I tried playing boring golf....it kind of worked

[Deleted member 18121]

I dont get it. If you could normally hit driver and leaves you with a flick of the wedge then why on earth are you hitting 7s and laying up with your second shot into 14. Your basically taking 2 shots to do with your driver does. If you cant hit your driver wouldnt it be much better off to learn how to hit it rather than compensate?

Youll never improve if you cant hit your driver.

Driver is arguably the strongest club in my bag, I hit reasonably long and with good shape and accuracy. The exercise was to try something different and see what effect it had on my game, it was not because I'm currently hitting driver badly........the effect was only 1 shot worse than handicap.

 

[Sports_Fanatic]

Ha, I'm shocking on course management and taking on the risky shots but have watched him a lot over the last few evenings.

Managed to play golf at West Midlands Golf Club which has a mixture of long and short holes. Not a track I know brillantly but dialled it in a bit alongsider "Not your average golfer" strategy and went round +7 (i'm 14 handicap) with the only double because I absolutely flushed a 7 iron on a par 3 over the green.

I found 300-340yd holes when I normally would probably still smash a driver were simplified with 6 iron or hybrid off the tee then a wedge in. Meant that a miss was always just off green at worst and didn't put myself in trouble.

Couple of Par 5s i wouldn't be able to reach in two (unless i really smashed it) i played slightly more controlled either on 1st or 2nd shot. Two advantages of not hitting driver was that one I pushed didn't travel far enough to be in trouble but also I wasn't tempted to take a 3 wood on second shot (normally think I could just make it if I hit a worldy) as it simply wasn't on.

When the landing area was fairly open or even small/young trees in rough I'd still hit driver and always making sure I'm at least 150 in. I.e. not accepting a lay up at 200 yds.

Helped my wedges from 80-120 have really improved over last six months but resulted in 12 pars, a double and 5 bogeys so potentially good as no usual card wreckers. Would need to try it more to see if it was just a good day for me though.

 

[Slab]

I dont get it. If you could normally hit driver and leaves you with a flick of the wedge then why on earth are you hitting 7s and laying up with your second shot into 14. Your basically taking 2 shots to do with your driver does. If you cant hit your driver wouldnt it be much better off to learn how to hit it rather than compensate?

Youll never improve if you cant hit your driver.

But what do you take off the tee during the time a person requires in order to learn how to hit/correct flaw with driver?

 

[DeanoMK]

A lot of you seem to be missing the point with the OP and the philosophy 'Just Your Average Golfer' is trying to bring - he's not talking about hitting 7 iron off the tee to leave yourself hitting a 3 wood into the green, he's talking about playing to your strengths, for instance - say you've got a 400 yard par 4 and you are using 7 iron off the tee, that leaves you with 250 to the hole - 2nd shot, you hit 7 iron again to leave yourself 100 yards in, with much more chance of getting it close to save par or an easy 2 putt bogey.

I happened to stumble across 'JYAG' last week and played a round on Saturday where I adopted this approach - first hole was a 530 yard par 5 - everyone I was with was hitting driver off the tee - I went with my trusty 5 wood and hit the fairway. 2nd shot hit my hybrid and left myself an 8 iron into the green - 2 putt par and I won the hole, go figure.

 

[r0wly86]

Your 7 iron goes 180 but your 6 iron goes 200?? What sort if gapping is in them irons?

195 for 6 iron, just used 200 for simplicity, 15 yard gaps between my irons. Although new set so getting used to them, distances may be a bit longer

 

[ScienceBoy]

I love a good 4 or 5 iron off the tee and following my 3 goals method. Good enough of a way to just about break 90 off competition tees if you stick with it and hit good drives on the 1-2 holes when you go to a longer club. Off yellows mid 80s is doable.

As others have said, they key is breaking down a hole into manageable chunks.

Eg 500yard par 5 is 3 solid 5/6 irons and a chip/pitch on for a putt for par. For me that is playing to my strengths.

 

[Springveldt]

I watched a few of that Golf Sidekick video's last week after someone on Reddit mentioned them.

What he was advocating was playing the longest club you are comfortable with off the tee if the tee shot is a tricky one. If your best club is a driver, then hit it but if you have a nasty slice and there is trouble on the right then move down to a club you are comfortable hitting off the tee to keep the ball in play.

