How long do I need to be to start scoring/improve?

[North Butte]

> @davep043 said:

> > @deathbymuffin said:

> > I played last weekend with my late 60s father. He hits his driver 210-240. I hit mine 270-290. He played from a little over 6000 yards, shot 76 and beat me by a bunch. It's not distance that's keeping you from lowering that handicap by about 10 strokes.

>

> If the OP is going to limit himself to 180 off the tee, by hitting no more than 5-iron, he'll need a world class game from there to the hole to get to a 10. He has the physical ability to hit it further, but using longer clubs, but he hasn't been using it.

 

I know I've told this story before but when I'd been playing a couple years, I was making the turn from my 19th to 20th hole at my home course and saw my teaching pro in the parking lot. So I waited a few minutes and joined up with him to play my final nine holes.

 

Third hole, medium length Par 5 and very narrow through a chute a trees all the way from tee to green. I pulled out a 6-iron and hit a kind of skanky low cutter into the first cut of round about 150 yards off the tee.

 

He asked me basically, why the heck did you do that? I explained that I'd been hitting my driver into trouble at the start of the round so I backed off and was teeing off with a 5-wood instead. But on the 18 hole I lost my ball with the 5-wood so since this hole was so narrow I went with an iron.

 

His next question was, what are you going to do when you hit 6-iron in the woods. Start hitting putter off the tee?

 

There's sometimes a fine line between an ultra-conservative play that makes sense on one shot in one situation, versus basic chickening out on the entire game and treating every shot on every hole like a snake that's going to rear up and bite you if you don't play very carefully.

[davep043]

> @bonvivantva said:

> So in the short term, I plan to continue to work on my iron game. I could really get used to not flubbing shots. But to improve my score, do you think I need to figure out something longer than 180?

.

> @deathbymuffin said:

> > @davep043 said:

> > If the OP is going to limit himself to 180 off the tee, by hitting no more than 5-iron, he'll need a world class game from there to the hole to get to a 10. He has the physical ability to hit it further, but using longer clubs, but he hasn't been using it.

>

> He said he hits his driver 220 off the tee and reasonably in play, and that it's his irons holding him back. He just overall needs to learn to hit the ball more solidly. Sounds like he needs some swing lessons honestly if he keeps topping and fatting his irons.

He said he CAN hit his driver 220, but then asks if he NEEDS to hit it more than 180 to improve his score. My answer to THAT question is a resounding YES. If he's a 20 handicap while choosing to hit it 180 off the tee, his irons are already OK, at least compared to a more typical 20 handicapper.

I absolutely agree with you, lessons to improve his full swing should help both his driver and his iron play.

 

[SNIPERBBB]

> @bonvivantva said:

> > @golfandfishing said:

> > OP- on average, once you are wedge yardage or closer, what is your average number of strokes taken?

>

> I'd say I two putt pretty often

 

 

To my mind, that is a huge issue for people trying to drastically lowering your scores. Two putting often is fine when you hit 12+ greens a round which pros don't even do most rounds. Your chipping game needs to get down to where you're one-putting at least half the time. The more greens you miss, the more one putts you need.

 

 

[davep043]

> @SNIPERBBB said:

> > @bonvivantva said:

> > > @golfandfishing said:

> > > OP- on average, once you are wedge yardage or closer, what is your average number of strokes taken?

> >

> > I'd say I two putt pretty often

>

>

> To my mind, that is a huge issue for people trying to drastically lowering your scores. Two putting often is fine when you hit 12+ greens a round which pros don't even do most rounds. Your chipping game needs to get down to where you're one-putting at least half the time. The more greens you miss, the more one putts you need.

>

And to achieve this, your misses need to be close to the green. Not a single PGA Tour pro averages better than 50% scrambling from more than 30 yards, 50% is about average from 20 to 30, and its really common for inside 20 yards. None of us will rival tour percentages, but we'll do better if our misses are closer to the green.

 

 

[SNIPERBBB]

Yeah, I meant to add that those numbers needed to be from inside `10-20 feet of the green. Outside that, you have to be a chipping fool to make many pars, or birdies on par 5s.