Should The Average Golfer Carry A 3 Wood?

Watching a vintage Tiger Woods 3 wood is one of the most amazing experiences that a golfer can have. Seeing that shot, sailing 300 yards to the green made just about everyone fall for that dazzling club. What was once a relic that was used by people with less than stellar control off the tee had become a way to get home in two on even the longest holes in golf. The problem is, this was 1997 and golf technology has come a long way - in almost everything but fairway woods.

Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, metal woods began replacing wood-woods in most players bags. 3 woods were still an excellent club choice for many since the higher lofts were easier for slower swinging amateurs to get airborne and carry further than their lower lofted drivers. The increased lofts also helped keep slices and hooks to a minimum during the round as well. The basic rule of thumb was 200 with a driver or drop to a 3 wood. It was pretty simple, until technology caught up with the shorter hitter.

As drivers grew to Fisher Price sizes, they became easier and easier for players to hit. The 3 wood was left in the bag more and more, until that 300 yard shot from the fairway reared its ugly head once again. As soon as the cart rolls up to that ball, the inner Roy McAvoy in all of us steps to the front of the line to reach for that eternal greatness. We grab hold of that 3 wood to knock one stiff from 260, only to be let down by that trusty 3 wood swing after swing. Toppers, slices, hooks, it's all fair game for those clubs we only use once in a blue moon, and our 3 woods are probably that one club that we just never use, or at least not enough, to really count on it when we need that miracle shot. Instead of on in two, we end up hitting 3 or worse from 220 yards out, or from the drop zone, again and again.

That lead me to wonder, should anyone even consider carrying a 3 wood any longer? With higher lofted drivers that features heads 2 to 3 times the size of that old 3 wood, using it off the tee is all but out. With longer distances off the tee, it's really not needed off the fairway any more either. With all the technology of hybrids, fairway woods altogether are beginning to make less sense, so why would we go after a 14 or 15 degree club that even some tour professionals no longer want in their bags?

This brings me to the point of this post - should the average golfer carry a 3 woods in today's game? My personal opinion on this is split - because it really depends on how you play the game. If you play the proper tees for someone that drives the ball 200 yards, you should never, ever, ever consider carrying a 3 wood. With a proper bag setup, you should be focusing on clubs that will work from 150 yards in and dialing in the gapping on those clubs to be no more than about 7 yards a club. For example, playing the white tees on a 330 yard hole, you will have 130 left to the flag on a normal drive. If you have steps from 150 - 143 - 135 - 128 - 120, etc..., you can dial that club right in for birdie chances. If you're playing the blue tees and back yourself up 20-30 yards, you still have a good shot without needing to press down to a fairway wood where you chances for success are far less.

Moving on to the golfer that may want to carry a three wood, which in my mind, a lower lofted hybrid makes far more sense here, it would be the golfer that just needs to get that eagle or two a round to keep the pressure on his scoring average. Even then, with so many great options available to players today, I still find it hard to say that pulling a 3 wood from the bag will end with great results when you need it to. More often than not, there's a bunker, a water hazard, some deep rough or something more dramatic waiting for you at the end of that swing. Perhaps laying up when you have 240 to carry isn't a bad move Roy. Of course, that river is awfully tempting and those crocodiles can't be all that fast can they?

Practice Point: A New Way To Look At Numbers

It’s been far too long. Yes, it’s been since June that I posted my last update on the blog and I apologize to my both my followers and anyone else that might be reading this one today. Fortunately, this crazy summer is now done and I can get back to getting myself and my game in shape for the 2018 season. After practically taking the entire season off, only managing to squeeze in 5 rounds at a championship distance course, this winter will serve as a bit of a rebuilding one. The good news is that my GolfPad GPS App data has me looking at a new practice routine for where my game needs it the most. What I mean by this is that I used to look at stats like Greens In Regulation and Fairways Hit to determine my practice routine. What I realized looking at my shot data is that looking at raw numbers only told me half the story. By looking again at the data that the App collects, I was able to find out what clubs in my bag I was missing with the most and that is where my practice needs to start.

This is the standard screen that I would look at for setting up my practice runs after a round. Looking at the image, I was hitting one out of three greens from outside my 8 iron range and two out of three from inside that range. Not terrible numbers, but I’d love to see that 68% be closer to 90% overall. I was also leaving myself about 25 feet for my first putt. Keep in mind, that’s an average, so for every 10 footer I left, there was a 40 footer on the other side of it to balance it out. My average number of putts after chips was also completely terrible as came up just about as short as my GIR number. Overall, it seemed like working the short game was going to pay off the most based on these numbers. Unfortunately, in this case, the numbers lied about what I needed to do the most.

