Same yardage on all irons

[bogeyme]

Ok maybe I'm going crazy and just couldn't tell the difference in distances but I could have swore that every iron I hit this afternoon at the driving range was going 125 yards and that was it. I was getting good solid contact on most of my shots but every iron I hit only went about 125 yards. Should this be happening? Could it just have been because of the range balls or am I just going crazy? I know I can hit my 4 iron a lot farther than 125 yards. I'm sure I can probably hit my 7 iron a little farther than 125 yards.

Here's what I'm playing:

Driver: Founders Club "The Judge" Graphite shaft
3-wood: 15* steel shaft
5 & 7-wood: Macgregor Velocitized BBT Oversized Graphite Shaft Medium Flex 21* & 25*
3-iron: Wilson Sam Snead Blue Ridge
4-SW: Maker's Pride irons steel shafts

The 3W and 4 thru SW are all about 13 years old. The 3i I'm sure if every bit of 25 years old. I'm planning on getting some new clubs this winter. Anyone know anything about Maker's Pride clubs? I want to say they are a Golf Galaxy or Golfsmith brand that you build your own sets with.

[Uber$winG]

The good news is that you only have to carry one club if each one totals 125yds. No need for a golf bag then; just carry your 5-iron in an empty sword scabbard, and put the tees and balls in your pocket.
The only explanation I can offer is that maybe all the clubs have degraded to the same loft-angle in their antiquity.

[Dub]

The good news is that you only have to carry one club if each one totals 125yds. No need for a golf bag then; just carry your 5-iron in an empty sword scabbard, and put the tees and balls in your pocket.

Okay.....I just spilled coffe eveywhere while laughing at this response. A mental image of a Don Quiote type adventurer attacking the course came to mind.

Too dang funny. I can relate to the originator's topic, too. I've had days where things just didn't work worth a crap....a lot of times it was when I show up at the course/range after a sleepless night or I'm tensed up too much. Get plenty of sleep, relax when you get there...and walk around in a lazy fasion.....no rushing, no worries, no hurries. Address each swing the same way.....focus on doing everything really smooth and lazy. Good luck...it does get better!!!!!

[Fraser]

No need for a golf bag then; just carry your 5-iron in an empty sword scabbard, and put the tees and balls in your pocket.

Hilarious!

[kafka01]

Ok maybe I'm going crazy and just couldn't tell the difference in distances but I could have swore that every iron I hit this afternoon at the driving range was going 125 yards and that was it. I was getting good solid contact on most of my shots but every iron I hit only went about 125 yards. Should this be happening? Could it just have been because of the range balls or am I just going crazy? I know I can hit my 4 iron a lot farther than 125 yards. I'm sure I can probably hit my 7 iron a little farther than 125 yards.

I try to give you a serious answere on that - i guess i will be on the minority here since the content of that post is indeed " a bit funny"...

First of all you should go back to rate your game again - you write you make solid impact - i´m sure you dont. You either hit them fat or thin (or both) but if you would make "solid impact" all your irons wouldnt go as far as my pitching wedge. I also can assure you its nothing wrong with the range balls - its you. My guess is you just started recently, and we all have been there, and we all wondered why on earth my 5i or 3i goes the same as my 7i - simply put - its the swing, and there is not much you can do, but to keep practicing (and maybe not trying to hit the 3i too often)

[Trogdor]

We have a driving range here, where you hit range balls into the water. The golf balls are all supposed to float to make them easier to pick up for the guy in the boat (yes, everyone aims at him if he goes out in the middle of the day) and the only reason I go there is when my g/f wants to play. Anyway, its sort of the same way for me there. I hit my 5-6-7-8-9 within 5 yards of each other. When I go to any other range with good range balls, things are much more like course distance. It might be some horrible range balls, like these floater ones.

[chingali]

The shorter you hit it the smaller your distance gaps are. Say for example you do hit your 4 iron only 130 yards, in that case you would likely hit a 5 iron 125 and a 3 iron 135. Think about it, it makes sense.

This is the reason why in general women, young kids and old people would be better off dropping a lot of the inbetween irons and putting in some more wedges and more fairway woods/hybrids.

I worked this out a few years ago when my partner was getting in to golf and I was trying to work out what set makeup she should most likely use. I noticed that when she was hitting a 5 or 6 iron, there was virtually no distance gap between them whatsoever and it got me thinking as to why that would be.

If you hit the ball a good solid distance, next time you are out playing and you have an old guy in your group pay attention when you are on the tee of a 160 yard or so par 3. You will be trying to decide between a 6 or 7 iron and he'll be tossing up 3 or 5 wood. To you it makes no sense because you have a 30 yard gap at least between 3 and 5 wood, but he only has a 10 or 15 yard gap between them.

[Stacey_E]

OMG the one club in a scabbard....lol

But really, it is partly the balls. Most range balls suck to high heaven. I hit a 8 iron spinner ball about 140 with little release on the course. On the range I hit the same 8 iron on a lower trajectory about 145 with 15 yards of release.

But you will get there eventually. A lot of it has to do with your launch angle. If they all went 125 my guess is the mid irons were lower than the short irons. There is a point of diminishing returns in loft. For a high handicapper it comes around the 8 or 7 iron. For the pro it comes around the 1 or 2 iron.

[titaniummd]

If this is a grass driving range, look at the divot in relation to the original location of the ball. My guess, is that the divot is starting behind the ball (AKA hitting it fat).

Another thing to consider is using impact tape to determine the point of contact between the ball and club or you can use a dry erase pen and mark up the back of the ball and look where the ink shows up. I am guessing you are hitting off center or away from the sweet spot.

The bottom line is you need solid contact on the ball and you need to let the club's loft do the work.

[yeis20]

looks can be deceiving, are you considering where the ball lands as your final destination or is roll considered?

if you are hitting lower irons on lower trajectory, they might look like they only travel a certain distance but indeed they are going much further then short high flight irons.

Most driving range distances are crap and are not a good indication for distance

[bprater13]

Do you know if the range balls are "limited flight balls"? I've been to ranges before where they don't have a lot of room, or are just too lazy to drive 300 yards out to pick up balls and they have limited flight balls. They really limit the flight as you get to longer clubs too, so this is a possibility. With normal balls I hit a PW about 145 and a 3-iron about 230, however with limited flight balls a PW goes about 100-110 and a nutted 3-iron maybe goes 150. Even drivers rarely go 200. Just a thought. Also, all the limited flight balls I've seen have been yellow, so I never trust yellow range balls.