What's the best approach when you're stuck between clubs?

Published about 1 month ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader,

🏌️‍♂️ 🎯 Stuck between clubs - which way do you go?

147 yards. Your 8-iron carries 150. Your 9-iron carries 138.

Now what?

MyGolfSpy's answer is to stop focusing on the flag and start looking at the trouble.

Is there water short? Take the 8 and forget the pin
Bushes long? Take the 9 and accept the front edge.
Deep bunkers left? Take the club that delivers the safest miss away from them

And their default when nothing is shouting at you? More club, smoother swing, lower flight.

That last part is where most of us go wrong. The instinct is to grab the shorter club and swing harder. Or club to our 'best ever' carry number when you flush it rather than your 'stock' yardage.

Which is exactly how a 147-yard shot ends up 120 yards away!

⛳ Your Approach Play Is Where Most Of Your Strokes Go

And why is approach play strategy so important?

Because you know the feeling. Three-putt the 6th and miss a 5ft par putt at the 12th, and the whole round gets filed under “I putted badly.”

Arccos however went looking for where the strokes actually go.

329,000 rounds. Around 21,000 golfers, all with USGA-verified handicaps.

One question: what separates you from the next handicap level down?

It isn’t putting. Not at any level.

Approach play is 38% to 40% of the gap, and it barely moves whether you’re a 25 or a 7.

Tee shots come second, and they matter more the better you get. 24% of the gap for a 20-handicap climbing into the teens. 29% for a 6-handicap chasing scratch.

Putting? 19% at its worst. Down to 14% once you’re in single figures.

The least important thing in the bag. And the thing most of us blame.

That’s why the round you blamed on the putter probably went wrong 150 yards earlier and why choosing the right club for your approach shot is so important.

From Us

MyGolfSpy's findings are nothing new but the conventional wisdom that putting and short game overall is the key to better scoring is still deep rooted in golfing circles.

Mark Broadie, Columbia business professor and the inventor of the strokes gained metric first adopted by the PGA Tour way back in 2011, first highlighted how much approach play explains scoring differences in his book 'Every Shot Counts'.

His conclusions come from statistical analysis of millions of shots, not opinion and in short it's the best golf book I've ever read.

If you like your stats you'll love it. But even if you don't, I'd still whole heartedly recommend it. I guarantee you'll learn something you didn't know! Buy on Amazon

And finally and most importantly we hope you are enjoying your golf!

Play well 👍

Graeme Hay

Founder, GolfingFocus.com

Golfing Focus Limited, 73 Maple Road, London, KT6 4AG
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