Chisag's Tip Of The Day #29

chisag · October 22, 2022

Stop Chasing Distance!

Let me start by saying if you are young and still learning the game, there is nothing wrong with trying to hit the ball as far as you can if you maintain your tempo. Even middle aged players with a repeatable swing, looking for a little more distance is a worthwhile goal. Speed training, increasing strength and flexibility are all good for young and middle aged players.

That out of the way, golf is and always has been about accuracy. Accuracy trumps distance every single time. Hitting a driver 235 on a 400yd par 4 leaves a 165yd shot into the green from a good lie. Hitting a driver 285 into the woods or worse in the water, leaves a 115 yd pitch out or drop and then hitting 3. Older players that have lost some swing speed and distance can be lured into chasing distance but more often than not it ends poorly. As an older player you have established a tempo that works with your swing and attempting to ramp that up 10mph, is a recipe for throwing everything completely out of whack. If you have lost some yards off the tee, you can always move up a tee box.

Next ... be careful what you wish for because the farther you hit the ball, the more trouble you can find by using simple geometry. My playing pard is 80 and hits the ball about 200 and sometimes a little longer off the tee. It is rare for him to miss a fairway. If he pushes or pulls a drive it usually ends up on the edge of the fairway. I am much longer and a 265 yd drive on the exact same line will find the rough or possible the desert, so I need to be much more accurate than my pard. When I play with truly long hitters their margin for error is much less than mine. A mini tour player averaging around 350 when we played together found some unfortunate trouble because he hit the ball so far with the hard fast fairways what would have been a perfect line for me at only 265 was off the course and in the desert for him. As a mini tour player he was accurate enough to reap the rewards of his 350yd drives, and his eagles and birdies outweighed the 2 penalty drops he had to take, saving par once and carding a bogie with the other. He also admitted this was a practice round and he would probably hit his 3 iron more often when he tried to qualify for the Phoenix Open on the same course the next week.

This also applies to your other clubs. I often have around 95-110 with my 50* GW and I will occasionally hit a 3/4 pw for the 110 shot because I want to control the trajectory and spin. Yes, I can hit my 50* up to 125 but it flies very high, spins more and is just not as accurate. I see so many swinging their wedges like their drivers, just an all out swing and their control is minimal and they miss a ton of greens. Just slowing down a little and making sure you hit the center of your wedge with an aggressive 3/4 or 1/2 swing (you never want to hit an easy wedge) while maintaining your tempo will improve your wedge play considerably.

We all want to hit it far. As far as we can. But distance without accuracy is best suited for the driving range.

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway ... of course accuracy with distance is ideal! If you are accurate and want to increase your distance, have at it. But most players will find a good swing with a repeatable tempo and hitting the center of the face, will produce the most accurate results with plenty of length and your lowest scores. For 95%, solid contact with a repeatable tempo should be your goal more than increasing swing speed.

funkyjudge · October 22, 2022

Sam,

You KNEW that you were talking about me, didn't you? I'm referring to the "older guy trying to still hit it far", not the mini-tour player who bombs it 350 yards off the tee -- those days ended for me more than 23 years ago (probably closer to 30 years).

Edited October 22, 2022 by funkyjudge

cksurfdude · October 24, 2022

..but but but... ..all the club and ball manufacturers and all the magazines and YouTube videos and all the announcers on the Golf Channel are always telling me that "Distance IS King!!!"

haha good stuff @chisag and yes I would like more distance with my longer clubs but am *finally* starting to internalize "hit it better, not harder" ...

Apropos anecdote from a Monty Scheinblum clinic - the morning of the playing lesson and one young guy just bombs his drive, but of course Monte is way ahead of that. We all get up there to hit our second shots and Monte asks young bomber what club is his hand .. guy says "8 iron" .. Monte looks at him and says, "That's what I've got and I'm 50 yards closer than you" ... the lesson being take more club and swing in control to hit your target.

TexasFullSend · October 24, 2022

Great article for affirmation that distance is will not always lead to lower score. I am currently finding out that a smoother swing and consistent tempo triumphs the all mightily bomb. Even though I have more than enough distance I still find myself swinging out of my shoes instead of being more consistant

cnosil · October 24, 2022

This is an interesting discussion; the following is some rambling thoughts on this topic.

