It worked!....Next tip please JOuk

[JustOne]

Let's say you hit the following yardages..

7 = 150
8 = 140
9 = 130

The front of the green is 130yds, and the pin is at 150yds. In my opinion your choice is a 9 iron to the front edge which may land short and bounce on, possibly an 8 iron to make sure you get there but DEFINITELY NOT an easy 6-iron. Why add the pressure of more club and then have to try and manufacture a shot if you are a high h/capper? In terms of avoiding high scores on your card I believe it's the way to go.

If you are a LOW h/capper then this suggestion is still valid but only for front pin positions, how often do you see the pros spin back down the apron or just squeeze it on the front edge leaving an uphill putt?.... Lots.

 

[Imurg]

Most of our par 3's have trouble long as well as short. Long rough, trees, clag, ditches over the back of the green and mounding to throw your ball left or right at the front end. Couple of small ponds to the left on two holes but other than that not many problems front of the green . So its safer at my place to "lay-up" than try go long. Did that on a 200 yarder last week. Into the wind it was either a 5 wood to the front or a 3 wood over the back - the 5 wood won and I chipped'n'putted for a par and 3 points. Every hole is different, play the percentages, use your shots.

 

[CrapHacker]

Let's say you hit the following yardages..

7 = 150
8 = 140
9 = 130

The front of the green is 130yds, and the pin is at 150yds. In my opinion your choice is a 9 iron to the front edge which may land short and bounce on, possibly an 8 iron to make sure you get there but DEFINITELY NOT an easy 6-iron. Why add the pressure of more club and then have to try and manufacture a shot if you are a high h/capper? In terms of avoiding high scores on your card I believe it's the way to go.

If you are a LOW h/capper then this suggestion is still valid but only for front pin positions, how often do you see the pros spin back down the apron or just squeeze it on the front edge leaving an uphill putt?.... Lots.

Thus speaks a decent player

The option for a high handicapper depends on what swing he has that day.

When we played Chartham my irons were terrible - I couldn't hit the sweetspot for love nor money.

So I had to 'overclub' by one iron, just to give my mishit any chance of reaching.

If the pin is 150, but the back of the green is 170, then I know that a well struck 6I isn't going to hit any trouble, but a mishit 6I is going to maximise my chances of carrying 130+++ and give me something to play with.

If I went with a 9I and still mishit it, then I'm 20 yards short of the green with a 40 yard chip and run.

 

[JustOne]

When we played Chartham my irons were terrible - I couldn't hit the sweetspot for love nor money.

So I had to 'overclub' by one iron, just to give my mishit any chance of reaching.

If the pin is 150, but the back of the green is 170, then I know that a well struck 6I isn't going to hit any trouble, but a mishit 6I is going to maximise my chances of carrying 130+++ and give me something to play with.

If I went with a 9I and still mishit it, then I'm 20 yards short of the green with a 40 yard chip and run.

A miss-hit 6 iron will potentially leave you in more crap than the miss-hit 9 iron and subsequent 40yd chip up the green and probable 2 putts (3 in your case)

If you are relying on miss-hits all the time then you're fecked before you pull a club out of the bag!

Pull the easiest club and hit it well

This isn't about hitting glory shots and winning the Open, it's about playing the easiest way possible to give yourself the best chance of putting a score together.... just like not going for par 5's in 2 shots even though you can reach with two perfect 'career shots' once in a blue moon.

 

[Robobum]

If the pin is 150, but the back of the green is 170, then I know that a well struck 6I isn't going to hit any trouble, but a mishit 6I is going to maximise my chances of carrying 130+++ and give me something to play with.

Like this^^^^

Making decent scores is all about managing your misses. Good shots will bring their rewards but not having any destructive misses which rack up BIG numbers is key.

It's impossible to generalise and say trouble is short or long, each hole has to be viewed on it's merits and a realistic, ability based plan of attack worked out and that goes for all ability levels.

