Yesterday I had the best round of the year and I was frankly not hitting it great. The biggest difference? I used my Garmin watch and instead of going for the pin I used the furthest distance as my target. I was concerned I would airmail several greens but the actual results? Pin high all day long. If you look at the graphic of the watch above there is a 36 yard gap. That can be a 2-3 club difference. In a typical round I'll be short 90% of the time leaving myself incredibly difficult approaches that kill my score. The reality is that I was clueless on how far I hit each club. I used my watch to measure every shot and the results were stunning. I hit literally every club from 10-25 yards less on average than my perception .
While I can crank a 260 yard drive (2-3 a round) I was shocked at how many 218 yard drives I had. I saw an interesting graphic comparing actual yardages of Pros vs Advanced vs Good player and then added my perceived yardage than actual (see attached if you are a fellow Excel Geek.) We need to leave our egos at the door and get realistic. You can compress the ball/hit it KFC crispy all day long but if you're 50 yards short on every shot you will have trouble seeing a scoring breakthrough. When pro's are asked the #1 amateur mistake in pro am's it's almost always that they don't take enough club. I'm a big fan of GPS watches but you can do the same thing with a range finder. Thought I would shine a light on something that I see as a big issue for me and other fellow hackers out there. Does anyone have issues with underclubbing? Try going for the back of the green on your next round and let me know if it helps.
@Matt Kelton great job. I have written about Arccos at length but the data is invaluable. knowing exactly how far you hit clubs is critical. I have gone back and forth between,
1.Use the front of the green and make sure I have enough club to get on the green.
2. play to center regardless of pin location
3. play to back yardage and always select a club that can’t go long.
Great post. BTW - I just got the Bushnell ION Elite GPS watch. The watch let’s me see front to back, move the pin, see hazards on hole (like distance to bunker and distance to clear bunker). Love it. Will do a separate write-up on the watch, you should do the same.
Awesome post, @Matt Kelton, and spot on!!
I'll go ahead and pin it to draw more attention to it.
This is so true! Most golfers think they can hit the ball much farther than they really do. Using a GPS to actually see how far your drives go is very humbling. My golf partner and I would measure our drives and try to guess how far we thought it went before we saw the actual yardage. We would feel like we hit it 280 but it really would only go 240. Or thinking 250 but really 205.
Plus hitting irons shorter than your playing partners can bring on the ego and make for poor club selections.
I totally agree that most higher handicap golfers will hit irons short into most greens. Great job on figuring this out and playing your best game! 😀