100 Yard Options

[Cantankerish]

Good day, all.  I have buckets of questions, but this one comes up consistently in my game:

I don't really have a good tool for the 100 yard shot.  And it comes up all the time.

My first method was to lay off the pitching wedge.  I hit it about 130 yards on a pretty good stroke. Then I got myself a gap wedge.  Note: my budget is pretty tight, so I picked up a used one.  It is peculiarly short, 52 degree loft.  I like the club, but it only hits about 85-90 yards for me.  That is similar to what my sand wedge hits, so I do not have a club for this distance.  I am not entirely unsatisfied with the 75% pitching wedge shot.  It kinda works.  I now have a 4 hybrid in the bag to fill my 180-190 yard range which also comes up frequently - and for which I have no such workaround.

 

Is it common practice for golfers to face this issue?  Is there a known best option?

Is the club length a major issue here? Perhaps I have been hitting the club wrong so as not to get proper distance.  I wonder if it is worth getting another gap wedge to find out, but then I have to remove another club.

(Everything in golf makes me nervous.  There is so much to learn, and it is not clear to me when to follow my gut and when to take instruction.)

[chspeed]

2 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

Is it common practice for golfers to face this issue?  Is there a known best option?

Yes, of course. If it's a common distance for you, get a gap wedge. Go to a range, find out how far you hit your wedges for a 1/4 swing, 1/2 swing, 3/4 swing, and full swing. If you can't get consistency in those distances, try only 1/2 swing and full swing.

5 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

(Everything in golf makes me nervous.  There is so much to learn, and it is not clear to me when to follow my gut and when to take instruction.)

Yes, it's a lifelong learning experience, and if you approach it as a fun process, you'll enjoy golf much more. Don't be nervous, what's the worst that can happen? Luckily, it's only a game!

An instructor is a great idea, but is best approached if you know what you'd like to work on. Read @iacas book Lowest Score Wins. It's a great place to start.

[Swooshgolf]

7 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

Good day, all.  I have buckets of questions, but this one comes up consistently in my game:

I don't really have a good tool for the 100 yard shot.  And it comes up all the time.

My first method was to lay off the pitching wedge.  I hit it about 130 yards on a pretty good stroke. Then I got myself a gap wedge.  Note: my budget is pretty tight, so I picked up a used one.  It is peculiarly short, 52 degree loft.  I like the club, but it only hits about 85-90 yards for me.  That is similar to what my sand wedge hits, so I do not have a club for this distance.  I am not entirely unsatisfied with the 75% pitching wedge shot.  It kinda works.  I now have a 4 hybrid in the bag to fill my 180-190 yard range which also comes up frequently - and for which I have no such workaround.

 

Is it common practice for golfers to face this issue?  Is there a known best option?

Is the club length a major issue here? Perhaps I have been hitting the club wrong so as not to get proper distance.  I wonder if it is worth getting another gap wedge to find out, but then I have to remove another club.

(Everything in golf makes me nervous.  There is so much to learn, and it is not clear to me when to follow my gut and when to take instruction.)

I would say that this is a common issue. I would figure out my PW degree and throw some other wedges with a good gap into the bag.

[Lihu]

Yes, 120 yards and in is usually a feel thing for many golfers. It’s not easy.

LSW has some really great suggestions for taking some of the feel out of it. Try that...

So, my 56 goes anywhere from 90 to 110 when I hit a decent enough shot. If the face is a little open it goes 90 if closed it’ll pull to 110 or more sometimes. 20 yards variance on the course if not quite repeatable enough to apply those guidelines yet, but I’m working on it.

On the driving range, I get within 10 yards or so of distance control, but that’s a pretty useless metric. On course is more like 20.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Lihu

[DaveP043]

7 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

Good day, all.  I have buckets of questions, but this one comes up consistently in my game:

I don't really have a good tool for the 100 yard shot.  And it comes up all the time.

My first method was to lay off the pitching wedge.  I hit it about 130 yards on a pretty good stroke. Then I got myself a gap wedge.  Note: my budget is pretty tight, so I picked up a used one.  It is peculiarly short, 52 degree loft.  I like the club, but it only hits about 85-90 yards for me.  That is similar to what my sand wedge hits, so I do not have a club for this distance.  I am not entirely unsatisfied with the 75% pitching wedge shot.  It kinda works.  I now have a 4 hybrid in the bag to fill my 180-190 yard range which also comes up frequently - and for which I have no such workaround.

 

Is it common practice for golfers to face this issue?  Is there a known best option?

Is the club length a major issue here? Perhaps I have been hitting the club wrong so as not to get proper distance.  I wonder if it is worth getting another gap wedge to find out, but then I have to remove another club.

(Everything in golf makes me nervous.  There is so much to learn, and it is not clear to me when to follow my gut and when to take instruction.)

