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You want to increase your GIR %, so you...

Don't aim at the flag, just aim at the center of the green & move on. No chance to short side yourself.
 
golfinnut said:
Don't aim at the flag, just aim at the center of the green & move on. No chance to short side yourself.
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So have you never played a hole where being on the correct side of the green (left or right) is what matters most?

Like a ridge or high spot in the middle, if the ball lands a yard right of the ridge it feeds 20, 30, 40 feet right and if it lands a yard left of the ridge it feeds 20, 30, 40 feet left?

I play holes like that all the time. Aiming at the middle of the green when the hole is placed on one side or another is a terrible place to aim.

I learned to play golf on a public course where the smart spot to aim was the middle of just about every green. No matter where the hole was cut that day. Fine when you're a beginner but gets really boring once you have some idea of where your shots are going.
 
I forget which golf announcer (maybe Henry Longhurst?) used to say, "If you are in the center of the green you can never be very far from the pin." Knowing that, I'm still a pin seeker and when my game id "on" it pays off! :)
 
Et Tu Brute? said:
So have you never played a hole where being on the correct side of the green (left or right) is what matters most?

Like a ridge or high spot in the middle, if the ball lands a yard right of the ridge it feeds 20, 30, 40 feet right and if it lands a yard left of the ridge it feeds 20, 30, 40 feet left?

I play holes like that all the time. Aiming at the middle of the green when the hole is placed on one side or another is a terrible place to aim.
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I've played golf for over 40+ years, way before the time of green reading books, GPS, range finders, etc. So unless you are familiar with the golf course or particular hole, then you are at the mercy of the golfing gods. So you take the bounces, whether good or bad.
And how often are tour players playing a course they aren't familiar with? Unless you are new on Tour, it doesn't happen that often.
 
golfinnut said:
I've played golf for over 40+ years, way before the time of green reading books, GPS, range finders, etc. So unless you are familiar with the golf course or particular hole, then you are at the mercy of the golfing gods. So you take the bounces, whether good or bad.
And how often are tour players playing a course they aren't familiar with? Unless you are new on Tour, it doesn't happen that often.
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I don't quite understand what you mean. I wasn't talking about blind shots on a course you've never seen before. Just talking about why you don't aim at the middle of the green when being on the wrong side of a ridge means being 50 feet from the hole putting up and over.

If there's a ridge through the middle of a big green and the hole is on the right side, you aim on the right side.

Or if the hole is on the left you aim at the left.

Same applies by the way if there's a back shelf on a green and the hole is cut near the front. Nobody with any sense would club for the back of the green when being 30 or 40 feet above the hole means you're likely to putt it off the front of the green.
 
Phil75070 said:
I forget which golf announcer (maybe Henry Longhurst?) used to say, "If you are in the center of the green you can never be very far from the pin." Knowing that, I'm still a pin seeker and when my game id "on" it pays off! :)
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Well when Longhurst was playing golf the green probably Stimped about 3.5 and being above the hole was no big deal.

But I'm going to bow out of the discussion. I should be getting used to the fact that any forum discussion about approach shots will assume small, circular, flat greens where all that matters is being somewhere on the putting surface.
 
Et Tu Brute? said:
I think that conclusion came with an easy to overlook asterisk attached...

*For those golfers who do not duff, shank, foozle, chili-dip and outright whiff at ten or more shots per round.
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That was my thought too; it almost assumes that you are at least getting the tee shot in a position to approach the green with an iron most of the time. Still, there's a lot of ways to get that done effectively without having to be a great ball-striker.

Irons are a whole different animal. It takes considerable skill to a) be able to dial in your distances with each iron consistently, 2) be able to hit and hold greens with the middle and longer irons, and 3) vary the trajectory and shot shape to maximize chances of hitting greens. A big part of that is approaching the ball with some forward shaft lean at impact and this is something that a lot of golfers struggle with (incidentally, it's also why many struggle with the short game and why I think short game skills are more important than anything for scoring - but this thread is about GIR, which probably is a less important goal for many golfers than say, breaking 100 or breaking 90).
 
Gain 30 yards on your drives
 
Step 1: New irons, conduct testing.
Step 2: New wedges, conduct testing.
Step 3: New driver, conduct testing.
Step 4: New fairway wood, conduct testing.

Optional
Step 5: Try Arccos.


Joking aside, knowing all my actual yardages (and their relative gapping) helped me a ton! Now I’m comfortable taking each club and knowing how far I can hit it, but also where I statistically will hit it.

I found that I didn’t need to be as aggressive off the tee because I found that I was just as consistent with my 7i as I was my PW.

From there, I could track tendencies - where did I usually miss etc. It’s been a huge game-changer for my game.
 
Start clubbing up to hit the center of the green... Far too often I am coming up short VS long on greens
 
Et Tu Brute? said:
....small, circular, flat greens where all that matters is being somewhere on the putting surface.
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I can tell you the greens at the course I belonged to for the last three years and now this year are far, far from resembling that! Turns out the guy who designed the previous course I belonged to collaborated with Fred Couples on the course I belong to now, which explains they are so similar and diabolical.
 
Phil75070 said:
I can tell you the greens at the course I belonged to for the last three years and now this year are far, far from resembling that! Turns out the guy who designed the previous course I belonged to collaborated with Fred Couples on the course I belong to now, which explains they are so similar and diabolical.
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Then surely there are many times when a hole is cut on one side or in one corner of the green and you're better off being below the hole even if it's a yard or two off the putting surface than you would be 50-60 feet away with a double-breaking putt that has to go up and over a ridge?

