Is it illegal to write yardages on your wedges?

[sean_miller]

Welcome to The Sand Trap, Tiger!

You don't have to be a pro to judge distance.

At a pitch and putt last Sunday, I carried a 56* wedge, 6-iron, and putter. On both the 80 yard holes I hit a ball with both the wedge and the 6 iron - pin high each time (not to the inch, but pretty damned close). Some of us mid-cappers actually have game - when we're temporarily in the zone.

[iacas]

hmmm . . . you make that sound sort of logical. Do you do that for all your clubs?

No. Just the three wedges. It wouldn't make sense with my irons. Besides, how often would I need to hit a half 4I or a 1/4 6-iron?

[Sowbug2000]

You don't have to be a pro to judge distance.

I wasn't suggesting amateurs couldn't judge distance.....a joke on his "internet yardages"..... 80 yd 6-iron....interesting. Sounds like a fun practice "game."

[Greg]

Yeah, I do it all the time:

Is this Jack Hamm, judging by those distances. Thats how far he claims he can hit all those clubs. And he slayed the dragon and saved the princess from the giant monkey throwing barrels at him with his mighty Hammer. POOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!

[RC]

Oh my... I was joking. Please don't confuse me with a pitchman.

I really do think it is very important to know at least two and maybe three distances that your wedges will go with different swings. I practice to a particular practice green and flag that is well away from the normal range area. The flag is set 50 to 60 yards away (depending where on the grass tee area I am hitting from. I hit three different wedges to this flag and usually three different ball flights. When the wind is up and from various directions, I will still practice hitting to this practice green, trying all three clubs and all three trajectories to learn the feel of how each shot works, and what I have to do to adjust to the conditions.

During these sessions, I make it a practice to hit a few shots to the front edge and back edge of the green, just to feel the difference in swing length. It is like a game... can I put three balls as close as possible on the front of the green just five feet onto its surface, can I stop three shots right at the back edge without rolling one over and off the green. If you do this sort of practice, the idea of laying up to some favorite distance like 100 yards is no longer necessary. I know I want to be as close as possible to the pin because I know I have multiple options for shorter shots.

I'm not claiming ability or expertise, just the idea that if you practice shots that are real tests of the way you may play, you will improve your ability to hit these scoring shots.

[lobsterzilla]

i dont know if anyone's interested but a couple of the label maker companies have models where there are lines for yardages if you dont want to go the paper and tape route.

[1badbadger]

On 8/10/2009 at 6:48 PM, sean_miller said:

People write directly onto their wedges? Is it that hard to keep a piece of paper (or cardboard or business card) in your bag? So where would you write this information? On the face or back of the clubhead, on the shaft, or the grip?

I think you guys should get the yardages tattooed on your left forearm, swingthoughts tattooed on your right forearm.

 

On 8/11/2009 at 9:06 AM, iacas said:

I write my yardages in a spreadsheet (makes it easy to draw a border and blacken the top, which says "PW" or "LW" or whatever), print them, cut the little rectangle, and tape it onto the underside of my shaft at the bottom of the grip.

The label reads (for example): PW 125 110 85 45

This is a good way to remember the specs on a club, most often a driver.  Tour pros do this a lot...it's not uncommon for them to have a handful of drivers that are the same model, possibly with the same shaft too, but the length, swingweight, or CPMs of the shaft might be slightly different, so they will put a sticker or piece of masking tape down the underside of the shaft with the specs.

[Patch]

I don't write on my clubs. I just have that info on a card attached to my bag. It's like a 3 X 5 luggage name tag with a strap, and buckle on it. The written numbers relate to carry yardages only. Full, bump and run, and flop swings only. 

In reality, I am not that precise of a ball striker to exactly hit the yardages shown on the card. They are just averaged figures for use as needed. 

[p1n9183]

On 8/11/2009 at 11:06 AM, iacas said:

I write my yardages in a spreadsheet (makes it easy to draw a border and blacken the top, which says "PW" or "LW" or whatever), print them, cut the little rectangle, and tape it onto the underside of my shaft at the bottom of the grip.

The label reads (for example): PW 125 110 85 45

So you are 50 yards to the hole.. and you have to take out of the bag the 3 wedges in order to see the 3 labels and choose the rigth one for the distance??