Selection of clubs always has some kind of trade-off, its difficult to keep perfectly consistent yardage gaps between clubs.  I've made a choice to keep more wedges, and accept that I have larger yardage gaps at the long end of the bag.  On the other hand, its a great idea to be able to hit partial shots with a number of different clubs, especially at the short end of the bag.  @chspeed has a couple of great recommendations: 

identify yardages for different swing feels with the clubs you have

buy Lowest Score Wins for great advice about this and other topics around learning and playing the game.  

Buy | Lowest Score Wins .com

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Visit the post for more.

 

[GolfLug]

20 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

I don't really have a good tool for the 100 yard shot.  And it comes up all the time.

My first method was to lay off the pitching wedge.  I hit it about 130 yards on a pretty good stroke. Then I got myself a gap wedge.  Note: my budget is pretty tight, so I picked up a used one.  It is peculiarly short, 52 degree loft.  I like the club, but it only hits about 85-90 yards for me. 

40-45 yards seems like a huge yardage gap between your PW and 52. What is the loft on your PW? 

Maybe find you a used 48 deg or something for $25-$30. Quickest way to pick up 15 yards to get you to 100 y.   

[boogielicious]

26 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

Good day, all.  I have buckets of questions, but this one comes up consistently in my game:

I don't really have a good tool for the 100 yard shot.  And it comes up all the time.

My first method was to lay off the pitching wedge.  I hit it about 130 yards on a pretty good stroke. Then I got myself a gap wedge.  Note: my budget is pretty tight, so I picked up a used one.  It is peculiarly short, 52 degree loft.  I like the club, but it only hits about 85-90 yards for me.  That is similar to what my sand wedge hits, so I do not have a club for this distance.  I am not entirely unsatisfied with the 75% pitching wedge shot.  It kinda works.  I now have a 4 hybrid in the bag to fill my 180-190 yard range which also comes up frequently - and for which I have no such workaround.

 

Is it common practice for golfers to face this issue?  Is there a known best option?

Is the club length a major issue here? Perhaps I have been hitting the club wrong so as not to get proper distance.  I wonder if it is worth getting another gap wedge to find out, but then I have to remove another club.

(Everything in golf makes me nervous.  There is so much to learn, and it is not clear to me when to follow my gut and when to take instruction.)

Working on your partial wedge shots may help as well. I find a 3/4 wedge shot to be very reliable for 100 yard and actually more accurate.

 

 

[WarrenB]

I can control my distance through using same tempo but lengthening the back swing. It takes practice. Buy Dave Pelz short game bible and learn the distance on every wedge with a 6 9 12 o’clock back swing. And write the distance on your clubs with masking tape. It’s a huge boost when you can look at the club and see the yardage. Take a couple practice swings get the feel for the backswing and just execute. If I have a lot of run out or hard conditions I’ve hit 7 iron 1/4 from 100 yards just to see if I could run one up. Lol

[Patch]

Trouble yardages are so individual for golfers. I have issues with 70-80 yard approach shots. 

Myself, I mainly use three options with my own, unusal yardages. It, all starts with the lie I have to work with, and what's between my ball and my targeted area. 

The three options are; 1. Less than a full swing shot. 2. A full swing, open face, lob shot. 3. A partial to full swing punch shot, that travels the distance close to, or on the ground. 

To remind myself of various lie conditions, and yardages, using various clubs,  I keep info in a small note book for reference when needed. I also practice these shots from time, to time for a confidence booster in pulling them off when needed. 

[p1n9183]

Pitching Wedge: 130
Sand Wedge: 90

That´s a big gap! You gap wedge need to be a club you hit 110. The one you bougth hits 90, that´s not what you need. Sell it and by another with 48..49° and see if you can hit it 110.

This is how I fill the gaps:

I hit my full 43° = 140
Full 47° = 130
3/4 43° = 120
3/4 47° = 110
3/4 51° = 100
3/4 56° = 85
3/4 60° = 75

I don´t like to hit full swings with my wedges anymore.
  

[WarrenB]

44 minutes ago, Patch said:

Trouble yardages are so individual for golfers. I have issues with 70-80 yard approach shots. 

Myself, I mainly use three options with my own, unusal yardages. It, all starts with the lie I have to work with, and what's between my ball and my targeted area. 

The three options are; 1. Less than a full swing shot. 2. A full swing, open face, lob shot. 3. A partial to full swing punch shot, that travels the distance close to, or on the ground. 

To remind myself of various lie conditions, and yardages, using various clubs,  I keep info in a small note book for reference when needed. I also practice these shots from time, to time for a confidence booster in pulling them off when needed. 

I forgot lie!  I carry an old ping 53 degrees sand  wedge with bounce on it and a Titleist 56 degree wedge with little bounce. The ping is my go to in grassy situations and the smaller bounce 56 is for anything else. If I don’t feel comfortable off say hardpan I might do a low runner with a 4-5 iron you have to experiment and learn shots. 

