I thought a thread showing how far tour pros say they hit their clubs might be interesting, and it seems Golf Channel will report these distances throughout 2009.


Ernie Els

205 yards.....5-iron

195 yards.....6-iron

180 yards.....7-iron

160 yards.....8-iron


Note: this represents flat/still conditions for a stock shot, not how far X-player hit his x-iron on a particular shot.

KJ Choi

205 yards.....3-iron

195 yards.....4-iron

180 yards.....5-iron

170 yards.....6-iron

Steve Stricker

200 yards.....4-iron

185 yards.....5-iron

170 yards.....6-iron

160 yards.....7-iron

AWESOME!! i hit my irons as far as KJ does, minus/Plus a yard....but the question is...Why the hell don't i drive it 300 yards like he does?

This will be a cool thread to follow!

I am within 5 yards of Mr. Els. I find that pretty cool since he is my favorite player to follow!

Have faith - his driving distance last year was ONLY 286!

We all have to know that those professionnals WANT to hit thoses distances with their clubs... We all know that their clubs are bended to fit those distance charts... So most of the time, this explains why they are bombing 320 yard drives and hitting their 4 iron 200 yards !

Also these guys play different trajectories and tempos. A guy like JB might go at it with his irons, while ernie makes an 80% swing(though he plays a draw, which adds a few yards). Ogilvy also has some rather unimpressive distances, till you consider how high his irons go, etc.

Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z

Boo Weekley

210 yards.....4-iron

Jason Zuback

220...Ping Putter 3degrees loft

Geoff Ogilvy

208 yards.....4-iron

198 yards.....5-iron

185 yards.....6-iron

170 yards.....7-iron

Don't know where the Golf Channel is getting the yardages from, but Ernie lists his yardages on his site. They're slightly off, but not too bad.

Driver: 290
3-wood: 255
2-iron: 238
3-iron: 225
4-iron: 212
5-iron: 205
6-iron: 188
7-iron: 178
8-iron: 164
9-iron: 152
PW: 134
SW 54-degrees: 120
SW 59-degrees: 88

You can add about 15-25 yards to the driver. They only get 2 shots a round to measure the driver and they may not catch one or catch the rough or use something else off the tee besides the driver on the hole they are measured off of. KJ can routinely hit the ball a legit 300 yards.

As far as irons go, these guys can hit it those distances every single time with ease and are far more accurate whereas a lot of amateurs really have to stripe it to get it that far and they are wild with their accuracy.



3JACK

I disagree......over time, the driving distances should work out to be somewhat accurate. The PGA Tour tries to find holes that players will be hitting drivers, one down wind, one into the wind. I don't think that KJ is a 300 yard hitter.

kj can hit wayy farther if he wants. He is smarter than most of us and only hits at 80% or so. He is a strong guy so he can do way more. also he could probably get 300 out of his driver if he wanted but he usually hits a cut. He was also reported to be playing s300 shafts this week. so if he goes at them too much they will balloon

They ask the players.

I'm not saying your wrong but then why do Ernie's yardages differ from his official website? His 6iron differs 7yd......thats alot IMO.

The thing i'm actually impressed with is the numbers aren't all that long. You would figure the golf channel would hike up the numbers a little bit, but they seem pretty legit. That's the reason i was asking where they got the numbers from. I didnt know if they asked the players or it was based on shot tracker type data over the years.

I'm sure his website is out of date. He has likely changed both irons and shafts since his website was updated.

Someone else mentioned lofts as well. I don't doubt they all bend their lofts around. As for me, I'm still up around KJ Choi even after feeling I scaled back on my iron swings... perhaps I should go even more because I'm not exactly hitting GIR like KJ.

Yea very well good be although it states that he is playing the prototypes, but maybe his shaft change to KBS altered his distances slightly.

This thread will be interesting to follow. They put up Brian Gay's and Shigeki's but i forgot to take note of them for the thread. I was surprised that brian gay hit his 4 iron 210yds but only had a 105ss with his driver and carried it barely 240yds. He seemed to hit his irons pretty far for such a short driver of the ball.

The yellow head with the big smile ( ) at the end of my statement as well as ONLY being in caps denotes a less than serious reply!

I realize Choi can hit the ball 300 yards & know how the numbers are compiled. His driving average last year was 286, which obviously means he has tee shots of 300 plus yards and tee shots of less than 270.

all this is nice to know, but end of the day the key seems to be to hit the 7 iron the same distance 95% of time, making it reliable, no? isn't the distance you hit your 5, 6, 7 iron etc irrelevant unless you can consistently repeat it?
i definitely find the info interesting, but am not really concerned if i hit the ball AS FAR as Ernie Els. as someone mentioned, he hits to that yardage pretty effortlessly while I have to stripe one and hope it actually goes where I want it to at the same time, lol.

