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Distance Perception vs Distance Reality

The Milk Man said:
How does Arccos handle hitting the club varying distances? As an example my stock 8 iron goes 162. If I need to step on it, I can hit it 175 or if needed I can choke down and chip it 130.
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Play enough and it wI’ll figure it out. The biggest issue I see with distance and complaints about arccos is the golfers sample size is too small, making it statistically improbable of throwing out an outlier.
 
I play a course regularly so I have a pretty good Idea what my carry distances are off the tee. I use GPS a lot on the course to make sure the numbers I have in my head are in fact correct. At times I will club up just to be safe, but for the most part my distances are reality.
 
I use a Garmin watch, and after the round I go into the Garmin Golf app and enter which clubs I used (I track them on the scorecard). I can then look at the "Club Performance" category in the app and it tells me what my average yardage is for each club, so at least I have a decent idea. I try to exclude the outlier shots where I either really flub one, totally crush one, or hit a thin one that goes a lot further than expected - I don't want it trying to tell me that I hit a 7-iron 112 yards on average because of all my bad shots, or that I hit it 180 yards on average because of the thin ones/outliers. I want to know that on average, when I hit the club like I'm supposed to, it goes around 150 yards (my average is showing 152 right now).

And then again, I still get things like today where I had a 134 yard uphill approach shot, so I pulled 8 iron (my 140'ish club). I absolutely nutted it and ended up hitting it about 155 yards uphill and off the back of the green. That doesn't mean my 8 iron just became my 155 yard club, because I know that was an outlier.
 
The Milk Man said:
How does Arccos handle hitting the club varying distances? As an example my stock 8 iron goes 162. If I need to step on it, I can hit it 175 or if needed I can choke down and chip it 130.
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over time the system figures it out for you. it will give you a range based on "average" low end and high end.
 
When you track every single shot, there's no fond memories. Just your club distances, and the outliers. Because of that I only really struggle when changing between different clubs.
 
"A man has got to know is limitations".
 
I swear Im longer on simulators than on the course. Not sure if its the mats, perfectly flat lies, or juiced numberd but my sim shots are a good 10-20 yards farther than what I get on the course (measured by gps).
 
I'm interested in carry distances.. even with driver. I need to carry hazards. I need to land on the green. Roll out will vary depending upon course conditions. Carry will depend upon wind and of course strike and from where you're hitting.

Mats are more forgiving of slightly fat shots, so some people will be longer off mats than off grass.
 
For me it’s those days where I’m hitting everything one club shorter. The next day I may be 10 yards longer.
 
greenOak said:
I swear Im longer on simulators than on the course. Not sure if its the mats, perfectly flat lies, or juiced numberd but my sim shots are a good 10-20 yards farther than what I get on the course (measured by gps).
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I'm longer on every single indoor setup I've ever hit on. Trackman, gcquad, GC2 (!), you name it.
 
Thanks to Arccos (as others have said), I know how far I hit each club.
 
The Milk Man said:
How does Arccos handle hitting the club varying distances? As an example my stock 8 iron goes 162. If I need to step on it, I can hit it 175 or if needed I can choke down and chip it 130.
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Or the long, dry rough we are seeing now in NE Ohio. I was hitting some of the longest short irons of my life because it was all flyer lies out there.

With my Garmin watch, I get a good idea of my averages, and I just have to adjust accordingly for lie, wind, and how I'm hitting it that day. Knowing what those averages are gives you a great starting point though.
 
I got my first laser rangefinder(for hunting but used it for golf as well) 25+ years ago so I've known for a long time exactly how much carry I can squeeze out of each club.
 
I know my yardages and use a GPS garmin watch and a laser range finder to identify what I need to shoot. I also use Arccos but just to be able to review shots, ranges, etc. For the most part, my distances are about where I expected them to be.
 
The GameGolf app tracks all shots recorded and uses a method to determine a "typical" distance for each club, not an average. It will discount very short distances like those from a punch or a duff.

