What's YOUR birdie yardage?

mikeintopeka · 2017-01-10T22:46:30+00:00

Excerpt from the article: "It has taken me years to figure out by rigorous calculation what instinct told me all along. I’m most comfortable and having the m...

DC300

PA-PLAYA Sound advise on the club selection!

As has been said 90% of the game is mental, the other half is physical 😳

Weirfan

DC300

You've got the "mental" part down 😈

azgreg

Weirfan
My dad always said:

"There are three types of people in this country. Those who can count and those who can't."

DC300

Weirfan haha that's the truth!

johnnydoom

No clue. I birdie more par 3's than par 4's or 5's on longer courses. Just too poor of a player to string two or three good shots together most days. With that, I am a better iron player than I am a driver or putter. Most rounds I'll have 2 to 4 birdie putts of less than 20 feet, but with my putting those usually end up as the good pars on my score. I've only had maybe 3 eagles on holes 500 yards or longer, with two of those being pitch-ins while one was a short putt thanks to an immense tail wind and rock hard fairway. A course would probably need to be 5500 yards or shorter for me to expect many birdie opportunities, and even then it would need to be one of my best putting days. Not enough willpower or desire in me to practice like I should.

letthebigdogshunt

I don't make a lot of birdies. My game is more based on consistency. I hit a lot of fairways but not so much greens any longer. I get up and down and I putt well. About a half dozen years ago I holed out for eagle four times on par fours. I chipped in from about 25 yards for eagle on a par five and I made a hole in one on a par 3 for six eagles that year. I think I have had one eagle since then. My biggest problem today is distance off the tee. Accurate but short. I moved up to the senior tees 5 years ago, but some physical problems have curtailed my swing and I have a hard time hitting the ball out of my shadow. As the saying goes, I am to close to the ball after it stops rolling.

livegolf

Par 3's: 12 birdies totaling 1,986 yards
Par 4's: 35 birdies totaling 12,484 yards
Par 5's: 26 birdies totaling 13,231yards

Average par 3 birdie is 165.5 yards
Average par 4 birdie is 356.7 yards
Average par 5 birdie is 508.9 yards

Based on that my birdie yardage is 6,265 yards, still not sure exactly what that means though! Not sure I want wedges into every par 4 and potentially reachable par 5's every hole if I hit a good drives (conditions dependent of course)

mikeintopeka

livegolf - Your stats are really close to mine and what I posted in the opening. You'll eventually remember your 'average' length for the different holes and make it a mental challenge to 'give yourself a chance' at a birdie. Boy do I get pissed off missing a very makeable birdie putt on holes that are longer than my average and the opportunity for the average to increase.

If you are concerned about how much fun a driver and wedge would be on par 4's, you are hitting it a lot longer than me. My average tee ball is about 220 yards (including flat out bad shots) and my average birdie yardage on a par 4 is about 160 so I have a reasonable chance to birdie any 380 yard hole. And that for me is a driver and six or 7 iron which is 'fun'.

rsvman

livegolf This is a necropost, but the more I think about this, the more I think that these data are meaningless without a control.

For example, what are your bogey lengths? Is there a difference between your birdie lengths and your bogey lengths? That would provide something to really think about. (Sadly, I'd be racking up bogey data a heck of a lot faster than birdie data.)

Maybe I'll do this next year. Just make a spreadsheet with so-called birdie lengths, par lengths, bogey lengths, and double-bogey lengths, and see whether there is anything to this idea.

livegolf

I'm not a long hitter, typically fly driver 230 yards. That leaves 9 iron or wedge into 10 par 4s in the average example. Shorter holes are a flip wedge and longer are a mid iron. Thats assuming quite a few things though, including no wind!