This becomes very clear when you look at individual irons, in this case, my 3 iron. My average distance ranged from 210 in the winter to 222 in the summer (it’s down slightly in this graphic as I did not remove a punch shot from my last round). Extra roll out would account for some of this distance gain, but so would the fact that I used it off the tee on shorter par 4’s during the summer. So, 210 yards on the fly is a great number for a long iron. Between my driver and that 3 iron, there shouldn’t be much out there I can’t hit in two, right? Well, here’s where I looked at a new number for the first time – percentage of misses. These are shots that deviated from the “normal” by a certain percentage and are not counted as good shots. It could be a topped ball, or one that fanned off into the water, or even one that hit a tree. No matter how it failed, it didn’t reach the target that it was intended to. For my 3 iron, this number was an abysmal 44%. That means almost 1 out of ever 2 shots in to the green or at the fairway or even laying up, failed to find it’s target. It may have been by 10 yards or 100 yards, but it didn’t get me into the position that it was supposed to, period. My 5 iron matched that with the exact same percentage while my 4 iron was a solid 50% miss rate. This left me an approach percentage of 14% to 17% or about 1 out of 8 to 1 out of 6 greens from outside 200 yards.

The story changes inside 175 yards, where my 6, 7 and 8 irons dropped to well under 20%. This increased my approach percentages to 30%, 45% and 69% respectively. What this translates to is that I need to work on approach shots with those middle irons if I plan on playing longer courses. If you figure that the average par 4 hole on championship layouts is well over 400 yards and an average drive is going about 270 yards, it’s going to leave quite a few approach shots in that 150-180 yard range. This will be a key area to improve on if I plan on reaching even a club championship level of play next year.  What is abundantly clear from the missed shot percentage is that my odds of hitting a green from 150-175 yards is about twice as good as it is from 175-200 yards out. Of course, moving inside of 150 yards, once again, things look much different.

My 9 iron becomes the go to club at 145 yards. The percentages of “missed shots” drops to 1 in 4 and my approach shots climb to 61% with my shorter iron in hand. This is practically duplicated with my pitching wedge at the 130 yard mark. This is the last of the actual “irons” that I carry that I hit into the green often, but both of these shorter clubs are playing reliably for me with a 75% accuracy percentage that will find the green 60-65% of the time. This number should probably get dialed up a bit more, like maybe to 70-75% on the 9 iron and 80-85% on the wedge, which is exactly why I’m starting to look at these two numbers a bit harder. If I hit a great drive on a 420 yard par 4 and still leave myself a 1 in 3 chance of missing the green, I’m not going to be racking up many birdies anytime soon. Worse than that, laying up on a long par 5 can yield the same situation. With the inaccuracies of my longer irons, playing short makes sense, but laying up to a perfect club only makes sense if that perfect club ends up being hit well.

Hitting an approach shot well is what golf is all about, I’m sure of it. I know that everyone says, “Drive for show, putt for dough,” but I’m not 100% sure that it’s an accurate statement. Driving is the easiest shot in golf today. Our drivers look more like those Fisher Price clubs we had as children and can be custom fit to even the most awkward swing. Putting, well, most of the average player’s putting success will be based on the conditions they face and how consistent they are. If every green rolls semi true and nearly the same speed, most golfers will stand a chance on putting well. If not, even the best putters will struggle. Sure, practice is good, but consistency in the greens is by far the most important thing for great putting. Where I think the real money in golf is, is the wedge game. You need to be 100% accurate from 100 yards in to really reap the benefits of scoring well. I think it’s been a reoccurring theme in my blog for quite some time – get dialed in with the wedges.

In 2017, my gap wedge was mishit 34% of the time from 120 yards in. Still I found the green 68% of the time. This is consistent with missing the green from 120 yards out 1 out of 3 times, just like my pitching wedge and slightly better than my 9 iron. Yet, my sand wedge dropped to a 15% mishit rate and found the green 3 out of 4 times. Finally, my lob wedge from 80 yards in found the green 9 out of 10 times. As good as these numbers sound, they should tier off a bit more gradually than they do in reality. With taking that into account, I will really begin pressing my 7 iron and under in my practice sessions to see if I can improve on my mishit percentages and, in turn, increase my GIR/Approach Shot percentage. Becoming stronger from inside 120 yards will keep my putting stats in check and hitting greens from 175 in will easily make my scores fall this fall. I’ll keep you posted on the progress here and on YouTube soon!

