3 iron distance, 20 handicap

The number

The handicap model puts a 20 handicap’s driver at 87 mph and swings every club at the same fraction of its tour speed, which gives the 3 iron 75 mph. At that speed the smash factor is 1.40, the ball speed 106 mph, and the carry 158 yards: ball speed multiplied by the club’s 1.49 yards per mile per hour from the published tour row. Roll on a fairway landing adds 4 percent, for 164 yards total.

The clubs either side

At 20 handicap the hybrid carries 10 yards more and the 4 iron 7 yards less, so the 3 iron covers about 155 yards to 163 yards with a full swing.

The 3 iron and its neighbours, 20 handicap

Against every handicap

The same club across the handicap steps. The spread from scratch to a 30 handicap is 58 yards of carry on the model, which is real but smaller than the spread in where the shots finish: the pattern around the number separates handicaps more than the number does.

3 iron carry by handicap

What the yards are worth

Being 39 yards behind scratch costs about 0.18 of a stroke per approach on the published fairway table, because every approach starts that much further back. Over the fourteen long shots in a round the model adds it up; the fix that pays is knowing the real carry and playing tees that keep approaches where the table is flat.

From 158 yards in the fairway the tour average needs 2.97 strokes to hole out and 3.22 from the rough, so a 3 iron approach that finishes 25 feet from the hole is worth +0.04 against the tour average for a 20 handicap, and one that finishes 40 feet away -0.08.

The bag at 20 handicap

Every club at the same handicap, so the 3 iron can be read against the rest of the set.

Every club for a 20 handicap

Driver speed 87 mph on the handicap model.

The gap wedge row continues the pitching wedge trend and is labeled modeled; every other row is the published tour anchor scaled to the speed.

In PinFlag

Import a launch monitor session and PinFlag turns your 3 iron into a pattern of your own carries, labeled Measured, that stands behind every target you price on the course. Shot Cloud draws the real shots around the spot you are considering, on the hole in front of you, so a tucked pin is compared with the middle of the green on your real spread, not a single yardage.

Every shot you log with the 3 iron on the course records the target and the result, so the pattern keeps growing from real rounds, and Insights shows the club’s proximity, the shots it cost and the shots it won across a season.

Related

• 3 iron distance
• 3 iron, 15 handicap
• 3 iron, 25 handicap
• The 20 handicap golfer
• Club distances by handicap
• Club distance calculator

Sources

• PGA TOUR statistics
• Golf simulator and launch monitor, Wikipedia
• How PinFlag calculates strokes gained

Every figure on this page is computed from the published baselines, the same ones PinFlag prices your shots with. The scope of the figures: The carry is the published tour 3 iron anchor scaled to the club head speed the handicap model gives a 20 handicap; the app replaces it with your own launch monitor carries.