Skills · every shot
The swing meter: timing a pure strike
Every shot in Daily Holes is one tap. The meter sweeps up the power bar and you stop it. Where it stops decides how far the ball flies, how straight it goes and how far it runs once it lands.
Four kinds of strike
The game grades every swing the moment you tap. Stop the meter in the top sliver of the bar — from 94.5% up to exactly full — and the strike is pure. Stop it anywhere from 72% up to that band and it is solid. Below 72% it is controlled: a deliberate part swing. Push past the top of the bar and it is an overswing.
Those words are not decoration. A pure strike flies up to 8% further than the same club hit at the bottom of the band, and it is far straighter: the sideways spread shrinks to about 60% of a normal swing, and the small contact miss every shot carries shrinks with it. A solid strike is honest but ordinary. A controlled swing gives up distance on purpose, which is often exactly what you want.
Why the overswing is a trap
The bar keeps going past full, up to 115%, and it is tempting to think that is extra power. It mostly is not. Past full, every extra bit of meter adds only about a third as much carry as it did below — and the ball starts to curve. The further past full you go, the bigger the bend, and it can go either way.
On a wide par 5 with nothing down the sides, a small overswing might just cost you a few yards of line. Anywhere near water, a burn or the trees, it is the shot that turns a par into a double. If you are torn between a club that needs a full pure hit and the next club up hit solidly, take the bigger club.
Distance control with a part swing
Most of the game is not about hitting it as far as possible. Approaches, par 3s and lay-ups all need a number, and the meter is how you dial it in. Carry scales with how far up the bar you stop, so a meter stopped at three quarters sends the ball roughly three quarters of the club's full carry.
A clean strike also rolls further once it lands. Rollout grows with the strike as well as the club, so the same club hit softly does not just fly shorter — it stops sooner too. That is why a softer strike is often the right call into a small green or onto a slope.
Practising the timing
The meter moves at the same speed every time, so the rhythm is learnable. Today's nine is free to practise as often as you like once your ranked card is in, which makes it the ideal place to work on one thing: three or four drives in a row aimed purely at the top band, then three or four three-quarter swings with a wedge.
Members also have the target range, five shots at a flag of 50, 100, 150 or 200 yards with a shifting crosswind. It scores how close each ball finishes, which is exactly the skill a part swing needs.
Quick tips
- Aim to stop the meter just under full, not at it. The pure band starts at 94.5%, so there is a little room below the top and none above it.
- Near trouble, take one more club and swing smoothly rather than forcing a pure hit with the shorter one.
- Use a controlled swing to finish short of a bunker or a burn instead of trying to carry it.
- A softer strike stops sooner. Use it when the green is small or tilted.