Pretty simple but effective advice, if only I could follow it.

 

[Orikoru]

I love a good 4 or 5 iron off the tee and following my 3 goals method. Good enough of a way to just about break 90 off competition tees if you stick with it and hit good drives on the 1-2 holes when you go to a longer club. Off yellows mid 80s is doable.

As others have said, they key is breaking down a hole into manageable chunks.

Eg 500yard par 5 is 3 solid 5/6 irons and a chip/pitch on for a putt for par. For me that is playing to my strengths.

Opposite for me. Trying to hit three good 5 or 6 irons in a row would be absolute suicide, zero chance of pulling that off. Driver, 7 iron, wedge, all day every day.

 

[Grant85]

Good bit of boring golf by Gary Woodland last night. Played well away from the bunker on par 3 17. Was on the green and played a good chip over the fringe to a few feet. Having hit the green, worst he could make was a bogey, but taking the pin on brought bunkers and fescue into play.

Also, down 18 - knowing a bogey, or even double would do the job. He hit iron / iron / wedge. Holed a long putt to put the icing on the cake, but he was basically on full defensive taking any score worse than bogey completely out of play - but still executing the shots well enough.

And he is your 2019 US Open Champion.

Obviously doesn't work for 72 holes, but at the right moment it was the time to be tactical, not aggressive. As a pro golfer, probably everything in his mindset was to take the flag on at 17 and take Driver at 18. Similar to Molinari taking the pin on at 12 on the Masters Sunday. He didn't need to, he shouldn't have taken it on, but he felt he could make the shot and get another shot on the field.

 

[Oldham92]

I've often used my 19° hybrid as a tee option on par 4's and even some par 5's. Not been playing long and had a bad slice with my driver to start with. Used to use 3W off the tea as my biggest club. Corrected the slice now but still pull the hybrid on a few tees each round.

Good to see from the videos etc that I'm doing the right thing, even if it's for the wrong reasons 😂😂😂

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Opposite for me. Trying to hit three good 5 or 6 irons in a row would be absolute suicide, zero chance of pulling that off. Driver, 7 iron, wedge, all day every day.

Not suicidal for me as I could do it and three irons shots in a row definitely on my radar at the moment as they are going well. However to try and play golf like that regularly, especially in a comp to make a score would drive me insane. I'd rather play conventionally and enjoy it and stand and fall by my scores and handicap progression. It isn't a method I could buy into and if I can't do that I can't commit to it. I am sure there is some mileage in it for some

 

[Dan2501]

I love a good 4 or 5 iron off the tee and following my 3 goals method. Good enough of a way to just about break 90 off competition tees if you stick with it and hit good drives on the 1-2 holes when you go to a longer club. Off yellows mid 80s is doable.

As others have said, they key is breaking down a hole into manageable chunks.

Eg 500yard par 5 is 3 solid 5/6 irons and a chip/pitch on for a putt for par. For me that is playing to my strengths.

Couple of bad swings and you're struggling for bogies, seems an incredibly negative way to play and not conducive to shooting low enough scores to reduce a handicap.

Personally I expect to hit GIR as I'm trying to make pars and birdies shoot, in the single figures and get my handicap down. My best chance of doing that is hitting driver and leaving myself wedges and 9 or 8 irons into pins and don't feel I can consistently do that by relying on 3 well hit iron shots.

 

[DeanoMK]

Couple of bad swings and you're struggling for bogies, seems an incredibly negative way to play and not conducive to shooting low enough scores to reduce a handicap.

Personally I expect to hit GIR as I'm trying to make pars and birdies shoot, in the single figures and get my handicap down. My best chance of doing that is hitting driver and leaving myself wedges and 9 or 8 irons into pins and don't feel I can consistently do that by relying on 3 well hit iron shots.

I've done the 3 club challenge a couple of times (one of which had to be a putter), took my 7i and my SW and I still played and scored well - it's not a negative way of playing at all - as Bob Rotella says 'take an aggressive swing at a conservative target'. You can learn a lot about your game by playing within your limits and for me, playing less driver ultimately means hitting more fairways, leads to more chances to score.

