My Yardages

Driver … 230 yards

3-Wood … 215 yards

5-Wood … 200 yards

7-Wood … 185 yards

22* iron … 170 yards

27* iron … 158 yards

32* iron … 145 yards

38* iron … 132 yards

44* iron … 115 yards

50* PW … 100 yards

57* SW … 75 yards

As you can see, I am not a long hitter. I don’t really care about that. There’s nothing in my bag that is set up to hit the ball further. I would much rather just move up a tee box than spend my energy pursuing more distance. And that’s better for golf. Courses can’t just get longer and longer forever. There’s only so much space on any property, and longer courses are harder to maintain, which drives up cost. That cost comes out in higher greens fees and member dues, and that’s not good for the health of the game in general.

I prefer old-school lofts. I think by now we all understand that the number on the sole of a club means nothing. Today’s irons are longer in overall length and have significantly stronger lofts than the same numbered club of thirty or more years ago. Hogan’s famous 1-iron would be about a 3-iron today, for example.

There’s no doubt PGA Tour players today hit the ball fantastic distances. It shocks me still when they have a 210 yard shot and it’s a six iron for them. It shocks me that top players can go a whole season and only hit any iron longer than a 7-iron a handful of times. And usually those are second shots on par-5s. I think it’s a shame. Equipment is so advanced (the clubs, the ball, TrackMan, the optimization of everything) that it has marginalized the skill. Not that the players don’t have skill today — they have phenomenal skill — but some of what they do is the result of the equipment they use, and to some degree I think that same equipment prevents them from being able to show off all the skills they have. They don’t work the ball like players of old because they don’t need to. And that makes the game at the highest level quite boring.

Back to my yardages and play …

I will very rarely make a full swing with either of my wedges. If the shot is over 50 yards I won’t play the sand wedge, I’ll use the pitching wedge and make a partial swing. I know that’s counter to modern wisdom of hitting dialed-in wedges with full swings to exact yardages, but that’s not how I play. If a shot is over about 75 yards I will favor the 44* iron over the pitching wedge. I hit the ball pretty high and aggressive full swings with the shorter clubs sometimes causes it to balloon on me. I feel better making a smooth half or three-quarter swings.

Given that I play persimmon, the first thing most people want to know is how far I hit my drives, and how that compares to how far I hit a modern titanium driver. I hit my drives about 230 yards with persimmon, sometimes less. Like anything, it depends on the conditions and how well you hit it. Mishits are punished with loss of distance pretty severely compared to metal woods. I hit my titanium driver around 250 yards, sometimes more if I’m swinging out of my shoes and pure one. I’m not getting any younger. I used to hit the ball further. I’d sometimes hit a 290 yard drive—I had to really rip at it—but I’d say I averaged more like 270 yards off the tee when I was in my twenties and early thirties.

I do tend to use a softer, lower compression ball when playing persimmon. I like the feel of a very soft ball — the softer the better for me! — and I think it’s a little easier on the face of the club than harder balls. Really hard balls for sure will wear out persimmon woods and face inserts faster. With titanium, obviously, that’s not a concern. I’m sure my choice in ball is not optimal for distance. I expect that if I used a ProV1 I’d get a few more yards off the tee automatically.

A lot of people look at a persimmon driver and say, “It’s soooo small, how do you hit it?” But look at any modern titanium 3-wood, which has a head no bigger than a persimmon driver, and it’s no problem to hit that 3-wood, especially off a tee. I think of it like this: a persimmon driver is a 43 1/2” long club with about 11 degrees of loft. A modern 3-wood is 43” or 43 1/2” long with a lightweight graphite shaft and has typically 13-15* of loft. How far would you hit that modern 3-wood off a tee? I bet you hit it about like you hit a persimmon driver, which makes sense because they’re the same overall club length. Yes, I know the higher COR (Coefficient of Restitution) of the faces of modern drivers helps get a little distance too, but the 45” or longer club length, and lighter overall weight, have a bigger contribution. If you made a 45” long persimmon driver you’d get a good bit more distance than a 43 1/2” length persimmon driver, plain and simple. It would be a very heavy club though, and that’s where technology gets the job done. Light weight lets you make the club long and that length directly translates to speed which means distance. Light weight lets you swing it a little faster more easily. Light weight allows for a bigger head. A large and forgiving head makes it okay to swing fast because if you miss it a little it’s not as big of a deal. Persimmon requires better contact. I don’t play it for distance—as I said, I don’t really care about distance. I play persimmon for the feel and the sound and the beauty and the workability. Persimmon is the forged blade of woods.

One last note on persimmon: you may have heard of “gear effect.” Gear effect is the result of the bulge and roll — the shape of the club face — that makes shots hit on the toe or heel of the club steer back to the middle of the fairway. I can assure you, gear effect is quite real. It works. I have hit shots badly on the toe and watched the ball start way right, then bend back toward the middle. Likewise shots on the heel start way left and then curve back toward center. It’s amazing. The first time you see it and realize what’s happening it’s a little shocking. It is important to note this works this way when the club face is square to the target line at impact. If you hit the ball with an open face the gear effect still works but the ball is going to go right anyway. That’s a push. But if you hit it square, just a little toward the toe or heel, you will lose some distance but the ball will stay in play. With large titanium heads the high MOI, the club’s inherent resistance to twisting, is how it fights wayward shots on off center impact. Persimmon woods don’t have that, but gear effect makes up for it.