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Missing Short on the Course

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Don’t know the exact numbers but I bet I am short and right the majority of the time. Long is usually the result of a thinned shot.
 
I normally go long, half underestimating how far I hit a club and half hitting it thin on sub 100 yard shots.
 
I need to get more technical and keep data, but my feeling is my misses are a bit more left than right than short and the only way I'm going over is if I thin one or I'm playing in winter with concrete fairways and greens. New swing will hopefully get my GIR numbers up and give my SW and 60 degree a break this year.
 
I worked hard at learning my actual distances last year, and having Arccos absolutely helped! My miss is short, however going long on most holes around here is far more punitive than staying slightly short. For my numbers, keep in mind I'm a lefty.


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JB said:
We have spent the last few days combing through some data that suggests that over 85% of missed approach shots are left short. This could be for a number of reasons including

Poor Contact
Not hitting it as far as we think we do
Playing to a front pin yardage rather than giving enough room for minor misses.
Fear of going too far

We hear a lot of talk on the forum about random balls flying too far, etc. Yet if our stats are accurate, those percentages are quite small. Looking at my own personal data, it appears as though when I miss the green, I only go long on approach shots 6% of the time.

Where do you think your own game falls in this spectrum of stats?

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When I miss my yardage, its always long. I would say that part of that is due to the fact that I always take more club than I might need and just swing easy but I honestly cant remember the last time that I came up short on an approach shot.
 
I don't have the data but I (and I'm sure my playing partners could verify) probably miss long left, or hole high left more than anything.
Sure I'm short sometimes with the ol' chilli dip or skull job. I'm probably:

60% left
20% long
10% short
10% right
 
Arccos has me at 8.1% long abd 50% short. From 185 yards in.
 
Badger_Golfer said:
When I miss my yardage, its always long. I would say that part of that is due to the fact that I always take more club than I might need and just swing easy
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Yours is a is a good club selection- playing strategy, especially because it naturally breeds good effective swing tempo and rhythm, without you having to think about it.
 
Short due to less than stellar ball striking. Occasional long left due the perfect strike that flies a club longer than expected. Game has improved since last spring. Will be using arccos when we get back to the course. Knowing actual average distances will make a big difference
 
Stats are true for me. Almost never miss long.
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Nearly always short because of inconsistent ball striking, something I want to deal with this year. About the only time I am long is if there is water immediately in front of the green and I'm bound and determined not to wind up there!
 
Long is death at my course - so my miss is usually short on a few holes. Looking at the (rudimentary) stats I keep I miss left/right more than anything. But definitely short more than long by design.
 
A few guys have replied to this thread claiming their "usual miss is short due to inconsistent ball striking".
Remember that some inconsistent ball striking is due to knowing the ball must be struck solid to reach the target. Think about that for a minute. If one has in his head he must strike it solid or his ball will fall short, this can create anxiety and lead to poor swings.
In contrast, the player who knows he has plenty of club in his hand (and that the ball will reach the target even with a slight mishit) , is likely setting himself up to consistently make better swings.
 
In the past, when judging what club to hit into a green, I would pull a club that would get there - if I hit it pure! Over the past few years however, I've rectified that somewhat by choosing a club that should get me to the back of the green.
It doesn't always work, but in theory it makes sense for me.
 
GenErr said:
In the past, when judging what club to hit into a green, I would pull a club that would get there - if I hit it pure! Over the past few years however, I've rectified that somewhat by choosing a club that should get me to the back of the green.
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What are your before and after results ? Are you hitting more greens now and, or, leaving yourself shorter putts ? Did your swing tempo-rhythm , ball striking improve once you started clubbing yourself to the back of the green ?
 
DG_1234 said:
What are your before and after results ? Are you hitting more greens now and, or, leaving yourself shorter putts ? Did your swing tempo-rhythm , ball striking improve once you started clubbing yourself to the back of the green ?
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Unfortunately this revelation came to me late in my golfing career. At 73 my club distances are not near what they used to be. However the theory is sound for my game. My swing is the same, tempo is the same. Simply put, I usually end up hitting one more club than I think I need.
 
I miss mostly left, or long left.

I almost always play center of green number and then try to work it towards the pin from there. I get the face closed down a touch too much and it goes long left or just left. My natural shape is a small fade, so when I go to turn the ball over it can get away from me sometimes. But not confident enough to take a shorter club and play for it shutting down every time.
 
Short is the most common miss and the ratio increases along with the distances until I get to the 175 - 200 where it evens out for some reason. Misses left and right are close to even.

The assumption of why a high capper misses short is so often "didn't pull enough club". While I've argued against this opinion quite a bit over the years, I thought I'd give it a try for the entire 2020 season.

Pulling more club did not go well. Missing a greens doesn't bother me, but missing by the distances I experienced last year does. There were other factors no doubt, but I'm not sold on the opinion that amateurs miss short because they don't pull enough club.

