Length Adjustments DURING a round

[yeis20]

I can walk onto a tee box what I would call cold and have to hit -1 club on approach shots and a noticable yardage differential off the tee. After the 3rd or 4th hole, my body has loosened up and my swing no longer feels tight.

At this point, I am easily 1 club longer in all aspects of my game on full swings.

150 yd par 3 no wind 10th hole starting off the back cold... I will play a 9 iron and feel like I am having to really go for it. After playing a full 9 holes and finishing off a twilight after work round with 2-3 more holes, I come off the same tee box easily with the same 9 iron noticably longer with much less effort.

Both balls perfectly struck, the first attempt cold was 15-20 yds short of the warmed up attempt. Ball flight paths very similar as well

My local club does not have a range at it, but a course I have been playing at often on Sunday afternoons does and I always get there early and hit a bucket to "warm up" so I play my normal club lengths.

Any ideas on a warm up routine that wont take 20 minutes of practice hits to get there?

[JCDot33]

I have firmly, this year, become a believer of hitting a small bucket of balls before trying to play. I know that this isn't always a possibility, espicially if you are trying to play "twilight" rounds (it's getting dark quicker these days ... *sigh* ... ) But I too also experience this if I don't warm up ... and yeah, it's usually about a club length difference for me too ...

[Stacey_E]

I just don't know how to warm up without hitting. My course started giving out warmup bags with 18 holes greens fees. They have 16 balls and I start by chipping some back and forth on the range. Then I always hit 4 shots each with my SW, 8ir, 4 hybrid and driver.

I've definately noticed my length changing during a round. For the first 2 holes I always at least think about one more club. And on the last 2 holes I think about 1 more club as well, as fatigue can set in. This is especially true in the muggy summer months.

[Octuple Bogey]

Yeah, I've noticed that my iron yardages vary quite a bit from day to day and month to month as well as during the very same round, even when the shots seem to be struck properly and follow the correct trajectory and all other conditions are the same. The key is to develop the sixth sense that you need to determine whether you are going to hit your seven iron 150 yards or 170 yards on that next shot...

When in doubt I usually take more club than necessary because if I hit it well I come off looking better to my playing partners. Better to look like you don't know your own strength than to say you're going to hit a 6-iron and come up 20 yards short in my book.

Though there are risks to overshooting a green. I used to have a friend in high school, a great guy, that would occasionally hit his club over the green and then get all excited and exclaim, "Octuple, did you see how far I just hit that five?!" I would say, "that's great, I'm happy for you, I really am. But your ball just went into the lake behind the green. That's a one stroke penalty dude."

[Cody]

I had this happen to me yesterday. There was a 160 yard par 3. I hit a 6 iron and stuck the green just barely. We had to play it twice because the course only had 7 holes. So i walk up to the tee box 6 iron in hand. Hit it pure. SKY OVER THE GREEN! I hit the cart path about 10 yards over the green and had a 60 yard shot after that.

[DJYoshi]

absolutely hit a bucket of balls to warm up b4 the round. stretch and mentally relax. it really makes a HUGE difference to do that. yesterday i ddin't warm up. just stretched. my drive went from 220 on the 1st hole to 220 with a hybrid on the 2nd. to 240 on the 3rd, 250 on the 5th. 2 3 woods that went 240 - 245 on the 7 & 8 and then 315 on the 9th (downhill against the wind).
then my last hole b4 i had to leave
275 (uphill into the wind).

i even got a pitching wedge to go 150 yesterday after my drive on the 9th.