Honestly, I have to be careful of those typical distances and have been pulling more club. Statistically, I am longer off the tee than on approach shots - even those from a good lie in the fairway. There are a lot of factors involved. On a particular short par 4 at my home course, the tee box and green are both elevated and my landing spot for my tee shot is quite low. So there have been times when I'll hit a 150 yard tee shot with my 7i and then use that same 7i for a 120 yard approach.

At the advice of @DG_1234, I'm trying to increase the ratio of too long vs too short on my approach shots by pulling more club. For years, I argued the point that high cappers miss short so often because they don't know their club distances. While I still think that's a BS assumption (for many reasons), I thought I'd put it to the test this year.

I have to admit the groupings seem to be tighter - not so much with actual greens hit, but with how badly I'm missing both long and short.
 
I usually look at distance think about that one time and then club up! Haha... Have to way the chunky distances against the pures and find the actual club in play
 
Hooboy! I have been to that movie a lot over the past few years, but it wasn't my production, it was my main golf buddy's. He was fooling himself as to how far he was hitting it. One day we're playing an upscale, daily fee course that is pretty tough from the whites, and just slugging our brains out! On one particular par 4 the on cart GPS read an even 400 yards from the whites. My buddy hit his drive and I asked him how far he thought he hit it. He said about 250-260. I had hit mine about the same, and knew it was nowhere near that far. We get to his ball and the GPS read 180! He actually tried to claim the GPS was screwed up despite the fact that my ball was right there, maybe 5 yards ahead!

It finally took the precipitous action of me telling him he could tee off wherever he wanted, but I was a senior (we both were), and that I was going to tee off from the senior tees, because I wanted to enjoy the game again. It didn't take long for him to join me. He got tired of being behind me on every drive real quick! :D
 
Distance control is one of the stronger parts of my game for the most part. I know how far I hit my clubs and can give it a little extra or take a little off if I need to. The weakest part of my distance control is probably the 110-130 range with my wedges. Some days I can hit them longer than normal and others shorter. Then sometimes I’ll be really on. I’m sure a lot of that has to do with the spin which can vary a little more with those than with the people-7. My 7 iron gets me up to the 190-195 range so anything more than that and I’m not as concerned with distance as just getting it on the green.

I’ve gotten my distances for each club by trial and error of knowing how far the pin is via rangefinder and where I end up.
 
I need one range session here with some new clubs to figure out around how far I hit it these days, and then off I go. I just know I can't hit it anywhere near as far as I once did. That's fine. We all age and man it was a blast while I could do it! New realities and expectations/goals.
I think its gonna be fun to play the white tees now and just swing easy. It's gonna be a whole new game to me in a lot of ways. Fun! (y)
 
I just start at about 90% of my max distance for each club at the beginning of the round for club selection. For instance the farthest I can ever hit my 6 iron is 160. If I was around 145-150 on the first approach that is what I would use. If I get to cranking it I will adjust down. If I am struggling I may go up and swing less.
 
My Approach S60 watch records every shot and the Garmin Golf App pretty much confirms what I always knew my distances were. As stated by others, the average for each club isn't a true average, because the app doesn't average in the chips, punch outs, bad miss hits, or shots that are crazy long compared to norms.
 
My golf app gives me the averages for all my clubs so i will mainly go by that. However sometimes while on the course i can tell if i am swinging well and may adjust based off of that.
 
wubears71 said:
Arccos is my distance bible. While I think a lot of the newer enhancements are worthless, the distance tracking is perfect. The best part is that I can see trends and adjust accordingly.
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Not to be a snob but the better the golfer the better idea they have for how far they carry their clubs and tend to be conservative about the distances. I know I have a few extra yards in most clubs but if I have to carry trouble am very conservative and frequently take an extra club and knock it down. Also as the OP noted you can’t remember that one time you hit a club super far. I hit a 9 iron today out of a jumper lie the carried 155. I know that isn’t real though and would never depend on that distance.
 
I think you are on your way to better golf. The game kinda requires a realistic view on how far and what direction we strike it.
 
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