Golf Tip # 4

IMPROVING YOUR APPROACH SHOTS

A Three Part Series

Part 1: KNOW WHAT YOUR DISTANCE IS FOR EACH CLUB

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The next 3 months will be devoted to helping you know your game better and improving your iron or approach shots to greens----leading to lower scores!!  This is a three step plan.   You will need all of our next three tips working together properly to maximize your improvement. So please remember to look for Tips 5 and 6 in November and December to put this three step plan to work for you.

Step 1----Knowing How Far You Hit Each Club Is A Very Important Element Of Scoring!

Here is what you will need to do to learn how far you hit each club.  On a day with no wind take a few of your irons out to a flat practice area with the exact ball that you play golf with.  You will need 2 dozen new balls so go ahead and make the purchase!! It will be very important that your yardages are accurate and you will need a bit of space to do this correctly. There are many ways to do this..  You can use range finders, tape measures and white paint to mark your yardages at 5 yard increments but remember it needs to be accurate!!! You should mark the area at least 80 to 130 yards from your starting spot but 80 to 160 yards are even better. 

Next, hit 20 shots to your target.  Do not count the two or three longest shots and don’t count the three shortest. Select the 15 or so shots that are in a solid group, there may be a five yard difference in that particular group.  That large group of balls should be your yardage for that club.  For example, a solid 9 iron for me is 135 yards and -maxed out it is 140 yards.

As a general rule of thumb, for men there are about 10 yards of difference between clubs having 4% of loft difference.  So, my 8 iron is my 145 to 150 yard club.  My pitching wedge is my 125 to 130 yard club with it maxing out at the 130 distance.  Your distance between clubs could go down to 8 yards or possibly even 6 yards depending on your sex, age and physical condition.    

Repeat this exercise with 2 or 3 clubs.  You might use your PW, 9 and 8 irons or your 7, 8 and 9 irons if you have the distance in your practice area.  If you do this with a few clubs you will see what the distance difference between clubs is for you and your clubs. This distance will remain fairly consistent with all of your irons--6yds---8yds or 10yds. You will be able to chart your clubs hitting distances and use this information to make the proper club selection for the yardage you are faced with. 

This exercise will take some time and effort and expense but it will be worth it!!!!!!!!!

Randy Brown
Golf Tips from the Pro