Most of the world's golfers look at the scorecard and make the obvious observation that, as the holes get longer, par goes up. They use this bit of information to define their best swing as the one that sends the ball the furthest distance.
There's nothing wrong in that. It's the obvious choice.
It's not mine.
At my advanced age of 68, I can still hit a 7-iron a maximum of 155 yards on a level lie in the fairway, 70ยบ, windless day (like we see a lot of those), as opposed to the 185 yards I could manage 30 years ago (the figures are approximate -- I've lost about one yard/year off the driver since my peak at the age of 27.
If I have a shot of 155 yards under the conditions I just described, I am NOT going to take a 7-iron, or a 6-iron. I might hit a five, probably a 4-iron.
Why? Because I've hit a shitload of 4-irons and I get more and more accurate as I scale down the effort from the 185 yards that is now my max with that club until I reach my most accurate distance, 155 yards. When I aim at a target that is that far away, the circle of balls past the target, short of it, left of it and right of it is as small as it gets. Hitting to a nearer target with the same club gives me no more improvement in accuracy, so 155 yards is my BEST distance with the 4-iron under benign conditions.
The point is, and I can't overstress this, no matter your level of talent, no matter your mastery of the skill of ballstriking, your most accurate -- hence, most efficient -- use of any club is considerably less than your maximum distance.
That is the swing that will help you reach the distal goal of your lowest score.
No comments:
Post a Comment