It probably just takes getting used to. My 3 wood is my favorite club, and that wasn't the case until I started playing real courses. After that, for a while I was just using half and quarter swings with my 3 wood or 5 wood to avoid the attrocites that were my long irons, but after I forced myself to use them, they have gotten almost as good as my fairway woods. Now I have a real shot of putting it on or very near the green all the way to 230 yards out. Progress! yes, that is it exactly. I don't spend enough time at the range to be consistent with those clubs and never hitting them hinders improvement and consistency. The range isn't the same anyway because of the lie factor. Did end yesterday's 6500 yard round by hitting the back of the green from 180 yards so that was nice. Sure. You just have to kind of luck out of you have a bad lie. Add a club or thee depending how bad it is. Those kind of shots are for the pros to hit consistantly. And having consistent ranges is kind of the same thing. I'm still working on what my range IS with each club. First things first. The last two times I played, I was hitting it over the green much more often than being short, which I think it a good sign overall. I'm just hitting the ball cleaner more often than I used to. (Btw, if the distance that I mention I'm hitting shots sounds long, know that I have the Coors effect going for me. Which is nice.)