From a statistics/strokes gained perspective distance is king as it puts shorter clubs into your hands for your next shot. As Chisag indicated the farther the ball goes the wider the dispersion will be with the same offline angle. This also gets into how a person swings; meaning is the player swinging as hard a possible; are they swinging normal; or are they swinging to hit the fairway.

I think a player needs to personally evaluate their driver play. If they simply struggle with the driver, they definitely need to work on being more consistent. Still, swinging at less than normal won't guarantee more fairways being hit; does that loss of distance create a wider dispersion on approach shots? I recently used my driver and hit tee shots at max speed, normal speed, and 75% speed. The 75% fairway finder speed really didn't help; harder to control face and spin was drastically reduced. Hitting all out really didn't put me in much worse position that normal swing; so max swing might be a better option for me.

Maybe this comes down to a person by person basis. I also think speed training is a different topic. Speed training while it increases max speed, it also increases normal speed. If a player is dedicated to speed training; it requires more than just trying to increase speed and there is a need to also include aspects of learning the new timing and swing sequencing.

cksurfdude · October 24, 2022

29 minutes ago, cnosil said:

I think a player needs to personally evaluate their driver play. If they simply struggle with the driver, they definitely need to work on being more consistent.

::raises hand::

Working on it!!

GolfSpy TCB · October 24, 2022

On 10/22/2022 at 4:40 PM, chisag said:

This also applies to your other clubs. I often have around 95-110 with my 50* GW and I will occasionally hit a 3/4 pw for the 110 shot because I want to control the trajectory and spin. Yes, I can hit my 50* up to 125 but it flies very high, spins more and is just not as accurate.

Great post Sam,

I picked this quote from your post because it resonates with me and my game this year. I was a full swing player at the beginning of this year. I gapped all my clubs based on full swing distances (albeit slow full swings by my own expectation and hope), I wanted to maximize my distance with every club. What that resulted in (so I have since realized) is that I may hit that full swing distance 4 or 5 out of 10 times, the other 50-60% of the time, for one reason or another, I was short of my target. What dawned on my is that I was setting my playing yardages to an unrealistic expectation that I couldn't consistently repeat. Enter the 3/4 swing shot. I started carving out a fair part of my practice time to hitting less than full shots with all my wedges, and even toyed at trying to dial in the 9 and 8 iron with that type of swing... that is a work in progress - but what I have discovered is the meaning of the flighted wedge shot. It is been night an day for me from 110 yards in. I'm not perfect with those shots, but I'm now 8 out of 10 rather than 4 out of 10 on contact consistently, and not only have I dialed in the distance control, but also the direction control... so it effectively improved in two planes (front to back, and left to right). The other thing to note, if I need that full swing shot (getting the ball up quickly to get over a tree or something) I still have it to draw from... I just know it is a lower percentage shot than the partial swing flighted shot.

chisag · October 25, 2022

4 hours ago, cnosil said:

Maybe this comes down to a person by person basis.

... As does most everything in this game. How bout this, hitting the ball longer is icing on the cake. Cake is always better with icing. But ... you can eat a cake without icing and ya can't eat icing without cake. Unless you are 2. Distance is a big factor in todays game but distance without accuracy is a liability not a benefit. The goal is finding your max distance with accuracy.

GaryF · October 25, 2022

On 10/22/2022 at 5:40 PM, chisag said:

Stop Chasing Distance!

#1 Speed training, increasing strength and flexibility are all good for young and middle aged players.

#2 As an older player you have established a tempo that works with your swing and attempting to ramp that up 10mph, is a recipe for throwing everything completely out of whack. If you have lost some yards off the tee, you can always move up a tee box.

#3. Next ... be careful what you wish for because the farther you hit the ball, the more trouble you can find by using simple geometry.

#4. For 95%, solid contact with a repeatable tempo should be your goal more than increasing swing speed.

I know you have taught and probably have forgotten more that I ever knew about golf, but as someone else said, a lot depends on the person. I’m late 60s, and have played many years off and on, but a lot more since I retired 8 years ago. Raising kids (daughters), working/traveling, coaching youth teams, etc doesn’t allow much spare time. I hacked my way around, but until the past few years didn’t really study swing mechanics, and argued since I have some significant lower back issues, I do the best I can. Wrong. I took lessons and revamped my swing 3 years ago, and that took many months. Since then hdcp went from unofficial 20s to 11 (GHIN). FIRs hovered around 75% but I wanted more distance.

