DRIVER vs IRONS! What Matters More? Distance or Accuracy from the tee
DRIVER vs IRONS! What Matters More? Distance or Accuracy from the tee.
In this video I head over to The Wilmslow with Matt Fryer and conduct a test between drivers and irons off the tee. I also cross reference PGA Tour stats on the issue + have a mini course vlog!
In this video we will also be looking closely at how you can hit the ball straighter and longer with the irons and driver.
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I deliver straight talking, easy to follow, honest, professional, calculated advice to all of my viewers from beginner to tour pro. This tried and tested method of coaching has helped many golfers achieve their personal goals and beyond.
Haven’t watched your channel in a while but I’m liking the course vlog intermittent with the studio vlog.
I currently play off 17. Although I am one of the longer hitters in the club, with the driver. I decided to take the driver out of my bag. I suddenly started playing to 13 14. I found that the big hit, is an advantage, if I hit the driver spot on. But if I hit a wayward driver, it can be very wayward lol, and causes me far more trouble than hitting more fairways and if I hit a wayward 3 wood 5 wood, I'm not generally in as much trouble as with the driver.
I think it is a combination of both but your stats kind of shown that length is important!! But even when you played you stated that he was hitting short irons in that makes it easier to go straight at the pins!! Cool video Peter!!
Interesting Vid, for us you tubers I think it’s a mixture of the two, understanding when to attach and when to defend not just boshing driver time and again. Think with the tour pros they have come to the conclusion that once you hit it 320 it doesn’t matter if your a little wayward as you’ve took all the trouble out the hole
Peter, I actually broke my driver in 2017. Then I broke my 3w early in 2018. I continued to play and did not notice my scores changing much. However, I did replace driver and all my irons at the end of the season. Gaining irons I previously did not have. I played once after this before winter. I dropped 17 strokes off my game (same course comparison) having finally replacing my driver and having a consistent club selection. Now onto putting improvements.
I personally believe if you can hit it further consistently you have a big advantage. Not just smashing your driver… I play off 6 and play with friends who play off 10 or less.
If I want to be more accurate I can take a 3 iron and hit it 230/240 whereas my playing partner is taking a driver to that point.
I have 180 to the green I take a 7 iron, my playing partner is taking a 5 or 4 iron. The ability to use a shorter club and still get the distance has helped my game overall. I only put in bad scores when my chipping/putting is off that day
Accuracy over distance because when I played for my high school team. It always showed in my score and what I’d place when I was accurate off the tee and hitting my fairways. The more fairways hit usually means more greens in regulation, not always but in my experience I always tried to hit the power bomb growing up and get as much distance as I could and never really showed as much of a payoff as hitting longer irons or hybrids off the tee and hitting more fairways
Peter–I find that my accuracy really changes from hitting off the mats on the range vs hitting off the turf when playing a round on the course. How do I have the same at both places?
Just my two cents: If you're playing the course, and not someone else, then accuracy rules. You play for par, and if you're fortunate enough to make birdie, then that's a win.
HOWEVER, you're almost always playing the course AND an opponent. You can stay in your own little world and just concentrate on your stuff, and play good and win some and lose some. But with all other areas being equal, the guy hitting his driver 275-285 on average (whether straight or in the rough) will usually beat the guy who just hits his driver 235-245 (and when i say all other things being equal, i'm saying their short game, putting, and approach shots are similar in skill level).
Finchy where do you get your iPhone tripods?
I totally get your thinking on this video, but I simply can't afford not to hit driver 12-13 times a round. I hit the ball about 250 with roll (maybe 270 if I really rip one). If I don't hit driver, with courses getting longer and longer, I'm hitting 3 wood 3 wood into Par 4's. Driver 5 iron is bad enough haha! I hit the ball pretty straight off the tee, but I need my short game to be sharp or I'm in the 80's easily. I would love to be able to hit an iron off the tee 240, but if I haven't done it by 33 it probably isn't in the cards!
Accuracy ? over distance for us club golfers. Find more fairways you will find more greens.
if your accurate with a drive than that's a whole other ball game.
Really liked this video good tips and advice to see happen on a course sometimes feel pressured into hitting driver to try gaining the extra distande when you play with guys who can really get major distance with a driver even when you know yourself a hybrid or iron is more consistent and accurate but also when someone like yourself can hit a driving iron probably as far as the average golfer it does want is to try the bigger club to get that extra few yards.p.s think matt should have a hulk for a headcover instead of a crocodile from previous vids. And you are rocking the Nigel Mansel tash sir ?
Good information however a small sample size. Strokes gained is heavily weighted to proximity to the hole. However the ability to score seems to be connected to playing to the strengths of your individual game. The other factor of proximity is related to the lie. For example the rough versus fairway strokes gained expectations are different https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxFSlVhPo9ObWmZKd3B4eV84Q1U/view
You look like Mario
My course is short but loads of trees line the fairways, going off line usually means a chip out into position. Therefore a premium is on accuracy. That said There are a few places where a driver is a real advantage.
