Do you know how far you should hit your irons based on how you compare with other golfers in your handicap range? Well to see how you stack up, we've enlisted the help of golf data giants Arccos to give us a detailed breakdown of how far you should be hitting every iron in your bag and where the biggest distance gaps tend to lie.
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00:00we all think we know how far we should hit each iron but what is the truth well i've got all the
00:07data to analyze how far you should be hitting each iron so in this video we can take a look at how
00:12far each handicap index hits each iron in their bag on average this is a median carry distance
00:18and this data has come from our costs so it's nearly a billion real life shots from real golfers
00:23on real golf courses so this should give you a really good idea of where you stack up in your
00:28handicap index right so let's start with zero to five handicaps so the median distance for each
00:34iron in the bag for zero to five index handicappers looks a little something like this so we'll start
00:38with the four iron and that average carry is 187 yards five iron 172.9 six iron 163.9 seven iron 154
00:49which i think i think some people might think is a little short for a zero to five index handicap and
00:55we're going to get a lot of that as this video goes on i think the numbers are smaller than what
00:58we thought uh eight iron 144.6 99 133.6 and finally the pitching wedge uh 119.2 now uh as we go through
01:11each index i'm going to talk about the biggest gap in the bag for each index from this median data from
01:16arcos and interestingly for a zero to five handicapper that biggest gap that comes between
01:21the four and the five iron uh with a 14.1 yard difference that's the biggest which to me at least
01:26shows really consistent gapping through the bag that 14 yard gap is the biggest one that's probably
01:32why they're a zero to five index handicapper that that strike is consistent and that gapping is
01:37therefore consistent as well so that's something interesting to look at and again i think we're
01:41used to seeing tour pros at their seven irons 180 plus yards and therefore think low handicap golfers do
01:47the same this shows they don't that seven iron averaging that median distance of 154 i think
01:53quite a lot of people might hit that who aren't in that and who aren't in that handicap index so it's
01:57an interesting stat and one to look out for as we work through handicap indexes okay so i'm stood 147
02:03yards away from the pin behind me and that incidentally is the exact median carry distance a
02:09five to ten handicap index golfer hits their seven iron so i'll bring up the graph now show you the rest of
02:15the distances for this handicap index so uh five to ten index their four iron will carry 175.9 yards
02:21five iron 163.9 uh six iron 157 exactly seven iron 147.3 so not quite 147 like i just said
02:30uh eight iron 139.2 nine iron 128.4 and finally that pitching wedge goes 113.7 yards now remember these
02:38are average distances so i know you might think they're a little bit smaller but you know that is
02:43taking everything into account from a huge set of golfers by the way um interestingly biggest gap in
02:49the bag for the five to ten index is the other side of the bag from the zero to five so the biggest
02:55gap is between nine iron and pitching wedge which is 14.7 yards which is a little bit more than a club
03:00you'd say and it's an interesting one i think a lot of golfers who sit in this range might want to
03:04figure out because these are scoring clubs having a big gap between your nine and your pitching wedge
03:09might cost you a couple of greens hit across a round want to know and want to make a note of as
03:13you go through the rest of the indexes uh now i fall into this category range i'm a 6.5 index
03:18so if i bring up my arcos app now i'll show you a little screen recording of my distances
03:23i'm actually a little bit above the average and i'm not just showing off there i just thought i'd bring
03:27it up uh but my seven iron average is 156 now i've used this app for three years now logged all my
03:33shots since i've been using it so this is really accurate for how far i hit all my clubs
03:37obviously very useful and you can also see that my gap between my pitching wedge and nine iron
03:41corresponds as well that's actually 16 yards so a little bit more than the average but one i need
03:46to work on and whether that's changing lofts or working on striking my pitching wedge better i don't
03:51know what it is but this all computes as well from my arcos data as well as the generic data for
03:56five to ten indexes right next up i'm stood 141 yards away from that pin behind me which is the
04:01average median carry distance for a seven iron for 10 to 15 index golfers let's get the graph
04:07up now and look at the rest of those stats this index golfers four iron goes 167.1 yards
04:12five iron 156.5 six iron 150.5 seven iron 141.4 to be precise uh eight iron 134.3 nine iron 124
04:24exactly and pitching wedge 108.2 yards and again like the uh five to ten index golfer that biggest gap
04:34in the bag of all the irons is between the pitching wedge and the nine iron this time it's 15.8 yards
04:39which again is like a club and a half sort of distance here uh which is really an interesting
04:43thing that came up as we did this research uh alongside arcos uh and compared to a zero to five
04:49index golfer uh these 10 to 15 are pretty much a club shorter in terms of distance so i guess if you
04:56sit in this range and you play with a low single figure golfer when they pull out an eight iron
05:00you'll be putting out a seven iron uh on average to compete with that distance right i've moved up
05:05the hole again we're now 135 yards away from that pin which is the average carry distance for a seven
