Newbie Club Distance Question

[stillgolfing]

My game playing ability improved considerably today when It dawned on me many of the club distances noted for a specific club are incorrect. Previously I was just taking these numbers as gospel and adjusting my 2nd click point accordingly It is particurly noticable with the chipping and bunker clubs. For instance the sand wedge from the sand says 30 yds but If I hit it right on black bars (3 click) the shot goes 45 yds. Mostly I had been hitting bunker shots and going consistantly long with the Lob Wedge, (I use this club a lot from the sand because often I seem to end up 45 ft from the pin in a greenside bunker). I chose this as my sand club because it was supposed to go 58 ft., but hitting 80% of the bar (which I guessed would be around 45ft) was getting me about 70 ft. Checking the distances more carefully on several other shots indicates the perfect click for the LW from sand goes about 90 ft. This is also true for chipping where the specified distance is about 40% less than what I actually get (from good fringe lies).
I'll admit this is somewhat subjective, and naturally I am making allowances for the real shot conditions. For instance, my SW from bunker distance is based on the fact that I had a couple of sand shots that were 7 to 9 ft up from 25 yds and I hit 80% and the shots went 40 yds. Currently I'm playing all courses with "still" winds so that shouldn't be a factor.
Always interested in your comments, cheers Dave

[J.J.]

Dave,

If you go to the Utilities section, under Tutorials you'll find a zip file called PGA2000 Game Play Tutorials. In it there is a chart for club distances amongst many other game play goodies. Hope it helps

JJ

[SteveHorn]

Dave! ON ALL SHOTS make sure that you are hitting the club you want and THE TYPE OF SHOT you want to hit. This can change if you move around or various other reasons so always check just before you address the ball.

[stillgolfing]

Dave,

If you go to the Utilities section, under Tutorials you'll find a zip file called PGA2000 Game Play Tutorials. In it there is a chart for club distances amongst many other game play goodies. Hope it helps

JJ

I checked this Excel File out last week, but I felt it was way too deep and complex for me to just play a virtual game of golf once in a while. There is also a tutorial on the Club Set and Practicing (to determine base yardages), which is a little more my speed; so, on the short term, I'm going to follow along with those recommendations and see if that helps.
Thanks for your input and fast response, cheers Dave

[stillgolfing]

Dave! ON ALL SHOTS make sure that you are hitting the club you want and THE TYPE OF SHOT you want to hit. This can change if you move around or various other reasons so always check just before you address the ball.

Steve, you have been very helpful to date and I really appreciate that, but I'm curious to know what, in my original post, would indicate that I might have chosen (or the caddy might have chosen) the wrong club ?
As it turns out, I have occasionally chosen the wrong club ( but not generally in the circumstances described above) when the designer has almost similar colours for the fringe and the green and consequently, in my zeal to hit my putt, I didn't notice I had a chipper in hand ('cause I wasn't quite on the green) and thus I whack the ball across the green and down into a bunker . That is just plainly my stupidity , but has nothing to do with the noted issue.
Cheers, Dave

[Indy Anna Jones]

Dave, when you start a new player you're going to get longer distances, then after a while (maybe 30-50 holes) it'll settle down until you can get a pretty good idea of distance under ideal circumstances, ie in the fairway with a flat stance and no wind and a relatively flat trajectory to the pin. If your club is set for "chip" or "blast" (c or b key) moving the cursor over the club is still going to show the "ideal" club distance, not what you can expect in distance from a chip/blast. This is just one of those "touch" situations in which you're going to have to learn how to estimate how hard to hit based on texture, lie, slope, buried or not... all the things you have to take into consideration on a real course. Frankly I don't "trust" the caddy too far because my swing or the type of shot I'm trying to make might be a lot different than what he is "thinking" I should make; on the other hand I've found he's usually not too far off if I'm in the rough and am unsure of distance (for example I'm in deep stuff only 140 yards out and he hands me a 3i, I can pretty well trust it's going to be sticky stuff.)

But DO be careful around/just off the green. Some courses will give you the wrong club (as you seem to have learned) like a putter on the fringe. Also if you've changed clubs and then go look at the line from another spot, when you come back you'll have the original club. Also when chipping or blasting, make sure the "b" or "c" is showing up after the club or you'll be getting normal distance.

