Hey TL. FlaShFTW with another blog. For those who don't know (pretty much everyone) I'm a golfer and I'm going to attempt to make the golf team in my freshman year. Golfing season is drawing near, so I just want to ask TL some questions for all you golf pros out there.
1. How can you improve swing speed? As far as I know, strength really helps here, as well as your swing mechanics. Am I missing a key component here? I drive the ball approximately 235-240 yards but can't raise it.
2. Any good swing tips for the irons? My iron play is the weakest point in my game, which is REALLY BAD. I can usually place the ball where I want from 7-9/PW, but as my irons get longer, the ball flies off more. If you can help with setup and swing, it'd be appreciated greatly.
3. How to prepare for a golf tryout? For those out there that have attempted a golf tryout for school team or college (does college even have a golf team??? I never see any on the news), how can you best prepare, and what do you do in a tryout. I understand that it may vary school to school, I just want to get a broad picture so I can work on those things.
Thanks everyone! I hope you guys a great golf season and a great 2011!
I actually have money to play semi regularly this upcoming season, totally psyched. Last year before I went utterly broke paying for college and other things I was down to a 14 handicap which I was really happy with. consistently shooting in the mid 80's on regulation courses.
This year first priority for me is getting new clubs. I don't really know where it's best to go though, I think it's best to go to local golf shops instead of like into a dicks and maybe find deals or sales. I also don't know the best brands for irons and stuff so I gotta do some research on that too. Also I heard it's beneficial to get fitted for clubs too but I also don't know much about that. So much to look into haha.
I think your grip and your hip movement its the most important for strength, I am not an expert, however. You should definately focus on accuracy first, not power, as your power gets better as you get older and stronger but your fundamental accurate swing is really what you need. and if you have enough money get some lessons, as they are definitely worth it!
On January 08 2011 08:38 micronesia wrote: I'm gonna start hitting the range in like late February to warm up... sorta have a handicap established at 23 (not quite 20 rounds yet).
I don't have any answers for you but am interested in some of the same things :p
Power isn't my problem... it's USING the power effectively.
Ehh... My handicap is around 14.5, about 11 round so far. You're definitely right about the using power effectively. This can translate into Starcraft by using your APM effectively. xD.
I really don't need lessons (I'm not overconfident, its just that I pretty much made my entire swing by myself and all they do is just recycle the same thing over and over again) however I believe that I just need to practice.
I'm starting to get a general iron swing down, because I used to take the club head way outside and towards my body. This gave me a huge push right. I've moved my club now to a more Jim Furyk style, keeping the club perfectly aimed at the target and finally curving over the top of my shoulders.
@ suggestion for lessons: Lessons are good for when shit goes really bad or you need someone to get your alignment and/or some basic kink worked out. If you're on a team, your coach should have some basic golf knowledge and be able to help you out if things go south. Team members are a big help too. Myself, a decent amateur for the past 25+ years, have had almost no formal training and love beating up on the rich country club doctor/lawyers with the best swings money can buy. I love playing in my regional amateur tournaments (NCGA) with inferior equipment and sometimes even a ball that has been around for 5 or 6 rounds! Most shit in their pants when they find me in the last pairing with tennis shoes, a "day bag", and T-shirt if the rules permit! But I digress sorry. Golf can do that to a man and a keyboard.
Advice: Best advice would be to hang out with good players especially at your age (freshman High School I assume?). Your brain, muscles and how they work with your memory are firing on all cylinders. Keep your mind and your eyes open to greatness and good swings. Your body will mimic what it sees.
More Distance: You're still growing. I ran hurdles in high school and played football. I remember how weak I was as a freshman compared to my senior years. Back then (1980's) we didn't really work out in gyms, but just running, surfing, and being active outside made me a strong teenager. Just keep "playing hard" and you'll get stronger. Flexibility is the key not strength. Ya TW is one buff dude (roid intervention maybe?), but the longest players in the world are more flexible than buff. Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, and the World Long Driving champ are all really really flexible.
