How many times have you entered your yardage, selected what you thought was the perfect club, and still fell short of the mark—leaving yourself with a tricky lie that left you to scramble and save par?
If you’re like me, this has happened too many times. Often, the culprit is a common misconception among amateurs: not knowing the difference between carry distance and total distance, or not understanding how to use this information on the course.
Understanding the difference between these two data points and the critical role of carrying yards can change your game, helping you hit more greens and avoid costly mistakes on the course.
Luck and total distance
Simply put, dribbling distance is the distance the ball travels in the air. Total distance is the distance it travels overall, including any roll or bounce after landing. To calculate your carry number, launch monitors use relatively constant factors such as swing speed, launch angle and contact quality. Total distance, on the other hand, is determined by adding dependent variables, or variables that may change from shot to shot, such as slope, ground hardness, or wind.
Stop focusing on the wrong numbers
Many amateurs obsess over total distance, but this can backfire during a round. Total yardage varies with field conditions.
For example, if you only knew that the total distance of an 8-iron was approximately 142 yards, you might select it as a front pin of 137 yards and think it would be enough to get there. However, if your average carry distance is actually 135 yards, you risk missing your target if the ball doesn’t bounce or roll as expected.
Relying solely on total yardage can also make club selection trickier when adjusting for conditions like strong winds, hard and fast conditions, and temperature changes. By using your average carry yardage, you’ll have a consistent baseline to work from. Helping you make more informed decisions on your courses.
How to find your carry size
As someone who didn’t know their average carry distance until recently, I can tell you that figuring it out is easier than you think – especially if you have access to cutting-edge technology.
To determine my carry yardage, I used my Full Swing KIT Launch Monitor and paid special attention to my irons during practice. I start with a 9-iron, hit it about 10 times, and record the distance hit and total distance on each shot. Then I discarded the outliers—including misses and those sneaky “perfect” shots that were a few yards farther than normal. Once I had a consistent set of hits, I added up the distances, divided by the number of hits, and just like that, I got my average yardage.
After calculating my average flight distance, I managed to sneak in a few rounds before the local courses began to winterize, and I was very happy with my results. Armed with this great information, I gained new confidence in my game. My course strategy was smarter, I made better club selections, and as a result, I found myself second-guessing those decisions much less than usual, which translated to more pars on the scorecard.
