Relative Importance of Clubs

Tenputt

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I have been using the Arccos 360 for a bit now. I have played 7, 18 hole rounds, 2, 9 hole rounds and one round aborted after 15 holes. In order of usage:

Putter - 294 putts
driver - 108 strokes
lob wedge - 71 strokes
56 degree - wedge 38 strokes
gap wedge - 17 strokes
pw - 17 strokes
9i - 20 strokes
8i - 18 strokes
7i - 16 strokes
6i - 10 strokes

(I have been interchanging fairway woods, hybrids and 5 irons, so I do not have an equivalent data base for those clubs.)

Although we all intuitively know that we use our putters, wedges and drivers more than the other clubs, seeing it graphically really tells me where I need to spend my time practicing. I need to work on putting, short game and the driver. Again, no surprise, but I literally spent all winter indoors working with a coach on my full iron swing and I am not sure that it makes all that much difference in my scoring.
 
Interesting. What club do you usually use for chipping? lob wedge? If you're GIR improved would you see that number go down? I would also lump all the irons together when counting them. When your working on full shot swings with a 7i it translates to the other irons too.
 
Interesting. What club do you usually use for chipping? lob wedge? If you're GIR improved would you see that number go down? I would also lump all the irons together when counting them. When your working on full shot swings with a 7i it translates to the other irons too.

I am hitting over 60 percent GIR during this period. On the courses I play, I hit quite a few lob wedges on par 5s, where I am 30 to 70 yards from the green. I use 56 degree and lob wedge for all of my chipping and green side sand shots. Good point on the aggregating the irons as one type of club.
 
I would also lump all the irons together when counting them. When your working on full shot swings with a 7i it translates to the other irons too.

Agree with this. Irons should be primarily counted as either one club, or broken down into long and short irons. Does show how much putting means though.

Cool way to look at what you use shots wise. I put a lot of emphasis on certain spots in my bag, when in the end it's probably only accounting for a couple shots a round, if that.
 
To me, the most important club isn't always the one that's used the most, but the one that gives you the best opportunity to shoot lower scores. Then I think it varies by skill level. On a given hole, you'll probably always use your putter more than your driver, but I would argue that the driver is more important. For a lower handicapper, I would think driver and short irons are the most important. At that level, you have to think about hitting solid drives, and then hitting it close with short irons to convert birdie chances. You could try to work on making more 30 footers, but I think it would be hard to see any meaningful progress there - that's almost always a two putt, even for tour players.
 
I forgot to mention, if you changed your screen name would the number of putts go down?:alien:
 
To me, the most important club isn't always the one that's used the most, but the one that gives you the best opportunity to shoot lower scores. Then I think it varies by skill level. On a given hole, you'll probably always use your putter more than your driver, but I would argue that the driver is more important. For a lower handicapper, I would think driver and short irons are the most important. At that level, you have to think about hitting solid drives, and then hitting it close with short irons to convert birdie chances. You could try to work on making more 30 footers, but I think it would be hard to see any meaningful progress there - that's almost always a two putt, even for tour players.

I can agree to a point, but I think you have it backwards IMO. Putting is king the lower you go scores wise, at least at high levels. If you're already down to single digits, your tee shots should probably be decent anyway, or your shoot game is really good. Putting is the main difference typically the lower you go.

Mid to high handicaps tend to be able to improve a lot with tee and short game though. I've seen plenty of people be halfway decent putting, but take 6 shots just to get on the green.

But yes, it will be relative to each person on which club could necessarily be the difference to the scores, and sometimes even from round to round.
 
I can agree to a point, but I think you have it backwards IMO. Putting is king the lower you go scores wise, at least at high levels. If you're already down to single digits, your tee shots should probably be decent anyway, or your shoot game is really good. Putting is the main difference typically the lower you go.

Mid to high handicaps tend to be able to improve a lot with tee and short game though. I've seen plenty of people be halfway decent putting, but take 6 shots just to get on the green.

But yes, it will be relative to each person on which club could necessarily be the difference to the scores, and sometimes even from round to round.

Just food for thought... Strokes gained stats from the top 5 players in PGA tour scoring average:

DJ - Putting .55, Tee to Green 2.0
Rose - Putting .63, Tee to Green 1.5
Stenson - Putting .16, Tee to Green 1.6
J. Thomas - Putting .26, Tee to Green 1.6
Tommy Fleetwood - Putting .13, Tee to Green 1.4

Even at the highest level, the best players are picking up more than 4 times as many shots with their driver/irons than with their putter.
 
Interesting. What club do you usually use for chipping? lob wedge? If you're GIR improved would you see that number go down? I would also lump all the irons together when counting them. When your working on full shot swings with a 7i it translates to the other irons too.

I’m not sure I agree with this. Everything inside 100 yards for me isn’t the same swing as my full iron shots. There are pitches, chips, lobs, bump and runs with an 8 Iron, bunker shots and suchlike to consider where the swing varies substantially from hitting a 7 Iron from 165 yards.
 