Yeah, they have said a few times that these were the player's reported yardages --- it's only on that basis that I started the thread.

Els' "stock" iron swing may only be 70% effort, while Gay's stock iron swing may be 90%. Still a lot of variables.

I just like to see the yardages and gaps that the players use.

Shigeki Maruyama

205 yards.....4-iron

190 yards.....5-iron

175 yards.....6-iron

165 yards.....7-iron

Brian Gay

215 yards.....4-iron

195 yards.....5-iron

185 yards.....6-iron

175 yards.....7-iron

David Toms

205 yards.....3-iron

195 yards.....4-iron

185 yards.....5-iron

175 yards.....6-iron

Zach Johnson

210 yards.....4-iron

190 yards.....5-iron

180 yards.....6-iron

170 yards.....7-iron

Its crazy that those numbers are similar to most on this site but yet these guys play Rifle 7.0s and X100s.

Ernie is a tall guy. I wouldn't be surprised if his iron shafts were a bit above standard length which would make them go farther. I remeber watching Erie tee off on the 8th at Augusta several years ago when he was playing with Phil. They both took it over the right bunker with ease which is about a 280 yd. carry. Ernie made it look easy. That flowing tempo is mesmorizing.

I really dont think Choi is a legit 300 yard driver. Most of those guys when they show the track man numbers are only carrying it 270-280 range max, obviously some are higher like Holmes, Dustin Johnson, Ernie, etc., but most of them have such high driving distances because of roll. They get rediculous amounts of roll, plenty of people can hit it 300 with 30+ yards of roll.

As far as the numbers, most of them haven't surprised me. Like has been said there are still variables, some may be playing clubs with jacked up lofts versus others, Brian Gay must have something going on with his irons because he hits his driver nowhere.

how is it that these guys get so much difference in yardages between clubs?

i have a 10 yard gap between my clubs.

is it the speed?

They either know that the need to cover certain gaps in yardages, and have their irons bent to hit the ball that certain yardage and they are also much more precise with their yardages. Where you might know how to hit a shot to within 5 yards of your distance, they would be able to know what club to hit within half a yard of what they need to.

Ditto! Good info there.



Uh, if you're trying to start a he said, she said thing; let's not go down that road!!

Well put.

Sticking it on the flag means more than anything at that level. K.J. doesn't care if Phil's 5 iron goes three yards further than his.

By the way, if no one thinks K.J. hits it 300 yards, they haven't been to a tournament in a while.

On another note, I would love to see their lofts instead of which iron there hitting. I find my longer irons are close to there yardages, but my short irons are 10 yards or more past them. Which tells me either a) I'm not controlling them well (which I know) or b) their lofts are weakened. I've always wondered how many guys weaken their short irons. Been kicking around bending my pw from 48 to 50 and starting there. I can't imagine a lot of these guys are playing with the jacked up lofts on short irons (esp. the ones playing set with stock 46 or 44 pw.) I know they're extremely good at controlling a 70% wedge swing (which I'm not - chunk city). Something I've always worked on.
If anyone gets time would love to see the charts in spreadsheet form for easy reference (like to study their yardeage gaps more than anything)
Edit- Toms has good looking yardages. Never understood why some don't play even gaps. Saw an article recently someone had 10 to 15 yard gaps until his 4 iron and hybrids, then they almost overlapped. Could not figure that out. 4 iron was around 210, Hybrid around 210 to 225, next hybrid was then 220 to 230. Made no sense to me. I would toss one out of the bag for sure.

And that is why they are so amazing

Any for the Bob Hope Classic?

Cause it's not always just about distance, They may carry a 2I and a hybrid that go the exact same distance but very different flights.

2I for tee shots into the wind and hybrid for long approaches into greens.

2 hybrids for 20 yard distance with a 5 yard overlap? Maybe diff. shafts?

Pat Perez

160 yards.....8-iron

145 yards.....9-iron

130 yards.....PW

115 yards.....GW

I was wondering the same thing because I have a 1-12 yard gap between irons.

Is Golf Channel still reporting the distances?

1st- they play on great fast fairways with helps then with driving distence with so much roll
2sd- Choi only carrys the ball 260 yards

lol I hit my irons same distence as Ernie ( swinging easy like him, but if he goes after one I'm not gona be anywhere close)(i'm only 5'7 130 pounds :P)