Wedge expectations from different distances

[hovis]

the pga students recently played a round on the Brabazon with no pin locations and all flags removed. this forced them to aim for the centre of every green. out of something like 35 students all but 2 played better then their handicap. within reason give it a go rather than focusing on getting it close. I've tried it numerous times now and the results are very good

 

[Hobbit]

the pga students recently played a round on the Brabazon with no pin locations and all flags removed. this forced them to aim for the centre of every green. out of something like 35 students all but 2 played better then their handicap. within reason give it a go rather than focusing on getting it close. I've tried it numerous times now and the results are very good

I remember an old teaching pro saying if you aim for the centre of every green, taking all the trouble out of the equation, you'll be amazed how many makable birdie putts you'll have. If you go pin hunting you will end up having to get up and down for par on several occasions.

 

[MadAdey]

the pga students recently played a round on the Brabazon with no pin locations and all flags removed. this forced them to aim for the centre of every green. out of something like 35 students all but 2 played better then their handicap. within reason give it a go rather than focusing on getting it close. I've tried it numerous times now and the results are very good

+1 to this. I've always been a big believer in this attitude. No golfer unless they have a plus handicap needs to make birdies. Middle of the green will always leave an easy 2 putt most of the time, with a chance to make some birdies. By the law of averages if you give yourself 12 birdie putts a round your bound to make at least one of them.

 

[anotherdouble]

I tend to work to the 10% rule..
I'm not unhappy to be 10 yards away from 100 out.
Yes I'd like to be closer but I'm an amateur. There's a lot of things that go wrong between address and contact.

Is that on the green with 10% of your pitches:cheers:

 

[Imurg]

Is that on the green with 10% of your pitches:cheers:

I'm going to studiously ignore that........

But I am going to focus a bit more on middle of the green.....

 

[KenL]

+1 to this. I've always been a big believer in this attitude. No golfer unless they have a plus handicap needs to make birdies. Middle of the green will always leave an easy 2 putt most of the time, with a chance to make some birdies. By the law of averages if you give yourself 12 birdie putts a round your bound to make at least one of them.

Not sure I agree totally. A couple of birdies really helps take the pressure off when you have inevitable bogeys or perhaps a bogey or triple.

I'm off 5. If I don't have a birdie or two I mostly don't make buffer. My course contains enough holes that are really difficult to par (even on a calm day) so a couple of birdies makes all the difference.

Having said that, the centre of any green is a good spot.

 

[Imurg]

Not sure I agree totally. A couple of birdies really helps take the pressure off when you have inevitable bogeys or perhaps a bogey or triple.

I'm off 5. If I don't have a birdie or two I mostly don't make buffer. My course contains enough holes that are really difficult to par (even on a calm day) so a couple of birdies makes all the difference.

Having said that, the centre of any green is a good spot.

Maybe with the exception of the 12th at The European....127 yards long.
Be in the middle and you could still be 60 yards from the pin:rofl::rofl:

 

[duncan mackie]

Whilst centre of the green is better than missing it (most of the time) there are many courses, certainly individual greens, where your relative position (to the hole) is more important than proximity.

Also feel that the visual fmb from a GPS dmd can be intuitively more useful than the simple flag distance from a lazer in this regard.

 

[MadAdey]

Not sure I agree totally. A couple of birdies really helps take the pressure off when you have inevitable bogeys or perhaps a bogey or triple.

I'm off 5. If I don't have a birdie or two I mostly don't make buffer. My course contains enough holes that are really difficult to par (even on a calm day) so a couple of birdies makes all the difference.

Having said that, the centre of any green is a good spot.

I was speaking more theoretically than practically. I agree that a couple of birdies always helps when your off a low handicap. I can't remember the last time I played to handicap without one. But the point I was making was the more greens you hit the greater the chance of making birdies and easy pars.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I remember an old teaching pro saying if you aim for the centre of every green, taking all the trouble out of the equation, you'll be amazed how many makable birdie putts you'll have. If you go pin hunting you will end up having to get up and down for par on several occasions.

Totally agree. Most club golfers should consider clubbing up, swing smoother to achieve this.

 

[Simbo]

I am pretty horrendous at pitching/chipping (at least I think I am) and spoke to someone recently who said from 60 yards should be within 12-15 feet... Really? That's only 4-5 yards? Just wondering if expectations are too high like most with putting?

Are there any stats out there comparable to handicap for 30, 40, 50, 60 yards etc

I practiced a bit recently and was guestimating I'm probably averaging about 12 feet from 30 yards, 15 feet from 40 yards and about 18-20 feet from 50 yards.

I know its an area I need to practice on but would be interested if there are stats out there on this?

What’s your handicap?
It’s nearly an impossible question to answer tbh, distance coupled with shot difficulty can lead to varying results but a general answer for me would be, nowhere near as close as you think you should be getting it consistently!!
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of double figure golfers that look at their ball in disgust and slam the wedge into the bag when their shot from 100 yards lands 20 feet away. Your guesstimates don’t sound to bad to me tbh, depending what yo7 play off. Not great but not terrible either, given that Dustin Johnson’s average is just over 12 feet from 50-75 yards. Depending which stats you believe it gives him less than 50% chance of making the putt. That’s from the best in the world.

the pga students recently played a round on the Brabazon with no pin locations and all flags removed. this forced them to aim for the centre of every green. out of something like 35 students all but 2 played better then their handicap. within reason give it a go rather than focusing on getting it close. I've tried it numerous times now and the results are very good

From what distance though, I’m guessing that’s witt their second shot from well over 100 yards, not with a wedge from the asked distances, no PGA student is scoring well aiming for the centre of the green from 20/30/40 yards.

