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The Distance vs Accuracy Battle

Canadan

Canadan

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I've been thinking about this one a little bit lately.. With all the distance based irons over the last couple years, each time I attempted to play them i found great numbers in distance but really struggled with the accuracy of the club. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit different in results with many clubs - finding a distance iron with what I would assume to be a larger sweet spot to be a bit less predictable in line and total yards in each experience vs the less forgiving player style iron I've played for years (personal experience, not a statement of fact)... but it got me thinking a lot about what I'd be willing to sacrifice for distance.

I also think about this push for longer clubs despite fittings not necessarily agreeing with it. Drivers going 46+ inches, irons that are 1/2 inch over standard or more... Each of these adjustments to a distance based iron seems to be stepping away from the accuracy factor and more to the big number factor.

Is a percentage of fairways or greens worth the extra 10 yards with an iron and 20 with a driver to you?
 
I'd give up distance to improve my FIR and GIR in a second. When I go to the store I do look more toward the GI irons than Players irons just because of the forgiveness and accuracy. I know I need to work on my swing as well, but why not play more forgiving/accurate equipment.
 
They are not mutually exclusive.
 
In a perfect world, you obviously want both, but I think distance in the irons is overrated for those of us playing in the single digits. I think its more important to have your gaps covered and to know them from front to back as opposed to being able to fly a 7i 200yds just because. Off the tee, I see the extra distance being a help when it comes to hitting a par 5 in 2 or getting to that money approach distance. With that being said, I think the extra distance has its place as long as you know when and where to put it to use. I think thats one big advantage that pros have over the rest of us.
 
I'd take accuracty any day of the week and twice on Sunday... how ever most golfers will always chase distance. You can buy a new club and get more distance without changing your swing (from the non-informed golfer as a general rule). Most don't work on their game, take regular lessons and golf is purely a social once in a while game... so while unwilling to do the work to improve their accuracy it's easy to improve disntance (the perception of it).
 
With the driver, I suppose it depends on how big the "miss" is.
With the irons, I'd take the accuracy for sure.
 
I agree Canadan. This is what I struggled with using the Apex irons, I hit them a mile but mishits were magnified and distance control was spotty at best. That's mainly because I am a spotty ball striker, but my J40s are extremely consistent regardless.

I would give up 10 yards per club for more fairways and greens easily.
 
I'll take fairways and greens over distance any day of the week, I'm trying a set of distance irons in the near future to see if the effort is worth it but accuracy is of utmost importance to me over distance.
 
Well Dan I would say I would rather be 250 yards in the fairway than 300 in the rough. Yeah you maybe close but you have a crappy lie. Say I took this to heart and had my 46 inch driver cut down a inch and quarter. Accuracy is better to me than distance any day.
 
I use to let it get to me that a good buddy of mine, who never practices, never puts the time in that i do, but out drives me 70% of the time.

Then i realized that i usually out score him 4-6 strokes a round. I can usually get 265-280 off the tee with a good deal of accuracy let's say in the 65%-70% area. He can hit some bombs, 290-310+, but is usually only around 30% so in the long run give me 280 in the short grass as opposed to 310 in the junk.
 
Well...I don't have either so...
 
I do believe you are correct Dan. Distance irons have big forgiving faces which naturally makes them far less predictable, or consistent if you will, in both distance and accuracy. If you think about it, if they came with the same properties of a players iron in terms of consistency, then I am sure pros would be putting them into play in a heartbeat. The only reason they don't is because of their unpredictable nature.
 
coers said:
Well Dan I would say I would rather be 250 yards in the fairway than 300 in the rough. Yeah you maybe close but you have a crappy lie. Say I took this to heart and had my 46 inch driver cut down a inch and quarter. Accuracy is better to me than distance any day.
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I don't know that I agree with this completely, and I think it depends on how harsh of a penalty the rough plays. I remember a golf digest article looking at this where over a large sample, people scored better from closer to the green out of rough than they did from further in the fairway. Obviously it depends on how big of a gap in distance and how penal the rough is and whether there are hazards/obstructions in play, but off the tee I'm fine giving up a little accuracy for more distance. Irons are a different story, though, and I want as much accuracy as I can get.
 
SmoothC83 said:
I do believe you are correct Dan. Distance irons have big forgiving faces which naturally makes them far less predictable, or consistent if you will, in both distance and accuracy.
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This is just not accurate. And certainly not "Far Less Predictable".
Its amazing to me that guys playing at the highest level have no issue putting perimeter weighted clubs in play and even larger club heads in their long irons when they are so unpredictable.
 
