How is your course management ??

[Swingalot]

I like to think mine is pretty good, but our pro challenged me on that when he asked what club I took off our 1st tee (480 yard Par 5, uphill slightly so plays a little longer than 480, but still a short par 5).

I replied driver and I reckon based on 5 years playing with hundreds of different people, around 99% use the same club. Why though he said? Hardest club in the bag to hit, your first swing of the day, leaves you a tough decision for your 2nd shot (do I risk the green in 2 or do I lay up) .

Made me think........still take driver though!

 

[patricks148]

I like to think mine is pretty good, but our pro challenged me on that when he asked what club I took off our 1st tee (480 yard Par 5, uphill slightly so plays a little longer than 480, but still a short par 5).

I replied driver and I reckon based on 5 years playing with hundreds of different people, around 99% use the same club. Why though he said? Hardest club in the bag to hit, your first swing of the day, leaves you a tough decision for your 2nd shot (do I risk the green in 2 or do I lay up) .

Made me think........still take driver though!

i'd imagine your pro prob hits his 5 iron as far as your driver though

 

[garyinderry]

Something I always strive to do well.

Golf has many sides to it and the bit everyone can easily do well is think before they pull the trigger.

I will be more annoyed with a silly shot than one I miss hit.

 

[Jasonr]

As a high handicapper I know for an absolute fact that I can hit a 3 wood from a dodgy lie in the long rough with a slight curve to avoid the 50ft tree that is my way and be within 3 feet of the pin from 200+ yards out.

When I say it here it sounds totally pathetic and a bit stupid but when I'm on the course.......

Course management is a work in progress for me.

 

[Curls]

Really good question, and I wager that many here who have said it's good obviously believe it, but it may not be as good as they think.

We lack the ability to overcome our own biases, and we've got a boatload. When we feel like something is at a high level we don't understand how mediocre it is until we reach a higher level. This is true of golfing ability but even more so of your cognative approach on the course, because only you are inside your head and the results may not be as cut-and-dried as the result of a shot itself. Plus you can remember things differently to how they happened. It's a minefield!

There is so much more to it than picking the right strategy off the tee, or not going for a sucker pin. I'm really enjoying this guy's channel at the moment and this is worth a watch imo. I thought my course management was pretty good a couple of years ago. It wasn't. I think it's pretty good now. It isn't.

[video=youtube;Oo7016mYDmw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo7016mYDmw[/video]

 

[duncan mackie]

Relatively the strongest part of my game - said with confidence despite the previous post!

 

[Orikoru]

I don't know if it's good or bad really. I do always lay up if I'm not sure I can carry something. I'm not sure if that alone means my course management is good though. Probably not. I do wonder if my decision making with chipping is all wrong sometimes.

 

[londonlewis]

Average.

The way I think about which shot to hit is often to think about the shot I'll have after the current one.

For example;
Par 5 18th at The Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
There's a ditch that runs horizontally across the fairway about 70 yards before the green.

option A:
take a driver, which may mean I have a shot into the green but that might bring the ditch into play if I don't hit my Sunday's best.

option B:
take a 3 wood. Then lay up before the ditch giving me a short iron in to the green and a more comfortable chance of par.

I went with option B which was definitely the right choice given I'm getting no run with this weather. I hit a par.


Personally it is more likely to be a poorly executed shot that gets me in trouble rather than choosing the wrong way to play a hole. I've got mates that take a driver on almost every par 4 or 5, no matter what the danger is.

example 2

I played at Woldingham with 2 mates. It's my honour on the fourth. I take an iron off the tee, which lands on the flat part of the fairway at the bottom of the hill.
They both turn to me and say 'how come you've hit that? is there something we should know about this hole?'
I tell them that it's the only flat part of the hole unless you can drive it right next to the green (330 from the yellows) and I'd rather have a 6 iron from a flat stance than an 8-iron with the ball below my feet.
They both hit driver, both end up in the rough and I walk off with the lowest score on that hole.

sorry to bore on but my final example;
4 of us at Farleigh. Par 4, quite short. You can drive the green but there's a bunker in front of it which you're more likely to go in than not.
First guy spanks it OOB over the trees on the right, way off line.
Second guy tops it in the rough on the left
My playing partner hammers it in the front side bunker
I tee off with an iron leaving myself 140 to the green.
First guy hits his second OOB.

I hit my 8 iron pin high. Have a genuine chance of a birdie.
PP just gets out of the bunker and has a 30 footer for birdie. He misses.
Annoyingly I just missed the bird but I definitely played the hole better than everyone else.

