Re: 2013 Golf Season - Does it leave you scratching?
Which club would you hit?
Driver -- 200+ consistently, but accuracy is hit or miss
3 Wood -- 180 consistently - down the middle 95% of the time.
I think you should keep some records, then make the decision based upon those results.
I am a strong believer that amateur golfers can improve their game if they would just keep some records of their rounds, and use them to understand where their game needs improvement. I will give you a personal example of that.
About 25 years ago I switched golf clubs, and joined the country club where I am currently a member. This club has 4 par 5's. I would describe them as follows:
Par 5 #1 -- fairly short, but very narrow driving area with a severe dogleg.
Par 5 #2 -- again, similarly short, but extremely wide driving area/fairway. Creek 30 yards in front of green, but doesn't really come into play unless going for green in two.
Par 5 #3 -- similar length to 1 and 2. Very wide driving area and fairway, but 190 yd carry off tee.
Par 5 #4 -- pretty long par 5, with very narrow driving area and a double dogleg fairway.
At that time I was in the habit of recording my rounds in a notebook, just writing down the score, hole-by-hole. I liked to see how many over (or even potentially, under) I played each hole for the entire year.
For my first year at the club I naturally figured I would do best on the 2nd and 3rd par 5's. Both are fairly short, but with no real trouble. (the course is heavily wooded, the wider the fairways, I assumed the easier the hole.)
I played about 65 rounds that year. Much to my surprise the final totals for the year for those 4 holes turned out something like this:
#1 -- +2
#2 -- +16
#3 -- +12
#4 -- +4
It was completely the opposite of what I expected. I knew it had nothing to do with the creek on #2 or carry off the tee on #3 since I doubt I hit more than one or two shots in the hazard all year. It really had me puzzled.
The next year, for unrelated reasons, I decided to keep much more detailed records. I recorded each hole, shot-by-shot, including the club that I used. My main reason for doing this was to figure out whether I should be carrying more wedges, of different lofts, or more fairway woods. I just wanted to get a feel for how often in a year I hit each club.
But keeping those records gave me an unexpected look into my game.
My scores on the par 5's that second year were eerily similar to the first. The two holes that I should have scored the best on (2 and 3), were again significantly worse than the other two. But what I discovered was that it was entirely due to three putting. I three putted those two par 5's almost more than I three-putted the rest of the holes on the course.
Both of those holes, while relatively easy tee to green, have severely sloping greens, back to front. Once I saw those numbers, it became pretty clear to me that I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was placing my third shot, and I was ending up with too many downhill putts for birdie, which I then turned into bogies.
Beginning in the third year I made the decision to be much more conscious of where I placed my third shot, deliberately shooting for below the pin, even if it meant taking one less club, or leaving the ball just short of the green.
The turnaround was remarkable. While I didn't get the scores to the point I was at with hole 2, I was able to shave as many as 10 strokes off my game for the 50-65 rounds I played that next year.