Just food for thought... Strokes gained stats from the top 5 players in PGA tour scoring average:

DJ - Putting .55, Tee to Green 2.0
Rose - Putting .63, Tee to Green 1.5
Stenson - Putting .16, Tee to Green 1.6
J. Thomas - Putting .26, Tee to Green 1.6
Tommy Fleetwood - Putting .13, Tee to Green 1.4

Even at the highest level, the best players are picking up more than 4 times as many shots with their driver/irons than with their putter.

True, that is interesting. But how much of that is because they are all for the most part phenomenal putters compared to the rest of the world? Also, the person who tends to win each week tends to be the best putter of the group of best ball strikers for the week.

In the end, it's all important haha. But yea I see your point.
 
I can agree to a point, but I think you have it backwards IMO. Putting is king the lower you go scores wise, at least at high levels. If you're already down to single digits, your tee shots should probably be decent anyway, or your shoot game is really good. Putting is the main difference typically the lower you go.

Mid to high handicaps tend to be able to improve a lot with tee and short game though. I've seen plenty of people be halfway decent putting, but take 6 shots just to get on the green.

But yes, it will be relative to each person on which club could necessarily be the difference to the scores, and sometimes even from round to round.

My score is directly tied to how many fairways I hit. I just have a lot of trouble getting the ball in play off the tee. Meanwhile I have a really good full iron swing, I’m pretty good with a wedge, and I putt pretty good.
 
Cool little stat package.
I ultimately agree with your conclusion that practicing putting, short game, and driver the most is probably the most beneficial. This season my iron play has been a little suspect but I find I'm still able to maintain my handicap by keeping the areas mentioned relatively sharp.
 
Ive long felt that the putter, driver and wedges are the most important clubs in the bag.
 
Ive long felt that the putter, driver and wedges are the most important clubs in the bag.

Same here. I think you can break it down further and say that the highest handicaps should either improve with driver first or find something that keeps them in play off the tee. Once that is done you should be a mid-capper and focusing on either short game or putting (or both) to get you to low teens/high single digits, and finally focus on tightening up whatever is left.

My scores are directly tied to my tee game as well. I can shoot sub-40 9 hole rounds from the senior tees playing just irons and staying out of trouble, but am more around 45 when I move back and play driver. And averaging 280+ off the tee, it’s not the distance that hurts, it’s my ability with the specific club in hand.
 
It doesn't really surprise me all that much. I am not a long hitter so I probably hit quite a few more 6I-8I than you but still sure mine would be putter, Driver, GW, PW. This is the general trend in golf anyway. We have a local to where I am that had some success on one of the mini tours. Never even close to taking the next step but a solid mini tour player. He hits the ball an absolute MILE to us locals. he says that all the guys out there basically hit it a mile and have amazing short games. he says that really the mini tour guys aren't any better iron ball strikers than a solid local scratch golfer is. it's all about distance and short game.
 
Same here. I think you can break it down further and say that the highest handicaps should either improve with driver first or find something that keeps them in play off the tee. Once that is done you should be a mid-capper and focusing on either short game or putting (or both) to get you to low teens/high single digits, and finally focus on tightening up whatever is left.

My scores are directly tied to my tee game as well. I can shoot sub-40 9 hole rounds from the senior tees playing just irons and staying out of trouble, but am more around 45 when I move back and play driver. And averaging 280+ off the tee, it’s not the distance that hurts, it’s my ability with the specific club in hand.


Agree. If I can keep my tee shots in play, I will score well. I don’t though, so that is the area or my game that needs the most work.
 
here is what those guys all really have in common.....they are some of the best drivers of the golf ball on tour.
Fleetwood #2 total driving
Rose #7 total driving
DJ and Thomas are tied for #8 in driving distance
and Stenson is #1 in driving accuracy
It's why the entire mindset of....start w/ the putter and work your way backwards to pick your ball is IMHO not the correct philosophy for your AVERAGE club player.
 
True, that is interesting. But how much of that is because they are all for the most part phenomenal putters compared to the rest of the world? Also, the person who tends to win each week tends to be the best putter of the group of best ball strikers for the week.

In the end, it's all important haha. But yea I see your point.

I think the key is to get your ball closer to the hole where your probability of making the putt increases. Even if you're 25 feet away instead of 30 feet there is an incrementally greater probability any golfer makes the 25 footer than the 30 footer. It may only be 2% or 3% more often, but every 100 times you're in that situation you pick up a stroke. I think what the stats above show is that improving your approach game so that you are on average 5 feet closer to the hole on every shot to the green would decrease the number of putts you take without working on putting at all.

On tour some of who wins every week is a statistical anomaly. They are all great ball-strikers and any given week there will be 20 or so guys hitting the ball really well. Of those 20 or so guys one of them is going to hit 2 or 3 more 20'+ putts than the rest of them of them and he will win. Some other week the same guy will miss 2 or 3 more than the rest of those guys and be 6 strokes back ties for 20th or whatever. Probability plays a huge role in golf and understanding it is key to course management and practice time allocation.
 
If I'm driving very poorly, I maybe hitting 3 from the tee. If I'm putting poorly, I'm not suffering equally stroke-wise by 4-putting.

Yes, consistency with the putter will undoubtedly lower scores. But inconsistency with the driver, at least for me, is at least equally as bad as inconsistency with putter. Worse actually, in the past (hope it stays in the past!).
 
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