How to Map Your Golf Bag: Step-by-Step Golf Distance Chart Guide

Let’s be real. You don’t know how far you hit each club. And whether you realize it or not, it’s costing you strokes.

Sure, you’ve got a number in your head. Maybe for your 7-iron it’s 150 yards. Maybe 160. Maybe “somewhere around 150 if I catch it nice.”

Bottom line: To whatever extent, when it comes to knowing our club distances, most of us are playing some version of a guessing game.

But bag mapping golf, or really understanding the distances for each and every club and then working to address any gaps, is critical if we want to score our best.

For one thing, we need to know which club to pull for whichever shot we face. But secondly, we also need to be able to recognize if we have distances that our golf club setup doesn’t adequately cover. Maybe we need to make equipment adjustments.

The only way to get an accurate golf distance chart is with a golf launch monitor. And now that they’re so readily available and for prices that fit every budget, it’s time that you get with the program and get this right.

Here’s how to do it.

What Is Bag Mapping?

As you’ve likely gathered by now, golf club gapping or launch monitor bag mapping is simply a way to know your golf distances with some precision.

Notice I said, “know” your distances. Not guess your distances or kind of know your distances. That’s what most golfers do.

It’s not complicated. You hit somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 relatively solid shots with each club, record the carry distances, throw out the obvious outliers, and calculate your average. That’s your number for that club.

The result is a personalized golf distance chart that tells you your average carry distance for every club, your gapping (how much distance separation you have between clubs), and where you might have problems like overlapping distances or big gaps.

Once you know your real numbers, club selection becomes way easier. And with that, your confidence increases. That allows you to better commit to each shot.

So not only are you more likely to actually pull the correct club, but you’re also more likely to feel good about it as you stand over the ball. If you play any kind of golf at all, you already know how important those things are.

What You Need to Map Your Bag

If you own a launch monitor, you’ve already got the main tool. And if you don’t own a launch monitor, well, there are so many reasons, including bag mapping, that now is the time to get in the game. But that’s a conversation for another day.

Anyway, to bag map effectively, a launch monitor is critical. It allows you to actually record your carry distances. I mean, what are you going to do otherwise? Send somebody out into a field to see where your ball actually lands? I hope you don’t hit them.

Several golf launch monitors have bag mapping features built into the software. That makes this entire exercise incredibly simple. Just fire up the tool and follow the instructions. The system will walk you through how many shots to hit with each club, and it will record all of your information as you go.

Just a handful of the several launch monitor options that include bag mapping that I’d recommend if you want a turnkey approach are the SkyTrak+, Uneekor Eye XO2, Foresight GC3, FlightScope Mevo Gen2, and Rapsodo MLM2PRO.

But any golf launch monitor is going to give you carry distance. And that’s the number you need for bag mapping. So whether the software has this as a built-in feature or not, any golf launch monitor is going to give you the information you need to get this right.

One very important distinction: Don’t mistake total distance for carry distance. You want to know your carry distance numbers. How far you have to carry the ball in order to clear that hazard. That’s the important information. Total distance includes too many variables that are out of your control. Who knows the firmness of the ground or the angle of the hill where the ball lands? It’s changing constantly.

Before You Start: Warm Up

This is important. You don’t want your golf club distance mapping to be based on shots you hit when you’re not properly warmed up.

If you try to map your bag cold, you’re going to record shorter, less consistent numbers that don’t reflect how you actually play. Your muscles aren’t loose. Your tempo’s not yet established. Your first handful of swings are probably going to be garbage.

So take 10 minutes for a proper warmup. Hit some easy wedges. Work through a few mid-irons. Just gradually get loose.

You’re about to spend serious time building a golf yardage chart that’s going to help your entire golf season. Take the time up front to make this experience the most valuable it can be.

How to Map Your Golf Bag Step-by-Step

1. Start with Your Scoring Clubs

Don’t start with driver. Instead, start with the clubs you use most often, your wedges and short irons. Those are your scoring clubs, and getting those numbers exactly right matters most.

