Better to Memorize Carry or Total Distance for Irons

As a relatively new golfer, I have a basic question: When it comes to memorizing the distances for my irons, is it more important for me to memorize the carry distance or the total distance, including the roll-out? I've always used total distance (for example, I know that when I hit a 7-iron well, the total distance - including the roll-out on the green - is about 155). But the other day it occurred to me that I have no idea what the carry is on that 7-iron shot, which would be nice to know when I'm choosing a club to clear a bunker and land on the green. Is it easier to memorize the carry and then estimate the total distance based on that, or vice versa? Is there any sort of rough estimate I can use for this (for example, the roll-out usually equals about 10% of the carry)?

I hope that makes sense. Thanks.

I always care about carry.....it matters when you are trying to clear a hazard or control your landing spot. The rollout isn't always a guarantee

The question makes perfect sense. In my opinion, the most important thing with irons is the carry distance. Your roll-out will vary with the type of ground you land on (green, fairway, rough, sand), and with the club you hit (longer clubs hit shots that land at flatter angles, with less backspin, creating more roll). You'll learn to estimate roll-out as you gain more experience. As you mention, you want to know you can hit it over that bunker, or over the water. Usually (not always), there's more of that type of trouble short of the green than there is if you go too long. The really important number is your AVERAGE carry distance. You might hit that 7 iron 150 yards on the fly once or twice, but your average is probably 10 or 15 yards shorter. Remember the average carry, that will get you onto more greens than either total distance, or your best carry.

Agree....carry is the one that matters the most. Your total distance is a variable that is dependent on where your carry distance gets you to.

You're going to want to learn the carry distances first to make sure you're comfortable with selecting clubs to get over hazards and forced carries. Total distance with roll out is all relative to the course and conditions so see what your ball is doing on the range to determine if you are getting lots of roll out or if the ball is stopping quickly. I agree with Davep043 about the AVERAGE carry distance as you're not always going to pure it but want to make sure you have enough to stay out of trouble. I suggest a range session with all your clubs and dial in your average carry and total distance to get a better idea of where you are.

also agree. Carry distance are better to know. As you play more you will get to understand how far the ball goes after it lands based on spin and other factors.

Yes, carry is what matters most. Ground conditions vary so much that you can't get a true idea how far you hit a ball using carry and roll as a variable.

Definitely carry. Roll out is never going to be a constant.

And to reiterate a point made a couple times - AVERAGE carry is what's important. Next round; take a moment and note where almost everyone misses the green. You'll quickly notice folks wind up short A LOT. Usually because ego dictates that, goddammit, I can hit my 7 iron 175 yards every time! (Or whatever the extraordinary case may be. Some dudes around here do. I definitely do not).

Nah bro; maybe that one time. From a perfect, fluffy lie across zero elevation with no wind and everything about the swing was perfect. And it rolled 10 yards.

It's a thing I've really made it a point to work on this year; putting my ego aside and instead of trying to muscle every approach up just so I can be all proud of myself about being a big strong dude ... taking the comfortable shot I know I can make with the middle of the green in mind. So if I do miss, I'll probably still have a birdie putt. Or if there's a forced carry over a hazard? I'm taking a club more to really take the stress off and if I wind up long; better than being in the hazard.

Carry.

Carry. Most of my irons don't roll out unless conditions are extremely hard.

Think about your carry distance. As you get more experienced, you'll learn how the ball behaves in different situations and adjust accordingly. E.g. uphill, downhill, fairway, in rough, into wind vs. down wind. All different kinds of lies have variations in the amount of spin you can impart on the ball. It's important to learn this as you progress.

Carry- But memorizing how the ball reacts after landing is also important.

Rollout is way too course dependent so carry is much more important. Your average carry should be the number you think of when choosing what club to pull for the shot.

Yes, carry distance. You want to check to see on a reasonable mishit what your carry is, and what the normal average carry is. That way you can be sure what club to hit. Say you take a club at 150 yards away. Flag is in middle of green. You need to carry 140 to make it onto the green. You also need to know how your ball reacts after landing (just watch when you play). See if you can manufacture spin with irons or they just roll forwards. You'll start to get an idea. Usually it's safer if the flag is at 150, aim to carry it 150, since you probably won't pure it (yeah we're not all pro's, so it happens). And if you pure it it just goes to the back of the green.

carry.

1) you will learn how to adjust to how your ball reacts when landing as you play more and experience different conditions.

2) when practicing, knowing the yardage you carry your clubs is an important part of maintaining your normal rhythm and sequence instead of falling into a rake and flail that many fall in to when hitting balls

Good question too

Finally just settled on carry after too many issues with subtraction because of trying to keep track of and estimate all the variables that influence how much my ball zips back on every green.

What's "roll out"?

Another vote for carry distance. You're only dealing with one major variable (wind). What the ball does after it lands is affected by many variables.

Definitely carry. I wish I could get some run out sometimes but I don't.

I do carry on all my clubs, it's the only real constant. Most public courses I've been on rarely get fast enough to where roll out comes into play, especially with irons.

Never learn AVERAGE carry....you want the MODE carry. You always want to plan for the most likely result of your swing.

What’s MODE carry?

In a set of numbers, the one that comes up the most is the MODE. IE in a set of 1,2,3,3,3,4,6,5,7,5,8,9...the MODE is 3.

Averages (mean) can be misleading. You do want to keep the RANGE in mind to account for hitting it fat, off the toe or nuked shots, but the MODE is your most likely results and that's what we play to.

I'd agree. I have attached a picture that I googled as well. For a right handed player this is what your shot dispersion probably looks like (yellow oval). The better you are with your irons the smaller the yellow oval will be. Most folks the oval is tilted just like this, long and left, short and right. If you cut across a shot it takes off distance, if you hook it a touch it adds distance and roll out. Physically you are adding loft with the cut and taking it off when the face gets hooded a touch thus the differences in carry.

As you take the time to understand your carry distances, take into account your misses at that distance as well. If you have trouble on a green short right you may want to club up, long left just the opposite, though I have always subscribed to the adage that you are better to be long than short in the majority of cases. Frankly, most trouble is in front of the hole and rarely beyond it. And like someone said, your miss is typically going to be short so more club helps.

What’s with this stats stuff? Haven’t heard “mode” since freshman year of college (in that context) - but searching back through the purple haze of Camel straights and 3.2 brunches you may be on to something.

The dispersion diagrams are good for those of us who want to forget math. ;-)

With all the statisticians, or those of us forced to take statistics as part of our majors, on this site I figured I may as well get this out of the way lol.

One could do bell curves or scatter plots I suppose.

And I spend too much time in discussions on analyzing fur auction results and whether the published averages for the auctions are misleading and what they actually mean and diving into the actual numbers

I care more about carry with every club except putter. Total will vary from shot to shot. To many variable affect total.

This is great info, thank you both. I will def be thinking a la MODE moving forward.

You really want to know 3 carry #'s for each iron:

Off the fairway

Flier out of the rough

And for a punch shot under the wind (when you can learn that)

As you progress, you can learn carry shots with draws and fades as well

Roll out really not important unless your shots are landing 10 yards shot of 155 with limited spin and releasing 30 feet

Distance

........ just kiddin carry