 

[GeneralStore]

Many handicap golfers would score better if they used driver less, but as has been said it depends on your strengths, weaknesses, hole risk & rewards. If your highest club that you are comfortable with is your 7i then you might eliminate some of those big numbers off your card and at the same time you can work on being able to go to a 3 or 4 hybrid. I know a couple of guys that can make really good swings and absolute horror shows (as most of us), 'that guy' that can hit his driver OOB at any moment or 280/300 yards, but has decent swing speed should be getting comfortable with a a long iron/hybrid to improve results on a par 4 that is less than 400 yards where there is trouble. Generally speaking of course and I believe the reason for this is not only the bad results, but because the good results dont bring enough of a win. Its all good and well taking on the bunker at 260 yards, but if the risk means you will still only put your wedge to 30 feet where is the upside? Guaranteed par? You need to be making birdies regularly if you avoid the trouble and are close enough. Also, generally speaking, if you are stiffing your wedges you are not hitting your driver OOB all the time.

That video by the average golfer fella is a good watch.

 

[pendodave]

Couple of bad swings and you're struggling for bogies

yep, there's the rub. I'm not a had player per se, but I reckon I have a 1/3 chance of hitting something a bit ugly. So if I have to hit 3 shots instead of 2 at a hole, my chance of buggering it up goes from err.. to err..times hmmm... (Apologies for poor grasp of probabilities algebra).

 

[Canary_Yellow]

Not suicidal for me as I could do it and three irons shots in a row definitely on my radar at the moment as they are going well. However to try and play golf like that regularly, especially in a comp to make a score would drive me insane. I'd rather play conventionally and enjoy it and stand and fall by my scores and handicap progression. It isn't a method I could buy into and if I can't do that I can't commit to it. I am sure there is some mileage in it for some

I think, and apologies if misremembering, the issue is that you’re not a long hitter. This means that the irons method is going to be harder to execute as you need to use a longer iron to reach the green in two on a regular par 4 which then ups the risk. But on the plus side, you shouldn’t be getting in so much trouble off the tee when using a driver or a three wood than someone that hits a long ball.

Course management requires a sensible approach to each hole. Taking driver every time is probably taking on an excessive level of risk, so would using an iron every time though as it puts so much pressure on short game and nailing approach shots.

My long game is better than my short game, so actually for me using a driver more is a lower risk strategy than relying hitting greens with 7 irons etc.

 

[Canfordhacker]

You may not make your birdy but you will pretty much be ruling out a card wrecker.

This. Absolutely. My score/handicap does not depend on making more birdies, but it absolutely depends on making less doubles. Eliminate them by evaluating risk better is what i believe the OP is talking about. 3 on the green on a risky hole, two putts and walk away.

 

[DeanoMK]

I'm heading to the course this evening to play 9 holes and I'm only taking 7 clubs: 5 wood, 4 hybrid, 6i, 8i, PW, SW and putter. Will be interesting to see how I fare and I will report back.

 

[DeanoMK]

Just got back and it was brilliant.

Started with a tap in par, bogey on the 2nd & 3rd, lipped out for birdie on the 4th, tap in par on the 5th, a triple on 6th & 7th (two poor swings cost me), a double on the 8th and a birdie on the par 5 9th. Equals a 9 over 45, 17 points on stableford and it was so comfortable. Will definitely be doing it again soon.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Just got back and it was brilliant.

Started with a tap in par, bogey on the 2nd & 3rd, lipped out for birdie on the 4th, tap in par on the 5th, a triple on 6th & 7th (two poor swings cost me), a double on the 8th and a birdie on the par 5 9th. Equals a 9 over 45, 17 points on stableford and it was so comfortable. Will definitely be doing it again soon.

Good news and glad you've found something that works. However I would counter that the two triples indicates its not a silver bullet and as I've mentioned it's not something that sits well in my own golfing brain and not for me. I would rather play and take the driver/3 wood off the tee depending on whats required and take it from there. I can still make a double and triple too but having a shorter shot in, I feel makes the approach a safer option

As Canary_Yellow rightly points out I am not a long hitter (average about 220 yards) and so there are still some par 4's I struggle to hit and all our par 5's are three shotters. However on my own course I know where the misses are both off the tee and with the long second shots and can align and plan accordingly. I would still rather get maximum distance off a tee and with a second and leave a simple short shot in. Horses for courses and I am not going to discourage anyone from trying something different, especially as an advocate of the linear method, but I do feel strongly that the concept has to sit well to commit to it. This doesn't with me. It's as simple as that