Need some advice on my club ditances

[buckeyes14]

Hi everyone, new member here and I look forward to interacting with you all! Anyways, I am a 9-10 handicap golfer and I am looking to break through and consistently shoot in the low 70s. I wanted to ask if you guys think that club distances could help me break through to the next level. I am a long hitter, but most scratch golfers I've played with and the guys I watch on tour every weekend seem to hit the ball a lot less distance wise. Should I reduce my club head speed and see how I score or do you guys have any tips? My short game is pretty solid but I normally will have 1-2 blow up holes a round which ruins my scoring. I'll leave my club distances below: SandWedge: 120 yds Gap Wedge: 130-135 yds PW: 155-160 yds 9i: 165-175 yds 8i: 180-190 yds 7i: 195-200 yds 6i: 205-215 yds 5i: 220-230 yds 4i: 235-245 yds 3i: 250 yds 3 wood: 260-275 yds Driver: 290-300 yds I would sacrifice distance if it meant scoring better. Would reducing my club head speed help with accuracy or could it mess my swing up? Thanks!

[Mike Boatright]

Golf is about keeping the ball in play with high percentages. Don't fall in the long hitters trap of trying to play it safe and hit 5 iron of the tee instead develop a major league baseball pitcher mentality to golf it's what you need to do. With your distances you have the ability to shoot 10 under par,but what you need to do say it's a 375 yard par 4 with little trouble long and just some rough but a fairly big green. Go ahead and tee up the big stick and hit what I call a change up. You see most golfers are stick in 4th gear all day and occasionally 5th. You mentioned the better players hit it shorter,well this is because they go at it 85% your advantage on a hole like this is swing 65% or so make a full finish and let the ball roll out. Drivers spin little and roll some carry it 250 take a 275 yard driver and lw wedge it in. You can do this on some par 5's and when the time is right boom boom. Over time if your good you can hit 3 irons 185 yards or 8 iron just develop some speeds gl.

[buckeyes14]

great post Mike, thanks for the advice! I m going to spend some time on the range before my next round working on some different swing speeds and log those differences! Cheers mate!

[Buck Nutz]

I will kind of piggy back on what Mike said. You hit the ball a country mile, but in which direction? Is an 8i 185 with a controllable and consistent draw/ fade or is it rip it and hope it goes somewhere close to the green? It is always nice to have an extra gear so if you need to step on it you know you can reach something but if you swing within yourself you can see your accuracy skyrocket. For someone with your distance you can really afford to play the hole backwards. For example, a 420 yard par 4. A lot of the weekend duffers swing from the heels with a driver and hope they end up somewhere they can find it. Then they are left with 170-180 yard 5i or hybrid which are low percentage shots for a GIR. If you can pick a comfortable distance for an 85% repeatable swing (say 175 yard 7i for you) you play backwards and tell yourself "i want to hit it to leave myself this distance. Then you can hit 3 or 5 wood to that comfortable distance. Just something to think about.

[Nosevi]

Hi @buckeyes14 . To be honest distances per club when it comes to irons are almost entirely irrelevant. I hit driver about the distance you hit yours but irons I'm not even on the same page. Just to demo, this is on my launch monitor, I'm regularly over the 300 mark in still air, good conditions when I go after it (rarely on the course though, I like playing from the fairway :) )

The distance an iron shot goes is a result of the ball speed, trajectory and spin. You want a wedge shot to spin and stop, not fly miles - it's about control not distance. The only club where you want distance is the driver, any other club you can always pick a longer club so the distance it goes is pretty much irrelevant.

Looking at your numbers - 160 yards for a pitching wedge, 190 for an 8 iron but only 290-300 yards for driver - you have to be massively de-lofting your irons (and I mean hugely) and turning an 8 iron into about a 5 which probably isn't the best way to get control going into greens. If that wasn't the case your drive would go a lot further than 300 yards. The only other possibility is you're hitting your wedge harder than your driver which would be nutty.

A lot of people have started a 'My Swing' thread and if you do the same some of the instructors on the site can have a look at it and maybe advise you on getting more control which will help your scores I'm sure.