how do you usually play to a distance when its between rions

[rollin]

Conditions are average and hitting to a small green with no room for error. either your on it or your in the rough or a bunker. You want green center and your between yardage for perhaps your 7 or 8 irons or whatever clubs distance "x" might be between. Do you play a stronger shorter club (8) or an easier longer club (7)? If the answer is the longer club then where do you adjust? Just swing easier? or less back swing? Swing similar but choke up? Perhaps some other method all together different than anything I mention? perhaps play the ball more back or forward depending on the club?

I use to take the shorter club and swing harder but nowadays I take the longer club and either choke, up or shorten the back swing to make it easier (slower). Of course hard greens and weather and other conditions play a role but for this lets just say your determined yardage is right between two irons period. I ask more for getting advice and also opinions that may lead to advice on this more than any other reason. I am interested to see what/how most of you go about it.

edited rom my second post. - Sorry guys, I am not really asking the route one takes and perhaps I shouldn't have put the scenario in the question. My apologies but the basic question I am interested in is how do you take the shot that is in between clubs? Is it with the shorter one or the longer one and what adjustments do you make to do it?

 

[dhartmann34]

I usually will take the higher club and choke down if the pin is back.....or the lower club and swing a tad harder if the pin is up.

 

[mayday1775]

I always club up, it is easier and safer for me to swing a little softer than try to rip it. The only time I shorten my swing is with my wedges though, I just swing softer to take some off.

 

[rollin]

I usually will take the higher club and choke down if the pin is back.....or the lower club and swing a tad harder if the pin is up.

ok you found my one loop hole. You want green center and flag is center. You are absolutely between clubs. Which of your two options is your choice

 

[blugold]

I evaluate where the better miss is. If it's better to be short and I can still be on the green, then I use the lesser of the two. If short is danger, then I club up.

 

[Wake]

If I'm hitting my irons well I will probably get after the shorter club, otherwise I choke up and narrow my stance if I need to.

 

[arydolphin]

To the OP's question: if I'm in between clubs, same swing as normal but choke down 1/2 inch on the longer club.

FWIW, I'll state this: I play most of my golf on an Donald Ross course built in the 1930s, and the greens are pretty small on that course. Even some of the smallest greens out there are over 20 yards deep. I doubt that most people have 20 yards gaps between their irons, so most people should be able to hit 2 different clubs onto a standard green with normal swings on each club.

 

[rollin]

Sorry guys, I am not really asking the route one takes and perhaps I shouldn't have put the scenario in the question. My apologies but the basic question I am interested in is how do you take the shot that is in between clubs? Is it with the shorter one or the longer one and what adjustments do you make to do it?

 

[Mulligan9111]

Conditions are average and hitting to a small green with no room for error. either your on it or your in the rough or a bunker. You want green center and your between yardage for perhaps your 7 or 8 irons or whatever clubs distance "x" might be between. Do you play a stronger shorter club (8) or an easier longer club (7)? If the answer is the longer club then where do you adjust? Just swing easier? or less back swing? Swing similar but choke up? Perhaps some other method all together different than anything I mention? perhaps play the ball more back or forward depending on the club?

I use to take the shorter club and swing harder but nowadays I take the longer club and either choke, up or shorten the back swing to make it easier (slower). Of course hard greens and weather and other conditions play a role but for this lets just say your determined yardage is right between two irons period. I ask more for getting advice and also opinions that may lead to advice on this more than any other reason. I am interested to see what/how most of you go about it.

I always take the longer club and either choke down or take a 3/4 swing. I find that when I try to get after it on an approach shot I hit it offline or create way too much spin and spin it back a crazy amount.

 

[blugold]

Sorry guys, I am not really asking the route one takes and perhaps I shouldn't have put the scenario in the question. My apologies but the basic question I am interested in is how do you take the shot that is in between clubs? Is it with the shorter one or the longer one and what adjustments do you make to do it?

I do all that I can to avoid making adjustments. I will play to the safest full swing yardage. If the safest yardage is front of the green, then I play there. If it is behind, then I will play there. But I rarely try to play the choke up or down game.

 

[TripleBogieTim]

I have better luck taking the shorter club and choking down about 3/4 of and inch...slightly wider stance and use my normal swing. When I try to "go hard" at an iron it usually results in a massive pull hook or I hit it thin and send it rocketing over the green.

 

[Wake]

I do all that I can to avoid making adjustments. I will play to the safest full swing yardage. If the safest yardage is front of the green, then I play there. If it is behind, then I will play there. But I rarely try to play the choke up or down game.

What about choking down don't you like? I just tell myself I'm hitting a shorter club.

 

[Kobey]

If I must make a choice because of the small green and trouble you mention, I'll choke up an inch with the longer club and take a full swing. Partial swings result in fat or thin shots for me, so I almost never try that way.

 

[blugold]

What about choking down don't you like? I just tell myself I'm hitting a shorter club.

My brain plays games with my already inconsistent swing. I haven't developed the feel quite yet to take 5 yards off my swing. Plus, I find that aiming for the hole is a lot harder than aiming for the green. I try to aim for the bigger target. However, I am speaking more towards iron swings. Pitch shots or <85 yard wedge shots are a different story. Then I do try to regrip or temper my swing.

