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Distance Gaps ~ Am I over thinking??

Adam Hartzell

Adam Hartzell

Yup, I'm a lefty.
Joined
Jul 20, 2011
Messages
1,805
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Location
Shelby Twp, MI
Handicap
26.4
Latley I've really been playing "my game" and it's gotten me to shoot way more consistent and lower scores. However I've noticed that I'm always setting my self up for a 150 yard or less approach shot. I think that has sometning to do with the distance gaps I have in my bag. Here is where I hit on average:

10.5° Driver = 230 w/rollout
15° 3W = 215 w/rollout
21° 4H = 200
24° 4i = 185
27° 5i = 170
31° 6i = 155
35° 7i = 140
39° 8i = 130
43° 9i = 120
48° PW = 110
52° GW = 100
56° SW = 85
62° LW = 15-50 depending on the swing.

I'm very confident with every club in my bag except for the driver. I only use it on par 5s or wide open fairway'd par 4s because even after multiple lessons, I'm still afraid of this slice that only shows up with my driver.

On shorter par 4s (300-350 yards) I'm ok with hitting hybrid off the tee which will leave me with 100-150 to reach the green. On longer par 4s (375-425 yards) I find my self hitting my 3W to around 140-190 to the green. More often than not, this leaves me inbetween clubs and I'm forced to try and kill it with the shorter club or an easy swing with the longer club. Usually, I'll lay up and have to hit a short chip shot that will be inconsistent at best and add strokes to my score.

My handicap is still at a 19 but I've really been working to get it down and shoot in the 80s regularly. I really feel that those wider gaps at the long end of my bag is what is hurting my scores.

Is this all just in my head? Should I even continue to think about those wide gaps, or just forget about it and keep working on my chipping to drop my scores.
 
15 yard gaps are pretty common. I would worry about much there.
 
Like Blue said, 15 yds are not an overly large gap at all. Instead of trying to swing softer or harder, trying narrowing your stance and gripping down on the club to hit a shorter shot when needed.
 
I agree with Blu on the yardage gaps - nothing really surprising/concerning there.

Adam Hartzell said:
...Usually, I'll lay up and have to hit a short chip shot that will be inconsistent at best and add strokes to my score...
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Keep working at your overall game, IMO, but this part of your post is something to look at. I spent this season working to improve consistency with putting and around-the-green performance. A number of strokes can be saved here, and you have already identified it as costing you strokes.
 
My chipping inconsistency is all in my head right now. My coach has filmed me and my warmup swings are perfect but once I step up to the ball I make a completly different swing. This only happens with chip shots though. He keeps telling me that I need to stop worrying about sinking the chip shot and just focus on getting it close.
 
Wake said:
Like Blue said, 15 yds are not an overly large gap at all. Instead of trying to swing softer or harder, trying narrowing your stance and gripping down on the club to hit a shorter shot when needed.
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I concur. Also try an abbreviated follow thru. This has really helped me fill in the atrocious gap between my PW (135) and GW (115).
 
I agree with Wake and Sparks. I do the same thing, take the longer club, choke down on the grip and take a normal swing.
 
I think those gaps are normal. In fact I dont know if there really is a right or wrong within reason and they seem to be well with reason imo.

Imo you have a couple different things here to look at. One suggestion if i may is when in between yardage you may want to try choking up a bit on the longer club instead of swinging easier. We recently had a thread on the very sucbject of what to do when in between irons and seems many use and prefer the choking up method while using the same swing in order to take some yards off the longer club. But thats just personal choice.

But working on the chipping and/or short pitching is crucial for what you mention too. I think that is far more important than your yardage gap concerns. Remember even if you manage to figure how best to dial in the approach yardage and are no longer always short (laying up as you put it) you still are not automatically going to be on the green anyway. Like most amateurs especially those us shooting 90's etc we are going to be off the green a ton more times than on it so chipping and short pitching is very important too. Although on more greens that also holds true for the best players also.

Then you can also work on the driver too which in turn would put a shorter, higher lofted (and hopefully tad more precise) iron in your hand for the approach shot to begin with when needed for any given hole. Imo the yardage gaps are fine and so becoming better with the clubs or areas of struggles, in your case the driver and the short stuff will have for more impact and open more doors and options to play a given hole vs worying about gaps that seem to me to be normal.
 
