Close season approaching

[BiMGuy]

It’s always that thing of ‘well if I do club up and flush it, this is going oob’! You are right though, and I’m usually pretty good at accepting ‘good bad uns’ as being part of the game and moving onto the next shot.

Thing is, you just won’t. Well, maybe once every now and again.

Next time out, pick a club based on the yardage to the back of the green, if you’ve got wind behind, pick the yardage to the middle.

 

[Oddsocks]

That would explain your 2 way misses, and you don't know where to aim.
You've got to fix that right hand as that will eliminate the bad shot left.
There's nothing worse than aiming left for the expected fade and suddenly your right hand fires and you hook/pull it.

Isn’t that the truth. I’ve battled a two way miss all year and it’s killed me. Finally committed to a grip change and while my strike was off Sunday, all shots were either on target or slightly to the right of target.

I need that one way miss back.

 

[Backsticks]

Thing is, you just won’t. Well, maybe once every now and again.

Next time out, pick a club based on the yardage to the back of the green, if you’ve got wind behind, pick the yardage to the middle.

This one is easy to know, but very hard to force oneself. On approaches, I am 39% short, 33% green, and....2% long this year. And a lot of our holes are standard issue bunkers short of green left and right....no bunkers long.

 

[sunshine]

This one is easy to know, but very hard to force oneself. On approaches, I am 39% short, 33% green, and....2% long this year. And a lot of our holes are standard issue bunkers short of green left and right....no bunkers long.

But if you're short and straight you are on the apron with an easy chip or putt, often uphill. Long and straight is usually in trouble and often above the hole.

 

[Backache]

I think a lot of the stats enthusiasts and strategy folk who are pressing the better to be long than to be short are from America and I don't know if their courses are set up differently but my own course and most of the courses I play it is better to be short than long.

Generally speaking areas behind the green are less well tended the rough is thicker and the potential for losing balls far greater, certainly on my own course there are also sometimes drop offs at the back with a tendency for the greens to slope from back to front making control of recovery shots more difficult.

That said there is usually at least a two club difference between the front and back of the green so generally speaking I will use a yardage to get me towards the back as a slightly mishit shot is which goes short is far more common than a pured shot that goes significantly long. Unless one is playing a pitch with a short iron where thinned shots can get you into real trouble. I think there is a lot to be said for using back yardages but not to the extent that missing long is a significant factor.

 

[Orikoru]

I think a lot of the stats enthusiasts and strategy folk who are pressing the better to be long than to be short are from America and I don't know if their courses are set up differently but my own course and most of the courses I play it is better to be short than long.

Yeah, at my course I think it's better to be short than long on a lot more holes than it's better to be long on. Several holes where you'd be chipping onto a downslope out of long grass if you go long.

That said there is usually at least a two club difference between the front and back of the green so generally speaking I will use a yardage to get me towards the back as a slightly mishit shot is which goes short is far more common than a pured shot that goes significantly long. Unless one is playing a pitch with a short iron where thinned shots can get you into real trouble. I think there is a lot to be said for using back yardages but not to the extent that missing long is a significant factor.

This is the thing though. I typically club for somewhere between middle and back, because you're not going to flush it that often so that gives you the best chance of hitting the green. There's a couple of holes where the green slopes away from you, so those are the only times I'd club for the front, or even slightly short of the front. If I club for the back and put it through the back, I usually just shrug and think at least that means I pured the strike. Unless I knifed it of course.

 

[BiMGuy]

I think a lot of the stats enthusiasts and strategy folk who are pressing the better to be long than to be short are from America and I don't know if their courses are set up differently but my own course and most of the courses I play it is better to be short than long.

Generally speaking areas behind the green are less well tended the rough is thicker and the potential for losing balls far greater, certainly on my own course there are also sometimes drop offs at the back with a tendency for the greens to slope from back to front making control of recovery shots more difficult.

That said there is usually at least a two club difference between the front and back of the green so generally speaking I will use a yardage to get me towards the back as a slightly mishit shot is which goes short is far more common than a pured shot that goes significantly long. Unless one is playing a pitch with a short iron where thinned shots can get you into real trouble. I think there is a lot to be said for using back yardages but not to the extent that missing long is a significant factor.

It’s not about it better being long than short.

It’s about understanding your miss and allowing for it.

There are two problems with us amateur golfers. We think we hit it further than we do, and we think we hit it better than we do. As such, we are short of the green/flag more often than not.

Aiming for the back and being on the front of the green is better than aiming for the front and being short, which is usually where there are bunkers.

And chipping or putting from back to front, even if it’s a bit down hill isn’t that bad on 99% of greens. In fact it probably helps most players get the ball to the hole rather than leaving it short, again.

 

[Backache]

It’s not about it better being long than short.

It’s about understanding your miss and allowing for it.

There are two problems with us amateur golfers. We think we hit it further than we do, and we think we hit it better than we do. As such, we are short of the green/flag more often than not.

