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Which kind of golfer would you rather be?

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JMN57

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Q1 - Would you rather be:
a) someone who can drive the ball 300 yards but is inconsistent with length, strike and direction
b) someone who can drive the ball 250 yards consistently with relatively good distance control (+/- 15 yards) and direction (75%+ in the fairway)

Q2 - which iron profile would you rather have:
A B
5i 200 170
6i 190 160
7i 180 150
8i 160 140
9i 150 130
PW 140 120

where A is inconsistent in distance/direction and B is relatively consistent on distance and direction

Q3 - if you are player A would you try to become consistent with profile B or would you try to make your A game consistent?

These are hypothetical #"s so feel free to translate them into your own framework. The gist of the question is if you could have a game that was 5/6 of your "best" ability but be more consistent would you focus on attaining that or would you focus on raising your consistency of your "best" ability?
 
Player A. It is much easier to learn control than it is distance.
 
Hox30 said:
Player A. It is much easier to learn control than it is distance.
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This. Just like other sports, you can't teach speed.
 
Player A for sure - I would work at my swing to get the direction narrowed down....
 
I am worse than player A and shorter than player B, so I would be pretty happy to be player B!
 
I'd take B in both, consistent and accurate are never a bad thing!
 
I probably would have said "player b" a month or so ago, but now that I am hitting the ball a lot farther, I see the benefit of manhandling a course. On this one hole I played, the suggested layup was 170 yards. Past that is a stream that runs across the fairway. The hole doglegs to the right slightly, and a big tree is there near the stream, making it hard to go directly at the green. Bunkers defend on the left. In the past I would just layup left, and then go straight at the flag on my second shot. This time I went for it, going over the top of the big tree and landing 10 yards from the green. Chip and putt for birdie. The game is just simpler when you can do that. So...I vote "a" for all of the above.
 
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Distance isn't something one can just gain so I will take the distance and learn how to be more accurate so player a it is
 
I'll take player "B." 250 off the tee sounds great to this 68 year old golfer, as well as Player B iron distances. Yeah, you can't teach speed and length, but you can't always teach control without giving up some of that speed and distance. At my age I want to go out and play a decent game of golf, have fun and not work on anything other than a good cigar and BS'ing with my buddies.
 
GenErr said:
I'll take player "B." 250 off the tee sounds great to this 68 year old golfer, as well as Player B iron distances. Yeah, you can't teach speed and length, but you can't always teach control without giving up some of that speed and distance. At my age I want to go out and play a decent game of golf, have fun and not work on anything other than a good cigar and BS'ing with my buddies.
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That's the trade-off that I'm contemplating. I'm not yet 68 - I''m 10 years behind you - and over the last year I've found a lot of distance but I'm thinking I have to swing too hard to get all of that distance and the swinging hard leads to a lot of inconsistency. Over the last couple of months, I've tried to swing with a little less gusto and with a more measured tempo. I've lost distance (down from high 200's with driver to mid-200's) but I'm in the fairway 80%+ of the time. I'm also finding that with my irons, with a slower tempo, I am a lot more consistent. I can hit my 7 iron 190 but I can't do it all the time (maybe 20%). If I slow the tempo, I am comfortable at 155-160 or so with a 7. Also, the slower tempo swing is a lot less punishing on my body.

The point of my third question was whether I (one) should try to control the longer distance or to focus on the shorter distance and being more consistent. I can still swing long on occasion but the question is what should be the "norm".
 
JMN57 said:
That's the trade-off that I'm contemplating. I'm not yet 68 - I''m 10 years behind you - and over the last year I've found a lot of distance but I'm thinking I have to swing too hard to get all of that distance and the swinging hard leads to a lot of inconsistency. Over the last couple of months, I've tried to swing with a little less gusto and with a more measured tempo. I've lost distance (down from high 200's with driver to mid-200's) but I'm in the fairway 80%+ of the time. I'm also finding that with my irons, with a slower tempo, I am a lot more consistent. I can hit my 7 iron 190 but I can't do it all the time (maybe 20%). If I slow the tempo, I am comfortable at 155-160 or so with a 7. Also, the slower tempo swing is a lot less punishing on my body.

