Quote:
Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates
Good analysis, appreciate that!
I suspect for mid-higher handicappers like me, there's also an element of self fulfilling prophecy that occurs.
If you know you struggle with short, half swings in and you always try to play to your best distance in, you'll keep getting practice on your preferred short in and never on the half shots.
Then you never become comfortable with that 60 yard chip in because you rarely play it.
I have a lot of friends who panic in those ranges but I think they're never getting over that hump of discomfort and probably could with more of those shots.
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I think both of you are overstating the benefit of a target distance, however I do think though that there is merit to keeping in mind that a 30 yard pitch is not that much of an advantage over 100-120 yard full swing with one of your wedges. One little bit of strategy I've helped my son with as he's got better is telling him if he doesn't have a chance of reaching the green on a par 5 to put away the 3 wood. He's quite good with his 3 wood, but he's not going to hit the green from 250. He was shooting so many low to mid 80s rounds where he was like 6 over on the par 5s. In the one time that he's listened to me about golf advice, I convinced him to take out an iron on second shots of par 5s if he had no realistic chance of hitting the green, and it's definitely taken at least 2-3 shots off his average score per round.
So many par 5s have a huge penalty if you miss from 250, so the risk/reward just isn't there. I think he's probably marginally better from 30-50 yards out, vs 100-120, but a bad 4 or 5 iron might be in the rough while a bad 3 wood is in a creek, lost in the trees or ob.