 

[FairwayDodger]

+1 to this. I've always been a big believer in this attitude. No golfer unless they have a plus handicap needs to make birdies. Middle of the green will always leave an easy 2 putt most of the time, with a chance to make some birdies. By the law of averages if you give yourself 12 birdie putts a round your bound to make at least one of them.

Really depends on the course/hole. I've played some that if you're not on the right part of the green you'll struggle to two putt. Plenty of those you're much better missing the green near the pin than being at the opposite side of the green.

Other courses, yes totally agree, anywhere on the green should be a two putt and plenty of one putt opportunities will arise.

 

[FairwayDodger]

From 50-100 yards I expect to get close enough to leave a chance of making a putt, but certainly do not expect to leave a tap in. I do think that handicap golfers expect too much, which then leads to tension in the arms which obviously then leads to a bad shot.

This is pretty much how I think. With a wedge I hope/expect to leave a makeable putt, not necessarily one I'd expect to hole, but one I'm trying to hole rather than lagging up.

Closer in, yes, hoping to get up and down.

 

[Simbo]

This is pretty much how I think. With a wedge I hope/expect to leave a makeable putt, not necessarily one I'd expect to hole, but one I'm trying to hole rather than lagging up
Closer in, yes, hoping to get up and down.

How far away is a makeble putt?

 

[FairwayDodger]

How far away is a makeble putt?

It depends!

 

[Simbo]

It depends!

Yep, just like I said in my other post it’s almost an impossible question to answer because a nice flat 10ft putt is makeable maybe 40%, a 10ft downhill slider and your % is going to drop considerably. Same with his wedge distances 12 ft from 50 is a good result if it’s a tight pin behind a bunker, not so great on a flat green with no trouble. I still think the majority of golfers expect to much though.

 

[FairwayDodger]

Yep, just like I said in my other post it’s almost an impossible question to answer because a nice flat 10ft putt is makeable maybe 40%, a 10ft downhill slider and your % is going to drop considerably. Same with his wedge distances 12 ft from 50 is a good result if it’s a tight pin behind a bunker, not so great on a flat green with no trouble. I still think the majority of golfers expect to much though.

Which is why I'm deliberately vague on the "makeable" putt term. If I have a wedge from 70 yards with a pin on a green with a serious slope from back to front then I'd be happy with 10-15 feet short but very disappointed with 10-15 feet past.

Also agree with the point about tucked pins, short sided, bad lies etc. Sometimes just on the green is a good shot, for anyone!

 

[turkish]

What’s your handicap?
It’s nearly an impossible question to answer tbh, distance coupled with shot difficulty can lead to varying results but a general answer for me would be, nowhere near as close as you think you should be getting it consistently!!
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of double figure golfers that look at their ball in disgust and slam the wedge into the bag when their shot from 100 yards lands 20 feet away. Your guesstimates don’t sound to bad to me tbh, depending what yo7 play off. Not great but not terrible either, given that Dustin Johnson’s average is just over 12 feet from 50-75 yards. Depending which stats you believe it gives him less than 50% chance of making the putt. That’s from the best in the world.

From what distance though, I’m guessing that’s witt their second shot from well over 100 yards, not with a wedge from the asked distances, no PGA student is scoring well aiming for the centre of the green from 20/30/40 yards.

I’m off 17 and yeah I think I’m maybe thinking I should be better than I am. Went to practice area tonight and was hitting 15 balls from various distances and on last one decided to record my proximity distances(62 yards). Apart from 1 x absolute chunk the average was 7 yards from the pin- furthest being 11 yards and closest about 4 foot which probably isn’t too bad. I’m now thinking I need to be thinking more about margin for error and good misses

 

[Simbo]

I’m off 17 and yeah I think I’m maybe thinking I should be better than I am. Went to practice area tonight and was hitting 15 balls from various distances and on last one decided to record my proximity distances(62 yards). Apart from 1 x absolute chunk the average was 7 yards from the pin- furthest being 11 yards and closest about 4 foot which probably isn’t too bad. I’m now thinking I need to be thinking more about margin for error and good misses

Was that into a proper green? Don’t be so hard on yourself then, those results are good.

 

[Khamelion]

I had a pitching chipping lesson with a local pro, he got me using three wedges 46, 52 and 56 degree and got me to take the club back 4 different lengths on the backswing so I got four different distances for each club.

46 = 30, 60, 90, 120yds
52 = 25, 50, 75, 100yds
56 = 20, 40, 60, 80yds

The short game now is one of my strongest, (Caveat - When I'm playing well) knowing that if I swing to knee height on my back swing with my 52 I'm going to send the ball 50yds give or take a couple gives me a lot of confidence.