Obviously, I can't speak for anyone else out there. But I pull the club that will give me the best chance to hit my target based on "ok" contact. Not great contact, not the distance I get from off the tee, just ok contact from an average, less-than-perfect lie. I'm not going to pull a club based on the distance of my worst duff, nor am I going to pull a club based on ego. It's all about getting the ball on or close to the green. If a long irons gives me the best chance to hit a green 120 yards away, that's the club I'll pull.

My reasons for missing short:
1. Poorer than usual contact. As a high capper, I don't always make "ok" contact. Unless that mishit is a thinned 9i or wedge, it's going to come up short.
2. Bad lies.
3. Because short is the preferred miss on 75% of the greens I play.
 
Space Bandito said:
Short happens for me when I accidentally hit a weak fade. I can always tell as soon as a strike the ball if it's going to happen. I have learned, recently, to be more comfortable in taking an extra club when I have been inconsistent with ball striking. For me, short misses come, seemingly entirely, from poor ball striking.
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Agree. This is probably why I am short a lot.
 
tehuti said:
I have adopted the strategy of going by the back of the green distance to select a club, and I almost never hit it long. When I do, it's usually because I hit a low liner that lands short of the pin but rolls out too far.
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I like this strategy.
 
I am the same as most everyone else. It is mostly due to my many mishits. My Arccos stats shows that over the last 20 rounds I am 39% GIR and 34% short. The only time I miss long is when there is trouble and I absolutely can’t miss long 😂
 
I have a question on the stat keeping apps. If you hit into trees on a par 4 and are forced to chip out, doesn’t that automatically count as a green missed short? Your actual approach could have been left/right/long, but it wouldn’t count since it wasn’t for the GIR, right? If so, the short stat will be horribly over counted for most amateurs - every chip out of trouble, every penalty off the tee, hitting a tree or something on an approach that deflects the ball, etc.
 
-CRW- said:
I have a question on the stat keeping apps. If you hit into trees on a par 4 and are forced to chip out, doesn’t that automatically count as a green missed short? Your actual approach could have been left/right/long, but it wouldn’t count since it wasn’t for the GIR, right? If so, the short stat will be horribly over counted for most amateurs - every chip out of trouble, every penalty off the tee, hitting a tree or something on an approach that deflects the ball, etc.
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Well for thegrint people, it hurts the GIRs obviously, as it should. For the punch out, if you've tracked your shot to 'in the trees', it's up to you to decide if your target once you decide on your club is a 'layup' or the actual 'green', or a bunch of other options. It usually defaults to green. You're not going to get a GIR on a punch out or layup, but anything targeted at the green shows up in your approach proximity charts as to how well you succeeded (green hit %, inside 15', avg. proximity) and is broken down by club used and your lie at attempt (teebox, hazard, rough, fairway, light rough, etc). No issues.

It can screw with your individual club distances and stats if you punch with say a 7i from an odd yardage or position though. A 7i isn't your 85 yard club, it's just the one that would get under the branch and maybe to the green from there. So some people just don't track punch/rescue on the actual gps data. Screws you on your next one though if you did make the green. Won't log your putt automatically, you have to go in and set it up to track which is kind of annoying. Same if you ended up in a greenside bunker or something. You have to start tracking from there then and edit your position and it's a big pain in the butt imo, but if you don't it'll throw off your sand stats. So for me, I've taken to selecting 1-iron on anything that's a punch out or whatever that requires a club being used in some ridiculously non-standard way. Keeps all your shots being tracked, doesn't throw off your individual distances and everything, but your shots are all in there and your score, gps locations, directional misses, gir, putting/greenside position, and all that is still accurate.

And 1-iron stats are basically just how well I did from fubar. I'm not sure if that would work well for someone who's constantly in the ****, but it keeps those limited shots from screwing up the data for me.

Man, I didn't realize how tired I am until I just tried to explain that. Hope it makes sense.
 
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-CRW- said:
I have a question on the stat keeping apps. If you hit into trees on a par 4 and are forced to chip out, doesn’t that automatically count as a green missed short? Your actual approach could have been left/right/long, but it wouldn’t count since it wasn’t for the GIR, right? If so, the short stat will be horribly over counted for most amateurs - every chip out of trouble, every penalty off the tee, hitting a tree or something on an approach that deflects the ball, etc.
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Yes, and a significant number of my missed GIRs come that way. If I have to take a drop (or punch out from trouble) from where my drive landed on a par 4 and I'm hitting 3 into the green, that's already a missed GIR regardless of where that next shot lands. I just figure it's still a short missed GIR because of a bad shot, just as it would be if I had hit my drive to within 20 yards of the green and then duffed a chip.
 
Very rarely do people hit as far as they think they do. This has been pretty eye opening for me since I started seeing real numbers, I'm starting to club up one from what I think. Also goes along with something I read recently in a "Distance Control strategy" booklet about people usually judging their distances all the time off that one perfect shot back in the summer of 97 in perfect conditions. "We know from statistics that over 90% of shots are left short of the pin " and anecdotally it's true.

The other thing I just saw the other day is people (myself very much included) generally need to stop aiming for flags and aiming for the center of the green instead. I think it was Bandon who did a small test and just removed the flags people scored better because all they could do was aim for the middle.

Anyway, here's my real numbers from the past 10 round average.
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