Hit between 6 and 10 solid shots with each club. Focus on your normal, committed swing.

Record every carry distance. And don’t cherry pick. Yes, if you shank one or just hit a god-awful shot, sure, throw that out. But if you hit one just a bit thin or out on the toe, that counts. Hey, we’re trying to get a realistic picture of what you're most likely to do on average with each club. It’s not supposed to be a snapshot of your highest potential.

2. Move to Your Mid-Irons and Long Irons

Same process. Again, record all of your carry distances.

If you’re starting to get fatigued, that’s fine. Take a breather. Or you can even split this bag mapping process into multiple sessions if time or energy are limited.

Mapping the bag if you’re too tired is, again, going to give you inaccurate data. We don’t want that.

3. Hybrids and Fairway Woods

Same drill. Six to 10 swings. Carry distances only.

As you move through your bag, pay attention to whether you’re seeing good separation between the distances with your clubs. A good golf club gapping rule of thumb is that each club’s carry distance should be separated by about 10 yards.

What you don’t want to see, but what you might be surprised to find out, is that you’ve got multiple clubs that you hit about the same distance. If that’s the case, it’s definitely time to address your equipment.

4. Driver

You know what to do. This isn’t rocket science.

Driver distances are often more for vanity, but there are some practical reasons to know your driver carry distance number. For one thing, you can better avoid trouble by seeing where on the hole your ball is likely to land. But you can also kind of reverse engineer how you want to play a specific golf hole. If you know where your ball is likely to land, you’ll have a good idea of what distance you’ll be facing with your approach shot.

5. Calculate Your Averages

For each club, throw out your longest and shortest shots. Those are your outliers. Then average what’s left. That’s your number.

Do this for every club in your bag, other than the putter of course.

6. Organize Your Data

Once you’ve gathered your numbers, now you’ve got to develop your own system for making that information helpful for you when you’re on the golf course.

You could commit them to memory. Or use a notes app. Or write them on an index card that you keep in your golf bag. It’s all about what works best for you.

Common Golf Bag Mapping Mistakes

Alright, if you’re going to go through the trouble of golf club distance mapping, make sure you get it right. Here are a few things that a lot of people miss.

• Not using the golf ball you play with. Different golf balls have different flight characteristics and are going to fly different distances. And your golf launch monitor can read that. So it’s important to bag map with the same ball you play.
• Not hitting enough shots. Stick to the plan. Don’t try to rush it or cut corners. If anything, hit more shots to get an even more accurate average. Like I said, if you need to break this into multiple sessions, that’s fine.
• Forgetting to update your golf distance chart. Your distances are going to change over time. It’s a harsh reality we all face as we age. But the news isn’t always bad. Sometimes equipment changes or big gains in skill and technique can help us dramatically increase our carry distances. So you’ve got to make sure you’re operating with up-to-date information.

How Far Do I Hit Each Club? Stop Guessing!

Bag mapping might not be the most fun golf-related thing you can do. But it’s definitely one of the most important things if you want to score your best.

Part of playing great golf is making great decisions. Obviously hand-eye coordination and athleticism help a lot. Unfortunately, bag mapping isn’t going to help you hit the ball any further or straighter.

But what it will do is help you understand the cold, hard truth about what you’re most likely to do with each golf club in your bag. Armed with that information, you can far better strategize how to avoid trouble and stop wasting shots.

And if you want to take it to the next level after that, it’s time for some dispersion mapping. I’ll cover that topic next time.

About PlayBetter Golf Reviewer Marc Sheforgen

Marc "Shef" Sheforgen is a golf writer whose passion for the game far exceeds his ability to play it well. Marc covers all things golf, from product reviews and equipment recommendations to event coverage and tournament analysis. When he’s not playing, watching, or writing about golf, he enjoys traveling (often golf-related), youth sports coaching, volunteering, and record collecting.