How many times have you dialed in your rangefinder, picked a club you thought was perfect, only to come up short, leaving you with a tricky lie to save par from?
If you’re like me, it’s happened too many times to count. And often the culprit is a common misconception among amateurs: not knowing the difference between carry and total distance – or not understanding how to use that information on the course.
Understanding the difference between these two data points – and the crucial role of carry distances – can transform your game, helping you hit more greens and avoid costly mistakes on the course.
Carrying versus total distance
Simply put, carry distance is how far the ball flies in the air. The total distance is the distance it travels in total, including any roll or bounce after landing. To calculate your carry number, launch monitors use relatively constant factors, such as swing speed, launch angle and contact quality. Total distance, on the other hand, is determined by adding dependent variables, or variables that can change from shot to shot, such as slope, ground firmness, or wind.
Stop focusing on the wrong numbers
Many amateurs obsess over total distance, but that can backfire during a round. Total distance changes depending on track conditions.
For example, if you only know that the total distance of your 8-iron is about 142 yards, you might struggle to short it for a front pin of 137 yards, thinking that’s enough to get there. But if your average carry is actually 135 yards, you run the risk of coming up short if the ball doesn’t bounce or roll as expected.
Relying solely on total distance also makes club selection more difficult when adapting to conditions such as high winds, brisk and fast conditions and temperature changes. By using your average transportation distances instead, you have a consistent baseline to work from. Helps you make smarter decisions during the course.
How to find your transportation distances
As someone who didn’t know their average transportation distances until recently, I can tell you that this is easier to figure out than you might think, especially if you have access to cutting-edge technology.
To determine my carry distances, I used my Full Swing KIT Launch Monitor and focused specifically on my irons during a practice session. I started with my 9 iron, took about 10 shots and recorded both the carry and total distance for each shot. Then I discarded the outliers – both the mishits and those sneaky ‘perfect’ shots that come a few feet further than normal. Once I had a consistent set of shots, I added up the carry distances, divided by the number of shots, and that’s how I had my average distances.
After calculating my average carry distances, I managed to sneak in a few rounds before my local courses winterized, and I was pretty pleased with my results. Equipped with this vital information, I had a newfound confidence in my playing. My course strategy was smarter, I made better club selections and as a result I found myself second-guessing those decisions much less than normal, which translated into more pars on the scorecard.
#common #golf #mistake #greens