Golfboy: Part 4 – Competitive Golf With a Mediocre Game 

Knock the ice off the clubs.  Spring is here!  While we’re waiting for the warm days to arrive, I want to give you a lesson which you can work on at your local golf course’s practice area.  While I’d like to take credit for this, it’s actually from an article I read in Golf Magazine in 2006.

Because we’re bogie golfers, we usually aren’t on the green in regulation, thus making our third shot very important. Get it close and we card that elusive par; miss it badly and we get our usual bogie, at best.   The problem I see with many bogie golfers is that we often become “married” to one particular club when faced with a shot from just off the green.  Whether it’s a 20 foot pitch over sand to a tightly placed pin or a 30 yard bump and run from the throat, many of us tend to pull the same club from the bag; sand wedge, lob wedge, pitching wedge, whatever. And we do it primarily because we’ve had some degree of success with that particular club in the past.  It’s time to break that train of thought and realize that no single wedge is good for all wedge shots.

A rule of thumb known by all good golfers is that the sooner you get the ball on the ground, the more control you have.  Get the ball rolling!  Here is a very simple drill to try next time you’re practicing.  Find a practice green that is long and flat.   Place a ball marker on the green about 5 feet from the fringe.  Now get about 5 feet off the green and with your 8-iron, try to land your golf ball on the ball marker.  Don’t worry about where your ball finally finishes its roll.  Once you get zeroed in and are hitting your target consistently, then take a look at where your golf balls are ending up.  You’ll probably find them about 50 feet away.  Professional testing has shown that an 8-iron has a 1:4 carry/roll ratio.  In other words for every 10 feet of air time, you can expect 40 feet of roll.  Nice to know the next time you have a 50 foot shot onto a flat green.  Forget about grabbing your trusty ol’ lob wedge and trying to fly it in.  You’ve got a new shot in your bag!

Now that you’ve got your 8-iron honed in, start working on your other green-side clubs and you’ll soon feel confident using them for different situations as well.  While the chart below shows the common carry/roll ratios for most green-side clubs, do a little practicing and find out exactly what your ratios are.

            PW      1 to 2

            9 Iron   1 to 3

            8 Iron   1 to 4

            7 Iron   1 to 5

            6 Iron   1 to 6

Till next time,

Golfboy