The point of my third question was whether I (one) should try to control the longer distance or to focus on the shorter distance and being more consistent. I can still swing long on occasion but the question is what should be the "norm".
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That makes a lot of sense and in the end is completely dependent on you. It's what you want to get out of the game.

If swinging 'too' hard is potentially causing you some problems, then that makes it another issue all together. We all want to play the game, but if it becomes too taxing, maybe playing at a more controllable speed is the better choice.
 
JMN57 said:
Q1 - Would you rather be:
a) someone who can drive the ball 300 yards but is inconsistent with length, strike and direction
b) someone who can drive the ball 250 yards consistently with relatively good distance control (+/- 15 yards) and direction (75%+ in the fairway)

Q2 - which iron profile would you rather have:
A B
5i 200 170
6i 190 160
7i 180 150
8i 160 140
9i 150 130
PW 140 120

where A is inconsistent in distance/direction and B is relatively consistent on distance and direction

Q3 - if you are player A would you try to become consistent with profile B or would you try to make your A game consistent?

These are hypothetical #"s so feel free to translate them into your own framework. The gist of the question is if you could have a game that was 5/6 of your "best" ability but be more consistent would you focus on attaining that or would you focus on raising your consistency of your "best" ability?
Click to expand...

Q1 - B 250 yds +/- 15 yds 75% FW. - this is Lydia Ko's profile

Q2 - Profile B - this would be consistent with profile B driving.

Q3 - I would be spending a lot of time working on my short game and putting and playing on the LPGA tour. :cute:
 
I'm more less a B, and I'm happy with that. I beat a good number of guys that every club longer than me.
 
I'm a B,B, and trying to get longer and more consistent. I'm not too worried about my distance because my drives can keep pace with all my buddies except for the longest of them.
 
I would take player B, that is so much longer than I am it is pitiful.
 
I am pretty close to player a but not as long off the tee.

I'd be player b in a heart beat, that is plenty long for most courses and If I could hut 75% of fairways and be consistent with direction into greens my game would change dramatically.
 
I'd take player B in both for sure. Consistency is what I want and need.
 
I'm pretty much A as it is, so I gotta work with what I got.

I can bomb drives and I can duff them and I can go left or right, but when I get one that is hit pure and goes straight, its just a beautiful sight.

As far as Irons, I'm for the most part consistent, but have my off days.

Forget about hybrids, I cannot hit them very well at all yet but have my occasional good shot.

Chipping I'm ok, but need to work on it.

Putting, never a great thing, but I get some really god ones at times.

Overall, I'm an avergae golfer and I'm ok with it.
 
I can be either on any given day and from a scoring standpoint...player b on both. My lowest score for 9 (until today) I posted teeing off with a 6 iron on 7 of 9 holes to keep it in the fairway. 170 and accurate, left myself low irons into greens...kept everything close.

I once averaged 279 for 18 with my driver on my favorite course, and it was a fun day at times... (overall average is 246 and sliding, so it was an anomaly) but was spraying it all over the course with the irons and I can tell you...for me, the shorter but consistently accurate is more than worth the tradeoff of distance. I score much, much better.
 
B for both. If it takes driver, 6 iron to get a certain distance versus driver, PW who cares it still achieves the same distance and I'd would much rather have the accuracy.
 
AshMan said:
I'm pretty much A as it is, so I gotta work with what I got.

I can bomb drives and I can duff them and I can go left or right, but when I get one that is hit pure and goes straight, its just a beautiful sight.
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i hear you! The best way i can describe my bombs at high altitude country is "majestic". My wife stands behind me when i tee off so she can help me spot where it lands. I just can't see that far. When i get a hold of one, she just says OMG. I wouldn't give that feeling up.
 
