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Missing greens SHORT.... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

malemotives

malemotives

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Location
Puyallup, WA., Spring Hill, FL
Handicap
GHIN 17.4
I have fallen into this major dilemma of hitting great tee shots (12 of 14 fairways today with average drive of 242) and then totally blowing my 2nd shot and/or missing the green short. It makes me forever scrambling for Par. The reason for falling short is not the wrong club, it's in my head. So.... today I decided to take one extra club on every approach shot and be willing to miss long. The result was more GIRs and a 37 on a Par 36. What's in my head is thinking I will go long with the right club so I throttle back. Seems I did the same thing with one extra club, but also got 10-12 extra yards and hit more greens. Ya gotta love this game of golf.
 
The plague of so many golfers. The convince themselves they hit the ball farther than they actually do.

You hardly ever see anyone go long.
 
Silly mental game it is.

I haven't ran into what you describe but I get my yardage grab the club fir that yardage and commit to that yardage and club. I may miss left or right but rarely do I come up short on a good strike.
 
Sometimes we think we hit our clubs farther than we actually do. Happens so often in this game of golf. Great to see the higher % of GIR.
 
It's funny you started this thread. I have a round scheduled for Saturday and I told myself that I'm going to take my normal club and add one for every shot except for wedges. We'll see how it goes for me.
 
JRod said:
The plague of so many golfers. The convince themselves they hit the ball farther than they actually do.

You hardly ever see anyone go long.
Click to expand...
Ding ding ding
 
Reevaluate your distances. Club up.
 
I've always heard amateurs should take more club into greens than they feel they need...
 
Michigan Slice said:
I've always heard amateurs should take more club into greens than they feel they need...
Click to expand...

Jrod is right. Most amateurs have no idea how far they hit each club.

Fwiw - to be completely honest - I have no idea what my specific gaps are.
 
I think it just comes down to being honest with ourselves. You can lie all you want online while attempting to impress but as soon as you're honest with yourself about your actual yardages, I think it makes all the difference. Now where's my 182y 8 iron
 
malemotives said:
I have fallen into this major dilemma of hitting great tee shots (12 of 14 fairways today with average drive of 242) and then totally blowing my 2nd shot and/or missing the green short. It makes me forever scrambling for Par. The reason for falling short is not the wrong club, it's in my head. So.... today I decided to take one extra club on every approach shot and be willing to miss long. The result was more GIRs and a 37 on a Par 36. What's in my head is thinking I will go long with the right club so I throttle back. Seems I did the same thing with one extra club, but also got 10-12 extra yards and hit more greens. Ya gotta love this game of golf.
Click to expand...

A bit off topic but I am confused.
You indicate 12 of 14 FIR's which I assume is for 18 holes (minus the par 3's)
But then you shot a 1 over par for a 37. That would indicate only 9 holes.
You state its all "today" but this would seem like two separate rounds I must assume. One of 18 holes and one of 9 holes?? if correct.

And aside from whatever, however the above was played on,
your hitting close to 90% fairways and shooting 1 over par (even if for 9 holes) and hitting Gir's or being just short but with all that said your handicap is 18? I must assume I am not reading something correctly. Not a challenge nor trying to pick on you but I am missing some info just not perhaps registering in my head. This all seems off to me. Unless your newly found "iron approach shot fix" has just brought you from 18 to almost scratch which would be amazing I must be missing some info or you simply had one the best rounds and/or 9 hole round of your life and that is quite possible I do understand. Please clear this up for me if you don't mind.
 
Lately I've been missing greens long all damn day and its frustrating, but should be pretty easy to work out.
 
Michigan Slice said:
I've always heard amateurs should take more club into greens than they feel they need...
Click to expand...

I don't feel its about taking more, but its really simply about taking the correct club. the one that gets you there the majority of the times. And why would pros be any different to this logic.? They are smart enough to already know this imo.
 
I hate that i try to make sure it hit the green so i will some times club up if i do not feel confutable with the distance
 
Take more club, hit more greens. It usually works for me.
 
I once got a great tip from Freddie Kong...

Get yours distance, pick your club, then go up one club and take a bit less on your swing.

It works.
 
rollin said:
A bit off topic but I am confused.
You indicate 12 of 14 FIR's which I assume is for 18 holes (minus the par 3's)
But then you shot a 1 over par for a 37. That would indicate only 9 holes.
You state its all "today" but this would seem like two separate rounds I must assume. One of 18 holes and one of 9 holes?? if correct.

