distances

[medwayjon]

Driver 260-280
3W 250-260
5W 220-240
4I 200-220
5I 180-190
6I 160-175
7I 150-160
8I 140-150
9I 130-140
PW 115-125
GW 95-115
56 80-95
60 50-75

These would be a guide to my summer averages on a good strike, obviously I play a lot of golf being so close to my club and know my yardages well so these can be relied upon as fairly accurate. Of course these are the good hits , not the duff ones.

Will be interested to see how these change over the winter. Distances show me how I have come on though, when I started I was taking a 7I for a 100yd full shot!

 

[USER1999]

Cernunnos, those distances look very familiar. Are you me in disguise?

 

[Cernunnos]

Hi Murph, not when I last checked...rofl

Just simply the average reasonable to good distances disregarding the exceptionally good flookie shots or exceptionally bad shots.

 

[jeffc]

So Jeffc, what are your weeknesses & strengths currently & the positives in your game?

mm thats a difficuilt one to answer as I have only just (6weeks) started playing again so couldn't really say at the moment but I am very inconsistant, some days I putt well next game badly, same with woods and irons. Apart from that my game is perfect :0)

Starting lessons next week so after that I hope to get something like a game of golf together.

One very definite positive is that I always enjoy it and try to learn something everytime I play.

 

[Herbie]

You seem to have some wisdom there and it should serve you well.
Some courses have poorly measured holes and the 150s are not always 150.
If Im playing really well I would take an 8 or even 9 iron from 150 but more often than not I take 7 or 6 with less effort just to be sure I make it as accurately as poss.
I do the same at other distances with different clubs because my game,like many golfers, drifts in and out of the groove, I realised after many yrs that Im not gonna be a tour pro but at my best can give most a run for their money simply by not trying to be a pro .

 

[RGuk]

You've learned what most amatuers never do.

Couldn't agree more. I routinely take one more club....how often do I end up in short r/l bunkers? hardly ever! How often do I go through the back?....hardly ever!
Why?.....because an easier and cleaner hit iron with one number less on it stops better as well!

It's a win-win.....roll on another 12 GIR!!

 

[Leftie]

Leftie's dander is being got up again (terrible English but you know what I mean)

Some courses have poorly measured holes and the 150s are not always 150.
If Im playing really well I would take an 8 or even 9 iron from 150 but more often than not I take 7 or 6 with less effort just to be sure I make it as accurately as poss.

so what you are really saying is that, dependant on how you are playing, you would use anything from a 6 to 9 iron for a 150 yd shot to the green and if you get it wrong, the yardage markers are wrong

Have you checked the yardages either by pacing out, measuring, GPS device or even using Google Earth? Bet you haven't. Is it an uphill shot to an elevated green? Apron and green running away from you? Wind direction ABOVE the tree line.

At my club there are several holes that play 2/3 clubs more or less than the yardage just because of the nature of the hole. I've checked on Google Earth and the markers are exact.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think to be fair their is a general consensus that yardage markers are not necessarily as accurate as we would hope. There is not much support available to us amateurs (unless we have any super posh members who employ caddies) and you would hope that clubs would ensure that any information supplied from yardage books and markers would be accurate. Sadly in the majority of cases there is an element of doubt.

At the end of the day each player has to select a club based on their own games, the conditions and the perceived distance remaining. The fundamental truth is that most of us never ever hit the back third of greens and will always come up short or front edge. This puts pressure on the short game and putting and will goes a fair way to explaining why we have the handicaps we do but we strike the ball and swing fairly well.

I've been as guilty as anyone but my sky caddy is helping me get over my inflated ego and I'm regularly clubbing up one or even two clubs now especially to flags at the back of greens. Even a poorly hit shot still has the potential to at least find the dancefloor

 

[Cernunnos]

the only problem comes when on the narrow long green you've gone 10 foot wide of your landing zone & you aproach your ball, only to find it level with the pin right in the middle of the bunker. Regular problem on the 8th of the academy course I do most of the practice rounds on when short of time. fortunately for me my bunker play at the moment is fairly good.

