How Much Short Of The Hole Are The Guys You Play With?

[LovinItAll]

Day after day, I watch as guys I play with fail to hit anough club on their approach shots. If we say that 10 yards (30 feet) is about a club, guys are routinely 1-2 clubs short, more on deep greens. Even with that knowledge, they'll step up time after time and hit their '150 yard 7i' 130-135 yards and still be convinced that it's their 150 yd. club despite all evidence against it. Occassionally I'll challenge someone to blow it over the green for a small wager and they'll have to drop 2-3 clubs minimum to have any chance at all.

I made the poll 'your buddies' because I know everyone here - even the 20+ HC'ers - get the ball to the hole, right?!?!

[LovinItAll]

Let's exclude Par 3's from the mix. Guys seem to get a little more confident and commit better when they jam a tee in the ground.

[meenman]

GIRs are a rarity in my normal group (course HCs from 19-30)

We all average 2-3 GIRs a round with 2/3 of them on par 3s.

My course is littered with bunkers so everytime I have that 90 yard approach shot for GIR - it is going to find a bunker. (that damn 90 yard club always goes 110 when swinging easy)

[LovinItAll]

Originally Posted by meenman

GIRs are a rarity in my normal group (course HCs from 19-30)

We all average 2-3 GIRs a round with 2/3 of them on par 3s.

My course is littered with bunkers so everytime I have that 90 yard approach shot for GIR - it is going to find a bunker. (that damn 90 yard club always goes 110 when swinging easy)

For me, I know pretty quickly if I need to club up for the day (or until I warm up or whatever). It's not entirely unusual to warm up on the range and discover that I just don't have my usual zip on the ball. I lose my pride and take more stick until I blow one or two past the hole, then I'll drop back to my 'usual' yardages'.

Same with shot shape. I prefer to hit a very shallow fade, but occasionally what I consider my normal swing will produce a shallow draw. Rather than mess with my swing before/during a round, I make the yardage adjustment and save the practice for after my round or for another day.

[David in FL]

The answer is in direct relation to their handicap.....better players tend to know the actual distance they hit any given shot ( note I didn't say "club) and the quality of their ball striking makes those distances much more consistent. Poorer players tend to remember that perfect 7 iron they once hit and apply that as their stock yardage. Their relatively poor ball striking makes for inconsistency and as a result they tend to come up short.

[MajorSlice]

My experiences....I am a slicer, as the name indicates.  Normally, i can play my slice pretty well but sometimes it still goes into the woods, lol.  when i go into the woods, i take a safe shot out if there is no clear, very clear, lane.  I normally do hit it the right distance though.  I do know how long i can hit my clubs, with slight adjustments due to heat.  obviously, if it is cold out (i play during the winter) the ball wont go as far as it would during the summer.  because of that, i seem to treat my shots as a winter shots, which means i over shoot when it is hot out untili am able to make the adjustment to the correct distances again.

i think i putt like your friends hit their irons though.  I constantly leave my putts short and it leads to a 3 putt.

I think your friends play the ball like they are heman, i play the ball like a wimp, lol.  i have never been confident about my club distances.  i typically use a longer club than needed, just in case, lol.

[Mr3Wiggle]

I'd say I usually see guys land the ball on the very front of the green, when they hit it well.  Considering they are using center of the green as their distance they are coming up 5 to 10 yards short on average.

[Yukari]

This brings up an interesting point.  About a couple of months ago, I bought one of those laser range finder.  Ever since I started using it, my distance to the pin has improved greatly.  Before I would use my iPhone GPS as a distance measuring device (i know they are not allowed) or the yardage on the sprinkler head.  Those distances were not as accurate to the pin and I would be on the green but short or long from the pin.  But ever since using the range finder, my distance to the pin has improved 100 fold (slight exaggeration there).  Sure I might miss it left or right, but usually pin high.

Getting back to OP's point, a buddy of mine I regularly play with is usually about a club short.  As others have said, he remembers the distance from the perfect shot and uses that as his standard.  I keep telling him to club up.  But his vanity is keeping him back.

[Gresh24]

Well, if hitting to 10-30 feet is the wrong club, I do it quite often.