I'm a player that wants consistency over distance...so B 250 and straight is my game I don't average quite 250 off the tee and don't care...Irons... 150 is my 7 iron I don't want any more because I don't want to start redoing all my irons..

Lastly I rarely swing at 100%... I swing at about 85%...So there's a little play in each club..
 
jiiim said:
I'm a player that wants consistency over distance...so B 250 and straight is my game I don't average quite 250 off the tee and don't care...Irons... 150 is my 7 iron I don't want any more because I don't want to start redoing all my irons..

Lastly I rarely swing at 100%... I swing at about 85%...So there's a little play in each club..
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You captured the idea I was trying to put on the table in my OP.

For me, I can be player A if I swing close to 100%. In February, I had a short game lesson with a top 100 instructor. After the short game work, we went to the range for the rest of the bag. I was with another guy (it was a whole AM for the 2 of us) and he told us to hit 7 iron. He worked with the other guy so I was just hitting them out onto the range at a flag that I thought was around 160 or so. Nothing was marked. I'd get 1 out of 5 to the flag with the rest coming up 10 yards or so shorter. When he came to me I asked him how far the flag was and he said "Farther than you should be hitting a 7 iron - it's 195".

My player B is a lot more consistent and scores better than my player A.

So, when I go to the range I have a dilemma. Do I swing like player A and try to make that more consistent or do I swing like Player B and try to refine my game around that.

I've come to the conclusion that it is smarter for me to try and be a better player B than try to make player A more consistent (I'm not sure I could ever quite get that done). Scoring matters to me more than hitting mega shots.
 
I would choose player B. I am very close to what you are calling player B (my drives are more like 230-240 though) and I am fine not bombing the ball 280 yards because I make it up in other categories. Give me a consistent 250 yard drive and I would be scoring much lower.
 
JMN57 said:
You captured the idea I was trying to put on the table in my OP.

For me, I can be player A if I swing close to 100%. In February, I had a short game lesson with a top 100 instructor. After the short game work, we went to the range for the rest of the bag. I was with another guy (it was a whole AM for the 2 of us) and he told us to hit 7 iron. He worked with the other guy so I was just hitting them out onto the range at a flag that I thought was around 160 or so. Nothing was marked. I'd get 1 out of 5 to the flag with the rest coming up 10 yards or so shorter. When he came to me I asked him how far the flag was and he said "Farther than you should be hitting a 7 iron - it's 195".

My player B is a lot more consistent and scores better than my player A.

So, when I go to the range I have a dilemma. Do I swing like player A and try to make that more consistent or do I swing like Player B and try to refine my game around that.

I've come to the conclusion that it is smarter for me to try and be a better player B than try to make player A more consistent (I'm not sure I could ever quite get that done). Scoring matters to me more than hitting mega shots.
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You know more distance never hurts if you can apply it with accuracy...I've played a long time and long ago settled on accuracy...The distance I hit the clubs I now play allows me to shoot par at every course inside of 7000 yards...Do the math on your distances and see..It may give you a little food for thought...

You know your dilemma is one that many fight with....I can only tell you after years of playing like I have.. I get very upset if shots start not ending up close to where I planed for it to go...Or if I start getting tails on my shots that I don't want....But all that goes to I want accuracy...I'm not young any longer so I've settled in..If I were a younger man and could get more distance I would probable go for it as long as I could assure myself that at some point I would get the accuracy...I think golf without accuracy is not worth playing...

Many years ago I played with what I would have considered a older person [ of coarse now I think differently haha ] Anyway he was a good player and got me by a few strokes...He made many beautiful shots under full control that I admired...not long but not short....I still remember that round probably 30 years ago...And I remember that I wished for his obvious control of his shots and his game...No one wants to play with someone that hits it all over the place...A quality shot is admired by all unless it costs them a game haha Good luck with you journey..You sound like a person that is seriously looking to make the right decision don't worry You'll get there..
 
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