... speaking of which, I need to practice more what am preaching. At 45 years old, I can still carry the ball 250ish here in the dense air and fog of the Moneterey Bay area, but older competitors are routinely bombing it past me. I still am in decent form (not fat) but out of shape in terms of flexibility. Flexibility, Flexibility, Flexibility. Need to work on it.
Gluck, you'll have a blast playing on a golf team. Good times and great memories.
On January 08 2011 08:30 FlaShFTW wrote: Hey TL. FlaShFTW with another blog. For those who don't know (pretty much everyone) I'm a golfer and I'm going to attempt to make the golf team in my freshman year. Golfing season is drawing near, so I just want to ask TL some questions for all you golf pros out there.
1. How can you improve swing speed? As far as I know, strength really helps here, as well as your swing mechanics. Am I missing a key component here? I drive the ball approximately 235-240 yards but can't raise it.
2. Any good swing tips for the irons? My iron play is the weakest point in my game, which is REALLY BAD. I can usually place the ball where I want from 7-9/PW, but as my irons get longer, the ball flies off more. If you can help with setup and swing, it'd be appreciated greatly.
3. How to prepare for a golf tryout? For those out there that have attempted a golf tryout for school team or college (does college even have a golf team??? I never see any on the news), how can you best prepare, and what do you do in a tryout. I understand that it may vary school to school, I just want to get a broad picture so I can work on those things.
Thanks everyone! I hope you guys a great golf season and a great 2011!
Oh man this is like my withdrawal time, Colorado is a bad place for golf in the winter lol. Right about now I start getting the itch to play so bad. Anyway, onto the fun!
1. If your around sea level averaging 240 isn't bad at all, especially as a freshman (im assuming HS). I know at my school we frequently had freshman who could hit it only 220 ish and thats with the 10% or so you get from being 7000'. Some of them shot low-mid 80's. Honestly, I feel like some of the key components to distance are: - Solid Hit: Good consistent contact is so big for distance, missing a sweet spot hit easily kills 20+ yards, maybe more; especially if your hitting it low on the clubface and getting a nasty upshooting type trajectory. - Arc: A good wide arc is really useful for distance. The time it takes you to get the club from point A to point B doesn't change much, so if you increase the radius your swining over the ball goes further. What creates a good arc? Good should turn as well as extension. An easy way to get a feel for this is to put a ball about 2 feet back on the line of your backswing and brush it back with your backswing, this forces you to turn and extend as you go back, and really gets that seperating between the hands and the body - Lag/Delayed Hit: If your starting your release too soon you lose power. And I mean a ton of power. I used to struggle with this badly because I would try to get my hands working to generate power, but the timing was off and as the season wore on I would get shorter and shorter. I would start seasons around 300 for a good drive and by the end my best ones would be lucky to go 250. You DO want to use your hands for power, but it has to come at the correct time for the beginning of the downswing you want more a feeling of your hands dropping then of hitting with your hands.
There are alot of other factors that go into distance as well such as your weight shift, x-factor, speed of your turn, etc. etc.
2. You ask for setup and swing help but don't provide us with details of your typical ball flight/contact/divot/ect, let alone a video. There isn't alot to say without being able to see your swing, even with that take any advice we can give with a large grain of salt; teaching is really a fine art and while there are lots of things that are mechanically "correct" the cookie cutter mold isn't always right for every swing, some things might be technically correct, yet not mesh with your swing.
Other than swing advice I'm not sure what your asking, basically your saying you get less accurate with the longer irons, but that happens with everyone. I can only assume you mean you're seeing a drastic difference between say an 8 iron and a 5 iron.