In a normal round I'll have plenty of approach shots where aiming for the center is the sensible play (I actually would line up a little off-center so my usual not quite straight shot is aimed at the center). But there will be other holes where I aim at the center of one section of the green because there's a ridge that I want no part of putting across from long range.

It also depends on how long a shot we're talking. If I have a wedge or 9-iron approach shot then a sensible shot to the area near the hole makes sense. If I'm coming in with a mid-iron or hybrid and the green is surrounded by water and/or bunkers I'm going into safety mode and just aiming at the widest open area anywhere on or near the green!
 
Et Tu Brute? said:
Then surely there are many times when a hole is cut on one side or in one corner of the green and you're better off being below the hole even if it's a yard or two off the putting surface than you would be 50-60 feet away with a double-breaking putt that has to go up and over a ridge?

In a normal round I'll have plenty of approach shots where aiming for the center is the sensible play (I actually would line up a little off-center so my usual not quite straight shot is aimed at the center). But there will be other holes where I aim at the center of one section of the green because there's a ridge that I want no part of putting across from long range.

It also depends on how long a shot we're talking. If I have a wedge or 9-iron approach shot then a sensible shot to the area near the hole makes sense. If I'm coming in with a mid-iron or hybrid and the green is surrounded by water and/or bunkers I'm going into safety mode and just aiming at the widest open area anywhere on or near the green!
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So many ways to think your way around the course, and so many variables. Each hole is unique, each golfer is unique, so each approach to any certain shot will be unique. I love looking at different thought processes, and then testing them to see what works, or what doesn't work, for me.
 
Daddio said:
Not sure if it will help you but the way I did it was pretty easy for me. Maybe 2 hours devoted to gather all the info needed to build my system. After that I might hit a few balls at range targets every now and then just to insure things are still valid. Or I'll make a note and change a value if I'm consistently seeing a different result when on the course. But the swing and feels are always the same and simple that I haven't had to work hard at it ... And the birdies when I'm in a scoring zone are just happening so much more often now.

I just found it to be so much simpler to hit various clubs to known lasered distances than trying to make set swings (3/4, 10 o'clock or whatever) and then recording whatever that swing gave me.

So I set out measured targets. Those little placards my tree or yard guy leave behind after a treatment work great. Then swang various clubs and recorded what each felt like when I was carrying to a target. Swing was always the same. Same easy tempo. Only thing that changes is length it feels like to me. So if I'm wanting 85 yards carry it'd feel like I was swinging my SW hat to hat, my PW shoulder to shoulder, or my 8i chest to chest. 115 either a full PW chocked down 1/2" or a Cink to Cink 9 iron. Which I use depends upon what I want ball to do when it lands etc... I don't care if I'm actually swinging to those points, just matters what it should feel like to me when I'm trying to nab that birdie.

I don't worry about the normal setup stuff. I'm naturally going to stand a little closer to the ball and narrow my stance a little as desired yardage gets shorter. I don't worry about quantifying how much, that minutia happens on it's own. Facing a shot I only want to think about swing length and swinging positively. I do that and its almost automatic.

I carry this card in my pocket. Don't laugh at my old man short knocker numbers. As you can see I need to capitalize on those scoring opps when I get them. This has really upped my conversion rate.
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That's brilliant, to be honest. Simple and brilliant.
 
Hamfist said:
That's brilliant, to be honest. Simple and brilliant.
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Love the reference guide, which reduces 2nd guessing, and would give me the confidence to just trust the swing I'm about to make.
 
gkeller813 said:
Your GIR's aren't where you want them. What do you do? Train differently? Change your on course mentality? Get new irons ;). What's your approach?
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I’m all for playing a course with larger greens. 😆. But seriously, I need to improve my iron play.
 
Bernoulli said:
I’m all for playing a course with larger greens. 😆. But seriously, I need to improve my iron play.
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You and me both!

I want to improve my GIR because I think it'll lead to lower scores. I also want to have more confidence in my irons, and I play my best when I trust my club selection. I'm hoping all these suggestions will help my iron play, and allow others to rethink how they hit irons.
 
if you really want to increase your GIR#, play shorter tees. I think most people are hung up on that they need to play 6500 yards. Sure, if you drive the ball 260+ and your 7i is going 180 then distance off the tee isn’t really an issue. However, for most amateurs they play the wrong distance leaving their approach shots at 175-185 and using long irons or hybrids too often.
 
Well distances were much better last night. Admittedly the course I played is quite short, but the few times I had approaches over 80 I grabbed one more club than I normally would have and managed to either hit the green or have the distance correct but be off directionally. Nice to see the results play out that way, results seen can help me rein in the ego :LOL:
 
thewilderside said:
Well distances were much better last night. Admittedly the course I played is quite short, but the few times I had approaches over 80 I grabbed one more club than I normally would have and managed to either hit the green or have the distance correct but be off directionally. Nice to see the results play out that way, results seen can help me rein in the ego :LOL:
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Awesome! Glad you put a plan into action, and saw good results. Excited to see how this progresses!
 
thewilderside said:
Well distances were much better last night. Admittedly the course I played is quite short, but the few times I had approaches over 80 I grabbed one more club than I normally would have and managed to either hit the green or have the distance correct but be off directionally. Nice to see the results play out that way, results seen can help me rein in the ego :LOL:
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I guess my question is "one more club than what"? Have you been basing your club selection on incorrect information about how far each club goes?

Or maybe I should ask, what were you basing your "ego" distances on?
 
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