I think the big debate or reasoning is if they can make an 8 iron go the same distance as a typical 7 iron, then theoretically you should have more control from farther out because the 8i is in a shorter shaft. (Shorter Shaft = more controllable).

I definitely see the benefits for having a shorter shaft in metalwoods, I feel like more control with the longer clubs is important, kinda hard to be playing good golf when you are consistently in trouble off the tee.
 
Wouldn't hey be just as accurate left to right thoughif you got fitted to the proper specs? After thinking about it the only real challenge should be adjusting to the distances shouldn't it?
 
I think that when really good ball strikers game a GI club they don't see the inconsistency because they find the sweet spot so often.
I think the mentality is, why should I hit a 7i 155 if I can hit an 8i 155 so we all run after distance.
 
I'll just agree that I don't believe it has to be an either/or thing.

Different types of players are going consider 'accuracy' in different terms to start with. I also think that increased 'accuracy' is a term used to justify a decision that is often instead based on aesthetic preferences. That's not me calling anybody out either, but we see it all the time.
 
JB said:
This is just not accurate. And certainly not "Far Less Predictable".
Its amazing to me that guys playing at the highest level have no issue putting perimeter weighted clubs in play and even larger club heads in their long irons when they are so unpredictable.
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I am attributing more of the unpredictable nature to the SGI irons, and I don't see many SGI long irons in the bag.
 
JB said:
This is just not accurate. And certainly not "Far Less Predictable".
Its amazing to me that guys playing at the highest level have no issue putting perimeter weighted clubs in play and even larger club heads in their long irons when they are so unpredictable.
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I know "distance irons" is just a label for posibly stronger lofts, but in how an iron is made does the size or material really affect accuracy? I guess I don't understand what makes any type of iron less accurate in and of it's self. Does the material, shape, size etc. really affect accuracy?
 
Hawk said:
I'll just agree that I don't believe it has to be an either/or thing.

Different types of players are going consider 'accuracy' in different terms to start with. I also think that increased 'accuracy' is a term used to justify a decision that is often instead based on aesthetic preferences. That's not me calling anybody out either, but we see it all the time.
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Good idea.

SmoothC83 said:
I am attributing more of the unpredictable nature to the SGI irons, and I don't see many SGI long irons in the bag.
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Check out almost every Cleveland Staff member putting MTs in their bags. Check out hybrids throughout all the tours. Check out the constant percentage upswing of more forgiving irons at the highest level every single year. The only thing one could say to attribute to this is thinner faced irons and frankly we are seeing their use go up across the board on every tour. And yet they never seem to struggle with accuracy.
 
Could it be that golfers playing GI and SGI clubs just can't swing consistently enough to get accurate shots? Aren't the GI and SGI clubs designed to help get the ball in the air and a long ways down the course? Seems like they do a good job of that, but a poor swing will still yield inaccuracy. Maybe it's just compounded by the extra distance?
 
ArmyGolf said:
I think that when really good ball strikers game a GI club they don't see the inconsistency because they find the sweet spot so often.
I think the mentality is, why should I hit a 7i 155 if I can hit an 8i 155 so we all run after distance.
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Yes, this is probably very likely.
 
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JB said:
They are not mutually exclusive.
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My attempt was more on a case by case basis, but I've got no arguments that the two don't go hand in hand. That's why I made note of it being just in my personal experiences with some of the 'distance by design' irons that have been released over the course of the last couple seasons. I'm looking forward to continuing on that path. Maybe it's something as simple as a lack of repetition and practice with them, but I've found notable gaps in accuracy in my PERSONAL experiences.

Out of absolute curiosity, what are your thoughts on the lengths of shafts being as long as they are in some clubs? On average, do you think accuracy suffers when someone picks up an OTR driver that's 46.5 inches vs their previous driver that maybe played closer to 45 inches?

JB said:
This is just not accurate. And certainly not "Far Less Predictable".
Its amazing to me that guys playing at the highest level have no issue putting perimeter weighted clubs in play and even larger club heads in their long irons when they are so unpredictable.
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I'd absolutely love for you to expand on this. The trend this year with the TaylorMade TP irons seems to have tour pros playing the CBs and MCs over the MBs giving your opinion all kinds of merit. Is there a gap between those irons and something in the distance category like the SpeedBlade? Are there guys on tour playing the SpeedBlade?
 
I've played a ton of iron sets, and although I have had moments of thoughts about a more "demanding" iron giving me more accuracy, the more time I have spent looking at it the more I realize my thought there has been wrong. I am in fact longer and more accurate with a more forgiving iron set. More forgiving does not mean less accurate, it just doesn't, there may be some exceptions to the rule out there but for the masses it really doesn't.
 
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