I think it´s easier to have it on a piece of papel taped outside the bag or in your yardage book.

[iacas]

6 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

So you are 50 yards to the hole.. and you have to take out of the bag the 3 wedges in order to see the 3 labels and choose the rigth one for the distance??

I think it´s easier to have it on a piece of papel taped outside the bag or in your yardage book.

No.

I choose the wedge that will give me the trajectory I want then look at the yardage to see what size swing I need to make.

[Shindig]

14 minutes ago, iacas said:

No.

I choose the wedge that will give me the trajectory I want then look at the yardage to see what size swing I need to make.

---

I think I need to get into this habit.  I've been way too long in the "Okay, it's 35 yards, that's half with my 56" camp.  Or is worrying about the trajectory first not something I should be thinking about at my ability level?

I also should get around to taping the yardages to them instead of relying on faulty memory or an index card.

[billchao]

38 minutes ago, iacas said:

I choose the wedge that will give me the trajectory I want then look at the yardage to see what size swing I need to make.

I don't think about my traj unless I have to navigate a tree. Usually I just hit my stock shot and try to hit my number. If I have more than one option I'll usually go with the shorter swing.

I'm gonna echo @Shindig here, is that something I should be concerned about? Alternatively, how does trajectory affect your decision making?

27 minutes ago, Shindig said:

I also should get around to taping the yardages to them instead of relying on faulty memory or an index card.

I have my partial yardages written in a notepad I keep in my back pocket when I play. I look at it when I need to, though I have a few committed to memory now because they come up more frequently than others. Served me pretty well so far.

[Piz]

How about a dry-erase area on the back of the club head?  That way you could just write whatever yardage was appropriate, for a given shot, and proceed with confidence.  "71 yards you say?  Hold on a second...I've got just the club for that."  Might provide some light entertainment while waiting for the group ahead to clear the green.  And who knows...the golf brain might not know the difference.

[iacas]

@Piz, if you were trying to be funny… uhhhh…

4 hours ago, Shindig said:

I think I need to get into this habit.  I've been way too long in the "Okay, it's 35 yards, that's half with my 56" camp.  Or is worrying about the trajectory first not something I should be thinking about at my ability level?

Yes, trajectory matters. For example to a back pin I'm more likely to take less loft and land the ball front-center so it hops back there. Front pin, more loft.

Or if there's a tier, I'll often roll or bounce it up the tier. Green firmness, etc. affects things too. If the ball will feed to a hole location, less loft so more time rolling. If it feeds away, more loft.

4 hours ago, billchao said:

I'm gonna echo @Shindig here, is that something I should be concerned about? Alternatively, how does trajectory affect your decision making?

Does the above answer?

[DrMJG]

At my local pro shop, there are small plastic clips that affix at the handle with yardage numbers on them.  Another way to I, I suspect

This shop goes out of their way to make sure all they sell is rules compliant

[chilepepper]

Take this a step further. Write your various wedge distances on a 3x5 card. Include 1/2 and 3/4 distances for other irons and your hybrid. Now you have a better idea for punch shots etc

[iacas]

36 minutes ago, chilepepper said:

Take this a step further. Write your various wedge distances on a 3x5 card. Include 1/2 and 3/4 distances for other irons and your hybrid. Now you have a better idea for punch shots etc

I don't know about that. A half swing hybrid?

Wedges are fine. People don't need to be carrying index cards around… just seems excessive/silly to me.

[billchao]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Yes, trajectory matters. For example to a back pin I'm more likely to take less loft and land the ball front-center so it hops back there. Front pin, more loft.

Or if there's a tier, I'll often roll or bounce it up the tier. Green firmness, etc. affects things too. If the ball will feed to a hole location, less loft so more time rolling. If it feeds away, more loft.

Does the above answer?

Yes. I do some of these kind of instinctively. I'll hit a higher lofted wedge to a front pin to try to land it soft and a lower lofted wedge to a back pin so I can make a shorter swing for better contact because the extra green is more forgiving with roll and distance. If it's a front pin with no trouble in front of the green, I'll hit a lower loft because I can control my line better with it and I can still roll it up if I hit it short. Stuff like that. I just never thought of it as controlling the traj, even though as I'm typing it, it's quite obvious to me that it is.