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- Lou Stagner's Newsletter #132
Weekly Quiz!
To see correct answer, click “CONTINUE” button at the bottom of the next page.
Good luck! 😀
From 120 to 129 yards in the fairway, a scratch player will get down in two shots about 9% of the time. What percent of the time will they get down in four or more shots from that distance in the fairway? |
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Your Wedge Expectations Might Be Too High
I got a great question from a reader this week. His name is Chuck, he's an 8 handicap, and he reached out about wedge shots from ~100 yards. He feels like he should be hitting them closer than he actually does. His exact words were he'd expect “nearly 100% of those shots to finish inside 30 feet”.
This is not the first time I have received a question like this about wedge proximity. And the answer usually surprises people.
The Data
To show Chuck that hitting 100% of shots inside 30 feet is beyond unreasonable for an 8 handicap, I pulled wedge proximity data for shots from the fairway between 90 and 110 yards for a men’s Division 1 golf team. Over 900 total shots across 16 players. Again, these are tournament tested elite division 1 college golfers.
Here's how those shots shook out:
Proximity (feet) | % of Shots |
|---|---|
9 or less | 18% |
10 to 14 | 17% |
15 to 19 | 20% |
20 to 24 | 12% |
25 to 29 | 7% |
30 or more | 27% |
Read that bottom row again. 27% of wedge shots from 90-110 yards finished outside 30 feet. That's more than 1 in 4.
D1 college golfers, not weekend warriors that sit behind a desk all week and rarely practice.
My Thoughts
If elite college players are missing outside 30 feet more than a quarter of the time, an 8 handicap is going to miss outside 30 feet more often than that. That's not a failure. That's the game.
This is not me telling you to lower the bar. You should absolutely be trying to hit every shot where you want it. Always. But managing your expectations doesn't mean settling. It means understanding what "good" actually looks like so you stop beating yourself up over results that are completely normal.
Next time you leave a wedge 35 feet from the hole and feel like you blew it, remember this table. You probably didn't.
Enjoy the rest of The Masters!
Finally...
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Have a great week!