 

[JB]

This is truly one of the biggest disadvantages to those learning the game doing it with multiple wedges. They never learn how to hit partial shots.

 

[blugold]

This is truly one of the biggest disadvantages to those learning the game doing it with multiple wedges. They never learn how to hit partial shots.

I agree. It is honestly why I went with a 3 wedge setup. I forced myself to "feel" distances inside of 80 yards. Plus, I forced myself to learn how to hit similar yardages with different wedges. I wish I could translate that into iron shots though.

 

[ATLGolfer]

My brain plays games with my already inconsistent swing. I haven't developed the feel quite yet to take 5 yards off my swing. Plus, I find that aiming for the hole is a lot harder than aiming for the green. I try to aim for the bigger target. However, I am speaking more towards iron swings. Pitch shots or <85 yard wedge shots are a different story. Then I do try to regrip or temper my swing.

There was an excellent Playing Lessons with the Pros with GMac where he talked about choking down on irons. He basically said that he takes the exact same swing, chokes down about half way and cuts about five yards off of the shot. He'll choke down further, to the steel, and take about 10 yards off of the shot. Same swing each time, just different hand positions.

I tried this on the range and realize two things. First, he's right -- it definitely takes a few yards off of the shot. Second, it's difficult to swing your normal swing with a choked-down grip. I really had to focus on not overswinging when I was choked down. The drill actually helped control my full swing a little better as well. I now try to take a few choked-down swings during each range session, both to practice the shot and to focus on the length of my swing overall.

 

[Rvick82]

This is truly one of the biggest disadvantages to those learning the game doing it with multiple wedges. They never learn how to hit partial shots.

I definitely agree with this. My short game is improving so much since I have removed one wedge and only play two wedges. The ability to use the half swing has really helped my short game (and ironically ball striking in general). I find it so much easier to swing a 1/2 to 3/4 56* than a full 60*. Now I really look forward to those half wedge shots and am starting to get very confident in them.

To answer the OP question... If I am between a 7i/8i I feel most comfortable going with the longer club, chocking up and abbreviate my back swing but still use the same follow through.

 

[Golf 'N Gator]

I learned a long time ago (advice from Hank Haney) that with a GPS, I play to the back of the green distance every time. To hit to the front or center distance each and every time, you have to hit a perfect shot 100% of the time and even tour players can't do that. Playing to the longer distance gives me room for error and I've hit more greens in regulation this year than ever before.

The only time I might hedge a little is if it is total jail long. Then I might play to the middle distance but that is the only time. Also, for me it is always better to take the longer club and swing easy than to take more loft and swing hard. Too much can go wrong swinging hard. I go at about 85/90% on normal shots and leave a little in the tank for when I need it.

 

[Paladin]

Club up, grip down, swing easier. Honestly, though, this is my swing thought pretty much every time I swing the golf club.

 

[rollin]

I find the "swing easier" method preferred for me for some reason but only when its with the overall shorter clubs like a pw, sw, gw and yet I find the choke up method preferred easier for me with longer clubs like the 9,8,7. I will try both methods though at times depending on how I feel at the time. In general I do like the feel of the easy swing tempo but just am not as successful with it for the 7,8,9 iron shots for some reason as I may be with the pw,sw so I tend to end up using the choke up for those.

 

[bigskyirish]

To answer the original question, I typically take the longer club and either choke up, use a 3/4 swing, or a combination of both. Lately, I've often been using this tactic even when not technically between clubs, but near the limit of my shorter club. For example, the biggest gap in my bag is probably PW to 9 iron. I can hit my PW 135, but it has to be a damn good swing. More reliably, it's about a 125 yard club. I can use my 9 iron to about 150 yards. Previously, for shots in the 130-135 yard range, I'd take the PW and try to hit it hard. Sometimes I would pull it off, but fairly often, I'd either come up short or hit it thin. I've found I can more reliably hit a choked down 9 iron or take a shorter swing with the 9 iron and be more accurate for those types of shots. Basically, instead of trying to always hit my best shot yardage wise with a particular club, I've begun ignoring the ego blow, taking one more club and taking some off it. It's helped my scoring quite a bit.

That said, there are times when I'll still take the shorter club for reasons other posters have mentioned (e.g., the best miss is short, etc.).

 

[Wake]

I learned a long time ago (advice from Hank Haney) that with a GPS, I play to the back of the green distance every time. To hit to the front or center distance each and every time, you have to hit a perfect shot 100% of the time and even tour players can't do that. Playing to the longer distance gives me room for error and I've hit more greens in regulation this year than ever before.

The only time I might hedge a little is if it is total jail long. Then I might play to the middle distance but that is the only time. Also, for me it is always better to take the longer club and swing easy than to take more loft and swing hard. Too much can go wrong swinging hard. I go at about 85/90% on normal shots and leave a little in the tank for when I need it.

I am going to try that tomorrow

 

[Fingerz]

I club up and choke down. I try not to change mt swing.

 

[drp3434]

Take the 7 and choke up, or slightly easier swing, depending on the lie.