Par4QC

livegolfEither I'm drunk, or you are.
Think maybe there's a typo in that statement somewhere??

sdandrea1

livegolf I'm not a long hitter,

Bullshit................when you're playing golf with me you are. 😉

BogeySwine

Interesting! I went through my scorecards for the past season which was twenty four rounds. Three birdies on Par 3's from 160 yards to 195 yards. Five birdies on Par 4's from 329 yards to 410 yards. One birdie on a Par 5 of 560 yards! I have a habit of "putting a little extra" on my tee shot on a Par 5 and it rarely turns out well!

livegolf

Par4QC

Malbec tonight!

rsvman

"long hitter" is relative, I guess.

I don't have any idea what length of par 3s, 4s, or 5s that I birdie most frequently. I have never tracked it.

I prefer par 3s to be from 115 to about 175, and I like there to be some variety in their lengths. Par 4s over 400 yards are rarely birdies for me. I like 320-390. For par 5s, the longest that I could potentially reach in two would be about 470-480, and it would require two great shots. But it's easier to birdie par 5s than any other type of hole; I generally have shorter approach shots to most par 5s around here.

Again, all guesses, though, since I have no data.

BogeySwine

Update! I have played a bit more this season, probably 45 rounds. Here are the birdies(no eagles) in past twenty rounds. Two birdies on Par 3's 161 and 144. Six birdies on Par 4's 325 twice, 333 twice, 344 and 360. One birdie on a Par 5 485. Very similar to my post in January. I am playing better overall but the improvement is mostly just eliminating double or triple bogeys!

ZWExton

rsvman Yep. For every birdie player X makes on a 360yd par 4, he might make 3 bogeys. Hard to call that birdie yardage.

livegolf

rsvman

No idea on my bogey yardage, probably an extra 20 yards a hole average. I've got way too many over par scores to try that one out.

I'm revising my decision, my birdie yardage is a 15 ft eagle putt!

mikeintopeka

@ZWExton and @rsvma the point of tracking the yardage is to determine a set of tees you would enjoy the most. The author, Brad Klein of Golfweek wrote, " I’m most comfortable and having the most fun when I’m playing tees in the 6,200-yard range" which is what HIS spreadsheet results were for him.

I don't need to track the yardage of my bogeys or worse. I make a notation on my card what CAUSED the poor play on that hole and work to eliminate them between rounds. If I can get my "Ah Shits" to 5 or less a round, I'm probably scoring in the low 80's or occasionally breaking 80, especially if I'm playing yardage that "I'm most comfortable and having the most fun".

It does lead to a good discussion. The resulting yardage may give you number that provides a good mix of greens in regulation you can hit with an iron to give you a shot at birdies while not playing something so short it becomes a driver and an 8,9, or W all day.

ZWExton

mikeintopeka I had my "ah shits" down to just a few recently. Triple bogeyed the 18th for an 80. 😭

The yardage stuff comes down to fun I guess, but golf is easier for everyone at every level when it's shorter. That isn't rocket science. Who is making more birdies from 400 than 350?

An 81 from 5,800 is not more impressive than an 88 from 6,800, is it? Score is relative. Longer is harder.

5i distance x 36 still seems the most accurate measure of appropriate course length.

rsvman

ZWExton right. So I play an old set of irons. My 5-iron would be labeled a 6-iron on today's clubs. So do I multiply the distance I get with the iron that says the number five on it, or do I multiply the distance I get with my 4-iron, which is really a modern 5-iron loft?
Trickier than it seemed, right?

mikeintopeka

ZWExton An 81 from 5,800 is not more impressive than an 88 from 6,800, is it? Score is relative. Longer is harder.

Good post! I'd take the 88 from 6,800 any day rather than the 81 (or 78 or whatever) from 5,800 as I'd feel I was challenged and rewarded. From anything under 6,000 I still have enough distance off the tee that I'd be hitting a lot of 8,9,W for my approaches and that gets mundane (been there, done that). The caveat is I know there is a day coming when I'll cherish playing from those forward tees AND enjoying it.

Yes, 36 x 5i distance is a lot quicker and doesn't need any further calculations. And in my case, using this method results in just a little longer yardage than the formula I'm tracking...6,255 vs 6,300, so I believe it's another good method too.

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