How do you play this shot.

[Fastrack]

If I had to force 6 iron, I will feel pressure and may make mistake. Easy swing with 5 will do it better for me.

[Zeph]

Depends on where I'd want to miss. A 5 yard longer shot is not like swinging the club 120%. Unless the back part of the green is open and won't give me trouble, I'd hit a 6i. Swinging easier sometimes yield better results, so I might risk hitting it 185 yards. If possible, the 6i might land 5 yards short of the green and roll onto it.

[FortAsel]

it depends on how the green slopes, hazards, etc. If there are no dangers, I'd play a 6 iron, hoping it would release

[Yukari]

Choke down on 5-iron.

[Robato]

I would use the 6 and hurry before my skin turns green and rips my clothes.

[Meddle]

Tough one. Swinging easy throws off my timing, knowing I need to put extra on a shot mentally causes problems (makes me dip my left shoulder). I think I'd go easy 5 iron though, choke down on the club and roll it in there.

[kleraudio]

Thats pretty easy actually. You say the 6 goes 170 and the 5 goes 185. With only those variables like you mentioned, I am assuming that your assuming that you will "nut" both shots.

That said, I'd take the 6 iron all day. The 6 iron will be 5 yards short of the cup, but the 5 iron will be 15 yards long of the cup. I'd take a 15 foot putt over a 45 footer any day of the week!!!

[sean_miller]

Thats pretty easy actually. You say the 6 goes 170 and the 5 goes 185. With only those variables like you mentioned, I am assuming that your assuming that you will "nut" both shots.

*10 yards is a 30 footer, but it's still twice the distance of a 15 footer. And it's probably downhill too.

[kleraudio]

Lol yea I meant 10 yards my fault!

Yea definitely a double breaker, down hill, on a stimp reading of 12

Jim

In the real world most of us amateurs miss more than we pure shots, so that said, I'd choke up 1/4" on the 5 and let er rip. If you nut it, it will go like 180. If you miss a little bit, youll still probably end up the same distance of a nutted 6 iron.......

So in the real world, a choked up 5.

If every shot is pured, its a 6 iron.

In my world, if im on the green, I dont care how far from the cup I am!

[Kcas77]

Personally I like to take some distance of my clubs, however this is only for the scoring irons where they are made for control/accuracy and not distance. At 175 yards I would go with a normal 6 iron (in this case 170 yds) and have a 15 foot putt. I would consider this a very good shot. In golf somtimes you just have to take whats given to you and not try to force it. What are the chances really at hitting that much better of a shot with the 5 iron than the 6?

[etlreams]

I would go with a 5 iron and lay off the shot a bit. I never have good results when I try to muscle something. As others have pointed out, things can break down in your natural swing.

I do, however, like Kcas77's insight.

At 175 yards I would go with a normal 6 iron (in this case 170 yds) and have a 15 foot putt.

If the pin is playing in the back of the green, I may go with a 6, knowing I will be short and be left with a longer putt. I'd may take that than guestimating how much I need to lay off and end up over shooting the green.

[laxbballgolf]

I don't buy the whole "leave myself a 15 footer" argument. Golf is a game of misses. Why would you want to put your target, the center point around which your misses will randomly fall, away from the hole itself (assuming no trouble, as the question seems to imply).

Let's play out a couple scenarios:
a) You mess up and hit the ball 10 yards short and 4 yards right. If you aimed for the hole, you are about 11 yards away from the hole. If you aimed for 5 yards short of the hole, you are about 15 and a half yards away from the hole.
b) You hit the perfect shot, exactly where you aimed. If you aimed for the hole, it's a tap in. If you aimed for 5 yards short of the hole, you just wasted the extremely rare event of a perfect shot from over 150 yards, and you are left with a 15 footer which the odds are very low that you will make in one putt.

Why would you not want to aim for the hole? Assuming that you have a random array of misses, wouldn't you want those misses to be centered around the hole itself?

(Sure, someone could point out that a scenario c could be that you hit it dead straight and 5 yards further than intended, but that would be a lucky break, and the point is that you want to aim your shots so that on average you will get the best results.)

[etlreams]

I hear what you're saying, laxbballgolf. But remember, many golfers would rather be putting and further from the hole, than closer to the hole but in the rough requiring a chip, pitch, or flop shot.

The best part of my game is my short game, BUT, every once and a while I have those days where I just can't get under it. On those days, I'll leave it short knowing I'll have to 2-putt rather than going after the pin with the risk of over-shooting it and having those tricky short flop/pitch shots. I might end up sculling it or duffing it. Then, all of the sudden, I'm three strokes to my 2-putts.

I guess the lesson from this thread is two-fold. 1) Every golfer has a different philosophy and for different reasons, and 2) there are so many viariables - via the player's skill set, what's working for a player on that day, pin location, etc. etc.

[Fat Slice]

Assuming center pin, flat green, equal trouble short and long, I'd hit the 6 since it's easier to hit. A better player might hit the 5 with backspin and suck it down to the hole.