Playing golf is mentally fatiguing and often frustrating. Why we play the game is sometimes questioned. Pay good money to get aggravated? Sounds like a good idea. Many reasons we do get frustrated on the golf course is because of the bad decisions we make.
Course Management
One of the best ways to lower your scores is to have good course management and not compound one mistake with another. If you hit a bad shot, more often than not it is wise to take your punishment and pitch the ball back in to fairway and get back in to position. Many golfers out there don’t do that and it costs them several shots per round.
Think about how many times you have missed your tee shot in the trees. When you arrive at your ball, you are basically blocked out from advancing the ball towards the green but you see that little window or gap in the trees and think you can thread the needle. You hit the shot and miss the gap and your ball ricochets off of several trees before landing right behind one. What do you do next? You pitch out to the fairway and set yourself up for an open approach shot the green.
You just cost yourself one stroke. If you go for that “hero” shot three or four times per round, you may make one of those shots and get away with it, but you will most likely miss three more and that will most likely cost you at least three shots. Those three shots could be the difference of shooting 92 or breaking 90 for the first time. Those three shots may cost you your flight in the club championship. Those three shots may be the difference of being a 10 handicap versus an eight.
Yeah, it can be no fun when you don’t go for the “hero”shot and play smartly to get your ball back in play. You want the feeling of pulling off that shot so you have a good story to tell. In reality, you aren’t going to make that shot very often and you are going to cost yourself strokes.
This is compounding a mistake with another mistake. This concept is one of the worst things you can do in golf. Take your medicine and get your ball back in to play and give yourself a chance to make a par the hard way, Sometimes that is just as good of a story to say you made par from 150 yards with an 8 iron to 10 feet and made the putt. Give it a try, you will see some lower scores just by chipping out to the fairway and taking the larger number out of the equation.
Club Selection
Now lets to take a look at club selection off of the tee. You don’t always need to hit driver. Sounds like a weird statement, but it’s very true. Many holes are designed t make it difficult to hit the fairway when hitting a driver. Fairway bunkers come in to play or doglegs start bending and narrow the landing area for the tee shot.
Look at the hole design and figure out what the best play is. Take a club off the that avoids bringing the fairway bunker in to play. Lay it up short of that bunker so you if you do happen to it towards the bunker, you can’t reach it. Pros have the tendency to make this mistake every once in a while. You often hear the commentators on television say that if you are going to lay up, make sure you actually lay up. Hit a club that takes the entire trouble out of play.
Same thing goes for a dogleg. Hit a club that if you strike it perfectly can not go through the fairway at the turn of the dogleg. Take that potentially trouble shot out of play. Long and through the dogleg usually spells trouble. It just brings more trouble in to play if you try to challenge the dogleg and it narrows your landing area significantly. Lay it up to a good yardage so you have a comfortable shot in to the green.
Play to Your Strengths
This brings us to the next point. Being as close to the green is not always the best option. How many of your know or play with someone who hits their driver a country mile, yet they can’t hit the green from inside 50 yards? They shank it, scold it, blade it or chunk it more often than they hit a decent approach shot. I’m sure pretty much everyone who plays a golf a few times a year, knows someone like that.
Their scores would go down significantly if they would hit their tee shot to a comfortable full swing pitching wedge or sand wedge. Get a scoring iron in hand where they can take a full swing at it instead of trying to hit a finesse a shot.
Playing in a scramble with higher handicaps is also a great indication of how many golfers think. They want the “A’ player to drive every green and get it as close to the green as possible. The higher handicappers typically struggle from 75 yards and in. Those touch shots are extremely difficult. Hitting a lofted shot over a bunker to a tucked pin is almost impossible, and they want to select that shot for the group simply because it is the closest ball to the green. Bad idea. Select the ball that is a comfortable shot for the majority of the group. The chances are better if you are hitting from a decent yardage versus a finesse shot that everyone in the group will have the opportunity to knock one close.
When hitting a tee shot or laying up on a par 5, take the approach that you want to your favorite yardage in to the green. Put yourself in a situation where you are playing to your strengths and not your weaknesses. Just because the hole a short par 4, doesn’t mean you need to take a driver out. If your favorite club is an eight iron, hit a shot off of the tee that gives you an eight iron in to the green.
If you struggle with those short wedge shots or finesse wedge shorts, then don’t put yourself in the situation where you have that shot. If you need to hit a four iron off the tee, then do it. Give yourself the best chance to hit the green by opting to hit your tee shot to your strength, not your weakness. You might even more fairways as well.
Think Smarter
These concepts really aren’t anything new. Sometimes you forget about course management and how important it can be. When you hit the ball trouble, get out of trouble and try to make par the hard way. Select a club off the tee to eliminate the trouble and take out out completely. Play to your strengths and not your weaknesses. If you do some of these things, you will see you scores come down quickly.
