How many shots inside 50 yards

[AMcC]

You hitting a six iron off the tee these days?

Back to the opening question. From 50 yards I'd like to think I can get up and down 1 in 3?

I have never been a "stats" person and work off of "feel".

Still way better than mine though

 

[Jacko_G]

Still way better than mine though

You've probably won more than me!

 

[AMcC]

I have worked hard on my pitching. That said I've regressed in recent games on the course especially in the 20-30 yard range but I haven't worked out how many shots I've taken per round. I wonder, and perhaps Bob could offer his professional advice, would you include putts or look more at GIR for example vs pitch shots taken and then look at up and down conversions

I have taken out the putts now and have 23 and 17 respectively now, so still way too high and really need to work at getting the ball on the green firstly from that distance and then closer to the hole.

 

[AMcC]

You've probably won more than me!

Says the man who won the the Royal Aberdeen open last year

 

[AMcC]

Work on ure putting , thats easy to do. It will help bring ure numbers down. Set a target like jacko said. Aim for up n down one in three.ypu shud achieve all this within two months? Report back to me so i can bill u ?

My putting generally isn't the problem, averaging 32 putts a round over the last few seasons. Now I have started keep this stat the next few weeks will be interesting as long as I keep practicing and I will report back end of March and your cheque will be in the post

 

[AMcC]

That's interesting analysis.

I don't have a stat like that for myself, but might not be miles away from your stats.

I think it also depends on your strengths and style of play. Around my course, I tend to lay up on quite a few holes where I know there is trouble round the greens. So I'm probably reducing my number of shots from inside 50 yards and planning to get down in no worse than 3 from 75 to 125 yards.

If you are shooting 90, and take 50 shots from 50 yards and in... that suggests you are probably driving it ok, but missing a lot of greens and taking 3 to get down more often than you are taking 2.

So if that's the case, what does that lead you to believe is the best way to improve? Practice your mid irons more or practice getting up and down more?
Obviously both are important, but which is more important and where can you make the biggest / most effective gain?

For me, it would 100% be short game. 100 yards and in, and especially the short pitches and chips, laying far more of them stone dead, as well as holing a few more 6 to 15 footers.

In both games I haven't been laying up, just going for greens. My driving was ok both games, on Saturday there I hit 7 fairways and was in the first cut on 4 others out of 15, so decent. I think if I can improve my chipping and pitching then lower scores would come, but I have too many scars of duffed pitches and chips that I need to clear from my memory as well.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Good afternoon everyone, been away for ages, but back again

As part of my recent focus on getting better it has become apparent that I am hitting too many shots within 50 yards of the pin. I have only started recording this stat and the last two games I have played I have taken 54 and 52 in these rounds respectively. I had 31 putts the first week and 35 on Saturday there. Shot 93 the first week and 92 on Saturday.

What should be reasonable amount of shots for a 15 handicapper to take from inside 50 yards and how many do you take ?

There is a table posted recently on another thread that gives the handicap 'target' for a player as a function of their average number of holes GIR + NGIR.

Interestingly this does back up my feeling that at the moment my short game is letting me down. The table shows that for my GIR + NGIR I should be about 5 h/cap - 3 lower than I am.

 

[bobmac]

I've always advised people to learn the 50 yard pitch.
Work out which club, which grip position, swing length and a gentle acceleration will comfortably hit the ball 50 yards consistently.
Then using the same grip position and swing length but different clubs, work out how to hit it 40, 30, 60, 70 and so on.
So if your GW goes 50 yards, your SW might go 40, LW 30, or PW 60, 9 iron 70 etc
Then if you get really good, you can fine tune the technique even more ......55yds would be your normal 50 shot but with a slightly longer swing etc
But it takes practice, not necessarily more wedges.

There are of course people who will just use one club for all yardages and if works for them then great.
There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Whichever way you go, practice is essential.
Good luck

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Here's the table I mentioned earlier. For a 15h/capper suggests on green or near to green in regulation on average 8 holes a round. Now is 50yds NGIR? Not sure -= post suggests within 30yds is NGIR. But for me within 50yds is probably getting near to green and I'm always aiming to get down in two - but way too often I don't.

https://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk/t...-on-what-i-should-look-at.103933/post-2102421

 

[AMcC]

Here's the table I mentioned earlier. For a 15h/capper suggests on green or near to green in regulation on average on 8 holes a round. Now is 50yds NGIR? Not sure.

https://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk/t...-on-what-i-should-look-at.103933/post-2102421

Many thanks for posting that link, I was searching through the thread headers and couldn't see an obvious one. If I take within 30 yards as my metric as NGIR then my score on Saturday was 12, which equates to a handicap around 10, so well under where i am and really confirming my problem. I had 3 gir and the other 9 were within 30 yards of the green.

 

[AMcC]

I've always advised people to learn the 50 yard pitch.
Work out which club, which grip position, swing length and a gentle acceleration will comfortably hit the ball 50 yards consistently.
Then using the same grip position and swing length but different clubs, work out how to hit it 40, 30, 60, 70 and so on.
So if your GW goes 50 yards, your SW might go 40, LW 30, or PW 60, 9 iron 70 etc
Then if you get really good, you can fine tune the technique even more ......55yds would be your normal 50 shot but with a slightly longer swing etc
But it takes practice, not necessarily more wedges.

