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Dialing in Yardages

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Tedfroop

One eyed and left handed
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
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Location
Edmonton, Canada
Handicap
RCGA 10.8
I used to be really decent at hitting to a yardage. I could pick a club and know to hit it hard/soft whatever to get close to where I wanted to be. I took time off for some back problems, came back played a couple years and decided I needed help. Took lessons this spring and now I am all out of whack.

I figured in 15, 20, rounds it would start coming back but no, I am just making lots of long putts all the time.

Doing at the range with crappy range rocks doesn't help either. All I want is to be able to laser the pin get the yardage pull a club practice a swing, look at the target and hit it close. I'm not doing it though. A "nice easy swing" takes like two yards off a pitching wedge - if that.

How do you guys figure out how far you are hitting each club and be able to let off or pick it up 1/2 a club?
 
I'd like to know too because I'm in the same position you are. :bulgy-eyes:
 
I am in a similar boat, since I bought all new irons and wedges half way through this year. The range is definitely not the place to find distances. Best bet is to get out on a course when it's empty or very slow. That way you can hit a couple balls on shots at the green where you know the yardages. If you can get in 18, or even 9, where you can hit a couple balls at every green on your approach shot, that should help a lot.
 
Go to a place where you an have a buddy stand out in the open and hit balls towards him. Give him a range finder and get him to laser the distances back to you. Find your average. Then get him to pick up the ball and bring them back to you lol. Might cost you a beer or 2 after..
 
I have only played 2 rounds this season so far, and maybe 1 range session.... somehow my yardages are exactly what they were at the end of last season (if not a yard or two extra).

I found to really dial in previously, I would hit to the same target, but use different shot shapes and different clubs. Take extra club and lay off a bit, and still try and get it the same yardage.
 
I like the way that Graeme McDowell does it, and it has worked for me since I adopted it. He shaves yardages by choking on the club. About halfway down the grip takes about 5 yards off and down to the bottom of the grip takes about 10 yards off. Take the same full swing and this is a simple way to reduce distance. It also lowers ball flight so it works quite well flighting into the wind. Obviously, if you are very consistent with your distances, you can break it down further into quarters and work that way.
 
I've done the chocking up thing (as cory states above) too. i find it much easier to take full swing chocked up than i do in taking an easier swing.

But honestly this sounds like two different issues here. What I mean is that it sounds like (from what you wrote) that you are struggling some with golf right now in general. "all out of whack" as you put it. Not hitting your marks. If you cant find your grove right now then how would you be able to make suddle yardage adjustments up and down from that grove? The only way to dial in yardage is if your striking consistent enough imo. Until that happens its sort of a crap shoot and then there is nothing to base the suddle yardage adjustments on. Lesons can cause one to go backwards for a while beore getting better. Happens all the time. hopefully thats all this is and when back in your grove or "back in whack" lol...then the yard adjustments will fall back into place for you as well. Whatever the reasons i hope it all falls into place again for you soon.
 
You have to hit the course when its empty and have some practice rounds with a few balls. The only other option would be access to a range with exact yardage flags ans a rangefinder. Good luck.
 
I choke down on the club. For me when I choke down it takes 5 yards off the club. I am still trying to figure out my yardage with full clubs since getting my new set of irons, but have found with the 8-pw that choking down will take 5 yards off. I cant dial my yardage any better then that, I dont hit the ball well enough. Besides If I am only off 5 yards I should never have more then a 15 foot putt.
 
Tedfroop said:
I used to be really decent at hitting to a yardage. I could pick a club and know to hit it hard/soft whatever to get close to where I wanted to be. I took time off for some back problems, came back played a couple years and decided I needed help. Took lessons this spring and now I am all out of whack.

I figured in 15, 20, rounds it would start coming back but no, I am just making lots of long putts all the time.

Doing at the range with crappy range rocks doesn't help either. All I want is to be able to laser the pin get the yardage pull a club practice a swing, look at the target and hit it close. I'm not doing it though. A "nice easy swing" takes like two yards off a pitching wedge - if that.

How do you guys figure out how far you are hitting each club and be able to let off or pick it up 1/2 a club?
Click to expand...

I use SkyDroid, a GPS app that not only does scoring and GPS on each downloaded course, but that will also let you track each club. It doesn't save the tracks, but you can write them down on your scorecard and figure the averages out later. As with any method of figuring out yardages, it's not going to adjust for wind or elevation, so when I use it I try to use it only on straight holes where there is little wind. Believe it or not I figured out my distances in about 1 round using the app.