Please ignore all of the above when playing the 17th @ Sawgrass, accept the blob and walk to the 18th tee.

 

[Whereditgo]

Lots of interesting reading here, and interesting to see how different people approach the same problem.

Most of our par 3's are around the 180 to 190 yard mark off the whites, some can play longer depending on the wind of course! Generally the greens are guarded front and sides by sand traps, with little trouble out the back and there is indeed a nice landing area short front having said that there are plenty of trees if you go too far off-line left or right, which has been my trouble of late.

At the weekend for example a 182 yarder into a pretty strong wind would be a full blooded 4-iron for me to the centre of the green, which I took and duly sliced into the trees never to be seen again

Clubbing up would mean a 5 wood and I can't get the hang of hitting 3/4 shots with it

A 7 iron would have left me short with a nice chip up the face of a sloping green or at worst in the sand and I'm not fazed by bunkers (of course that statement will have just condemned me to leaving it in there on my next visit lol).

Next time out I'm going to give it a go taking less club and see how it turns out.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Making decent scores is all about managing your misses. Good shots will bring their rewards but not having any destructive misses which rack up BIG numbers is key.

It's impossible to generalise and say trouble is short or long, each hole has to be viewed on it's merits and a realistic, ability based plan of attack worked out and that goes for all ability levels.

Please ignore all of the above when playing the 17th @ Sawgrass, accept the blob and walk to the 18th tee.

I agree and to a degree I was playing devils advocate. I understand what James is saying and it does make some good sense. I was just trying to point out that where there isn't a plateau short to land a mis-hit shot onto to leave a simple chip then a high handicapper is still going to bring the hazards into play. Your point about playing every hole on its own merit, and the comment elsewhere about accepting the swing of the day all add up to deciding whether you feel you can pull the 4 iron and hit the back pin or still play to carry the front trap with an easier to hit 6

 

[MashieNiblick]

Clubbing up would mean a 5 wood and I can't get the hang of hitting 3/4 shots with it

I'm with you there. I think this is one the hardest things to do. Can do it with a mid iron, but anytime I try to manufacture something with a fairway with anything other than a full swing it usually goes very pear shaped. I think that's why, as some of the other threads about what to stick in the bag suggest, it's that 190 - 220 yrd gap that's hard to cover.

 

[Region3]

I may be pointing the obvious out here, but for those people who don't like playing 3/4 shots, it doesn't mean only trying to swing at 75% the speed or power of your full swing.

Just shorten the backswing AND follow through, but still swing as hard as you would if it were a full club distance.

It takes a little bit of getting used to but with some practice it's not that hard to consistently lose 10% (or whatever you want to lose) of the distance you'd get with a full swing.

 

[JustOne]

.... but with some practice it's not that hard...

Practice??? Don't come here with your fancy swear words!

How very dare you!

We don't practice we just go for everything come hell or high water!.... It's a soft handed, gripped down 4-iron slightly forward in the stance to just carry the front bunker before checking on the second bounce!

 

[Whereditgo]

[quoteWe don't practice we just go for everything come hell or high water!.... It's a soft handed, gripped down 4-iron slightly forward in the stance to just carry the front bunker before checking on the second bounce!

[/QUOTE]

okey dokey then!.....and if the pins at the back???

 

[MashieNiblick]

It takes a little bit of getting used to but with some practice it's not that hard to consistently lose 10% (or whatever you want to lose) of the distance you'd get with a full swing.

I think you're right that to a large extent it is about practice (why does so much in golf come down to that!). As indicated above I do practice this shot a bit with my irons but not my woods. I find if I try to shorten my backswing with a wood it just feels wrong and I get a bit quick and don't seem to be able to co-ordinate the down swing. I guess a lot of it is maintaining a good rhythm and if I practised it this would feel a bit more natural. I have tried choking down as an alternative and that seems for me to be a bit more consistent but still hard to predict the result, sometimes get a bit of a ballooning flight (swing too steep maybe).

