Does Distance Matter, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Does Distance Matter, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you look at the way golf clubs have changed over the last few years and that’s if you can see a few little changes. You see the club have gotten a lot bigger with the driver. The shafts got a little longer; the shafts also got a lot lighter. Eye in technology has moved on a little bit as well with perimeter waiting and different weight, and different materials have been mixed into the heads as well, so you’ve got titanium and tungsten and steel.

But what are the major issues that I have with golf to manufacturers as well, the way they’ve changed things is about to be start to changing a loft of the golf club. Now as you go through a set, you got your three irons, three sand wedge, and the loft changes of course but manufacturers have actually tuned each golf club to be quite a few degrees stronger than it was a few years ago. In fact a pitching wedge used to be around about 52 degrees of loft for a pitching wedge. I sort of set a golf club the other day with a pitching wedge with 44 degrees of loft.

Now if you imagine that each degree will change the length of the shot by about three yards, the eight yard change is going to make a 24 yard difference, sorry, the eight degree change, my mistake. The eight degree change between the 52 and the 44 is going to make a 24 yard difference. Twenty-four yards is effectively two and a half clubs, so this pitching wedge is now played two and a half clubs stronger than a pitching wedge of maybe ten or 15 years ago. Now that sounds good because I can now hit my pitching wedge way further than anybody else on the golf course but it leaves you with a bit of a problem really because if your pitching wedge goes so far and your sand wedge probably goes so far as well, what are you going to hit from a 100 yards because your pitching wedge has gone about a 130, 140 yards.

So manufacturers are really kind of leading the golfer down the wrong path here. Lots of manufacturers have given you stronger and stronger golf clubs, almost sort of playing up to the macho image that you can stand there on the tee with a seven iron but it’s actually a five iron. It’s just got a different number on the bottom but it has the strength of a five iron. You then hit this nice smooth swing that goes like a rocket and it goes too far maybe. But then you turn to your mates and you say, “Well I only hit the seven irons and you alter it to five and therefore I’m better than you.” But unless you’re careful, you end up with a massive hole at the top end of your back where you’re pitch wedges goes too far and you’ve only got a sand wedge left. So you’re now seeing a lot of club golfers needing to copy the professionals and put three or even four wedges in their bag to fill the yard each gap that’s been made by the manufacturers.

Then if we look at the other end of the bag, no one uses a one and two iron anymore and very rarely should club golfers really be playing a three and some don’t even use a four iron. And again it’s not like golfers are getting worse, it’s that the club specifications altered, so that three and four iron now just simply too strong. So setting up where the numbers on the clubs don’t really matter, we used to have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine pitch wedge and sand wedge, we’ve now got one and two irons completely disappeared from most people’s bags. Maybe the three irons, the four irons to follow in and then we’re going to end up with four wedges at the top end and it’s really just marketing.

It manufactures a change in golf clubs, making them stronger, making the ball fly lower, making the ball fly further just to appeal your macho nature that you want to try and hit the ball so far. So try and resist that in your own game, work on the understanding that it’s not about how far you hit it, it’s about how consistently far you hit it. It doesn’t matter if you can hit the seven irons 170 yards, unless you can repeat that nine out of ten times, that’s not good enough. You’re better off hitting a seven iron 150 and being consistent to that, so next time you’re at the driving range, take out a seven iron, measure how far it goes but don’t measure the best of the worst, measure the average and take that knowledge out in the golf course, understanding that your average distance and your consistent distance, that’s the important thing to remember.

And have a look at measuring your own clubs, look at the lofts, look at how far you’re hitting them and work at if you’ve got any big gaps in your bag. If you’re pitching wedges going over a 100, 110 yards, what else you’ve got in your bag to hit the shorter distances. Make sure that you’ve haven’t been tricked by the manufacturers into using golf clubs that simply hit the ball too far, I mean you’ve got a big hole in your bag. Weigh up and asses where your good shots are and your bad, weight your bad shots are in your bag and if there’s a space in your bag then be add an extra club in there. It might be an extra wedge, it might be a hybrid club put you on good consistent yardage gaps right the way through the bag, I’m sure that will help you.

