If you’ve ever had to hit a crucial shot under pressure, you’ve probably heard the popular golf adage: Aim small, miss small.
In a game where fractions of an inch can be the difference between birdie and bogey, it sounds like sage advice. But just because sounds good doesn’t mean it’s true.
Does aiming at a smaller target actually guarantee a better miss? That’s the question Eric Alpenfels, a GOLF Top 100 teacher, and Dr. Bob Christina of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro wanted to answer in one Study from 2018.
To determine how target size affects on-course performance, they conducted studies on different shots: tee shots (driver, 3-wood), irons (9- and 6-iron), and short game (pitching, chipping, and putting).
While all the studies revealed surprising conclusions, the results from the driver section are perhaps the most unexpected of all – and their findings could even help you hit more fairways.
Conclusion: Aim big to hit more fairways
Contrary to the ‘aim small, miss small’ belief, Alpenfels and Christina’s research proved that aiming for a bigger target led to improved performance in driving accuracy and distance off the tee.
How they got there
To reach this conclusion, Alpenfels and Christina followed 32 right-handed male golfers, with an average age of 65. The players were split into two skill levels: low and high handicap golfers. The USGA indexes ranged from 1 to 11.8 for the low handicap group and 13.4 to 30 for the high handicap group.
A pre-survey questionnaire revealed that, like many of us, most players in the test preferred targeting small targets off the tee and generally chose the driver over a 3-wood if given the choice.
To determine whether small or large targets were more effective, each player hit twelve tee shots – six with driver and six with 3-wood – using their own clubs and the same ball for consistency. For each club, they shot three shots at a small target (about 0.30 meters wide) and three aimed at a large target (about 30 meters wide). Performance was measured using three data points: distance from the center of the fairway, fairways hit and total distance.
After analyzing the data, Alpenfels and Christina found that players generally performed better when aiming for a large target.
The average driving error (distance from the center of the fairway) was smaller when players focused on the larger target (~13 yards) than when they used a small target (~14 yards). The number of fairways hit was also significantly higher when using a large target (64 fairways hit) compared to using a small target (48 fairways hit).
Players also saw a small spike in driving distance – about 5 yards – when using a large target off the tee. The average driving distance when using a large target was ~220 meters, while the average driving distance of players using a small target was approximately ~225 meters.
With the data from this study, Alpenfels and Christina have shown that the old expression ‘aim small, miss small’ does not hold water. In fact, they proved that “aiming big” could be the key to greater accuracy and distance off the tee.
#general #golf #advice #detrimental #driving #accuracy