Love it! Great to hear of your progress. Let’s go!
I agree. Consistent and predictable iron play is what lowers scores.
Whats next for you?
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@Qschool My hook cured itself after I started hitting lots of shanks. I cured my shanks by pulling my hands in closer to the body through impact and this has straightened out my swing path giving me straight to slight pull iron shots and the odd pull draw. Also the 6th hole at my course had the tee alongside the ob fence aiming at the trees on the left(tee usually 6m further left and about 3-4m higher)The only way to find the fairway is a dead straight drive alongside the trees bordering ob or hit a fade/slice. I worked out how to hit a power fade and now it has ruined my ability to hit draws so I am fading my driver. I am now more consistent off the tee helping me play some great golf
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Sounds like putting is next! 
Congrats on the power fade instead of the weak wipey slice.
It would be hard for me to see the course from the other side since i have an ingrained draw.
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@Qschool I have never had a weak wipey slice. I used my hook swing with a more open face to get my power fade. I am averaging 32 putts a round. My nemisis is trees. My bunker play has imroved since I swapped from sand wedge to lob wedge. Just need to hit more gir Today I shot 15 over with only 3gir (4p and 1bi)
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Sounds like the tour is next then. Just pick links courses. Good luck!
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@Qschool No where near it and never will be. I never practice apart from playing 6 days a week and my best round is 7 over
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Great article.
I know this has been said a hundred times but the coverage on TV is often pushing the myth that professional players should be within 10feet from 100 yards - or closer !
So often a commentator will tell me how disappointed a player would be when they stop one 20feet from the hole with their wedge.
I think I read here somewhere that they should show these averages as circular graphics on the screen.
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Loving all the podcasts and listening to them multiple times for gems that were not apparent first time (or second) through.
Can you guys provide some tips for assessing lie in the rough? How would you know when hybrid is too deep and short irons would be optimal?
More important for me right now, how do you recognize flier lie situation? I think i hit my first three in my life yesterday after 25 years of golf. Im historically always sweeper and never had to worry, but suddenly after incorporating some suggestions, i’m hitting down on ball. Unfortunately all three went ob long (shockingly long) but i’m hoping thats forward progress.
Do you take one less club? Choke up an inch? Punch it? How to estimate flier distance effect—is it different for different clubs?
Thanks!
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As I understand it…and I may not at all, it’s a backspin effect. The grass gets between the ball and clubhead, vastly lowering the coefficient of friction. The ball still rebounds off the clubface, but there isn’t as much torque applied to the outer surface of the ball. Backspin is greatly reduced.
OK, backspin’s gone, now what? Backspin provides, via the Magnus Effect, lift on a sphere like a golf ball. Drag comes along with lift. When there’s lift, there’s drag. Consequently, there isn’t as much lift on the ball holding it up from a pure ballistic trajectory, but there’s a lot less drag too. Velocity is going to remain higher, for longer, but ball flight will be more purely parabolic. The ball will run a lot more after impact too without a lot of backspin.
I expect the effect to be most pronounced where backspin is most prevalent, and that should be with short irons/wedges. Is that the case, everyone? That said, “greasing” the ball, applying Vaseline to the ball and/or driver face, to reduce friction and reduce spin, was supposed to be ‘one of those secrets’ Vegas guys used to get more distance and less offline drives. (No idea if Notah Begay’s infamous alleged spitting on the ball had the same effect)
I would ‘expect’ the flier effect to be where sufficient grass could get between the ball and face to kill friction, but not so much that firm solid contact with the center of the ball and the accelerating clubhead, couldn’t be achieved. Since you’ve stated you’ve been hitting downward more, and probably getting more compression on your strikes (though that’s not the only way to achieve that), you’ve been getting more spin. And really noticing now when the spin goes away.
Go to Trackman or Foresight’s online ‘Launch simulator’ and monkey around with spin values for a given clubhead speed and angle of attack, (EDIT: BZZZT!! It’s Flightscope’s. Here: https://flightscope.com/products/trajectory-optimizer/)
for a much better estimate of the effect than I could give you. My guess, from vaguely remembering Greg Norman’s golf book, where he discussed fliers, was that it was up to a 3-club effect. Though he did talk about a 300 yd 5-iron…so, yeah.
Me? I’d take one club less, for the carry, but I’d expect it to run. Judging by my ‘hit the ball’s equator’ shots—which also should really minimize backspin—jeez, another 30-40 yards of run for say a 7 iron?
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This thread has been here a while 
, but yes Jon…
Several decades ago I did a half-assed “analysis” of my game via multiple regression. The dependent variable was Score while the independent variables were fairways hit, GIR and number of putts. It was an unsophisticated effort, but an effort nonetheless.
The results showed that far and away, of these variables, the most significant was GIR. Yeah, it’s the iron game.
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I have an interesting take on this having picked up close to 50yds on my driver, about 20 yds each on my 3W and 19*Hy. I think I have mentioned more than a few times how I learned this game 40+ years ago. I learned from the hole out, not from the Tee box out. The single most important part of the game is the flat stick. The second is 35yds on in. Us normal guys are going to miss more GIR than make. Before this year I might have been avg 36%. The added distance jumped that to 48%. That’s huge. Hitting 9 irons on down on a lot of holes jumped that percentage way up. The day a few weeks back I shot 69. I only hit 9 GIR. I had several nice saves, but I also made 5 bogeys. You can’t miss any 3 or 4 footers. Being able to hit the short irons helps, ALOT! Keeping the ball in play off the box means a lot, I’m back to planning my approaches a lot now, where do I want my miss tendency to be. Im back to committing, like I have said many times, to each shot one at a time. Stop worrying about the last shot, don’t worry about the next shot, plan the current shot only. When you break it down, putter, iron, fw, tee ball. I don’t think anything is any more important than the other. 420yd par 4.Your Driver is most important until the second shot. Cuz if that second is coming outta the woods. You’re already behind the 8 ball playing for no worse than bogey.