No problem there imo.
 
I find it peculiar that you have shorter gaps in the short clubs and longer in the long. Usually the mid/long irons bundle up without as much separation as the short irons.
 
You've already got the answers you need, but I'll chime in anyways. As far as chipping, you need to work on that no matter where your game is. Your distance gaps are completely normal. Like several have said, choking down on the longer iron choice and taking a normal swing will produce a shorter than normal distance. Really play around with this on the course. Figure out what choking down 1/2" does for you, what choking down 1" does for you. Once you figure it out you will realize you can play any distance, no matter the gap in full swing distances. That will also give you a good confidence boost going into those in between shots.
 
I'm with everyone else. Those are close to my gaps in my clubs. I usually take one club longer and swing easier. Find it to be easier than taking one and swinging out of my shoes
 
Your gaps seem pretty normal to me. I don't think 15 yds. difference is a game breaker. As others have pointed out above, maybe choking up a bit on those in-between shots will help. To me it appears you have a very solid set up with your clubs.
 
Thanks. It took a lot of time, and experimenting to find a set that really works for me. I've got something from almost every major brand in there and even an older 3W that I just can't seem to ever find anything good enough to replace it. Thankfully left handed gear tends to go for a little cheaper on the used market.
 
Like everyone else I think 15 yds is fairly normal for most amateurs.

I'd work on choking down on the longer club and getting those yardages dialed in to fill the gap between clubs.

I'd also spend a lot of time working on my chipping and pitching it close and not necessarily trying to make it. If you can get it close you can get lots of one putt pars!
 
golfinFF said:
Like everyone else I think 15 yds is fairly normal for most amateurs.
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15 yards is normal amongst tour professionals. For your average amateur I'd wager the gaps are significantly smaller.
 
Hi. Agree, agree, agree.. Except, I would add a Jolly Rancher, to the mix. When you start the get nervous , stressed, or second guessing yourself, pop a jolly rancher in your mouth. It does 2 things. Forces you to relax your jaw muscles and unclench your teeth, the action of unwrapping it, forces you to break the thought pattern.
Cheers.
 
I love the 'Jolly Rancher" idea. I'm going to hit the store on my way home and pick up a bag. :drinks:
 
I would say you're better with smaller gaps in the scoring clubs because as you said you find yourself inside 150 often. As such, I think you're fine how it is. If you keep worrying about it, I would suggest getting rid of the 62°, bending the 6i a bit weak so it goes 150, and then adding in a 160 club. But otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it; I know if I could afford a custom set I would have it set up so that all of my clubs had 15 yard gaps from 80 yards (my 64° wedge) all the way up to 245 (3w)
 
Agree with this^^^

If you are hitting 3W consistently enough to leave yourself with that distance (140-190) on medium/long par 4s, you should be lower than a 19. I have for the most part put my driver away for months because I couldn't hit it, but put a lot of work into my short game and went from a 17.7 to a 12.9 in about 3 months.

I will go entire rounds without hitting anything over a 5i ( I don't carry a lower lofted iron), but usually I'm banging a 24H or maybe a 19H off the tee on par 5s. Now, I do have a home course that isn't terribly long, I play a course at 6166 from blue tees. It's pretty tight and lots of trees so being precise is important so that may play into that style working for me. If I'm playing a longer and/or more open course I will be more apt to bust out a driver, but not always. With my setup I sometimes have to ditch the driver just to keep within regs.

Anyhow, like I said, if you are really interested in scoring better, sounds like you might want to work on the gaps in your short game. I bag a 48/50/52/56/60 setup after learning after some frustration and from just being naive that I was constantly missing out on scoring chances by not being better from 120 and in.
 
blugold said:
15 yard gaps are pretty common. I would worry about much there.
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My first thought as well. Gaps look very normal to me.
 
You gaps are pretty common. You have to remember that these are your numbers swinging "within yourself" so your not really "going after" a shot here. So you have a little more yardage to look for when you jump on a shot, and just the opposite if you ease off one at say, 90%. Have a 15 yard gap isn't that uncommon. Of course we'd like to have less, but 99% of us are not going to be THAT dialed in since weren't not Tour pros. It's like checking the yardage on your free GPS golf app on my phone...it's NOT going to be 100% correct, probably within a few yards at best. You see what I'm saying?
 
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