What Is Equitable Stroke Control?

Have you ever played a round of golf with someone that plays far better than they score? Have you ever wondered how golf’s ruling bodies make sure that that guy doesn’t end up playing you in the club championship? Believe it or not, there are quite a few strange rules in golf that have nothing to do with playing the game, but rather, keeping the game fair for those that may be a bit less skilled. For example, one such “rule”, for lack of a better term is found in the USGA Handicap System. Section 4 addresses the subject of Equitable Stroke Control, or ESC for short.

ESC is based on your handicap. It limits the number of strokes that you can ‘earn’ on your handicap by limiting the number of posted shots you can place on any hole. For example, I am a 3 handicap, so the largest score I am allowed to post on any given hole is a double bogey. That doesn’t mean I didn’t score a 9 on that ugly hole, but all I can post is a 6. This is to keep a higher level player from posting 2 or 3 blowup holes which would increase their handicap to a lower level flight in tournament play. To toss myself in for an example again, playing a 3 handicap means I’m probably playing in the first flight in most tournaments. If I were to jack my handicap by going for the 18th green with a 250 yard shot over water to the pin and drop 4 shots in the water, my handicap could climb 5 or 6 shots within a couple rounds, pitting me against players that regularly shoot 85. It wouldn’t be fair.

So, how does this work, exactly? First things first, you don’t adjust your score on the hole while playing, only when entering in your scoring data. If the system you use for handicapping automatically, then you do nothing but enter your scores. If not, you will simply adjust your scores based on the handicap of the course that you are playing. If you a 9 or less, you can only post a double bogey. Under 19, you get a 7 as the worst score. Under 29, you increase to 8 on a hole. Under 39, you go to a 9 and over 40 will net you a 10.

Remember, this isn’t a maximum you can use when you are playing skins with the guys on the weekend. This is only used for handicapping purposes. It levels the playing field to those that make that one or two big mistakes that cost them serious strokes each round. It keeps the game fair and playable for everyone. If you have any questions on ESC, shoot me a message at backinthefairway@gmail.com or comment below.

A Funny Thing About Golf…

Golf is a funny sport, it really is. I started writing a post Friday about the accuracy of the clubs in my bag, but I hadn’t quite finished it before my round yesterday at Riverbend in Kent. To give the 2 second version of it, it is all about how poorly I hit my long irons and how it affects my chances of breaking par on a round by round basis. You see, when I looked at a whole new set of information, I discovered a category called Mishits in the stats. When I looked at the numbers, I only hit about one out of five 3 irons well. Then out of those that I hit well, I only hit one out of six greens with that approach shot. So, when I step up to a 225 yard shot to the green and I pull out my 3 iron, I basically have a one in thirty chance of hitting that green. On the flip side, I have an 80% chance of ending up in trouble because I don’t hit the 3 iron very well. When you think about a 3.5% chance of gaining a shot vs. an 80% chance of not ending up in a good spot, you really have to start rethinking going after those flags.

That leads me to my thought of the day… There’s this funny thing about golf, no matter how good we get, something will always go wrong. During yesterday’s round, it was a bit of everything, but mostly it was a lack of control. I hit two 3 irons and one 5 iron, none of which found their targets. I hit one solid 6 iron, which still missed, but it was a great strike, so I won’t beat myself up over that one. After that, I hit a few 7/8 irons and a ton of lob wedges, way too many lob wedges.  It wasn’t a pretty round, but at the same time, as bad as it was, it wasn’t that bad. That’s the other funny thing about golf, no matter how bad we get, something always goes right. For example, a duffed chip followed by a brilliant putt still equals a par. A bad tee shot followed by a great recovery shot still leaves you a chance to save par.

This is what makes golf so different from any other sport. Only golf allows you to make a gigantic mistake and still recover. That drive that finds the tree line, but somehow manages to bounce back into the fairway. That chunky iron from the fairway that rolls out to the perfect spot to make a 50 yard up and down. That bladed chip that gets knocked down by the flag stick that you still laugh about as you tap in for a par. That’s a funny thing about golf… Even when things look terrible, and you’re hitting your 8th shot on to the green, when you make that 25 foot putt for a 9, you still made that 25 foot putt and that changes everything. After the round, nobody remembers the nine, but they certainly remember that 25 foot putt. It’s just like my horrible long iron performance yesterday, I won’t remember the missed 3 irons a few weeks from now, but I will remember the rainbow over the 4th green.