I don't think it's legal in tournament play, but I don't play in tournaments so as a weekend hacker it's perfect for me.
 
I choke down on the club and for every 1/2 inch I choke down it usually goes 5 yards shorter. Example: I hit my PW between 130-135, if I want to hit it about 125 I'll choke down an inch.

As far as determining your distances, try to get out to a course when it's really quiet and just throw down some balls at different yardages and see how far you hit the clubs. Shouldn't take you more than a round of doing this to get an idea of how far you hit each club.
 
I would take about 20 decent balls and hit up the course I used to work at during a really dead time with my rangefinder. I would just sit the bucket down, shoot the flag then grab a club and swing away. I will actually do this anytime i change irons. So maybe once a year....

The best thing for me was when i figured out that for me to be consistently accurate meant swing about 80% sometimes lower with the irons.
 
Tedfroop said:
I used to be really decent at hitting to a yardage. I could pick a club and know to hit it hard/soft whatever to get close to where I wanted to be. I took time off for some back problems, came back played a couple years and decided I needed help. Took lessons this spring and now I am all out of whack.

I figured in 15, 20, rounds it would start coming back but no, I am just making lots of long putts all the time.

Doing at the range with crappy range rocks doesn't help either. All I want is to be able to laser the pin get the yardage pull a club practice a swing, look at the target and hit it close. I'm not doing it though. A "nice easy swing" takes like two yards off a pitching wedge - if that.

How do you guys figure out how far you are hitting each club and be able to let off or pick it up 1/2 a club?
Click to expand...

I don't worry about it much. I simply don't worry about half clubs (until I get within about 60 yards anyway) - it's enough for me to contend with full shots. A half club is only 5 yards, 15 feet, so if I have the right club for the full shot, I'll be within 5 yards for distance. Direction? That's still another matter. It doesn't help to be dead on for length if I miss the green 20 yards left or right.
 
The first thing I do is get a baseline yardage for each club. Pretty simple to do really. When on the course, find a spot that is flat and hopefully there isn't much wind and drop a few balls down. Start at the 200 marker and see what gets you to the middle, then 150, then 100, then in between each. It's not something that can get done in a day, just something I do over time. If you have unlimited access to a course and no one is out there, it could be pretty easy. It's really just a combination of you basic shot under ideal conditions to get a base, then you can adjust from there.

Once you get that down, experiment with choke down grips and abbreviated back swings (never abbreviate the down swing, always important to make a solid pass through the ball). For me I use 3/4 grip, 3/4 swing, 1/2 grip, 1/2 swing as my guidelines. These terms don't really mean anything to anyone other than me and just the name I give them in my head. For example, my baseline 8-iron is 160 yards, if I need to take a little off that, I'll go with a full grip, 3/4 swing or a 3/4 grip, full swing. If I need to take off a little more and don't want to stretch out the 9-iron, I can go 3/4 grip, 3/4 swing and that will be about a half a club. Once you figure out what you can do with different grips and swings, you'll always have 2-3 options to play every shot.
 
StLCardsFan said:
The first thing I do is get a baseline yardage for each club. Pretty simple to do really. When on the course, find a spot that is flat and hopefully there isn't much wind and drop a few balls down. Start at the 200 marker and see what gets you to the middle, then 150, then 100, then in between each. It's not something that can get done in a day, just something I do over time. If you have unlimited access to a course and no one is out there, it could be pretty easy. It's really just a combination of you basic shot under ideal conditions to get a base, then you can adjust from there.

Once you get that down, experiment with choke down grips and abbreviated back swings (never abbreviate the down swing, always important to make a solid pass through the ball). For me I use 3/4 grip, 3/4 swing, 1/2 grip, 1/2 swing as my guidelines. These terms don't really mean anything to anyone other than me and just the name I give them in my head. For example, my baseline 8-iron is 160 yards, if I need to take a little off that, I'll go with a full grip, 3/4 swing or a 3/4 grip, full swing. If I need to take off a little more and don't want to stretch out the 9-iron, I can go 3/4 grip, 3/4 swing and that will be about a half a club. Once you figure out what you can do with different grips and swings, you'll always have 2-3 options to play every shot.
Click to expand...

I think that's how I need to approach it. I have just been striking the ball so well that when I think I am taking some off I hit it so pure and clean that the distance isn't really affected.
 
