Iron distance re-calibration

Practice
#1

I’m wondering how often you all “re-calibrate” your iron distances. I’m in Utah, so I play in a wide range of temps and conditions that certainly has an affect on distances for each club. Temps in Jan could be around 30, and climb to 105 in the summer months. Right now we bounce between mid 40’s and mid 60’s.

Do you all re-calibrate with a PRGR every time you play - depending on the day…or do you do it once or twice a year and then just use math on temp changes?

I don’t have a monitor (yet), but wondering if I should go back to the range with the monitor and get a better feel for yardages again now that it is warming up some.

1 Like
#2

I hate to say I’m a feel player, but I’m a feel player…

I know how far I can hit irons, how far I usually hit irons and how far a mediocre swing goes “on average” and then I adjust from there on the course with the conditions.

#3

Arccos has been great in that it gives me both average ranges and a live look at how I’m hitting it that day.

2 Likes
#4

I own a PRGR, but I have NOT used it for distance (yet). I am a practice junkie, I go to the range in first week of April and First week of October. I hit 25 balls with each club to measured targets and that’s where I get my numbers. I have lost about 10 yds off my long irons, I have lost 5 yds off my lofted clubs and mid irons from 3 years ago… This year I took a sharpie and wrote those distances on the back of my irons ala Westie. Those numbers are super important to me because I play to numbers and green quadrants. I have played enough to know to take percentages off of stock yardages as temperature and humidity fluctuate

#5

For elevation I find that 1000ft = 2% works well and is something that I use quite a bit. I play most my rounds in Edmonton (~2000ft of elevation), but also play rounds on Vancouver Island (sea level), the mountains (usually 4000-5000ft), and Calgary (~3500ft).

Temperature I have a lot harder time with. Truth be told, I don’t notice much of a difference between cool and hot (which up here means about 50 vs 90), but notice a huge drop off in distance once the temperature starts dipping into the 40’s and 30’s. Any calibration is usually done of the first few holes of a round.

#6

Great responses…thanks all. So do any of you see any significant differences in carry distances from grass vs the carpet? The range near me with monitors is out of carpeted bays.

#7

I note the carry distances on course… the nice thing about the watch is having front/ back/ middle

More accurate as you are using real g balls

#8

I’m with Craigers and have always adjusted for conditions by feel. I know in April when it’s 40 I could need a 6i for 150, but I’ll be using an 8i in June. It’s probably the toughest part about playing in the Spring and Fall as the temps vary widely here in New England and it can get really windy.

I started using the 18birdies app this year and it’s interesting as it seems to factor in elevation, temp, and wind to provide a “plays like” yardage and it seems somewhat accurate. I think where it’s questionable is when the wind is gusting and swirling which unfortunately is a lot at my course.

#9

Somewhat the same for me here in western NY. I’ll work off my “base” Summer yardage and adjust clubbing based on temperature, wind and, sometimes, how I’m feeling that day.

1 Like
#10

My iron swing has been called: “to die for”, because it is fairly upright and I get a very consistent high fade. I take very shallow divots, so whether I hit off carpet or grass distance is relatively stable. In general you will find range balls carry 10% less or so than that of your playing ball. It’s still a tad cold here, but my stock 7i is carrying 164. So distance is important, but even more important is dispersion. The dispersion rate with that runs this way: in the form of a V pattern and for me, once I get warmed up on the range I can hone it in to around 38-42ft from that 164. The more I hit the tighter the pattern gets on the range. My Wedge game is way tighter than that, closer to in general 20-24ft same thing, Hit 25 balls in a row with a wedge you might start 40 ft dispersion, but somewhere around 10th ball you’ll really see how accurate you will become with repetitions. I had one practice session in my youth where we put 3 beer barrels (the big suckers you put kegs in with ice they are like 3.5 ft around) out side by side in a ballantines circle with fluff in them and dropped 9 outta 25 after I warmed up with a SW from 85 yds out. That is really, really tight. I love to practice! Just track those for propensities because when you want to pull say your stock 7i which might only be 2x a round, you want to know your tendencies in distance, but more important, where to align yourself relative to the green. Notice I didn’t say hole! Currently, I am really struggling with Driver, I was ok for about 2 weeks, but I have really altered alot with the Driver hoping for more distance…That part of my game is ATROCIOUS right now! My V is more like a WW (for WAY WIDE) trying to keep it on planet earth right now. But, the more you practice the better you will become. I might only go to the range with 1 club, sometimes 2. Standard of 2 buckets a session and I beat my brains in with purpose.

#11

I carry irons farther on mats mostly due to a reduction in spin rate.

#12

I’ve gotten on trackman from time to time and used it condition neutral to get carry distances.

I know in the summer it will go further (maybe + 1/2 club or so) and in winter less (maybe a little more than 1/2 club), but I can generally gauge off of those base numbers and adjust after hitting a few shots.

#13

Damn you people and your math!!!..I didn’t start playing golf to do equations…lol.

Yeah - sounds like I need to hit the monitor again and sharpen up…then do some math/estimation based on surface (ie…mats vs grass), temperature, etc.

Thanks all!

3 Likes
#14

Actually, save time - don’t. Get in a few after work 9’s. Forget Trackman and its ilk, forget mat/grass, etc. just go out and play.

Back when I took golf seriously, my first 3-4 outings of the year would be evening nine and dines, hitting irons only. I knew that my game pivoted on iron play, so I got a burst of holes-with-irons at start of season. It helped me dial in tempo, rhythm, ball position, yardage, etc. It was probably the only practice session that I did that made any sense.

1 Like
#15

So I had some very different numbers this time around (14-18 yards per club)…certainly not all temp difference (20* warmer than my last measured session in Jan), but also more swings and a better groove this time of year. Probably a good indicator that I should re-check monthly or so and/or with big temperature swings.

I’m fascinated by how trackman and other monitors work. Any experts out there? I assume it only tracks impact…not actual distance…and uses the club speed, launch angle, path, ball speed, etc to plug into algorithms and estimate carry and total (and all the rest)…right? So does it actually see the type of ball (practice vs 2 piece vs 3 piece) and take that into account, or does it just see every ball the same for the milliseconds at and after impact?

@jon which article do you test the differences? Does trackman also take into account surface types?

I guess I’m wondering what is accurate and how precise. I assume carry is fairly accurate, but total is less precise because it doesn’t actually see you land. Just wondering if it also sees different ball types too.