During the past golf season, I found that I needed to rely on my club distances more than in the past. I am not sure why this was the case, but as I played different courses, I need to pay more attention to how far I was hitting each club. In some cases and to my total frustration, I was habitually short on approach shots. Usually, it was a full club and it took me some time to adjust to what seemed to be my hitting woes. Because I was not hitting my ball as expected, I started to pay more attention to club distances and came to an not to surprising conclusion.

After many years of practice, I determined my club distances for a standard shot. Each club flew to that distance with a variable of up to 10 yards depending on how I am hitting. 10 yards seems like a great distance, but in reality I am not a professional and hitting to my distance 70% of the time is good enough for my game. For purposes of discussion, I will use my 7 iron flight distance of 150 yards which I can achieved easily with no wind on a dry day.

On the days that I struggled hitting the ball to the distance I wanted, I wondered what was happening. The first challenge was the course was very wet and there was zero roll. These course conditions set up a perfect opportunity to test what I think are my flight distances with my clubs. As I continue to loop the courses, I found that I was hitting the ball 5 yards shorter than I actually thought. I an not sure where those extra yards went, but my stock 7 iron’s flight distance is actually 145 yards, not 150 yards. The missing yardage took some time adjusting too, but when I did I was able to hit the ball to the distances I needed to lower my score.

Interestingly, during drier course conditions, the missing 5 yards resurfaces. I am not surprised by the change in my flight distance, but it did give me something to think about and develop a course management strategy moving forward. Before I explain how I approach my above woes, here is a great video to offers a method to easily determine your flight distances for each club.

During the video, I found one statement particularly interesting. There are several clubs for each flight distance and as a player, it is important to figure out what those clubs are in order to play golf that suits our game. I have acquired this knowledge years ago, however I neglected to use this knowledge when I was playing wet courses.

The simple application of hitting the proper flight distance is something I should not have missed during my poor hitting rounds. Interestingly, I say poor hitting rounds when in fact I was hitting the ball okay, I just had the wrong club in my hand. Even experienced golfers like myself make fundamental errors from time to time, but no longer. Now that I am aware of my course management strategy, I need to take steps to improve my game.

Starting next year, I am going to retest my club flight distances. I am going to use the simple method in the video and establish the short, medium and long distances for what I think are my stock flight distances at this time. It is a good idea to question our game knowledge from time to time and this will be one of ways I will challenge mine; it is important!

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!