3. For my H.S. golf tryouts we had a brief "range tryout" to weed out anyone that was just no way going to sniff making the team even with the round(s) of their life. At that you just hit balls, chipped, and putted; and they made an evalution as to whether you were absolutely awful or not After that we had 4 rounds of 18 holes, and the lowest scorers made the team. However, every year was given a 3 stroke per year handicap (i.e. a freshman shooting 90 was the same as a senior shooting 81). I'm sure there is massive variance between how schools do tryouts, though I'm guessing most will have you play rounds.
As far as how to prepare. Long Term - Good Practice. This means, short game, short game, wedges, short game, short game, iron game, short game, wedges, long game, short game, short game. You get the picture. If you wanna get good, make your chipping and putting weapons. It might not look as flashy as the 330 yard bombs, but it will net you good scores. With a solid shortgame it should be pretty rare for you to ever shoot worse than mid to low 80's. Now, if you have major weaknesses, namely extremely erratic driving, that probably takes precedence, because if your cranking multiple balls OB a round no short game is going to make up for that. I emphaize this so much because I learned this the hard way. I could have been a strong HS player, but I never got better than high 70's because my short game was bad. My last season in HS I averaged a little over 12 GIR a round, yet my average was 77.8. My putts per round...35.3. Next year I easily took 5 strokes off my game by relentlessly grinding the shortgame. If you really want to do well in this game I cannot stress to you how crucial a dangerous short game is.
Mid Term (1 or 2 weeks out) - Play the courses your playing for tryouts. Figure out the stategies for each hole. Should you attack the green on this par 4, where is the best place to miss on that long par 3, is it worth it to hit driver on that par 5 you don't think you can reach in two? Get a feel for the contour of the greens, and how the ball reacts on them. Knowing the greens really lets you know where you want to miss. For each pin you can divide the green into four quadrants and figure out which one you want to miss in. Bottom left might leave you a ten foot up hill right-left put for birdie, while missing top right leave you a ticklish downhill left-righter. Knowing the course is absolutely critical, and being able to setup a plan of how you want to play it is a nice addition if you have the time to figure that out.
Short Term (morning of) - Eat something. If you don't eat breakfast, make it a habit; it's worth it. Then have a normal warm-up routine you use. What I like to do is show up about 75 min early. I hit a few putts and a few chips to get a preliminary feel of the greens. Then I go and warm-up on the range. I start with the wedges and work my way up to driver, alternating clubs (i.e. Driver, 5 Wood, 4 Iron, 6 Iron, etc). After the driver I hit a couple nine irons and then a couple 54 wedges just for refreshing a nice rythmic tempo. After that I mentally play out the opening tee shot. Ex: 1st hole is a straight 470 yard par 4 with a bunker on the right starting at about 320 yards. I want to hit 3 wood because I know that will leave me short of the bunker. Becuase the bunker is on the right I want to hit a nice hold on finish fade so that if I do miss, my miss will be to the right. This becomes the shot I hit on the range. I visualize the hole on the range, and pick targets that correspond with the hole. I go through my full pre-shot routine and then hit the shot like its the actual opening tee shot. I'll do this 2 or 3 times till I have the feel. Then I go putt for another 15 minutes until its time for me to go off.
I really like that opening routine because I come to the first tee knowing I have already played and executed the shot, which makes me relaxed and comfortable. I also can't stress the importance of devloping a good pre-short routine, especially if this is the first time you have done much competetive play. A good pre-shot routine helps relax you because it becames a habit and thus puts you back into that state of mind your in when you play normal, and it helps keeps you process focused, not results focused. What I mean by this is if you get on the first tee and your thinking oh god, oh god, please don't pull it into that bunker on the left; you're going to hit a bad shot. If you've visualized your low fade and are focusing on holding on through the shot for that baby fade you are FAR more likely to hit a good shot. Never, ever be thinking about the outcome of a shot when you're hitting it, that is the surefire way to suck under pressure. You should always focused on the feeling you need to hit the shot you want.
