Determine your distances

[Tim Schoch]

What is the simplest way to tell how far I hit my irons? I can't afford a rangefinder or fitting and don't trust the marked distances or range balls at the range. Besides, the range near me slopes way down then up a steep hill. Crazy.

 

I am looking on ebay for a cheap laser. I like certain devices but they are hundreds of dollars.

 

I can hit balls in my garage. Maybe an early voice caddy? Anyone care to lend me one? I don't need it for long.

Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

[burritos4breakfast]

get one of those free gps rangefinder apps for your phone and go out on a slow weekday on a twilight rate with a cart and with no wind and find a hole and hit a bunch of approaches to the middle of the green. use the balls youll be playing with. the one i use is called gps rangefinder on google play store. just reapir all you pitch marks. if i see someone on the tee box behind me i just drive up past the green until they finish and go back and hit some more balls. its how i dialed in all my wedges but its great for when you get new clubs too. i made a chart on google docs on my phone for my clubs distances and once you get a couple short to mid irons dialed you can guesstimate the rest. usually my clubs are within 10-15 yards of each other.

[oikos1]

Bite the bullet and buy the rangefinder. Not once have I said I wish I wouldn't have bought mine. Going on 6 years now so averages out to about $50 a year.

[SNIPERBBB]

If you have a smartphone and a golfgps app, use the shot distance tracking function on the course or an empty driving range. Theyre accurate enough to a few yards to be useful.

[Mcgeeno]

I bought a range finder off amazon for 90 bucks. I went to a field about 2 miles from my house and lazered off some shafts after I walked them out.

 

Get a shag bag and and go to work.

[larrybud]

Get a GameGolf device and track each shot you hit on the course. Over time you'll calculate actual on course pattern for your clubs. Way cheaper than a laser, and most of us don't have a place where we can hit a bunch of shots and laser it off anyway. Ebay you can get them for about 50 bucks.

 

 

[talfredson]

So on our range we have 10 flags set up; 5 on the left side and 5 on the right side, all different distances away from the tee box. I went out one day with a free GPS rangefinder app and dropped a pin at each flag and then dropped the starting position in the middle of the range tee box. I don't use range balls when I'm trying to figure out how far I hit my clubs because the balls are hard, might be cut, scuffed or have some other defect. Go out after they pick up range balls and hit 3-4 of your good balls with each club and measure from there. Or go to the course when it's not busy and pick different yardages to hit from in the middle of the fairway.

[sprcoop]

PGA Superstore here in Tucson rents a bay with Foresight for $10 an hour. I did 10 shots per club. Hit 10. Take cell phone photo of screen, clear screen, repeat. Did PW - 3I in an hour but it was a sweaty struggle. I suggest 2 hours.

 

Throw out 2 longest, 2 shortest, any obvious mishits. Average. Those numbers have served me well.

 

Striking the ball better now. Need to do it again.

[Kennybg]

Have a look at this thread from back in 2008: https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/183236/something-i-made-that-just-may-help-some-people-out-microsoft-excel-is-required/p1

 

You can download the spreadsheets (although you may have to change the file extension to .xls) and working from the driver distance you put in, it approximates the distances of all your clubs. You therefore only need to know the distance of one club to obtain approximate distances for all clubs, as the spreadsheet works it out.

 

For me, and many that posted on the thread, it's surprisingly accurate. As some have noticed (including me) the driver distance may be out (probably due to my poor smash factor), so that might be the one club that's not accurate. If you know the distance for any other club e.g. 7 iron, just adjust the driver distance (or shaft length) until it matches the 7 iron distance figure and then all club distances will be proportionate and hopefully roughly correct. If you read through the thread it will give you more information but the above will give you the gist of it.

[Pepperturbo]

There is NO easy solution if you're looking for accurate club yardage on a range like that. There's a range I am familiar with that is like that. Laser yardage units (I have a tournament unit) are not accurate unless it has the "Elevation" function; find a used one. The range I speak of their down and up yardage markers are adjusted and placed to simulate flat yardages.

[pantsparty7]

Maps Ruler app. I believe it's still free. You can touch two points on the map, and it gives you quick distances in yards or meters. I like this better than the GPS apps I've used as those can be wildly off sometimes. As long as you can find your start and end point on a map, this can be very accurate.

[bladehunter]

> @Mcgeeno said:

> I bought a range finder off amazon for 90 bucks. I went to a field about 2 miles from my house and lazered off some shafts after I walked them out.

>

> Get a shag bag and and go to work.

I second this. The cheap priced finders work great. You don’t have to have one that locks on and vibrates. I’m fact my better on irritates me because it absolutely eats batteries. The old cheap one would go 6 months on a single battery.

 

[Pepperturbo]

> @bladehunter said:

> > @Mcgeeno said:

> > I bought a range finder off amazon for 90 bucks. I went to a field about 2 miles from my house and lazered off some shafts after I walked them out.

> >

> > Get a shag bag and and go to work.

> I second this. The cheap priced finders work great. You don’t have to have one that locks on and vibrates. I’m fact my better on irritates me because it absolutely eats batteries. The old cheap one would go 6 months on a single battery.

>

 

Good idea except for most fields around cities are parks and Parks & Recreation dept doesn't allow people to hit golf balls, for logical reasons. Farmers won't typically allow it either. That begs the question who then owns the fields? My 2cents.

[bladehunter]

> @Pepperturbo said:

> > @bladehunter said:

> > > @Mcgeeno said:

> > > I bought a range finder off amazon for 90 bucks. I went to a field about 2 miles from my house and lazered off some shafts after I walked them out.

