Determining Your Club Distances

[bradleywedge]

Top Tracer at the range?

 

[Mandofred]

Every time I practice on our practice ground I put out cones at 40-60-80-100 yards. I am pretty confident of the distances I hit with my wedges IFFFFFF I hit them decently. The distances on all the other clubs just get solved ON the course. I have tried putting out cones further than 120.....my eyes aren't good enough to accurately check the distances. Launch monitors are lying machines. Start thinking you are Hercules if you use them all the time.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Top Tracer at the range?

Not a bad shout although I question some of the data I get at times. If I was the OP and can't get to a practice ground with real balls I'd be looking to get to a range/pro and use a launch monitor

 

[tobybarker]

30 minutes on a Trackman at a driving range and you'll get pretty much all the data you need to within around 5 to 10 yards including a way to determine variance for slope, wind and temperature conditions.

Surely nearly all driving ranges have access to launch monitors for a very small fee now? My point of reference means I'm spoiled though, we have them built into the practice facility.

Believe me they don't, where we come from anyway!

 

[SaintHacker]

Thank you to all for your advice. I do have a smart watch that I can use for golf GPS apps. I will start to employ it properly next time I play.

I've been using the Taylormade app for a few weeks now. Its free, works beautifully on a watch, and it gives you the option of editing your round afterwards on your phone, and gives you more stats than you'll ever know what to do with

 

[davidy233]

30 minutes on a Trackman at a driving range and you'll get pretty much all the data you need to within around 5 to 10 yards including a way to determine variance for slope, wind and temperature conditions.

Surely nearly all driving ranges have access to launch monitors for a very small fee now? My point of reference means I'm spoiled though, we have them built into the practice facility.

Is the Links driving range/practice area open to the public again? (I know the teaching has resumed)

 

[Springveldt]

Believe me they don't, where we come from anyway!

Doesn't have to be a driving range, you might find some courses now have "swing studio's" that you can rent out.

I have at least 4 places that I know of within 20 minutes drive of me and I live in an area that a lot of people would call "out in the sticks".

 

[CountLippe]

Use a GPS watch to measure how far each shot went during a round and which club you hit. You can then play with the information when you finished, ie quality of strike / lie / wind / abnormal roll.
You can then build up a database of what these variants do.
Its good to concentrate on how far 3 clubs go under various conditions say - wedge, 7iron & utility and work the other club yardages around this.

 

[Jimaroid]

Is the Links driving range/practice area open to the public again? (I know the teaching has resumed)

I see they went into limited opening but not been down there to find out what that means in reality yet. Not much help, sorry.

 

[davidy233]

I see they went into limited opening but not been down there to find out what that means in reality yet. Not much help, sorry.

No prob - I might be in St Andrews this week so will have a look

 

[Fabia999]

At my club, it's quite hilly. It's hard to understand your true distance due to uphill/down hill. I use stats from the range, simulator and practice. I also take into account if I'm hitting up/down hill.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think the simplistic answer is to hit the balls you use into a bay at a range/studio and let a monitor (assuming it is set sensibly) to give you the numbers. There are enough around these days

 

[Jaco]

I have a simple range finder, a small Bushnell for about £90, and it has a ‘shot’ button to measure the distance from where you take a shot to where you walk to the ball. I would suggest that a rough enough guide is to measure a couple of good shots with a mid iron, then just add/subtract 10 yds per club. It has honestly improved my enjoyment of the game a lot.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I have a simple range finder, a small Bushnell for about £90, and it has a ‘shot’ button to measure the distance from where you take a shot to where you walk to the ball. I would suggest that a rough enough guide is to measure a couple of good shots with a mid iron, then just add/subtract 10 yds per club. It has honestly improved my enjoyment of the game a lot.

I've got a cheap Suaoki rangefinder off AMazon https://threeoffthetee.blogspot.com/2016/12/suaoki-laser-rangefinder.html which does the job. You could easily measure as Jaco says but then also gives you a distance to the pin. Also if you go to a range it'll tell you exactly how far the markers are away which may not correspond to what it says in the bay

 

[bigslice]

what do u use pn ure par 3s?
i worked out that i hit my 8 iron 150 yards ish. And going up and down my other clubs are 10 yards difference. so 2 iron 210 and pw 130

 

[Jaco]

I've got a cheap Suaoki rangefinder off AMazon https://threeoffthetee.blogspot.com/2016/12/suaoki-laser-rangefinder.html which does the job. You could easily measure as Jaco says but then also gives you a distance to the pin. Also if you go to a range it'll tell you exactly how far the markers are away which may not correspond to what it says in the bay

To be honest I’d like one of the laser rangefinders like that. The pro I had lessons with used one and the guys like Mark Crossfield On YouTube use them as well, but I feel a bit self conscious holding one up, especially as I’m a high handicapper. Even with the Bushnell I use, which is not much bigger than a pack of tic tacs , I just slip it out of my pocket surreptitiously And have a glance. Not as accurate obviously but good enough to add to the enjoyment. I can’t tell by eye if a green is 100 yds or 150, and my friends are the same.