05:10iron for 15 to 20 index golfer now considering the average handicap i think at least in the uk
05:15is 17 this should be relevant to most of you watching now just bring up the data again for you
05:20to visualize and look at the rest of the clubs so four iron carry 156.6 five iron 148.1
05:28six iron 143.9 there's that seven iron 135 exactly on average uh eight iron 129 nine iron 118.6
05:39and pitching wedge 101.6 now again the eagle-eyed amongst you will see the biggest gapping in there
05:45is again for these 15 20 index golfers uh between the pitching wedge and the nine iron and it's gone
05:51even further this time it's now 17 yards between those two clubs uh i don't know why that is let me
05:56know down in the comments why you think the gapping there is so much larger but when you go further up
06:01the bag and you see the gap in between like five iron and four iron for example at 156 and 148
06:07is like eight yards and then also there's a 17 yard gap between the bottom of the bag something's going
06:12on there let me know in the comments what you think that is uh but those are the average distances for
06:17what i would consider at least to be the average golfer okay last the handicap index we'll look at in
06:22this video 2025 golfers i've come to 128 yards out and that is the average distance those golfers
06:28are hitting their seven iron uh let's look at the rest of the data again i'll bring up uh all this
06:32pretty imagery for you uh their four iron will go 146.9 yards on average five iron 140.5 six iron
06:41137.5 seven iron 128.9 eight iron 123.8 nine iron 113.1 and lastly the pitching wedge 94.6 yards and
06:53shock horror again it's a trend we've seen but the biggest gap in the bag for 20 to 25 index golfers
06:59is that nine to pitching wedge and this time it's eked out even further 18.5 yards uh again let me know
07:06why you think that's the case i think realistically obviously the ball becomes harder to strike the
07:11less loft there is on the irons right so you can see that four iron five iron six iron all going a
07:16very similar distance but that starts to spread out as there's a bit more loft on the club and
07:20and they strike start to strike the ball a little better that's my theory anyway but as we've seen
07:24for each index as it gets a little you know higher that gap between the wedge and the nine iron gets
07:29bigger and those top end clubs just kind of squeeze into one similar-ish number but really interesting
07:35no doubt and lastly on on these index golfers uh that zero to five handicap golf we saw averaging
07:41their eight iron of 144 that's about four iron for this kind of golfers there's a four club difference
07:46between that zero to five index golfer and that 20 to 25 index golfer now before we wrap this video
07:51i'm going to head to the green i'm going to briefly talk about green and regulation percentages fun stuff
07:57okay so to round this video off i've come to the greens chat about green and regulation percentage
08:02by handicap by distance as well so our customers put this data together for us to see how often you
08:08should be hitting a green from what distance depending on your handicap right also very complex
08:13it isn't i'm going to bring up a graph now uh take a look at it pause if you need to to digest it a
08:17little bit more but i want to look at two specific parts of this which was uh the 100 to 124 yards
08:23and the percentages so a zero handicap scratch golfer from that distance will hit the green just a little
08:28under 70 of the time bearing in mind they're probably hitting what a pitching wedge or a gap
08:33wedge in from here that's obviously impressive but they also miss three and ten from that range
08:37uh so food for thought when you get a bit angry about yourself for missing a green from not that far
08:40away the best golfers they do it as well uh for you 20 handicap golfer so just a little bit above what
08:46the average handicap is 40 of the time so again not a lot but that's probably because they're coming in
08:51with as we saw uh more uh yeah more often than like an eight or a seven iron for their average
08:57distance right so it's a little bit harder to control uh so food for thought there about sort
09:02of how often you're hitting a green from what doesn't feel like a long way out if you go to the
09:06other end of this graph and look at 200 plus yards again never kick yourself for missing a green from
09:11that far away it doesn't happen very often look at the zero index golfer hitting it less than 20%
09:16at the time and that 20 handicapper sort of doing it occasionally a couple of percent i wouldn't worry
09:21about it too much but again from all the distances there from that brilliant graph you can get a
09:26really good idea of how often you should be hitting the green from what distance so we spoke about
09:31distance early and how far you should be in each club but obviously proximity to this thing the flag
09:35and the hole is very important as well and just having a knowledge of that i think can feed good
09:40information to the mind when you're out on the golf course right so thanks again for arcos put all that
09:44brilliant data together and let me know down in the comments where do you sit within your handicap
09:48index uh are you a little bit above it like i am which i'm very excited about obviously because
09:52distance is cool uh you're about average you're a little bit below let me know where you sit and if
09:57you were surprised by any of the numbers because i certainly was and let me know about that nine iron
10:01pitching wedge gap thing i don't know what's going on there if you've got any ideas let me know i'd love
10:05to hear about it but for now i hope you enjoyed this video thank you for watching i'll see you next time