[Mattplusness]

You know, I play with my dad normally. I remember him saying things like "How far is it?" "Oh I don't have a club for that" even though it's 150 yards out.

Now that he actually starts listening to me more and more he is realizing that he doesn't hit his driver 300, his lob wedge 120, and his 7 iron 180.

He hits irons almost exact distances that I do.

Needless to say he's making improvement and ending up pin high normally.

[newtogolf]

Usually 2 clubs short, it's a combination of ego, inexperience and lack of understanding golf ball flight.  It seems the standard 7i is supposed to go 150 yards, that's what every golf instructor has told me as well as my golf buddies, unfortunately my 7i goes 135 not 150.  My golf buddies use the 7i = 150 to determine club selection for their target distances.  This isn't so bad with their longer irons because the lower trajectory gives them some roll out, but with their 8i - wedges they are usually 1.5 - 2 clubs lengths short because they get almost zero roll out.

[NuclearMike]

I play one club lower than I would need if I hit an approach 100%.  Since I'm not good enough to do that on a regular basis I'll use my "back of the green" yardage for a middle pin, etc.  If I hit it over the green to a back pin, so be it.  That just means that I struck the ball properly, which at my level is a good thing.   As my game improves I'll start playing more to the distances that I know that I hit my clubs.  I'm having to adjust now for a ball that has more spin than the "distance" balls that I had been using since my irons won't have as much rollout.  The guys I play with leave it short of the pin much more often than I do.

[hendog]

My friends are bad so they are just happy to hit the ball solid. The one friend I have that can play a little is usually either right on distance wise but right or left or REALLY long. Basically he is used to mishitting the ball so now and then he takes say a 7-Iron out thinking it should be about right and actually hits it solid and it disappears behind the green. He is slowly figuring out that long is bad so if he is going to miss he tries to miss short so he can at least putt or chip his way up.

For me, I am back and forth and it is really just a function of being in between clubs more often than not. I have to decide whether to take the longer club or the shorter club and I base that on where the flag is. I am slowly working on taking a little off or maybe going after one a little harder to close the gap (usually easier to take more club and grip down). My birdie count will go way up when I start getting this dialed in.

[darkhunter139]

I play with someone that jacks it over the green all the time haha. He woul probably be better of leaving it short cause it gets him into a lot of trouble.

[Dave2512]

I don't see many leaving it short because they chose the wrong club. Usually due to bad hits, not committing to the shot etc. Personally if I do miss I prefer to miss short rather than left, right or over. My confidence in the chip/pitch from the fairway is many times higher.

[allin]

I don't see many leaving it short because they chose the wrong club. Usually due to bad hits, not committing to the shot etc. Personally if I do miss I prefer to miss short rather than left, right or over. My confidence in the chip/pitch from the fairway is many times higher.

I kind of see it this way with my group. On the course out of the rough, wind, uneven lies etc inconsistent contact is the issue. On many courses the trouble is to the side and back of the green. Right now I am finally hitting the ball better. Combined with the hot weather I have blown a number of online irons over the green recently. The lies and recovery shot has been much tougher than a a shot online and just short or barely on the green would be. I will adjust my distances of course but I have a different attitude on full shots than chips or pitches, safety first. I leave flag hunting for the single digit golfers. .

[mdl]

Among my playing buddies distance control is never the issue.  Sure we're not on tour or anything and we have some full mishits and flubs, but generally on stock shots distance control isn't the problem.  At most once a round the lament after a miss will be, "should've used a different club", and that usually follows from a situation where I or he knew it was a tweener, decided to try stepping on the shorter club, and came up short.  The lament on every other missed green (unfortunately too frequent!) is almost always, "oh man, just did XYZ and pulled/pushed/hooked/sliced it, too bad too cause it's pin high".

[iacas]

I will say this: the number of people with whom I've played golf who had a reasonable chance of going OVER a green is very, very, very small.

FWIW, I'm included in that group.

And I don't mean by blading a chip or a pitching wedge or something, I mean legitimately getting a ball that jumps a little and flies over the green. 99.9% of people are at the hole or short of it.