There is another good example of this on the second hole on the uphill parr 4 at a club I was with last year. Yes give that extra club to give better chance of getting to the green, as Ironically its that easy chip up into the green that is most likely to be the one chunked, but get the iron shot just a little offline with the extra club & its in the very deep bunkers left & right. The tricky thing about this hole, certainly for the uninitiated is because its on a platau. Infact, its falling off the other side of the rise, meaning even players with good distance judgement it can mislead, which Ironically gives creedence to taking an extra club. My best scores on that hole are actually where I'm just on the back of the green & the flag is right at the front of the green.

So good tee shot, take an extra club....GIR, long lag putt to 2 ft & away for PARR. Even if my second shot was into a bunker, at worst its going to be bogey & still gives points on the card. ( I like to know strokes & stapleford for my rounds).

The irony is, although I know my short game is good, or should be good, if not even better. I can still get really nervous on the easiest of chip shots, the sort I can play blinfolded in my sleep (probably the best way for me to play themrofl) Essentially I choke on shots I needn't. When give me a challenge & suddenly I'm calm & will pull off the most demanding shots or even putts.

Good teeshot, nice second, but just short of the green, then things start to go wrong, suddenly the swing so fluid a minute ago is all out of kilter & chunk down into the soft earth behind the ball, when usually its a gentle scuff off the turf to 2 ft or even in, or tap in distance, which I know full well I can do. But the nerves have hit, why, who knows. Now, of course the question is now planted & the seed of doubt sprouting so the next one the adrenalin & the nerves cut in & its another chunk, or off the toe or out of the shank, or even a thin, straight into the bunker.

So insted of being on in two, or three, as it should have been at worst, or even four, its now playing my fifth out of the bunker. Sence now prevails & the bunker shot is right at the pin, lands 3 ft infront of pin, takes a bounce & is then 3 & a half ft past. Then one putt for a double bogey six. Hells teeth...rofl

I started off the thread saying nothing wrong with being short & there isn't, but risk long & at least you've given yourself a chance. Much in the way a putt left short is never going to be in, but a putt past the hole has at least given it a chance to go in. Same goes for getting the ball on the green. Now just to practice what I know & what I've just preached, funny how many times we amateurs & even pro's forget this. There again, they've at least got both the skill & the self confidence to pull off the next one without chgoking...usually.

 

[Leftie]

I think to be fair their is a general consensus that yardage markers are not necessarily as accurate as we would hope.

Apart from Homer, the rest of you seem to have gone quiet regarding on course yardage markers being wrong, not the way and distance you hit the ball.

Homer. I have to ask. Other than possible "sour grapes" comments from those who may not hit the ball regularly to the distances that they think they should, what evidence do you have to support your above comment? As an enthusiast of the Sky Caddie, have you found that the yardage markers on your (or any other course that you play) are inaccurate?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not having a go at you or anyone else about this. There are several holes on our courses where the distance markers appear wrong - based solely on the fact that we are always short/long. I took the time to measure them on Google Earth and also pacing them out. They are 100% accurate as are other problem holes I have encountered on other regularly played courses.

As a challenge, does anyone on this forum have evidence that the 100 or 150yd markers on the courses that they play are actually inaccurate?? If you have, I would be very interested to hear about it - as would the committee of the golf club involved and possibly the R & A.

If you don't, then may I suggest a little more time be spent on course and conditions management together with finding out how far you actually hit the ball with each iron in varying conditions rather than blaming everything/everyone else.

 

[viscount17]

not sure how you can check the yardage markers on google earth (I know how to measure with it). the resolution isn't usually good enough to pin-point the positions of them and then just how accurate is the measuring system?

 

[Cernunnos]

Yeah I was also wondering how accurate using google earth would be at working out yardage markers, especially as looking from above it takes no account of inclines or decines on a course. And I really doubt a google earth image can be expanded sufficiently enough to get sufficient accuracy. Then as for pacing. Well, it may be the traditional way of measuring for caddies & a caddy is very experienced at what he, or she does. But I doubt any one of us has the experience to pace something out & know exactly how far in yards we've gone. And yes we've all paced things out, thinking we have got it right.

I really doubt anyone is going to take the time out to go down to their local course with surveyors tapes in hand or the various laser devices available to measure a yardage marker. And I wonder how bothered a club secretary or even the R&A etc would really be if anyone bothered to show proof of any suraying work, which I doubt anyone would have the time to do, so its really a silly comment & challenge to put forward... An interesting idea, but still a silly challenge as you know full well no-one is going to bother.

