A sometimes overlooked feature of the GC is the Distance Calculator. It can quickly tell you the exact distance between your current ball location and any position on the course using “APBA math.” By that, I mean it will add 5 yards Carry distance for every 15 yards of lateral distance. This tool can help you with club selection when you are laying up or targeting a specific spot on the course other than the pin.
Let’s look at an example using hole #2 at Badger Links. We see that our player is sitting at 275 L15 in the fairway. To reach the green in two would require about a 300-yard shot, well beyond his range. There are also deep rough and bunkers to deal with if he just tries to blast one. (The arrows indicate rolls that are called for in the course notes.)
More importantly, the pin (#6) is 20 yards off the centerline (CL). As such, even if we target the fairway near the green, we would almost certainly end up short-sided and have little chance of getting a makeable first putt. Therefore, our best bet is to target the area circled in blue. If we can put the ball there (on the left side of the CL), then we can aim our third shot much closer to the pin.
To figure out what club to use, we first need to determine the distance we want the shot to go. In this instance, we want the ball to end up near the 450-yard mark, left of the CL. So, we enter 450 in the Dist. CL box of the W/I Distance Calculator. The Calculator instantly tells us that our distance from our current location to the 450-yard mark on the CL is 180 yards. If we wanted to find a distance that’s off the CL we would enter that value (e.g., 10) into the Left or Right box.
Next, we need to refer to the Common W/I chart to see what’s the best club to use for that distance. Our player has an Average I of 5, so a 5-iron or 6-iron seems like the smart choice, recognizing that we will also probably have to tack on about 5 yards of roll with either of those clubs. Because our strategy depends on ending up left of the CL no matter what, we would likely WTB 10 or 15 yards left to make sure that happens. We might even hedge our bets by going with a shorter iron, since there is a lot more fairway to the left before you get to the 450-yard mark.
In any event, the W/I Distance Calculator makes it quick and easy to figure out distances when you are not trying to reach the pin.
Scott – This seemed to be the most appropriate place for a Game Caddie question I had. It was on AIMING from the fairway with a GOOD ANGLE to the pin. Lets say I am 160yards out say 20R of the CL. Pin is 15L of the CL. Lets say I want to aim straight at the PIN [15L of C is my new origin line]. I think I figured out I enter AIM 15L on the Game Caddie, and not 35L [from my ball location]. Main question I had was the add to the distance. Since I am 2 full “15 yard increments” from my ball location, do I, or does Game Caddie add 10Y and make it a 170Y shot? or does Game Caddie add just 5Y since my new origin line is 15L of CL. It appears the Caddie showed an add of 5, but an add of 10 to my yardage was the final ball position on the shot
You are correct on the aiming. When aiming on a Wood or Iron shot, always aim relative to the CL–in this case, L15.
Let’s look at a specific example to answer your question on carry. Set up any golfer on Caddie tab 1 and make his Average I = 3. (You’ll see why in a minute.) Select Pin Location 5 on the Conditions tab. (To keep it simple, make sure there is no wind and use normal course conditions.) Load Magnolia hole #7. The pin is located at 445 L15. On the Caddie 1 tab, use the Place Ball at Location tool to put the ball at 285 R20 (445 – 285 = 160). Select FW as your lie (so we don’t have to deal with any lie factors.) I think this is the same configuration as posed in your question.
The W/I Shot planner shows the carry objective to the Pin-CL to be 165: 160 + 5 yds (because you are R20). If you put the actual pin location of 445 L15 into the W/I Distance Calculator, you will see that the total distance to that spot is 170: 160 + 5 yds (because you are R20) + 5 yds (because the pin is L15). I only showed you the W/I Distance Calculator to demonstrate how the GC measures distance. However, we will only use the W/I Shot Planner’s numbers to plan the carry on our shot.
Since we are aiming for the pin, enter 15 into the Left box of the Aiming tool. Because we are aiming 15 yds off the CL, the Aim Dist. Adj. = 5 and now the W/I Shot Planner shows the carry objective to be 170: 165 + 5 yds (for aiming 15 yards).
This means we want the ball to end up at a distance of 170. Since our golfer has an Average I = 3, we choose a 7I, which has a carry of 170 and no Green roll for a PRN of 3. Let’s say we roll the dice and get a PRN of 3 We can then opt to use his Average I “bonus,” which cancels out the L5 from the shot result, and the ball ends up on the pin at 445 L15.
I think the term “carry objective” in the W/I Shot Planner is a bit confusing for some folks, but I couldn’t think of anything better to call it. It really means “the distance you are from your target taking into account all known effects from lie, wind, and course conditions on the shot before you hit the ball and assuming no roll.”