Well...that got kinda long. Hope I have been able to provide some good insight. If you have further questions don't hesitate at all to ask; I love this game, and I love discussing it
[QUOTE]On January 09 2011 14:06 Bajadulce wrote:Flexibility is the key not strength. Ya TW is one buff dude (roid intervention maybe?), but the longest players in the world are more flexible than buff. Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, and the World Long Driving champ are all really really flexible.
QUOTE]
I really agree with this alot. Honestly, I don't think Tiger's size has helped his length at all...maybe even hurt it. Back in 1997-2000 take a look at his swing, incredible arc, incredible flexibility, and some of the most natural speed I have ever seen. Dude got through the ball so fast. In 2000 Tiger averaged 298 yards, ranked 2nd (and well ahead of 3rd). Fast forward to 2007, at which point he had really started bulking up. His average drive: 302. He only increased 4 yards (this is with the MASSIVE equipment/ball improvements), and slipped to 44th in driving distance.
Not saying weight lifitng is bad for you by any means, but the focus sure shouldn't be on being a defensive lineman. You want flexibility, speed, and explosive training type emphasis, thats where you're power comes from.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ0dNIP-yoU&feature=related]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ0dNIP-yoU&feature=related[/url] 5'10, 165 pounds. Easily hits hit 400 when he catches it flush
Ya so I hear that advice a lot... short game short game short game. I find it frustrating. The more I play and practice the better my short game gets... pretty simply.
The more I play the more my long game continues to be horribly inconsistent where I'll do some swings like a 10 handicap and others like I picked up the game a few weeks ago :/
Despite my short game going through phases of being complimented by a teaching pro, and my long game going through sequences where I hit the ball consistently, and having a decent amount of knowledge on pretty much every aspect of the game, I still can't seem to ever break mid 90s and even that is pretty rare. This game is so frustrating.
I can never seem to find solutions to my problems that don't require large sums of money I don't have.
On January 09 2011 16:20 micronesia wrote: Ya so I hear that advice a lot... short game short game short game. I find it frustrating. The more I play and practice the better my short game gets... pretty simply.
The more I play the more my long game continues to be horribly inconsistent where I'll do some swings like a 10 handicap and others like I picked up the game a few weeks ago :/
Despite my short game going through phases of being complimented by a teaching pro, and my long game going through sequences where I hit the ball consistently, and having a decent amount of knowledge on pretty much every aspect of the game, I still can't seem to ever break mid 90s and even that is pretty rare. This game is so frustrating.
I can never seem to find solutions to my problems that don't require large sums of money I don't have.
How many putts per round do average? If your down around 30 you dont need to hit any greens in regulation and can take 5 or 6 holes taking 2 more than regulation to get on and still shoot 90 or better.
Now if you are doing that and not breaking 90 consistently, then yeah, your long game needs work. Try to figure out where your bleeding shots. Drives OB/Hazards? Terrible iron mishits that dont advance the ball? Playing too risky? Try to find those weaknesses and work on them. But if you actually have a solid short game and don't break 90 often you should have some obvious issues in your long game that need work. If your short game is decent you shouldn't miss the green often at all from <100 yards. You could hit some ugly 200 yard squirter, another 150 yard mishit, and still have maybe 50-70 yards to the green at most. From there you should never make worse than bogey with the occasional par tossed in. If thats not the case either your short game still needs work, or you should have some clear reasons for what going wrong in your long game.
On January 09 2011 16:20 micronesia wrote: Ya so I hear that advice a lot... short game short game short game. I find it frustrating. The more I play and practice the better my short game gets... pretty simply.
The more I play the more my long game continues to be horribly inconsistent where I'll do some swings like a 10 handicap and others like I picked up the game a few weeks ago :/
Despite my short game going through phases of being complimented by a teaching pro, and my long game going through sequences where I hit the ball consistently, and having a decent amount of knowledge on pretty much every aspect of the game, I still can't seem to ever break mid 90s and even that is pretty rare. This game is so frustrating.
I can never seem to find solutions to my problems that don't require large sums of money I don't have.