There are of course people who will just use one club for all yardages and if works for them then great.
There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Whichever way you go, practice is essential.
Good luck

Thanks Bob, I had had a lesson on short game last week and I was told that my main problem was an overswing on the backswing which always has the potential to create massive deceleration. That combined with my body not rotating enough towards the target meant no consistency

 

[Orikoru]

From the full 50 yards I think getting down in two is a nice bonus for me that I don't expect to do that often, but if it takes me four shots then I'd be furious with myself. Down in three from 50y is ok. Obviously the nearer that first pitch/chip is the more often I'd hope to get up in down in two. This is something I'm very much going to be looking at this year as a not-very-long hitter playing off 16 (although about to be 17 until we get back to summer golf) and trying to get a couple of shots lower.

My Hole19 app says my up and down percentage on my last round was 41.7%. I'm not entirely sure what that means or how it's calculated though. On my recent rounds I always seem to be between 40 and 45 %.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

Assuming you are looking to reduce your handicap, you need to look at the stats for a 9-11 hcap.

I think I would be disappointed with 50-55 shots over the course of a round. As that is an average of 3 shots a hole.

I tend to work out percentages for within NGIR or on the green(which I class as being within 10-20 yards from green) and over the course of a good round I would be look at being well over 50% to get down in 2, as most are either on the green(say 8-12 GIR at a normal length course, so tend to achieve more than 50% in 2) or if within 10 yards of greens down in 2(normally on a good day this is about 50%). To achieve this you have to have a combination of good chipping and putting skills.

EDIT I do know that once beyond 5ish yards from the green, the up/down percentage drops off dramatically for me.

if you are regularly missing a green by 30-50 yards from the fairway(say more than once/twice from under 165 yards in a round), then work needs to be done on your shots to the green imho.

Got me thinking tho and interested to add up shots which I don't do(I do percentages for up/down), next time I play will add up the shots from 50 yards just out of interest. Probably be 70, slaps head!.

 

[pendodave]

If you got down in 3 from 50 yds every time, you'd drop a few shots.
Personally (off 11) i'd be thrilled if I was on the green every time.
I think we have ideas above our station. I seem to remember that PGA pros average about 12ft from 50yds. Even if I managed that (not even conceivable) I can easily play a whole round without holing a putt of longer than 6ft.

 

[garyinderry]

50yards from the hole really isn't that far away when say 10 to 20 of those yards will be the green itself.

 

[Ye Olde Boomer]

Inside of 50 yards is addressed by playing lots of golf and nothing else.
If you play once in a while, it's entirely possible to hit the ball like a single digit 'capper and still not score well due to the lack of sufficient short game repetitions.

Hitting the ball well and still not scoring gets your attention. You notice what went wrong from in close and learn from it.

Years ago, I noticed that I wasn't making any sand saves at all. I considered it a success just to be putting after a sand shot, even if my ball barely got out and just made it to the fringe.
Too often, I left the ball in to be left with another sand shot. And at that point, I still wasn't a better sand player than I'd been one shot ago.

When I couldn't solve this with technique, I found a way to address it with equipment.
My efforts to improve technique bore fruit when I moved to an old fashioned sand iron with an oval face and curved leading edge onset in front of the shaft.
Such a club makes an awkward finesse wedge for short sided lobs around the greens, however.

Eventually I reconciled with the idea of bagging two wedges of comparable loft--one with very low bounce and a straight leading edge, the other with the attributes that I like in the sand.
Even when I deign to acknowledge the rules and play with a fourteen club bag, I still configure my set to include redundant lofted wedges in the 58º area for this reason.

Still, solutions must be found for the entire short game--pitching, lobbing, chipping, sand shots, and of course, putting. Even when you've got muscle memory to repeat your full shots, short game touch disappears with even a short break from the game.

 

[Macster]

Everyone has different strengths, and weaknesses, and knowing what to improve and what you cant is important.

Personally, my Driving is pants compared to friends I play with off higher handicaps than me. But my iron play, short game, and putting, is way ahead of them, more often than not.

Off 15, you can play, and really, from withing 50yds, assuming you've a clear pitch/shot, you should be getting it close enough to be at least giving yourself a chance of holing the putt.

Getting up and down perhaps 1 out of 3 times should be your target, at least, as well as hitting more greens to start with.

 

[AMcC]

Everyone has different strengths, and weaknesses, and knowing what to improve and what you cant is important.

Personally, my Driving is pants compared to friends I play with off higher handicaps than me. But my iron play, short game, and putting, is way ahead of them, more often than not.

Off 15, you can play, and really, from withing 50yds, assuming you've a clear pitch/shot, you should be getting it close enough to be at least giving yourself a chance of holing the putt.

Getting up and down perhaps 1 out of 3 times should be your target, at least, as well as hitting more greens to start with.

Interesting you should say that, one of the guys I played with on Saturday was off 5 and I consistently out drove him, usually 10 or so yards. However, I watched him get up and down many times from around the green and up to 30 - 40 yards short of it.