And aside from whatever, however the above was played on,
your hitting close to 90% fairways and shooting 1 over par (even if for 9 holes) and hitting Gir's or being just short but with all that said your handicap is 18? I must assume I am not reading something correctly. Not a challenge nor trying to pick on you but I am missing some info just not perhaps registering in my head. This all seems off to me. Unless your newly found "iron approach shot fix" has just brought you from 18 to almost scratch which would be amazing I must be missing some info or you simply had one the best rounds and/or 9 hole round of your life and that is quite possible I do understand. Please clear this up for me if you don't mind.
Click to expand...

I actually played 27 holes today. The 12 of 14 Fairways was for 18 holes minus the Par 3's.... correct. The back 9 is Par 36. I shot it in 37. Clearly I am not anywhere near a scratch golfer. I am an 18 handicap who had a decent day through 18 and a great day through another nine. It's not the first time I've shot a 37 through 9 holes. I did it once before and have shot 39 on a couple of occasions. But generally I shoot 42/43. I do think that going up a club on my approach shot will net me 3/4 stroke per round, if I can capitalize on it. I can't think of too many things more frustrating (with my game) than always falling 10-15 feet short of the green.
 
I miss greens over more than I would like, and would rather miss short. Actually I'd rather not miss at all if i could help it, but would take short over long on most holes.
 
This may sound silly but I got bored at work a few weeks ago and wrote down my "estimate" of the distance for each of my Clubs Driver thriugh 60 degree.

Then went to the range and hit balls. 10 balls with each club.

What I had written down was easily 5 to 10 yards shorter with 60% of my clubs over the average of 10 shots. Yes I may can hit a 175 yard 7 iron, but consistently, no.

Really helped translate to the course.

Go Big Orange
 
I'm not yet sure that my going up a club is the right thing to do, even though I had some success. It seems to me that I need to hit my club and take what it gives me. As I said... I have been throttling back regardless of whether I hit my club or one up. I don't know why, other than some fear of flying the green or bouncing off the back. For example... I know that I hit a full 9 iron 130-5 yards. So... if I am 130 yards out, I should be hitting a full 9 iron instead of a 3/4 9 iron that drops me short of the green. True... that might not always be bad, except that sometimes there's a sand trap there. At any rate, in this example, I hit a 3/4 8 iron (one more club) that bounces onto the green. I guess this all says that I don't yet trust myself to hit full clubs to the green. Another example is hitting a full pitching wedge 115 yards. I can stand 115 yards from a green and hit A high PW to the green all day long. But then when I play an actual match, I hit it high and fall short by 5 yards.... or less. I've taken wind and other things into consideration... still I'm stuck short, except when I take one more club and hit a 3/4 shot. It is frustrating.
 
I've started to take an extra club on most approaches - not so much for missing short but moreso to allow me to throttle down and take a more controlled swing. I also have gotten used to the speedblades sticking and holding greens well. I did not get a lot of rollout with irons before I got these and the higher launch and softer landing of these makes it more important for me to make sure I have enough+ club. Still working in accuracy with alignment but I never fall short unless I'm laying up.

I would add that many people over estimate rollout and think they will see a lot of release and roll on approaches.

Assume you mishit and it takes 10% off your shot. On 150 yd approach, your 15 yards shy. Now factor in less roll than you'd expect on a perfect shot and you're even shorter.

I say take the club up from the one you would ordinarily carry to the center and expect that you will mishit. You'll probably still get there safely.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Too add more to the precious post it took out guess work or "Hero" effect to approach shots.

Instead of saying to myself..well I can hit a 9 iron 142 yards...I would grab my 8 iron saying I KNOW I can hit 145 to 150 easily with a smooth predictable swing

Go Big Orange
 
JRod said:
The plague of so many golfers. The convince themselves they hit the ball farther than they actually do.

You hardly ever see anyone go long.
Click to expand...

most people play better golf when they do not let their ego's get in the way
 
dizzyg12 said:
I've started to take an extra club on most approaches - not so much for missing short but moreso to allow me to throttle down and take a more controlled swing. I also have gotten used to the speedblades sticking and holding greens well. I did not get a lot of rollout with irons before I got these and the higher launch and softer landing of these makes it more important for me to make sure I have enough+ club. Still working in accuracy with alignment but I never fall short unless I'm laying up.

I would add that many people over estimate rollout and think they will see a lot of release and roll on approaches.

Assume you mishit and it takes 10% off your shot. On 150 yd approach, your 15 yards shy. Now factor in less roll than you'd expect on a perfect shot and you're even shorter.

I say take the club up from the one you would ordinarily carry to the center and expect that you will mishit. You'll probably still get there safely.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


There it is. Make perfect sense.
 
JRod said:
The plague of so many golfers. The convince themselves they hit the ball farther than they actually do.

You hardly ever see anyone go long.
Click to expand...
I almost always take one more club than I think I need. I still hit short!
 
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