One of the modern marvels in club making is everyone wants to hit the ball farther than ever before. While that's an awesome thought, the reality is, not many of us "should" hit the ball further. It was a hard lesson for me to learn this off-season, but it was one that has really helped my game more than I could have ever imagined. I no longer want to hit the ball "longer" - I want to hit it better. I think this should be the key focus of everyone that steps on to the course, and here's why.
Starting out with the distance issue, or the issues that distance creates, is the key to understanding why you should never want to get longer than you already are. I'll use a normal sized golf hole as an example here, so bare with me as I set up the scenario. A long 420 yard par 4 awaits you. You stare down the driving lane, hitting your new blah-blah-blah driver 240 yards. You then have 180 yards to the green, over a bunker and water behind. You need a 180 yard shot, so you pull out the 3 hybrid that you hit high and straight that will land softly at 175 yards. You then have a 40 foot putt from the front of the green to the back location of the hole. A great first putt comes up just short of the hole and a tap in finishes out the par. It's how the game is played.
In contrast, you buy some extra distance with a new driver setup and those fancy new delofted irons. You swing a bit harder, giving the ball that old "steroid jerk" that was made so famous by the movie Tin Cup. Your drive heads off down the left side of the fairway like a screaming eagle. It rips into the branches of the pine tree 270 yards off the tee. It fights it's way through and lands in the rough just inside the tree line leaving you 150 yards in. You pull an 8 iron from the bag and hit a spectacular shot into the green that plops down from the sky and lands 20 feet from the hole. Again, you line up your putt and just miss it by inches. It's a tap in par.
It's the tale of two holes, played exactly the opposite way, but it really sums up golf in a nutshell. There isn't just one way to play this game and there is no right or wrong way to do it. Custom fitting isn't about getting the clubs that will help you hit the ball farther. Instead, custom fitting is about finding the clubs you need to score well. I watch the bags of the people I play with: driver, 3 wood, 5 wood, the usual smattering of irons and a few wedges. I wonder if they know how far they hit everything in that bag? I wonder if they've ever hit everything in that bag? Maybe they should take that 90% swing that "always works" and use it all the time? So many maybe's, so little actual work.
Let's just take my own game for a minute, with my 305 yard drives and my 90 yard 60° wedges. What does all that distance gain me when I'm not 100% accurate with any of those shots? Where do I sit for scoring when I hit 305 into the trees instead of 280 dead center of the fairway? How many birdies can I make when I muscle up on my wedge and hit it to 45 feet? Isn't it better to relax and hit the ball to an area that makes scoring easier? Ultimately, golf is all about scoring, not how far you (or I) hit the ball. Consistency is the key to scoring well and there is no way to be consistent if you aren't dialed in at every level. Sure, I could go pound my driver and wedge at the range for days on end to get my consistency down, but that first uneven lie or drive that finds the trees is going to complicate things quite badly. Then it's about scrambling.
What I am finding as my game goes from good to better is that my scores are a direct reflection of how much trouble I get in during a round. Driver in the fairway leads to closer approach shots. Closer approach shots lead to more birdie putts. More birdie putts lead to lower scores. It's a pretty simple deal and pretty much backwards from what I've always played. In seeing this, I've given up on hitting a 250 yard 3 iron from the fairway. I've decided I don't need to hit a driver on every hole. I've started pulling my grip back to a weaker setting and I've started to become a more consistent shot maker at every level of the game. Cleaner play means lower scores.
Now, this does not mean that you shouldn't invest in a quality set of clubs. It means when you do, decide what your goal for the new gear is. For me, I want feel, with minimal offset and a high ball flight. For you, it may be more distance and a bit more forgiving head. No matter how you do it, find the piece that your game is missing and start building from there.
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