing is just inconsistent with the new clubs and I need to spend more time playing them.

Just play golf. Do you have a rangefinder? If not, get one. Then go by your measurements on the golf course. Hitting off grass is going to give you different results than hitting off a mat.

If you don't have a consistent swing it's going to be tough to figure out the yardages accurately.  In addition to swing variation you also have to factor in wind, slope, type of golf ball and lie so overall there's a lot that goes into the numbers but it has to start out with a baseline for your swing.  I hit my sets PW 120 yards consistently off of a decent lie and assume an additional 10 yards for each longer iron.

I'd also suggest you get a rangefinder or use "Game Golf" so you can start to record actual distances with each club to verify your estimates are accurate.

Here's a potential solution for you and you'll need a range finder device for this.

Go to a practice range that has targets of varying distances.  Shoot the distance to a short target of about 80-100 yards.  Find the club that fits that distance.  SW, PW, 9-iron? ... whatever it may be.  Get the shot distance dialed on on a single club.  Subtract 10 yards for the next shorter club number, add 10 yards to the next longer club number.

Repeat same for targets further out.  Find a 150 target and dial in a club.  If 7-iron is the club that is getting to the 150 target consistently, you can safely assume a 6-iron will go 160-165 and your 8-iron 135-140.

The tough ones are the distances approaching 200 or 200+ yards.  Most folks with double-digit hdcps, don't have a lot of range differential between say a 5-wood and a 3 hybrid.  At 200 yards, many of us are thinking 'contact' and good swing rather than hitting a club exactly 190 or 205.

Hope this unscientific explanation helps you get a bit closer to understanding your iron distances.

dave

I will be playing a round this coming Thursday, late in the day so it won't be busy.  I like the suggestion of dropping a ball at the 150 marker and hitting my 7 iron from there for the practice and distance data.  I spent some time at the range today, mostly because I got a new FW (Adams Tight Lies, 16 deg) and was hitting my irons a lot more consistently.

I think when I originally started this thread, I was flustered because the range I had gone to the previous few times, you are hitting off a cliff and it's really hard to tell how far a ball actually went.  Today at a different range that is nice and flat, it was much easier to see, at least up to 150 yards.  I'm still consistently carrying around 160 yards with my 6 iron, which is about where I was with my old clubs.  I think I'll play the new ones like I played the old ones.  I think I'm also trying to break some bad habits I learned swinging the old clubs, since the lie angle wasn't right for a guy as tall as me.  These new Mizunos are a much better fit, but my position at address is different than it's been since the lie angle is different.  I think it will take some getting used to but be better for me in the long run.

On a somewhat side note, the new Adams FW is pretty easy to hit!  Plays more like an iron, which is exactly how they advertise it.  I was happy with the distance I was getting from it as well as well.  The FW that I had before was my hardest club to hit, but this one has a much more compact head and was easy to hit.