Figuring my club yardages

[faldo]

Hey gang, I need some direction on how to figure out the average (expected) distances for my irons.

Ben Hogan said to simply take a bucket of balls to an empty fairway on my course & hit away to my hearts content......
Thanks Ben but even if I was a member somewhere this would be frowned on.

I know the idea is to hit 10-20 with each club & ignore the best/worst

1) DRIVING RANGES:
Can I trust the local ranges to have accurate signage?? What about the "much-lower" compression balls that I've heard they use to keep us from hitting all their balls over the screen at the back??
How can I track my shots?? Is early morning the only chance to get some room?

2) INDOOR SIMULATORS:
Are they reasonably accurate? I believe some have a "driving range" option??

Thanks,

[Gary Hill]

I wouldn't trust driving range distance markers or indoor simulators.

You can measure your yardages on every single shot. Everytime you make reasonable contact, just pace of the distance to your ball as you walk to it. After a week, you will have your average distance with every club in your bag.

[jimrobin]

Faldo:
Here is a chart that I found and posted on here before.
I found it quite interesting.
Once you find your yardages you can see where you stand against averages.
Take Care,

http://www.golfclubreview.com/yardage_expectations.htm

[Colby]

Another plug for this. This software makes it very easy to compute your club distances. It takes a bit of work and some self-discipline to maintain keeping track, however the shot charting report makes it easy to to.

As you golf your round, you keep score on the shot charting sheet that you printed out before the round. For each shot you mark down as much, or as little, information as you want stats for. This can include fairways hit, shot going right or left, a good shot, a bad shot, hit thin, fat off the toe, etc. Primarily you mark down the club you used and the distance from the hole. The software will calculate the actual distance you hit the club. After a few rounds, you will have a pretty good indication of what distance you are hitting for each club.