After I hit my tee shot, all three of the guys laughed and one said 'that's the most conservative tee shot, I've ever seen'. It's called strategy fella!

 

[duncan mackie]

Average.

The way I think about which shot to hit is often to think about the shot I'll have after the current one...

That's way, way ahead of average for a handicap golfer - at least one shot ahead of most!

 

[jim8flog]

My course management is very good to excellent. Trouble is the body does not always do want the brain is telling it to do.

 

[Birdie2]

Best part of my game.

I scramble a lot of pars or better, often because my long game doesn't stack up vs my short game. If I'm short off the tee, I know laying up and trying a wedge and a putt often works better than trying to knock a long iron into a green. Working on the long game currently, as this is the part of the game that prevents me being in single figures.

 

[r0wly86]

I like to think mine is pretty good, but our pro challenged me on that when he asked what club I took off our 1st tee (480 yard Par 5, uphill slightly so plays a little longer than 480, but still a short par 5).

I replied driver and I reckon based on 5 years playing with hundreds of different people, around 99% use the same club. Why though he said? Hardest club in the bag to hit, your first swing of the day, leaves you a tough decision for your 2nd shot (do I risk the green in 2 or do I lay up) .

Made me think........still take driver though!

Not to totally disagree with your pro, but course management like that comes down to the individual and how confident you are with your driver.

Just doing simple statistics; what chance would you give yourself of hitting the fairway/light rough if using your driver?

Then go from there, a par 5 like that is a great chance for a net birdie or even better so I would look at driver, I would look at 3 wood or iron if I wasn't confident with the driver

 

[garyinderry]

Driver huge face vs small faced iron with less forgiveness for the first shot of the day?


Even on holes that don't require a driver, I will often just hit easy drivers to put me in position.

 

[road2ruin]

Absolutely terrible!

230yrd carry over water to a small island green or a couple of wedges up the side with little danger of getting wet........now, where's my 3 wood......

 

[Curls]

Driver huge face vs small faced iron with less forgiveness for the first shot of the day?


Even on holes that don't require a driver, I will often just hit easy drivers to put me in position.

Agree 100%

Our first is a short par 4 and for a while there I thought I only needed a hybrid to put me in a nice position with a wedge in hand, easy start to the day. Whilst this worked half the time the other half was a complete mare. It is statistically the best hole on the course for me having always taken driver. Taking feelings out of it and just looking at the facts/stats, it's driver. Even if I get it wrong I'm only 70 or 80 from the green in rough at worst. Get it wrong with a hybrid (as I have) and I'm left with 130 (sometimes in the rough) to an elevated blind green which in the summer will be impossible to hold.

Sometimes the "conservative" play is not that at all. Course strategy has to take into account what happens if you get it wrong as much, if not more than, what happens if I get it right.

 

[Curls]

Just read this on a betting site. How many of us are thinking this (with a millionth of his ability)?

Justin Thomas: "Yesterday I was playing really well, hitting great shots. When you have 4, 5, 6-irons in your hand, you need to be defensive. For the most part, I had some not aggressive but more aggressive than normal lines just because I felt good about my golf swing and what I was doing with my ball. If I have a longer club in my hand, I'm just trying to get it on the green and get out with a par and move on."

It doesn't matter if his 6 iron goes 210 and yours goes 160, their courses are far longer than yours so it's all relative.

How often do you stare down a pin from 160?!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Agree 100%

Our first is a short par 4 and for a while there I thought I only needed a hybrid to put me in a nice position with a wedge in hand, easy start to the day. Whilst this worked half the time the other half was a complete mare. It is statistically the best hole on the course for me having always taken driver. Taking feelings out of it and just looking at the facts/stats, it's driver. Even if I get it wrong I'm only 70 or 80 from the green in rough at worst. Get it wrong with a hybrid (as I have) and I'm left with 130 (sometimes in the rough) to an elevated blind green which in the summer will be impossible to hold.

Sometimes the "conservative" play is not that at all. Course strategy has to take into account what happens if you get it wrong as much, if not more than, what happens if I get it right.

Think you make a good point and the worse case scenario with the driver seems far more friendly and easier to get the ball towards the green than a miscued hybrid. It's not always about the quality of the shot but the best outcome on a worse case and where to leave the ball to make the next easier. That's the part I am struggling with

 

[User101]

My decision making tonight was terrible, just a bounce game for a few holes which was probably the reason for it, but a few poor clubbing decisions made.