Depends on the hole, if loads of room why not use driver? I have a 2 iron which I Iove. Recently I have been using this on 2 of the hardest holes on our course, I was previously making plenty of bogeys and even doubles (lost balls) but the last 2 rounds I have parred these using 2 iron off the tee. As I said depends on hole, not necessarily whole course.
It's meaningless until you begin to quantify "accuracy". That can be done in many ways and likewise "distance" can be too. There's distance from the tee, from the pin from the rough from the nearest obstruction from the line between shot and pin etc. The ley is to choose definitions that maximize correlation between "distance" "accuracy" and strokes saved per hole.relative to par. I prefer to use distance from the pin and from the nearest hazard since playing from the rough can be painless but playing out pf a hazard can easily cost a stroke or even two strokes. Similarly playing from behind course obstructions such as trees and sand-traps. So accuravy can be a weighed average of distance to hazard and obstruction distance to the line between lie and pin. Not distance between current lie and last target. I.e ypu aim for a point, hit the ball and it came to rest somewhere.What matters most is where the ball stops not where it was aimed. It could land far away or very near to the point of aim but what matters most is can you find it and if so how easy is it to get it to the pin from there. That is made harder by a poor lie in deep grass, flight inerference and landing obstructiins along the line of flight.
Remember that Tour players are good at all factors of the game. But also nonTour players rarely play on T-our level courses. So the cpurse itself becomes part of the equation. If your longest shot is 290 yds then you could not get on a par4 over 400 yds in 2 strokes. Just as if your 159 yd distance to pin avg is 50 ft yoiu're probably not getting on many i50 yd sland par3s in 1 stroke.
Wow. It's like, Im gonna watch Pete today OH MY GOD MUSTACHE…….
what score app are u using?
Play of 4, and in my low rounds (around level par) distance is important but also being in play. So while I might miss the fairways it is always in decent positions (semi). But for me personally it's almost always about control, so while I dont hit it super far (250 yards average) the control factor is important.
No need to fight distance vs accuracy: amateur golfers can benefit from better tee shots, period, in both distance and accuracy. For most golfers, distance and accuracy are tied together anyway since a lot of bad drives are caused by various swing inconsistencies that lead to off strikes that lead to some combo of loss of both distance and accuracy. But on most courses for most amateurs, you can gain the most strokes by improving your drives.
I see this in my game as a mid handicap. It's fairly difficult to get into big big trouble after a big drive. Sure, it's doable with the right hazards and whatnot, but you can always play conservative away from that, and as long as your short game is decent enough to get in on the green in the vague vicinity of the hole and not be skulling it all over the place, it's tough to make worse than bogie after a good drive (and you'll make your share of pars or even a few birds that way too).
Of course, if you're an amateur and you heel your drive and bend it into the trees or toe it short and leave yourself a long way in… well then all kinds of nasty scores are suddenly on the table.
Most issues on the course seem to be right at average long driver distance. My 2 hybrid off the tee is something I'm trying now and I'm scoring much lower. Except par 5s .
In the golf documentary 'Happy Gilmore' they definitively proved that distance off the tee is more important than accuracy or short game. ?
I'm a high handicapper (23) and honestly I've noticed that my game varies so wildly day by day. On one day, I may have my driver going fairly well and hitting 240-260 while hitting fairways and semi-rough, only to have my irons and approach game foul up my score. Other days the driver may be sending the ball sky-hooking 40 yards right, but my irons can bail me out and salvage a decent score. Other days my long game and approach are wonderful only to have my putter turn into a stick fueled by nightmares. Days where I play well are days where all three seem to be working "OK" at the very least.
However, I'll say this: when my tee shots are wayward, the rest of the game usually follows. If my tee shots are at least doing well, then I know I have a chance on every hole. I feel like I gain far more strokes off the tee than I do in any other part of my game, and I will make decisions on whether I hit irons, woods, or driver based on that.
accuracy is everything :). why hit it 300 when you are coming out of the rough or worse half the time? as a mid handicapper (18) playing on the fairway is always better.
In my experience, accuracy off the Tee is the way to go with the caveat that you can hit your irons well off the fairway. There's not much reason to play it short and straight if you cant hit a GIR on your second shot. I also think it depends on the course. If I can hit an iron off the Tee and have a 9-6 iron into the green then that's the way to go. If it's a bit longer and your hitting 2-Iron, 4-Iron then your not helping yourself much.
One thing that is different for most armatures from this test is the deficit in club head speed carries over to the other clubs. In my regular group playing the same distance off a par 3 I could be using a 6 iron against a mates 5 wood. And when add 40 yard gap in drive that then becomes a wedge vs 5 wood. Even a very accurate player is at a major disadvantage.
BTW my home course is 7005 yards off back tees – I had to improve my driving distance since joining to get better than "bogey golf"
Depends on "how" accurate… If you can hit fairways or semi rough at 300 yds, then fine, you can shoot well. But the "average" guy can't consistently miss within 10-15 yards of fairway. They'll be 40-50 yards right or left- in the woods, lake, OB, etc… and that's at 220-260 most likely, making recovery even harder. I've actually given up yards over the years to gain accuracy… and it works… mostly…