Personnaly I think most 150 markers are going to be close enough for most peoples benefit & probably are not that far out anyway give or take 10 yards. But its interesting to note that even with many championship courses having yardage plates on fairways & yardage posts, a players caddy will still make their own notes using GPS & laser devices, etc, prior to a tournament to make their own notes. So if caddies question the validity of a championship course it natural amatures are made to wonder at the accuracy of their own courses yardage markers or even lengths of holes. Quite a natural reaction. However Leftie, I do feel you are right about the fact many of us kid ourselves at how far we really hit dives, Iron shots etc. I've certainly re-evaluated my distances over the last few years I've played the game.

All said & done, it would do all of us good to at least borrow a skycaddie, digital laser rangefinder or similar for a few days to work on exact figures for dispersion of iron shots, both in length & breadth, from the tee & off the deck.. We can all pace things out & say oh, this iron generally gives a length or x plus or minus y, with dispersion of breadth averaging z. but unless we can judge our pacing from where we hit the initial shot from properly there'd be little point.

Until I get the chance at borrowing a GPS device I'll have to continue to rely upon pacing out from or too a 150 yard marker to work out distances for what I've just hit.

 

[viscount17]

I'm not sure that caddies are questioning markers or just ignoring them. I suspect that they are measuring distances to specific points that will enable their guy to leave themselves with the 110 every time.

That said, at the Senior Masters the players were frequently pacing off a marker but then they mostly had amateur or pick-up caddies.

 

[Sam]

Yeah I was also wondering how accurate using google earth would be at working out yardage markers, especially as looking from above it takes no account of inclines or decines on a course.

But lack of measurement of inclines etc is just how you want it - no?

 

[Parmo]

I use Google earth for driving distances, its great because of the multi point measurements you can use.

 

[Leftie]

Yeah I was also wondering how accurate using google earth would be at working out yardage markers, especially as looking from above it takes no account of inclines or decines on a course.

But lack of measurement of inclines etc is just how you want it - no?

I believe that all yardage markers are based on the flat measurement and make no adjustment for inclines.

An apology is due - I suggested using Google Earth for checking measurements because, on the courses I have looked at in my area, there are coloured marker discs set in the fairway and these are mostly visible on the images. If your course dos not have these or the Google image is not of sufficient quality then it's not a great deal of help other than checking the total yardage of the holes, green sizes etc.

Regarding it's accuracy, having spent a good proportion of my working life in the building industry carrying out site surveys and measurements, I now use Google Earth as another measuring tool as I have found that provided the image quality is good enough for zooming in, it is as accurate as you can position the markers. And I do mean accuracy to a few centimeters.

 

[jeffc]

sorry if I opened a tin of worms about yardage markers but I personnaly only take them as an approximate guide anyway.

Now when I judge a distance around the marker I try to asses other things such as elevation and more importantly for me "how far does it actually look and what iron do I, me, myself not anyone else needs or what the theory says you should need"

which really goes back to my original post, I've been conning myself on how far I can hit,
GULP big swallow of pride, I am a wimp!!

glad it has got some discussion going though

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Leftie

To be honest a lot of my clubs yardage markers are accurate compared with sky caddy to +/- 3 yards except for one which is 9 yards out (159 yards) which is definitely 1 more club for a short hitter like me.

I have played a number of local courses since getting SC some municipal and some private. There does seem to be more discrepancy on muni's but I think that may just be down to guys taking them out to play shots and just pushing them back in without any idea that they have actually moved an important reference point. Just down to lack of knowledge rather than malice.

The private clubs also have a similar discrepancy to mine and none had any real glaring deficiencies which I guess is down to either more care taken my green staff/members or the fact that both courses also had yardage disks in the fairways too

I was just saying that with the SC in my hand I have the confidence to know the REAL distance to the flag and that as it gives readings to front, middle and back that I can club with more accuracy.

 

[viscount17]

my thanks to all who advocated 'take one more club' as a general rule. despite being able to reach with the 'first choice' club it's so much easier (and more accurate) going 1 up.