> > >

> > > Get a shag bag and and go to work.

> > I second this. The cheap priced finders work great. You don’t have to have one that locks on and vibrates. I’m fact my better on irritates me because it absolutely eats batteries. The old cheap one would go 6 months on a single battery.

> >

>

> Good idea except for most fields around cities are parks and Parks & Recreation dept doesn't allow people to hit golf balls, for logical reasons. Farmers won't typically allow it either. That begs the question who then owns the fields? My 2cents.

 

Hadn’t considered that at all. I have my own fields. So just went over my head.

[BrandonDunes]

I 2nd the GameGolf device! I upload all my rounds on there as it gives me time to reflect on the round as to where to improve at. I'll check shots that I hit good and see how far they went. Only pet peeve is I wish you could throw out bad shots to calculate the averages, but as I said I usually go off round by round shots versus the averages it gives you. Very useful to figure out how far I actually hit my long irons and woods.

[Tim Schoch]

> @BrandonDunes said:

> I 2nd the GameGolf device! I upload all my rounds on there as it gives me time to reflect on the round as to where to improve at. I'll check shots that I hit good and see how far they went. Only pet peeve is I wish you could throw out bad shots to calculate the averages, but as I said I usually go off round by round shots versus the averages it gives you. Very useful to figure out how far I actually hit my long irons and woods.

 

Can't find this device anywhere. Thanks!

[Tim Schoch]

Plus, I have a set of old clubs with weak lofts and I need to see how far I hit them. No history to refer to

[BrandonDunes]

> @"Tim Schoch" said:

> > @BrandonDunes said:

> > I 2nd the GameGolf device! I upload all my rounds on there as it gives me time to reflect on the round as to where to improve at. I'll check shots that I hit good and see how far they went. Only pet peeve is I wish you could throw out bad shots to calculate the averages, but as I said I usually go off round by round shots versus the averages it gives you. Very useful to figure out how far I actually hit my long irons and woods.

>

> Can't find this device anywhere. Thanks!

 

https://www.amazon.com/GAME-GOLF-Live-Tracking-System/dp/B014UY7LV2/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=game+golf&qid=1570071514&sr=8-4

[Tim Schoch]

Thank you!

[juststeve]

For most of the history of our game people learned their distances the way I did. We went out and played, taking note of how far we were hitting each club, under playing golf conditions, not simulator conditions, not range conditions, golf course conditions with all of the variables inherent in actually playing the game. We learned how far a particular club would send the ball from different lies, in different weather, up hill and down hill etc. We learned how far the ball carries when we knock it down or when he hoist it high in the air. All of this reliance on technology makes me wonder if the game was invented 20 years ago.

 

Steve

[oikos1]

 

[BKN1964]

I agree with the launch monitor method to get initial distances. If you can find a range with launch monitors (https://www.toptracer.com/locations/) or find a place where you can rent one for an hour or two (rates vary, but it's not overly expensive), you can get a baseline of carry plus total. Write these down and then go play to see if you need to adjust those numbers.

 

One thing I found really interesting is that there's currently not as much difference as I wanted to believe between my 22 degree 4h, 19 degree 3h, and 17 degree 4w (although I suspected it, but was too stubborn to accept it). Obviously something I need to get sorted, but for the moment it lets me just choose the easiest to hit club in that range (which actually looks to be the 21 degree 7w I bought a few evenings ago).

[Mcgeeno]

> @juststeve said:

> For most of the history of our game people learned their distances the way I did. We went out and played, taking note of how far we were hitting each club, under playing golf conditions, not simulator conditions, not range conditions, golf course conditions with all of the variables inherent in actually playing the game. We learned how far a particular club would send the ball from different lies, in different weather, up hill and down hill etc. We learned how far the ball carries when we knock it down or when he hoist it high in the air. All of this reliance on technology makes me wonder if the game was invented 20 years ago.

>

> Steve

 

 

This is a totally fair point and I get the frustration sometimes.

 

A Ford Model T can get you from point A to point B but that doesnt mean its the most efficient way to do it nowadays.

 

There are better options out there. Use them if you can.

 

 

 

 

[Barfolomew]

Carts at my home course have yardage computers on them and accurate. Going that route I would play late when more empty or find a gap where its flat and go to work. drop real balls and see what you hit.

[Tim Schoch]

> @juststeve said:

> For most of the history of our game people learned their distances the way I did. We went out and played, taking note of how far we were hitting each club, under playing golf conditions, not simulator conditions, not range conditions, golf course conditions with all of the variables inherent in actually playing the game. We learned how far a particular club would send the ball from different lies, in different weather, up hill and down hill etc. We learned how far the ball carries when we knock it down or when he hoist it high in the air. All of this reliance on technology makes me wonder if the game was invented 20 years ago.

>

> Steve

 

All true. But I am testing various clubs under different conditions and would like an easy initial and somewhat accurate reading to get a quick and equal measurement and comparison. Tech does that today. Plus many of us don't use shag bags and caddies anymore.

 

I did find a local range who will lend me their laser!

[aenemated]

Really, the easiest thing is to go to your nearest course for a twilight 9.

 

Drop a dozen balls at the 150 marker on any par 4 - assuming no one is behind you - and hit what you think is your 150 yard club. Treat each shot like it was in play. For the most part, give or take 10 yards off the one you find actually carries 150 yards.

 

On the range, I can hit a 9 iron 150+ yards. But in play? No way - I'm knocking down a 7.