To your point:

#1 increasing flexibility CAN increase distance if swing mechanics stay intact. Since last year, my driver carry has gone from 190-200 to 210-220. Early in the year, I was in physical therapy and did increase core strength a little so that helped, but did xtensive flexibility work. In Jan-feb I plan to work hard on regaining lost core strength. This will help my distance and my back. But since March, while gaining distance, FIRs actually went up to 84%.

#2 I never really understood tempo, but now focus on it all the time. My tempo was consistently inconsistent. To your point, chasing distance through tempo probably doesn’t work well, but finally establishing consistent tempo can really help at any age. I think more than anything, by keeping my tempo consistent is a big reason my FIRs have improved.

#3 Dispersion does increase as distance increases because the arc length increases.

#4 This is the absolute key. I’d add that the solid contact aspect closely correlates to staying connected. The 2 obstacles that get in my way of staying connected are my arms and brain.

Edited October 25, 2022 by GaryF

chisag · October 25, 2022

8 minutes ago, GaryF said:

increasing flexibility CAN increase distance if swing mechanics stay intact. Since last year, my driver carry has gone from 190-200 to 210-220. Early in the year, I was in physical therapy and did increase core strength a little so that helped, but did xtensive flexibility work. In Jan-feb I plan to work hard on regaining lost core strength.

... You rock! As I said in the post "It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway ... of course accuracy with distance is ideal! If you are accurate and want to increase your distance, have at it." I did not mean to exclude seniors and strength training along with more flexibility is good for any age and especially seniors. But the main reason I posted this tip was I see soooooo many chasing distance without the necessary tools to do so. Scott Verplank won the Western Open when he was a senior at Northwestern. He was asked what he learned and he replied along the lines of "If I am going to compete with these guys, I have to learn to hit the ball higher and much farther." I was thinking "Compete? You just beat all of them with your game!" He struggled on tour for a few years with his new coach striving for more distance and a higher trajectory and when he almost lost his card, he decided to go back to his college coach. They worked on getting back to what won him the Western, being accurate. He went on to have a very nice pro career.

... I guess I can't repeat this too many times: Distance is king! The farther you can hit the ball the better. IF you accomplish that goal with good tempo and maintain accuracy. Gaining more yards at any age is awesome if it comes through getting better at all aspects of your swing, ball striking and training, not just chasing more distance.

GolfSpy TCB · October 25, 2022

I think there is an important distinction between gaining distance through improving technique and flexibility vs. focused speed training. Striving to improve your ability to swing the golf club in a way that delivers consistent and solid contact with the ball will in turn give you your cake with icing to a certain extent (accuracy and distance). Swinging the club faster with the same non-technically sound swing faults may result in a longer ball with bigger misses from the target line as Chisag outlined.

My personal opinion is everyone (me included) can hit the ball farther without sacrificing accuracy, if you are working on improving your technique and employ repetition.

cnosil · October 25, 2022

19 hours ago, chisag said:

ya can't eat icing without cake. Unless you are 2.

The goal is finding your max distance with accuracy.

no icing without cake; Do you also think you cant eat cookie dough without baking it first?

Agree finding max distance with accuracy is important. Just got some numbers and found that I am giving up about 25 yards of carry distance when I use my normal swing verses my all out swing. Makes you ponder if I need to swing all out with driver even if the dispersion is a bit off. Not saying that I wont work on accuracy, but that additional distance is enticing.

Kenny B · October 26, 2022

23 hours ago, chisag said:

... As does most everything in this game. How bout this, hitting the ball longer is icing on the cake. Cake is always better with icing. But ... you can eat a cake without icing and ya can't eat icing without cake. Unless you are 2. Distance is a big factor in todays game but distance without accuracy is a liability not a benefit. The goal is finding your max distance with accuracy.

My wife disagrees with you... she can eat icing without cake!!

I agree with you that distance without accuracy is a liability, even though Mark Broadie and Jon Sherman say that amateurs have more to gain from a scoring perspective by adding 20 yards than pros do. While I would love to add 20 yards, if the ball isn't in the fairway, this amateur doesn't have the swing speed and skill to put those 20 yards to good use. Accuracy has to come with distance.

Vegan_Golfer_PNW · October 26, 2022

I am going for distance but with accuracy. Shorter driver does wonders. Can hit more 280-290 drives and more where I want with a 44.5” driver. Nice write up and good points. Although it should be noted 50 yards back in fairway vs light rough with a shot at the green is still a SG killer. However notice I say light rough and not trees.