How many putts per round do average? If your down around 30 you dont need to hit any greens in regulation and can take 5 or 6 holes taking 2 more than regulation to get on and still shoot 90 or better.
Now if you are doing that and not breaking 90 consistently, then yeah, your long game needs work. Try to figure out where your bleeding shots. Drives OB/Hazards? Terrible iron mishits that dont advance the ball? Playing too risky? Try to find those weaknesses and work on them. But if you actually have a solid short game and don't break 90 often you should have some obvious issues in your long game that need work. If your short game is decent you shouldn't miss the green often at all from <100 yards. You could hit some ugly 200 yard squirter, another 150 yard mishit, and still have maybe 50-70 yards to the green at most. From there you should never make worse than bogey with the occasional par tossed in. If thats not the case either your short game still needs work, or you should have some clear reasons for what going wrong in your long game.
Just to be clear, every aspect of my game needs work :p
It's hard for me to help you understand what I'm having difficulty with as I don't have any one weakness or anything like that. I am basically inconsistent all around. The trend I've noticed though is that regarding short game... what you put in (practice/training) is what you get out of it (not 100% but there is enough of a correlation that it isn't depressing). For long game, I often feel like more practice/training doesn't help. One major observation is that I usually can't take what I accomplish on the range to the course.
An obvious suggestion would be that it's a mental problem hindering my performance. I've done lots of experiments with mindsets, attitudes, etc, and I think that definitely contributes sometimes to difficulties I have but isn't the primary explanation for why I am not scoring as well as I want to on the course.
At this point the only thing I can think of doing is actually documenting shot by shot a couple of rounds and sharing them with golfers who enjoy offering advice (like you seem to). Check back in a few months?
One thing that I sorta am struggling with is deciding what amount of progress is to be expected based on the time/effort/money/etc I've put into golf throughout my life. Imagine a guy who goes to the bowling alley every other day for years and still can't manage to break 100 despite getting occasional lessons that he knows are not crap... feels like that sometimes.
BTW to try to answer some of your questions quantitatively... I definitely don't average less than 2 putts per hole. But I am not frustrated by my score being inflated by bad putting (when it's bad) since I know it's pretty easy to brute-force practice that. Not true with long game for me... doesn't seem to really matter if I practice or not.
@ Jamie Sadlowski long driving champ: I saw that guy for the first time a few days ago at the Mercedes. He was invited to take part in a long drive exhibition at the downhill par5 18th at the Plantation-Maui. Unlike past long driving champs, this new generation bomber has a normal looking golf swing and doesn't look like a bouncer @ the local night club. Ya, that guy is amazing. BIG huge arc, (high hands etc at top of backswing). Massive coiling of body (hurts my body to look at really). Impressive. In his interview, he describes a lot of core training as well as wrist training.
@ player frustrated not to routinely break 90:
At this point the only thing I can think of doing is actually documenting shot by shot a couple of rounds and sharing them with golfers who enjoy offering advice (like you seem to). Check back in a few months?
^This. You prob could benefit more from on-course analysis rather than driving-range help.
-- some cheap help/advice: You might benefit from actually carrying around fewer clubs! Maybe driver, 2 utility woods, 6,8,9,PW,SW, putter. That's only 9 clubs and might help improve your shot making as well as take off a ton of pressure while simplifying the game.
My preferred 10-club combination: driver, hybrid, 5, 7, 8, 9, PW, SW, LW, putter. I probably could axe the 9 iron to reduce the total down to 9, but haven't had the courage to do so haha. Anywho, I've been playing with this setup for about 2 years now and love it. My handicap suffered a small hit at first, but soon gained back the lost point. Haven't played in any major tournament yet with the minimal setup, but that's on the list for the new year .. after regional qualifying of course.
