This week's Question:

What's the most important distance you should know before selecting a golf club and hitting a shot to the green?

You are Correct!

ANSWER: C - To the Back of the green

Understanding what the distance to the back of the green is - is the #1 yardage you should know before hitting a shot to the green. With this information you'll be able to hit more greens and be able to putt your next shot as opposed to chipping or pitching or hitting bunker shots for your next shot. As well as eliminating some balls that end up short in the water.

Most Golfers are in the habit of finding the distance to the center of the green. That's pretty much a standard measurement you see from golf course to golf course around the world – yet most Golfers rarely hit the green from over 130 yards away from the center of the green. And when Golfers miss the green – the majority of the time they miss it is short of the green.

Yes, many times you might be missing the green a little left or a little right – though based on the tracking studies we've conducted: 62% of the shots hit by Golfers that score above 90 ends up short of the green. 5% end up over the green and the other 23% are either left or right and those numbers depend on if we're speaking about a left handed Golfer or right handed Golfer. Though regardless of what side of the golf ball you stand on – more than 6 out of every 10 shots you hit to the green end up short of the green!

Why is that? It starts with the fact that most Golfers don't hit the golf ball as solid as they'd like on most shots. So if a Golfer says – "I'm 135 yards to the center of the green and I can hit my 7 iron 135 yards" if you don't hit that ball absolutely perfect – that ball is going to go less than 135 yards. And every width of a hair away from absolutely perfect is one less yard than 135 yards. So if the center of the golf ball hits only a ½ inch away from the center of the club head, your 135 yard club will only be hitting the ball maybe 115 yards.

And when I say off-center, I don't only mean from side to side (towards the toe or heel of the club face), I'm also talking about how far away the ball hit from the center of the club height-wise. With the center of the club face being around 4 grooves high, many off-center hits hit the golf ball on the 1st or 2nd groove – which will shorten the distance your golf ball flies even more. So if you hit only a 1/4 inch low on the club face and only a 1/4 inch towards the toe – there will be no doubt that you'll end up short of the green!

But, if you were playing the yardage to the back of the green, which may be 150 yards – you might've selected your 6 iron as opposed to your 7 iron. And if you do hit the ball absolutely perfect, you'd be on the back of the green putting. And please don't tell me that you wouldn't want to do that because "that would leave me with a downhill putt." Believe me, you'll be in the hole in less strokes with your downhill putt than you would be if you came up short and had to chip onto the green and putt or hit out of the sand bunker onto the green and putt.

And the best news is that if you missed the center of your 6 iron by as much as you missed the center of your 7 iron – you'd still be on the green.

So understanding that you should be selecting your club based on the distance to the back of the green is so much more beneficial than continuing to just focus on the distance to the center of the green. GMS has proven by the results of our Golfers that if you commit to playing in this manner while using other GMS strategies that fit into your PLAN – you will improve 6 to 11 stokes per round!

Commit to it and you'll also see a difference.

To see how your answer compared to others who took the Golfer Knowledge Poll - make sure to look for next week's Golf Improvement Weekly

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