How accurate are you from 130 yards?

[Jack]

As I now find myself making a good connection with the ball on a regular basis, my attention is being drawn more to the accuracy of my shots. The club where I play has an 18 hole par 3 course with holes ranging from 60 to 135 yards. It's a great course that is well maintained and will test the short game of any player. A couple of the longer holes require me to a take a full PW to reach the green and my question really comes from these shots.

I tend to take dead aim at the pin if the conditions are right. My misses are generally to the right of the pin, but only by a few yards. I would say that I could guarantee to hit the ball within 5-6 yards either side of the hole providing I have hit the ball cleanly. I get annoyed when I hit the ball nicely and it goes 6 yards right and ends up on the fringe or off the green altogether. My problem is, I don't know if at my stage of learning the game I am being too harsh on myself. I only tend to play on my own or with the same few friends who are not really up to my standard (which isnt great itself!) so I don't have a good comparison to make with good golfers.

I realise that distance control is just as important as direction, but at this stage I would prefer to concentrate on one thing at a time and nail that direction aspect first! Also although my handicap is 18 I go around this par 3 course in about 5 over par or less. I have only just started playing on full sized holes and I'm still very much learning the longer clubs (I need to learn how to hit it off the tee consistently) and how to negotiate full sized holes.

My question to you is, "how accurate are you from 130 yards?"

p.s. I have been working hard on my alignment over the past few weeks, getting a friend to check my setup before I strike the ball, ect. I believe my misses are resulting from small pushes (not quite bringing the club face back square).

[the19thhole]

Easy 9i and probably within a 5 yard circle 7 out of 10 shots. If you can nail this then when you get your longer clubs working then it gives you a distance to aim for on drives and layups. This effectively becomes your scoring zone. No more than 3 shots, but more than good chance of 2. I worked on mine for a long time from 150, in easy 7i. Stick at it because for your handicap I think your doing well. Doubt I was that accurate at 18 hdcp. Don't be too harsh on yourself. Have fun. That way you'll relax more as well.

[Whiskey84]

130 yds is a solid 52* for me. I feel pretty comfortable with that shot except for lately I've been blocking some wedges out to the left. My ideal lay up yardage is around 90 yds.

[bunkerputt]

I'm about 4% of the distance away from my target on full approach shots.  My misses are left or right, but not long or short on just about all of these shots.  Move in a little to half-wedge distances and my misses are mostly long or short, but pretty much on line.

[Mattplusness]

I would venture to guess 80%, I haven't tracked that though. My PW and 9i can be pretty hot at times.

[AmazingWhacker]

I am not very accurate at all.  I only recently learned to make solid contact after playing for a few years so now my distances are all over the place.  I also realize that, now that I have learned to hit the ball far, I need to learn how to aim, lol.  My misses are left, right, long and short.  I hit my pw about 120 yards but my sandwedge only about 70 yards which is causing me a lot of problems.

[Elvisliveson]

Relative to my skill level I am one of the most innacurate players from 130 yards in. Case in point: last week on a 430 yard par 4 I crush a drive so I have only a 135 yard PW into the green. I pull it 30 feet left of the flagstick. I do that more often than I like and I think it's a mental thing as I am sometimes more accurate on long iron shots into the green. I think it's the pressure of everyone saying "awesome drive' and the expectation that after that I should be able to knock it stiff. When I screw up and the 130 yard shot is say my 3rd on a par 4 then I seem to be able to zero in on the flag.

[ThominOH]

130 yards.. hmmm I probably average at 5 paces, some closer, some longer depending on my skill for the day.. I just wish I could drive better, that is my weakest part of my game

[sean_miller]

  Elvisliveson said:

Originally Posted by Elvisliveson

Relative to my skill level I am one of the most innacurate players from 130 yards in. Case in point: last week on a 430 yard par 4 I crush a drive so I have only a 135 yard PW into the green. I pull it 30 feet left of the flagstick. I do that more often than I like and I think it's a mental thing as I am sometimes more accurate on long iron shots into the green. I think it's the pressure of everyone saying "awesome drive' and the expectation that after that I should be able to knock it stiff. When I screw up and the 130 yard shot is say my 3rd on a par 4 then I seem to be able to zero in on the flag.

Distance control isn't usually the issue, but with my TA1 PW I always miss left. I'm either swing too flat, OTT, or the club is too upright. I'm going to get it bent a degree or too flatter since it can't possibly be a swing fault!?!?

[bunkerputt]

  ThominOH said:

Originally Posted by ThominOH

130 yards.. hmmm I probably average at 5 paces, some closer, some longer depending on my skill for the day.. I just wish I could drive better, that is my weakest part of my game

That's about 4%.  Same as me.....  Top tour player 125-150 is 18'.  If I include all of that range and looked at raw data, I don't know what my average would actually be, but I'm sure it would be further away than the best guy on tour, probably 20-25 feet or so.  I only know that my average miss distance for my 8-wedge on a full swing is somewhere around 4%.  I can't really expect to hit it in a tighter area than that......yet.  We'll see.