I am not frustrated by my score being inflated by bad putting (when it's bad) since I know it's pretty easy to brute-force practice that
I see a lot of higher handicap players at my club practicing 8-15 foot putts, which I personally think is absurd. If you're shooting in the high 80's and 90's, you should be practicing distance control (i.e. lagging putts 25' etc) and tap-ins. i.e. 2ft! Biggest problem I see with higher handicap putters.. distance control, distance control, distance control, and blown 1-2 foot putts. Forget about the 3-4 foot range, practice banging (and I stress banging) in some 2 footers or even 1 footers for the confidence. The 3-5 foot range will follow naturally.
@ L-master's advice for aspiring HS team golfer: All really really good points and great advice. Getting to know the course/s you'll be playing is really good advice. Long term and short term goals were excellent. Maybe I disagree with over analyzing that opening tee shot tho. Too much time to let your mind drift of the failures associated with that shot as well. I'd rather focus on the target once I reach the tee. Ya practice a few shots on the range of the required shot, but let it go after that. Come to the first tee relaxed. A "GOOD" golf course should never have a demanding opening hole anyways! (St Andrews vs. Poppy Hills haha!) At least that is the theory behind solid golf architecture.
My 2 cents to add: The golfers who are having fun and are at peace are generally the ones that excel. That's probably the hardest skill to master as a teenager, but peace of mind and controlling your emotions (espc when bad shit starts happening) can't be understated. Ya there are good players that "lose" it and are total hotheads, but they look stupid and aren't fun to play with. Let the game make you look like a jackass, don't act like one. Hard to do as a teenager/young adult, but something to work on. Gluck.
Wow long frickin post about nothing.. my apologies for rambling.
At this point the only thing I can think of doing is actually documenting shot by shot a couple of rounds and sharing them with golfers who enjoy offering advice (like you seem to). Check back in a few months?
^This. You prob could benefit more from on-course analysis rather than driving-range help.
Getting on-course help in person is extremely expensive so all I can really do is discuss what happened... but you guys can't see it so it's tough to help I'm sure.
-- some cheap help/advice: You might benefit from actually carrying around fewer clubs! Maybe driver, 2 utility woods, 6,8,9,PW,SW, putter. That's only 9 clubs and might help improve your shot making as well as take off a ton of pressure while simplifying the game.
My preferred 10-club combination: driver, hybrid, 5, 7, 8, 9, PW, SW, LW, putter. I probably could axe the 9 iron to reduce the total down to 9, but haven't had the courage to do so haha. Anywho, I've been playing with this setup for about 2 years now and love it. My handicap suffered a small hit at first, but soon gained back the lost point. Haven't played in any major tournament yet with the minimal setup, but that's on the list for the new year .. after regional qualifying of course.
I've heard this advice before although I'm not sure if it would help. I know exactly how far all my clubs should go when I hit them correctly and rarely have any difficulty deciding what club to use. I carry driver, 3w, 5w, 3h, 4i-9i, pw, aw, sw, putter. Just in case it helps here are the yardages I have stored in my brain:
driver: 240-250 let's say (don't hit it perfectly usually lol) 3w: 230-240 5w: 220-230 3h: >200 but very inconsistent with a low trajectory 4i: 190 5i: 180 6i: 170 7i: 160 8i: 150 9i: 130 pw: 120 aw: 105 sw: 90
I am not frustrated by my score being inflated by bad putting (when it's bad) since I know it's pretty easy to brute-force practice that
I see a lot of higher handicap players at my club practicing 8-15 foot putts, which I personally think is absurd. If you're shooting in the high 80's and 90's, you should be practicing distance control (i.e. lagging putts 25' etc) and tap-ins. i.e. 2ft! Biggest problem I see with higher handicap putters.. distance control, distance control, distance control, and blown 1-2 foot putts. Forget about the 3-4 foot range, practice banging (and I stress banging) in some 2 footers or even 1 footers for the confidence. The 3-5 foot range will follow naturally.
That's a good point about how to practice putting. Make sure you can bang in the 1-2 foot putts, then make sure you can get it within 2 feet from 25 feet! Making a 12 foot putt is nice but not the most efficient way to practice.
