Having a golf bag that showcases your favorite sports team, large head covers of your favorite cartoon, and lucky towel are all fun things but having the best 14 clubs needed for your game is a necessity. Most golf bags and the clubs they hold are common in the lofts they represent but having the confidence in the distances they fly is something of a rarity in amateur golf. All the tour players have caddies that help with their pre shot decision making but it is only up to the amateur player to pick the right shot for the needed situation. To help this decision making follow these club gapping suggestions to becoming your own caddie.
While preparing at the range, players should be testing what the majority of the landing distance is for each iron. NOT where it goes after not getting above your head and until it stops rolling. NOT the one out of ten shot that goes the furthest. NOT where it goes after swinging so hard you almost fall down. Golf is a game of accuracy and control. Each swing should be completed with balance and the ability to be repeated. The main goal should to create repetition in the swing so that there is added consistency in trajectory, landing distance, as well as reaction on greens.
The goal for good club gapping is for irons to have a ten to fifteen yard variance from club to club. For example if a seven iron is majority of the time hit one hundred and fifty yards, with the same tempo and control a six iron will fly one hundred and sixty yards. From a pitching wedge to five iron some players have some sort of an idea how far their shots travel, but it is extremely common for players to be uncomfortable from inside of one hundred and ten yards.
To help from these distances our wedges should be gapped into thirds. This means our sand, gap, and pitching wedge should travel three different distance with high confidence and control. In my instruction we go over specific pitch landing distances because while chipping to separate distances inside of twenty yards cover eighty percent of the needed recovery shots. Once being able to be comfortable from multiple pitch distances, we gain comfort executing half shots. These shot vary from player to player because of different club loft, flexibly, and athleticism but finding shots around forty and seventy five yards are commonly found yardages in the course that require a half swing with wedges. Lastly, there should be a full shot yardage for each club. Now that you have much better wedge control, this will lead to more confidence with our iron ball striking as well as off the tee. There is much less stress on having to hit greens and more comfort when taking our address with recovery shots due to having advanced experience with these shots in our preparation.