Practice??? Don't come here with your fancy swear words!

LOL!

 

[Region3]

.... but with some practice it's not that hard...

Practice??? Don't come here with your fancy swear words!

How very dare you!

We don't practice we just go for everything come hell or high water!.... It's a soft handed, gripped down 4-iron slightly forward in the stance to just carry the front bunker before checking on the second bounce!

My first 'practice' was on the par 3 3rd at Bearwood in the Trilby Tour when I wanted 3 iron distance and only had 4 iron or 19deg hybrid.

Funnily enough I also wanted my 3 iron (it was only a few hundred yards away in the boot of my car) on the par 3 12th on the same day.

Didn't plan that very well did I

 

[JustOne]

My first 'practice' was on the par 3 3rd at Bearwood in the Trilby Tour when I wanted 3 iron distance and only had 4 iron or 19deg hybrid.

Funnily enough I also wanted my 3 iron (it was only a few hundred yards away in the boot of my car) on the par 3 12th on the same day.

Didn't plan that very well did I

No you didn't, the 12th is about 30yds downhill and reachable with two clubs less than the 3rd... even less if you play for the front to leave an uphill putt on that very tricky green where you don't want to be past the pin! LOL

 

[Region3]

The one on the 3rd was about 10' on the front of the green, the one on the 12th I knocked about 20' past the middle.

It might not be what I should have done, but I'm not a proper golfer

I have a nasty habit of forgetting things like slope and wind. I just see a yardage!

 

[CrapHacker]

A miss-hit 6 iron will potentially leave you in more crap than the miss-hit 9 iron and subsequent 40yd chip up the green and probable 2 putts (3 in your case) Not if I'm hitting them straight, but just not out of the sweetspot. The 40 yard chip will be slightly thinned through the green, the 6I will be slightly thinned to the front left quarter.

If you are relying on miss-hits all the time then you're fecked before you pull a club out of the bag! Welcome to my world

Pull the easiest club and hit it well Step 1 I can do. Step 2, ummmmm, wellllll, maybe next time.

This isn't about hitting glory shots and winning the Open, it's about playing the easiest way possible to give yourself the best chance of putting a score together.... just like not going for par 5's in 2 shots even though you can reach with two perfect 'career shots' once in a blue moon. I don't try to reach par 5s in two, mainly because I can't,

 

[Whereditgo]

Monthly medal last saturday and tried a bit of both on the par 3's:

3rd hole - 175 yards into a stiff breeze, pin at the back (for me a 4 iron to reach the flag with that wind), took a steady 6 iron, hit it sweetly and just cleared the front bunker, 2 putts for par

8th hole - 182 yards, breeze from the left, tee shot is fairly tight through trees, the green slopes from left to right, so if you miss its best to miss right, took a steady 4 iron and missed the green long and left

13th hole - 182 yards, elevated green, with large trouble free apron, breeze from the right, steady 7 iron out of the sweet spot found the front left bunker, sand wedge and 2 putts bogey

16th hole - 187 yards, breeze from the left, bunkers 50 yards short and greenside left and right, 7 iron which pitched between the front bunker, chip and 2 putts bogey

2 over gross for the par 3's - well chuffed

 

[JustOne]

2 over gross for the par 3's - well chuffed

So what did you shoot for the round?.... and where'd it all go wrong????

 

[Whereditgo]

So what did you shoot for the round?.... and where'd it all go wrong????

You spotted that hey?

Played pretty much to handicap, but that included 3 lost balls and 1 schoolboy error, sliced a 5 iron into the trees and forgot to announce that the ball I dropped was a provisional, found the original 30 yards to the right of the green with a line to the flag, but I'm honest see, one of the other guys even suggested that as no-one was near me at the time then how would anyone know I explained that the thing is I knew!

Medal winners final on Saturday so just need to pull it all together!