Those numbers are almost machine-like in their differences which is good if you find yourself needing to score from 160 out. Your clubs have 10 yard increments from there out and are pretty dialed in. Very nice
20 yards increments might be all you really need tho if you're trying to be more consistent. i.e. using a 4i instead of a 5i for a 20 handicapper isn't going to make much difference over the longrun and might even score better if "forced" to use the stronger club.
Where your numbers might need work is from 150 in. Here your clubs should almost overlap one another such as your woods do. The gap between your pw and aw is the largest you've listed btw. These small clubs should actually be your smallest margin. If you watch the pros the same player might hit anything from a 9 iron to a SW for the same yardage between 2 different shots. The 150 in really becomes all about feel (robotic machines like Steve Stricker or Tom Kite are exceptions lol) Maybe you should reassess your 150 yards in distances with ranges rather than concrete numbers and make sure those clubs overlap. I'm sure they do in practice, but you would benefit from charting out these numbers as a mental reference. A 9 iron and Pw are almost identical.
For myself, I struggled fro the longest time with distances. I had no problem working the ball low or high and to a degree left or right (esp in the persimmon and wound balata days lol) but when I found myself in between clubs, I'd almost always grab the shorter club thinking that getting above the hole or blasting over a green were the worst things that could ever happen. 9 out of 10 times the 9 iron would have been better than the PW and I'd come up short. Suggesting fewer clubs especially at the long iron end of the bag, I think alleviates this particular problem (you can't hit a 5 iron over a 4 iron if you don't have it in your bag!). That was one of the reasons I suggest this to others all the time and prob why beginner sets are made with such limited number of clubs.
repost your 150 yards and in with ranges instead of concrete numbers. I think seeing them in print will help you next time you're faced with 120 yards over a bunker and which club to grab.
On January 10 2011 06:51 Bajadulce wrote: repost your 150 yards and in with ranges instead of concrete numbers. I think seeing them in print will help you next time you're faced with 120 yards over a bunker and which club to grab.
Okay let me see...
When I am close to the green I use a SW for most shots unless I need a lot of run in which case I use PW (or occasionally more if necessary).
My pitching got a lot better after a lesson I did on it and I pitch with either SW/AW/PW depending on the run I want and am fairly confident at getting a ball over a bunker/hazard and onto a green at the approximate distance I want.
Outside of that, my SW can go anywhere from 70-95... AW 95-110... PW 110 to low 120s I'd say.
I understand what you are saying about in between distances... although I've had what I believe is a pretty good attitude about this. If I try too hard to land the ball right next to the hole when at an in between distance I'm gonna mess up my swing trying to adjust. As such, whenever I come up a little short or a little long I don't mind as long as it was a good shot. Once I've got swing mechanics down I can always change my game plan but right now my goal is for mechanical improvement more so than a lower handicap (although everything else being equal I'd of course like to shoot better).
So if I'm 97 yards out I'll probably take my SW, try it hit a well struck 90 or low 90s yard shot, and expect the ball to come up short. If there was money on the line maybe I'd take the gap wedge and try to ease up a bit somehow or try to give my SW a little extra.
I've always felt like this is the one strong part of my game that I have an edge on over most people even though I still lack the physical consistency in general.
edit: just to clarify a bit...
I'm at a point where I don't mind if I land on the front of the green instead of the back of the green due to taking slightly less club and swinging normally/properly. I want to swing the club and have the ball go where it was supposed to. What will happen is I'll be 88 yards out and say "oh good, let me take a normal swing with my sand wedge" and take what I believe is the same swing that worked before and somehow mishit the ball low and right and miss the green and probably have the wrong distance... then be like "wtf how did that happen?" and then sometimes go on mental tilt making it harder to recover.
EPT
Most shit in their pants when they find me in the last pairing with tennis shoes, a "day bag", and T-shirt if the rules permit! But I digress sorry. Golf can do that to a man and a keyboard.