[phillyk]

  sean_miller said:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

Distance control isn't usually the issue, but with my TA1 PW I always miss left. I'm either swing too flat, OTT, or the club is too upright. I'm going to get it bent a degree or too flatter since it can't possibly be a swing fault!?!?

I'm pretty much the same way.  I use my 52° wedge from 130, and I can hit that distance no problem.  But, when I don't come close to the pin, my miss is always left.  I feel like i don't use enough hips through my swing, it's all arms.  But, I guess my average on 130yds out would be within 15 feet.

[sean_miller]

  phillyk said:

Originally Posted by phillyk

I'm pretty much the same way.  I use my 52° wedge from 130, and I can hit that distance no problem.  But, when I don't come close to the pin, my miss is always left.  I feel like i don't use enough hips through my swing, it's all arms.  But, I guess my average on 130yds out would be within 15 feet.

I think it's from being lazy. Next time at the range I'm going to make sure I get those buttons facing the target and finish with hands high - what would Tom Kite do? (possibly the best wedge player ever - before Tiger's era anyway).

[Harmonious]

  bunkerputt said:

Originally Posted by bunkerputt

That's about 4%.  Same as me.....  Top tour player 125-150 is 18'.  If I include all of that range and looked at raw data, I don't know what my average would actually be, but I'm sure it would be further away than the best guy on tour, probably 20-25 feet or so.  I only know that my average miss distance for my 8-wedge on a full swing is somewhere around 4%.  I can't really expect to hit it in a tighter area than that......yet.  We'll see.

Please don't say your average is 4% for your full swings. That is as unlikely as the 320 yard average drives. The top PGA player (Kevin Chappell) averages 18' (6 yards), as you say.  Taking the average of 125-150 as 137 yards, that makes Chappell 4.4%. You are probably not better than the best on tour.

Dave Pelz measured this for many tour players back in the day.  The absolute best was Trevino... at 5.02%.  Most tour players were in the 7% range.

[B-Con]

Not good. Getting my full wedge and short iron shots more consistent is next on my practice list. I miss too many GIR simply because I mishit or mis-judged a short club. Very, very frustrating. On my last full 18 I shot a 91 and probably could've shot an 87 if I'd simply simply hit a few more greens from within 130 yards. Just a bunch of near misses. I'm going to guess that I hit greens about 35-40% of the time from 130 yards, but I don't have any actual stats to back that up, that's just my impression.

[phillyk]

  Harmonious said:

Originally Posted by Harmonious

Please don't say your average is 4% for your full swings. That is as unlikely as the 320 yard average drives. The top PGA player (Kevin Chappell) averages 18' (6 yards), as you say.  Taking the average of 125-150 as 137 yards, that makes Chappell 4.4%. You are probably not better than the best on tour.

Dave Pelz measured this for many tour players back in the day.  The absolute best was Trevino... at 5.02%.  Most tour players were in the 7% range.

While I do agree with you, would it make a difference in of hitting to a green that has a very high greenspeed making it hard to stop the ball even for players able to spin the ball (pros), versus us that play courses with relatively lower greenspeeds making it easier to stop the ball near the hole?

[bunkerputt]

  Harmonious said:

Originally Posted by Harmonious

Please don't say your average is 4% for your full swings. That is as unlikely as the 320 yard average drives. The top PGA player (Kevin Chappell) averages 18' (6 yards), as you say.  Taking the average of 125-150 as 137 yards, that makes Chappell 4.4%. You are probably not better than the best on tour.

Dave Pelz measured this for many tour players back in the day.  The absolute best was Trevino... at 5.02%.  Most tour players were in the 7% range.

Pelz?  The same Pelz that determined on the same page that it didn't matter whether you were 5% away or 9% away, it's the short game?  This Pelz?:

Many people claim that the short game and putting are the most important determinants of golf
scores. For example, Pelz (1999, p.1) writes, “60% to 65% of all golf shots occur inside 100 yards
of the hole. More important, about 80% of the shots golfers lose to par occur inside 100 yards.”
Several academic studies have reached similar conclusions. In contrast, strokes gained analysis of
PGA TOUR data shows that the long game is the most important factor explaining the variability
in professional golf scores.

I'm curious, find me the Pelz data and then find out how he figured out where a person was aiming so he could measure the miss distance...particularly with Trevino.  Get on a launch monitor with an 8-iron, make the same swing over and over and see how you do.  You should have no problem hitting something less than 5% as a 2 index.  If that method were used, the guys on tour would be way below 4%.

[Gerald]

From 130 yds ---- 117 meter is a 9 iron for me ...... deadly accurate ...... some will be within 2-3 yds and most within 5-8 yds and one or two putts.

Quite within the target for such a short course, we also have a 9 hole short course overhere, my best sofar is a round of 24 .....

[Kieran123]

130Y is a 52* GW for me. My miss is usually left ( hook/draw )

Then again, a lot of the times I am aiming for the center of the green, not knowing exactly where center is, it's impossible to tell now accurate I am.