Learning Distance Control

By: Butch Bundy

One of the things that the better players truly excel at is hitting their approach shots the correct distance. Outside of hitting short shots around the green so consistently solid, the thing that I am amazed at by tour players is how often they hit the ball pin high.
Here are a couple of tips on how you can figure out distance control.
Nick Price once made a comment that stuck with me. He said that he didn’t care if he could occasionally hit his 7 iron 165 yards, but that he was more interested in hitting it 155 yards every time. Obviously having better swing fundamentals is the first step, but there are some pretty good players that have trouble controlling distances because they don’t practice hitting shots to yardages. I encourage the average player to start with their wedges learning to fly shots 20, 30 and 40 yards. I do this by actually walking off the yardages and dropping towels at each number. I then work on hitting shots to those different targets by adjusting the length of my swing, not by changing speeds. That is the key to hitting these short shots the proper distance while also hitting the shot consistently solid. Most average golfers try to slow down their swing instead of shortening it to hit these shots, which leads to deceleration.
Once you have gotten the hang of the wedges, move on down through the rest of the irons in the bag. Almost all driving ranges will have distances measured to the targets on the driving range. Step these off and see how far you are hitting each club. What I find the most reliable though is to actually play practice rounds and drop balls down by the different yardage markers and the sprinkler heads that are marked. This gives you a very precise idea while using you own type of golf ball. Sometimes range balls don’t give a very good idea of distance because they might be worn out or they aren’t the same type of ball that you use on the golf course. A good tip is to use one kind of golf ball consistently instead of just playing random ones. The few yards difference might not sound like a big deal, but when you are hitting to a tight pin with trouble short or long it can make a huge difference.