[stillgolfing]

Dave, when you start a new player you're going to get longer distances, then after a while (maybe 30-50 holes) it'll settle down until you can get a pretty good idea of distance under ideal circumstances, ie in the fairway with a flat stance and no wind and a relatively flat trajectory to the pin. If your club is set for "chip" or "blast" (c or b key) moving the cursor over the club is still going to show the "ideal" club distance, not what you can expect in distance from a chip/blast. This is just one of those "touch" situations in which you're going to have to learn how to estimate how hard to hit based on texture, lie, slope, buried or not... all the things you have to take into consideration on a real course. Frankly I don't "trust" the caddy too far because my swing or the type of shot I'm trying to make might be a lot different than what he is "thinking" I should make; on the other hand I've found he's usually not too far off if I'm in the rough and am unsure of distance (for example I'm in deep stuff only 140 yards out and he hands me a 3i, I can pretty well trust it's going to be sticky stuff.)

But DO be careful around/just off the green. Some courses will give you the wrong club (as you seem to have learned) like a putter on the fringe. Also if you've changed clubs and then go look at the line from another spot, when you come back you'll have the original club. Also when chipping or blasting, make sure the "b" or "c" is showing up after the club or you'll be getting normal distance.

Judy, thanks for the info. I didn't discuss the longer clubs here because, although the stated distances are incorrect, I generally have (with a few exceptions) figured it out. Typically they are about a club too short except when one is hitting over water in which case depending on the course it's a pig in a poke, usually 2 clubs more is required, but 5 clubs more on the second shot - second hole on Silent Monk ( I've played this hole about 20 times now (for testing purposes) and the only solution for the second shot is to hit a full 3 wood over the back of the green and chip back on (this is from the fairway @ 160 yards and the green is 7ft down). A slightly shorter 3 wood is in the rough just over the pond and a 5 wood (even if over hit a bit) is still in the pond. On most other courses my 3 wood would go 230 yds.
As far as changes occurring during the first 30 to 50 holes, i never noticed that. I've probably played over a thousand holes by now and I would say it's always been long clubs go shorter than stated and short clubs go longer than stated. It's just frustrating that it took me this long to figure it out. I still see this as a fun game as long as one doesn't expect any kind of consistant playability (i'm just learning to live with the fact I'm generally going to shoot 85 with 50 putts), and because the same tiny swing meter and swing speed are used for driving and putting I find this part of the game particularly unrealistic, I'm not sure I will ever master the lightening fast triple click that is required to make a 5 ft putt. I guess that's because I've been spoiled by Links2003, where the player gets 3 different swing meters (2 seperate swing meters for putting ) and you get to choose which is the best (long or short meter) for the particular putt you have.
Cheers, Dave

[Indy Anna Jones]

Hmm, I wonder if using the basic mode is why you're having distance problems. I went to 160 yards @ SM and made the green with a slightly over the 100% mark 7 iron, ending up pin high and to the left (with a 7mph R to L crosswind.) My club distance is presented at 163 yards.

Are you aware of the "overswinging" problem? When you go over the top (right) line beyond a certain point (more or less in the middle of the yellow area) you lose distance (so the maximum swing is about a mm into that yellow area.) After you hit that point it doesn't matter if you go all the way to the top, the damage is done. I lose about 40 yards on my driver (about 16%) and about the same percentage for my other clubs when this happens. I can't comprehend why you would have to go up 5 clubs.

You seem to be doing something seriously wrong to be having problems like this, but I have no idea what it is.

[SteveHorn]

Dave! Also remember one courses textures for fairways, greens, rough and so on may play alot different from the previous or next course you play. Some roughs may give you a flier then the next course you may have to hit alot more club to get any distance at all out of the rough.
I don't know if your aware of this but if you click on the shoes icon on the bottom of your setup screen you can customize your shots by clicking on 1 of the 2 custom bars and moving the horseshoe by holding down the mouse button and draging it slowly (usually forward). This will give your choosen club more loft. Also I've found clicking on the flop shot if in deep rough or weeds with any choosen club will really get your ball up and out of any bad lie. The flop shot besides thinking its only for around the greens can get you up over and around tree problems. Be warned though it takes alot of practice with the flop to determine whats going to happen. Generally the ball will go up and drift to the right. How far it goes and how much to the right depends on the lie and rather your in the deep stuff, fairway or somewhere in between and of course the wind.
A 3wood flop shot out of the fairway may drift 30 or more clicks to the right not including any wind adjustments.But out of the rough it may only move 10 or so clicks to the right. It just depends on the texture and lie. ITs tricky but has saved me many times.