Connect with us

Club Selection

Understanding Golf Club Distances

Published

on

Knowing how far you hit each one of your clubs is a crucial skill to have on the course. Getting the distance right on your shots can help you avoid hazards, hit more greens, and eventually lower your scores. Of course, since each club in your bag will fly a different distance, it is easier said than done to know exactly how far all of them will travel when struck properly. Understanding your golf club distances takes practice, experience, and attention to detail.

Before we get too far into learning your distances, let’s back up and discuss exactly why each club in your bag travels a different yardage. After all, if you are using the same swing, shouldn’t they go the same distance?

Understanding Golf Club DistancesTwo Variables That Determine Distance

The two variables within each club in your bag that determine how far the ball will fly are length and loft. Length refers to the length of the shaft in the club, and loft refers to the loft of the club head that is attached to the end of the shaft. There can be as much as a 10” difference in length between your longest club (your driver) and your shortest clubs (your wedges). There can also be a huge difference in club loft, starting from your driver which is probably around 10 degrees, all the way on up to a lob wedge at around 60 degrees or so.

Length of the Club

First, let’s think about the length of the club. Imagine two swings, one with your driver, and one with your pitching wedge. You give both the same amount of effort, and try to hit each as hard as you can while still keeping your balance and technique in place. Which swing will be faster? Shouldn’t they be the same? No – they are not the same, and the driver will have a faster swing speed.

When you swing a driver, the length of the shaft means that the club travels along a bigger arc, and therefore has more time to accelerate. Even if you are giving it the same amount of effort, the longer swing means more time from the top of the backswing down to the ball to gather momentum. The difference in swing speeds can be as much as 20-25 MPH or more, depending on how fast you are able to swing your driver.

Loft of the Club

To go along with the added speed you get from a longer club, there is also the element of loft to consider. Naturally, the objective with the driver is to get as much distance as possible while still hitting the ball (relatively) straight. Therefore, drivers have low loft, usually between 8-12 degrees. For shorter clubs where accuracy is the number one objective, loft is added to both remove distance and improve control. The average pitching wedge has around 48 degrees of loft, and your set of irons are graduated down from there in intervals.

Learn about Loft – The Golf Institute

No Description

So, in summary, the combination of those two elements mean that your driver flies farther than your pitching wedge, and each club in between should go a little shorter than the last. Your job then, is to determine what distance each of the clubs will travel on a normal swing, so that you can select just the right one for the job on each shot that you face.

Learning Your Personal Golf Club Distances

Golf is a game played with a lot of variables that are outside of your control, including temperature, humidity, wind, elevation, etc. All of these can play havoc with your distances and make leaving you scratching your head on the course. However, when you have a baseline of how far your clubs travel, you can start from there and estimate the adjustments based on the factors you encounter. Perfection is unattainable, but you can improve round after round and make your distance control better than ever before.

Following are three tips to help you learn how far you hit each of your clubs:

  • Always measure ‘on the fly’ distances. It doesn’t do you a lot of good to know how far your shots went after they bounced and rolled, because turf conditions change so much from day to day, and from course to course. Rather, write down yardages for all of your clubs measured ‘on the fly’. Your irons shots should leave a mark on or near the green when they hit, so recording your distance on those shouldn’t be too difficult. Drives can be trickier with regards to measuring the carry distance, but use your best estimate and, over time, you should get a pretty accurate average.
  • Measure at your ‘home’ course. If there is one place you play most of your golf, use rounds on that course to measure your distances and right them down for future use. These numbers will be most useful to you simply because this is where you play the most rounds, and you will learn to adjust those numbers accordingly when you play other places that have different conditions.
  • Ignore driving range distances. One of the most-common mistakes amateur golfers make is using the driving range to evaluate the distance of their shots. Range balls are constructed differently than regular golf balls, and have also been hit thousands of times, which affects their performance. The driving range is great for practicing your technique, but useless when it comes to learning distances for your clubs. For that, you will need to be on the course playing actual rounds of golf.

To really see improvement in your distance control, taking notes during each round is the right way to go. Add a small notebook to your golf bag and write down the carry distance for most or all of your shots during a given round. Even after doing this for only a few rounds, you will start to have a great idea of how far you can hit each club. With that information store in the notebook, and in your head, you will be more confident with each club selection you make, and therefore should expect to hit better shots.


(Cover Photo Credit)

Click to comment
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Trending

0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x