 2012-06-07

If you look at the way golf clubs have changed over the last few years and that’s if you can see a few little changes. You see the club have gotten a lot bigger with the driver. The shafts got a little longer; the shafts also got a lot lighter. Eye in technology has moved on a little bit as well with perimeter waiting and different weight, and different materials have been mixed into the heads as well, so you’ve got titanium and tungsten and steel.

But what are the major issues that I have with golf to manufacturers as well, the way they’ve changed things is about to be start to changing a loft of the golf club. Now as you go through a set, you got your three irons, three sand wedge, and the loft changes of course but manufacturers have actually tuned each golf club to be quite a few degrees stronger than it was a few years ago. In fact a pitching wedge used to be around about 52 degrees of loft for a pitching wedge. I sort of set a golf club the other day with a pitching wedge with 44 degrees of loft.

Now if you imagine that each degree will change the length of the shot by about three yards, the eight yard change is going to make a 24 yard difference, sorry, the eight degree change, my mistake. The eight degree change between the 52 and the 44 is going to make a 24 yard difference. Twenty-four yards is effectively two and a half clubs, so this pitching wedge is now played two and a half clubs stronger than a pitching wedge of maybe ten or 15 years ago. Now that sounds good because I can now hit my pitching wedge way further than anybody else on the golf course but it leaves you with a bit of a problem really because if your pitching wedge goes so far and your sand wedge probably goes so far as well, what are you going to hit from a 100 yards because your pitching wedge has gone about a 130, 140 yards.

So manufacturers are really kind of leading the golfer down the wrong path here. Lots of manufacturers have given you stronger and stronger golf clubs, almost sort of playing up to the macho image that you can stand there on the tee with a seven iron but it’s actually a five iron. It’s just got a different number on the bottom but it has the strength of a five iron. You then hit this nice smooth swing that goes like a rocket and it goes too far maybe. But then you turn to your mates and you say, “Well I only hit the seven irons and you alter it to five and therefore I’m better than you.” But unless you’re careful, you end up with a massive hole at the top end of your back where you’re pitch wedges goes too far and you’ve only got a sand wedge left. So you’re now seeing a lot of club golfers needing to copy the professionals and put three or even four wedges in their bag to fill the yard each gap that’s been made by the manufacturers.

Then if we look at the other end of the bag, no one uses a one and two iron anymore and very rarely should club golfers really be playing a three and some don’t even use a four iron. And again it’s not like golfers are getting worse, it’s that the club specifications altered, so that three and four iron now just simply too strong. So setting up where the numbers on the clubs don’t really matter, we used to have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine pitch wedge and sand wedge, we’ve now got one and two irons completely disappeared from most people’s bags. Maybe the three irons, the four irons to follow in and then we’re going to end up with four wedges at the top end and it’s really just marketing.

It manufactures a change in golf clubs, making them stronger, making the ball fly lower, making the ball fly further just to appeal your macho nature that you want to try and hit the ball so far. So try and resist that in your own game, work on the understanding that it’s not about how far you hit it, it’s about how consistently far you hit it. It doesn’t matter if you can hit the seven irons 170 yards, unless you can repeat that nine out of ten times, that’s not good enough. You’re better off hitting a seven iron 150 and being consistent to that, so next time you’re at the driving range, take out a seven iron, measure how far it goes but don’t measure the best of the worst, measure the average and take that knowledge out in the golf course, understanding that your average distance and your consistent distance, that’s the important thing to remember.

And have a look at measuring your own clubs, look at the lofts, look at how far you’re hitting them and work at if you’ve got any big gaps in your bag. If you’re pitching wedges going over a 100, 110 yards, what else you’ve got in your bag to hit the shorter distances. Make sure that you’ve haven’t been tricked by the manufacturers into using golf clubs that simply hit the ball too far, I mean you’ve got a big hole in your bag. Weigh up and asses where your good shots are and your bad, weight your bad shots are in your bag and if there’s a space in your bag then be add an extra club in there. It might be an extra wedge, it might be a hybrid club put you on good consistent yardage gaps right the way through the bag, I’m sure that will help you.