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Yup
GIR + nGIR is actually a good swag for strokes gained tee to green
Your driver performance is a big piece of GIR
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I got bored and over analyzed the “Which players would you pick” tweet from Golf Digest on twitter…
Tiger in the best year of his career, was 2.0 strokes gained vs the field.
Morikawa was at 1.17 this year…
They both do other things well, but Tiger consistently put himself into a position to make putts and win tournaments.
Bryson has tried to pick up strokes on the field with driver, and gained 1.162 strokes last year.
What was most interesting is how little the “famed” short game guys picked up around the green… Patrick Reed being the best at .368…
Putting is a little different, Jason Day’s best year he picked up 1.13
Obviously all parts of the game are important. Tiger did pretty much everything well… but his iron play is what truly separated him.
Strategic iron play is what sets you up for potential birdie and removes the big numbers from the card. Having a good drive set you up for an easy iron shot is great. Having a putting game to convert opportunity into birdie is awesome… but moving the ball from the fairway onto the green makes the biggest difference.
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My personal hill to climb with the iron game is the 170-200 yards. Can’t hit like some of these young kids. directional control for the approach shot is the key to put the golf ball on the section of the green which will give the best chance for one putt.
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Craigers: I am not saying that iron play from the FW isn’t important; it is…I always have a hard time comparing any Touring Pros on any TOUR to us…but Tiger career wise is about 11.5 GIR, Colin this year was around 13 GIR. Those are the BEST in the world. I improved this year starting around 5.7GIR and ending the year at 8.2 GIR…my added distance on a 6000yd course put 9i on down in my hand on 5 extra holes, not hitting 7irons on up on those 5 holes on average. It made a huge difference, I picked up almost 3 more GIR with those short irons. If I moved back another 200-300 yds my percentage would definitely drop. I compare myself to ME and basically others like me. For us regulars, we gotta get it in play first with some distance and if that means moving up to match your true distance off the box so be it. For us I think you will find we gain more strokes against “OUR FIELDS” off the tee, and around and on the greens. I use this tool alot and against like handicaps I pick up close 3.5 every round. Free Putting Calculator
Your Handicap
| Distance from hole | Putts | Expected Avg Putts | Strokes Gained | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 2.12 | 0.12 | |
| 2 | 2 | 2.21 | 0.21 | |
| 3 | 1 | 2.01 | 1.01 | |
| 4 | 1 | 2.21 | 1.21 | |
| 5 | 2 | 2.05 | 0.05 | |
| 6 | 1 | 1.21 | 0.21 | |
| 7 | 1 | 2.21 | 1.21 | |
| 8 | 2 | 2.34 | 0.34 | |
| 9 | 1 | 1.73 | 0.73 | |
| Front | 13 | 18.09 | 5.09 |
| Distance from hole | Putts | Expected Avg Putts | Strokes Gained | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 2 | 1.73 | -0.27 | |
| 11 | 1 | 1.65 | 0.65 | |
| 12 | 2 | 2.18 | 0.18 | |
| 13 | 1 | 2.07 | 1.07 | |
| 14 | 2 | 2.12 | 0.12 | |
| 15 | 1 | 2.18 | 1.18 | |
| 16 | 1 | 2.12 | 1.12 | |
| 17 | 2 | 1.86 | -0.14 | |
| 18 | 2 | 1.65 | -0.35 | |
| Back | 14 | 17.56 | 3.56 |
| Total Strokes | 27 |
|---|---|
| Expected Strokes | 35.66 |
| Strokes Gained | 8.66 |
This was the day I shot 69…I picked up 8.66 shots on a comparable 8.6 hdcp player. I only hit 50% GIR that day
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One really good use of statistics is to evaluate your game as compared to similar handicaps. If you typically gain 3.5 strokes against similar handicap players putting, somewhere along the way you lose 3.5 strokes to those same players. Wherever it is that you lose those strokes, that’s what you should work to improve.
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100% correct. I lose those strokes on around the green…I have to improve the 35-40 yard game I lose probably 4-5 strokes a round on that specific part of my game. Worst part is, it’s always been that way. It’s technique and I fool around too much with it, even to the point I was hitting crosshanded…If I had that part of my game I would have been a better than scratch player, I’m just a better putter than most and better from 80-125 than most. The added distance is making an impact…I finished the year at 8.2 and I was a 9.2 all the way through Sept. I dropped a stroke in the final 2 months of the season based on those 8 rounds…HUGE! Here’s what I know a Tour Player gets Up & Down from 60 yds on in like 64% of the time, A similar handicap player to me is like 35%, my sad sack behind is 13.4% last year! There’s my lost shots right there! I’m worse than a 25hdcp! I score because of putting and my game is stronger from 140 to 80. (I don’t count fringe and aprons for me because I can putt those no problem)
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I like comparing to scratch as well… usually it says that ball striking is the difference but occasionally I see some low hanging fruit like lag putts or chipping… easy skills to improve
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You can practice and improve where you lose the strokes ( 35-40 yds according to you). Or simply avoid getting into that situation if you can. Plan with your most efficient distance with approach shots.
i’ve been practicing that part of my game for 35 years…at least 100 balls a session! and when I get on the course…I get twitchy! Nothing more to say. I still practice too, but it is what it is!
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