Aiming for the back and being on the front of the green is better than aiming for the front and being short, which is usually where there are bunkers.

And chipping or putting from back to front, even if it’s a bit down hill isn’t that bad on 99% of greens. In fact it probably helps most players get the ball to the hole rather than leaving it short, again.

If you read or listen to some of the American commentators they do actually say it is better to be long than short as there is less trouble. This is quite simply untrue on most of the courses I play.

Hitting it further and hitting it better are two slightly different problems and I fully agree that we need to be realistic about our median distance and carry, however mishits are more common with longer clubs than shorter ones they are quite simply more difficult to hit and they don't necessarily go much further so identifying a lot of short shots does not always imply that the club selections was incorrect it could mean you need to work a lot more on strike quality.

Certainly on my course you are generally better chipping from short of the green. The lie is almost always better as well as being uphill. Yes bunkers are more common short than long , however I estimate they make up no more than 10% of the area short whereas thick rough probably makes up nearly 90% of the area long.

None of which is to say that being short is ideal and I agree that you are better aiming towards the back of the green.

 

[BiMGuy]

With most greens being roughly 30 yards long. If you miss short you could have gone up 2 clubs and still been on the green (in theory, relatively speaking). Most amateur players have between a 10 and 15 gap in irons. With dispersion there is a massive overlap.

Missing a green anywhere will cost most of us at least on shot, more if you dump it in a bunker, even more if you a have to chip over a bunker and then dump it in a bunker. It’s a well trodden path. So going long occasionally could be a good trade off for being on the green or pin high more often.

Even picking a club that will get you 2/3rds of the way up a green will be better.

 

[D-S]

Also when you flush an iron it is more likely to fly higher and have more backspin so if it hits the back half of the green it is far more likely to stop than an ok or not so well hit shot.

 

[Backache]

With most greens being roughly 30 yards long. If you miss short you could have gone up 2 clubs and still been on the green (in theory, relatively speaking).

Generally speaking I agree with the concept of clubbing up but if the reason for coming up short was poor contact a longer club may not have got you any further mishits are more common with longer clubs.

 

[sunshine]

Aiming for the back and being on the front of the green is better than aiming for the front and being short, which is usually where there are bunkers.

I would feel much more comfortable hitting a 6 iron to the front of the green then a 4 iron to the back. The chances of me making solid contact and hitting it straight are much better with the 6 iron.

Unless there is a hazard in front of the green, a ball landing short can bounce and roll on to the green.

I don't see much benefit in clubbing for the back of the green, expect for when the pin is at the back.

 

[timd77]

Went for a few holes last night, nobody around so I was dropping a second ball down. Really tried to persist with the neutral right hand. What I found (and its early days) is that I was connecting quite well, ball first, bit of turf interaction, which was great as I usually hit the ball quite clean. However, the good ones were 5-10 yards right of target, the bad ones were 15+ yards right. Maybe my right hand was more weak than neutral?

 

[bobmac]

Went for a few holes last night, nobody around so I was dropping a second ball down. Really tried to persist with the neutral right hand. What I found (and its early days) is that I was connecting quite well, ball first, bit of turf interaction, which was great as I usually hit the ball quite clean. However, the good ones were 5-10 yards right of target, the bad ones were 15+ yards right. Maybe my right hand was more weak than neutral?

It's very possible you've gone too far.
Did any go left?

 

[garyinderry]

Over the winter I'm going to work on fades again. The hooks are starting to creep back in.

 

[timd77]

It's very possible you've gone too far.
Did any go left?

I hit one off an upslope which went left, but that felt more like a straight pull. Every single other iron shot went right to some degree.

 

[bobmac]

I hit one off an upslope which went left, but that felt more like a straight pull. Every single other iron shot went right to some degree.

Good news, at least now you've reduced your misses left.
Your old grip caused the ball to go left so you may have subconsciously held the face open to stop the release, I suspect you're still holding it open through habit. Either that or you've weakened it too much. Impossible to tell without seeing the grip.

 

[Springveldt]

I hit one off an upslope which went left, but that felt more like a straight pull. Every single other iron shot went right to some degree.

That's a great thing, you can play and score well with that. Just make an adjustment to your starting point and commit to the fade.

 

[Springveldt]

What country are you in? It's still August, which is the height of summer in England. I finished my round at 8:20pm yesterday and it was still 24 degrees. September and October are some of the best golfing months of the year where I live.

Maybe where you are, I'm still contending with mud balls up here in the North East. Club have said they will be hollow tinning the greens next month then starting drainage work on greens in October. Certainly feels like the end of the season to me, especially with the light fading at around 20:30 now my Wednesday rounds will need to be 9 holes soon.

Just feels like we didn't get a proper summer golf season up here this year.

 

[BiMGuy]

We’ll be down to 9 holes from the end of September as they start on our bunker renovations.

So We’ve got about 3 or 4 weeks with a full course to play. And the 1st weekend of September is closed as we are hosting a national event.