Tedfroop said:
That's funny right there... Golf courses here are rarely empty, or anywhere close to empty.
Click to expand...

Come down to Lethbridge during the week. My local course has 27 holes and one of the 9's is pretty much always empty :alien:
 
Well, I really only dial in true precision with my wedges. Half shots, full shots, little runners, and everything in between. Those are the yardages I truly dial in. Then I just know the likely yardage of each of my other clubs and go with it. I'm not good enough, and I don't have enough time to dial in the yardage of each club with each kind of swing.

If I want to take a little off a club, I have heard that choking clear down on the grip is good for taking 5 yards off the club. I tried it once, it worked, but I haven't tried it enough to know if its really consistently 5 yards less everytime.

~Rock
 
corydotcom16 said:
I like the way that Graeme McDowell does it, and it has worked for me since I adopted it. He shaves yardages by choking on the club. About halfway down the grip takes about 5 yards off and down to the bottom of the grip takes about 10 yards off. Take the same full swing and this is a simple way to reduce distance. It also lowers ball flight so it works quite well flighting into the wind. Obviously, if you are very consistent with your distances, you can break it down further into quarters and work that way.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this post. I am going to try this because I was just wondering how many yards choking down on the club would drop.
 
rollin said:
But honestly this sounds like two different issues here. What I mean is that it sounds like (from what you wrote) that you are struggling some with golf right now in general. "all out of whack" as you put it. Not hitting your marks. If you cant find your grove right now then how would you be able to make suddle yardage adjustments up and down from that grove? The only way to dial in yardage is if your striking consistent enough imo. Until that happens its sort of a crap shoot and then there is nothing to base the suddle yardage adjustments on. Lesons can cause one to go backwards for a while beore getting better. Happens all the time. hopefully thats all this is and when back in your grove or "back in whack" lol...then the yard adjustments will fall back into place for you as well. Whatever the reasons i hope it all falls into place again for you soon.
Click to expand...

That's where having a baseline and writing down your yardages can help. I have two different charts I carry with me, one for good ball striking days and one for not so good days. I can lose five yards per club or more depending on weather, course conditions or how I'm feeling that day. If I trust those yardages, I know that a well struck shot will get me on the green. It's only when I start second-guessing them that I end up short or over.
 
Kobey said:
That's where having a baseline and writing down your yardages can help. I have two different charts I carry with me, one for good ball striking days and one for not so good days. I can lose five yards per club or more depending on weather, course conditions or how I'm feeling that day. If I trust those yardages, I know that a well struck shot will get me on the green. It's only when I start second-guessing them that I end up short or over.
Click to expand...

I have a baseline and know how far I hit them. I can hit them those yardages no problem, and consistently. Its when I am in between clubs and need to hit to a lesser yardage that I blast close to my normal yardage even when I think I am swinging slow and easy.

To score well you need to put the ball close to the pin consistently. I can if its a full club yardage or really close to that but its the "right between clubs" shots that are suffering now because I can't quit hitting it hard.
 
Tedfroop said:
I have a baseline and know how far I hit them. I can hit them those yardages no problem, and consistently. Its when I am in between clubs and need to hit to a lesser yardage that I blast close to my normal yardage even when I think I am swinging slow and easy.

To score well you need to put the ball close to the pin consistently. I can if its a full club yardage or really close to that but its the "right between clubs" shots that are suffering now because I can't quit hitting it hard.
Click to expand...

Are you a long hitter? I'm not real long, so my gaps aren't very big. I have two yardages with each club, one normal and one choked up an inch. This covers all the gaps and I can hit every yardage with a full swing. I can't always get it close to the pin because I'm pretty inconsistent, but if I hit it straight it should always be on the green somewhere.
 
I've been working on my swing and have changed all my wedges. This certainly doesn't help in the yardage consistency.. I need to figure out the new distances and hope that my swing won't change much again after the lessons I'll have in the coming months/weeks ;)

As I don't have a rangefinder (yet) I hit balls from the grass at the end of the driving range, back towards the club house. There's big posts, flags and other stuff I know the distances for :)
I have three swings I use: full, "lazy" (slow) and "short but fast" (about half a swing, but shallow thus lower). I just start by taking the Lobwedge and hitting a couple of lazy swings, then a couple of full swings, followed by the fast shorties. Repeat for every club and note the distances in my phone.
works for me :)
 
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