[Foot Wedge]

@Cantankerish Agreed on spending time dialing the distances of your partial swings.  I carry three wedges and have stock lengths for 1/2, and 3/4 swings for all three as well as full swing for gap and sand wedge.  I don't hit a full lob wedge.  PW lofts range from 43*-48* depending on your set.  If you have a 44-45* PW and a 52* as your next wedge, I'm not surprised you have such a big gap.  I go from a 46* PW to 50* gap wedge.  Try a few out and see what works.  Also, a rangefinder is useful in this situation.

[Cantankerish]

So much information.

I think the pitching wedge is a 46 degree loft (Adams Tight Lies).  I like the 50 degree loft idea quite a bit, actually.  The 52 degree gap wedge I had been using was pretty short, shorter than my lob wedge.  Nobody commented on that, but I have to assume that this has something to do with the reduced distance, perhaps combined with the relatively high loft.

I now feel that I can look for a 50 degree wedge with a normal length for my next step and learn it.  I do not think I am ready to try editing the angle of the club face for a shot so far away, but previously I did not even know to try it!  Seems reasonable though.  I am getting pretty good at my 40 yard flop, which I gather uses a similar technique.

 

Thank you all a bundle. I am learning a lot.

[Caveman59]

4 hours ago, Cantankerish said:

Good day, all.  I have buckets of questions, but this one comes up consistently in my game:

I don't really have a good tool for the 100 yard shot.  And it comes up all the time.

My first method was to lay off the pitching wedge.  I hit it about 130 yards on a pretty good stroke. Then I got myself a gap wedge.  Note: my budget is pretty tight, so I picked up a used one.  It is peculiarly short, 52 degree loft.  I like the club, but it only hits about 85-90 yards for me.  That is similar to what my sand wedge hits, so I do not have a club for this distance.  I am not entirely unsatisfied with the 75% pitching wedge shot.  It kinda works.  I now have a 4 hybrid in the bag to fill my 180-190 yard range which also comes up frequently - and for which I have no such workaround.

 

Is it common practice for golfers to face this issue?  Is there a known best option?

Is the club length a major issue here? Perhaps I have been hitting the club wrong so as not to get proper distance.  I wonder if it is worth getting another gap wedge to find out, but then I have to remove another club.

(Everything in golf makes me nervous.  There is so much to learn, and it is not clear to me when to follow my gut and when to take instruction.)

Try wedges with various lofts.  On a budget, check out 2nd Swing.  I've bought from them twice, nothing but good things to say about the folks at the Minnetonka store.  But the most important thing is putting in the time at the range. Make up practice drills and keep it fun.  You'll start to enjoy practice time as much as play time and your scores will improve.

 

[David in FL]

Trade that 52* wedge for a 50*.  

[cooke119]

My PW is 44*, (pretty strong), the gap is 50*. I've learned my yardages with both but I also carry a 52*. I like the 52* for 100 yards and in. My SW of a 56* so with these wedges I have all my yardages covered. I do factor in the lie, do I have to carry a trap, and what is the green doing regards slope, in club selection. As stated above your distance gap between your PW and gap is really strange. I would look for another wedge to fill that 40 to 45 yard distance gap, maybe a different gap wedge? What irons are you hitting?

[Cantankerish]

Sure, complete breakdown:

1w: 280 or so - varies

3w: 220-235 - I fade this if I am not careful, and those only go about 200 I bet.

5w: 200-210 - not entirely sure, I do not use it much, so my data comes mostly from the range

3h: 190-200

4h: new club - so far it's about at the 180-185 mark (shaft same as the 3h)

5h: 170-175 (shorter shaft than the 3h and 4h)

6i: 160-165

7i: 150-155

8i: 140 - I'm a little iffy on this.  Sometimes I hit it 160 yards.  No idea why.

9i: 135 or so, and then occasionally much farther.  No idea.

pw: 125 or so (46 degree)

gw: 85-90  <-- removed (52 degree, short shaft)

sw: 80-85 turf and maybe 30 coming out of sand flop style (56 degree)

lw: 40-65 - I practice a lot varying the face, but this is my full swing (60 degree)

 

 

[IowaGreg]

These days you can get an App on your phone for just about anything.  The one I have, I can set up the clubs i have in the bag and with a little effort, record what each one does on a given round and keep that data in memory.  You can go in and edit that high end and duff shot to try to give you a true average for each club.

This year my goal is to learn the new clubs I just got and find out their yardages.  I plan on doing about a 80% swing on all clubs.  That way I still have that 90-100% swing in reserved when needed.  

In the Past, I knew my PW was about 120  and my Approach wedge was 90.   100 yd shot would depend a lot on the the lie.  I would more often use the AW with a little extra on it....

But I am just a newbie hacker and I can only say what works for me.