Interesting experiment tonight.

Airlie_Andy

Airlie_Andy

Challenge Tour Pro
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
683
Location
Hull
Visit site
Ok I went to the course after work tonight to do a bit of practice on my own. Recently a couple of bad holes have been wrecking my scorecard despite the fact I've been playing really well so I decided to try a little experiment. I decided to play 2 balls. Ball 1 would play every hole ultra cautious so taking irons off the tee, bailing out to avoid greenside bunkers etc etc. Ball 2 would be ultra aggressive and attack every pin and bomb every tee shot as far as possible etc etc.

I ended up playing 14 holes as I avoided a bit of a log jam area as the rest of the course was quiet. The par for those 14 holes is 59 and with my handicap my nett par would be 67 (although this was off the yellows).

So which ball do you think won and what score?
 
My numbers were slightly wrong on the first post (must be tired) par for the 14 holes is actually 54 and my nett par would be 62 as I get 8 shots on those 14 holes.

The point of the experiment was supposed to be to prove to myself that playing safe and using good course management was the way to go. However, I had one of those days when the aggressive play payed off almost every time.

So Ultra cautious ball scored 61 so Nett -1 which was pretty solid. It had 1 birdie 6 pars 6 bogeys and a double.

Ultra aggressive ball scored 55 so nett -7 and included 4 birdies 6 pars 3 bogeys and a double.

Now this was supposed to make me more sensible off the tee so someone please tell me I just got lucky!
 
you obviously putted well with the aggressive ball. plenty of 1 putts.


did you have many 1 putts with the safe ball? or even 3 putts for that matter?
 
There is good course management......and there is overcautious.

For example:

Straight par 4, might play as driver/wedge, 3 wood/7 iron or 3 iron/3 iron.

Good chance of missing the fairway with driver, possibly leading to bogey. Good chance of hitting the fairway with the 3 wood leading to par or better. Great chance of hitting the fairway with the 3 iron but also good chance of missing the green, leading to bogey.

It's all about playing the best option on each hole.
 
garyinderry said:
you obviously putted well with the aggressive ball. plenty of 1 putts.


did you have many 1 putts with the safe ball? or even 3 putts for that matter?
Click to expand...
The safe ball was generally in 3 putt territory on the greens or I was bailing out to avoid a bunker and then didn't manage to get it up and down. Aggressive ball had looks at birdie on almost all the holes, in fact it had 2 eagle looks after driving the green on 2 of the par 4s.

I'm just putting it down to one of those days when the aggressive shot always payed off and didn't get me in any serious trouble.
 
garyinderry said:
where the greens firm? its good shooting scoring 4 birdies any day at the office!
Click to expand...

Not baked but pretty quick. 2 of the birdies came from driving the green to be fair which has an element of luck to avoid a bunker and the other 2 were on par 3s. Im going to try this again next week and see what happens.
 
Airlie_Andy said:
Ok I went to the course after work tonight to do a bit of practice on my own. Recently a couple of bad holes have been wrecking my scorecard despite the fact I've been playing really well so I decided to try a little experiment. I decided to play 2 balls. Ball 1 would play every hole ultra cautious so taking irons off the tee, bailing out to avoid greenside bunkers etc etc. Ball 2 would be ultra aggressive and attack every pin and bomb every tee shot as far as possible etc etc.

I ended up playing 14 holes as I avoided a bit of a log jam area as the rest of the course was quiet. The par for those 14 holes is 59 and with my handicap my nett par would be 67 (although this was off the yellows).

So which ball do you think won and what score?
Click to expand...

I do this quite a lot when I'm out in the evening and the course is quiet - it varies on which is the more successful tactic
 
Recently in comps I've taken the aggressive option and scored well. For me aggressive is a shot I know I can make but has risk versus the "safe lay-up walk off without a double option"! I think there's been once when it didn't come off but overall it's been a success and in some ways pre-determining my approach takes the doubt away and therefore I commit fully to the shot I choose. Also in comps I can get too careful on my swing and try to steer the ball so having a more aggressive mind sets means I swing more freely.
 
AmandaJR said:
Recently in comps I've taken the aggressive option and scored well. For me aggressive is a shot I know I can make but has risk versus the "safe lay-up walk off without a double option"! I think there's been once when it didn't come off but overall it's been a success and in some ways pre-determining my approach takes the doubt away and therefore I commit fully to the shot I choose. Also in comps I can get too careful on my swing and try to steer the ball so having a more aggressive mind sets means I swing more freely.
Click to expand...
That's kind of what my thinking was. Say the pin was at the front of the green guarded by a bunker and the yardage to the front was a full PW. In my mind the aggressive play was hitting PW knowing anything but a really good strike will probably come up short in the bunker (with my bunker play im looking at double at least) whereas the safe option is to hit a smooth 9 iron to the middle/back of the green and hope to 2 putt. The safe approach keeps the big numbers off the card but doesn't lead to many birdies so scoring is never as low. I might try the aggressive approach in Stableford and cautious approach in strokeplay.
 
I have tried similar sorts of things on the course when I'm on my own before. On holes that I am never quite sure the best way to play I have played 2 balls, 1 with my driver and the other with the more safer option like a 3w or long iron. The results can be a bit hit or miss as if you get hold of one with the driver it sets up a good birdie chance or an easy par, but could also land you with a double or worse if the driver goes offline. Where the safer option normally made a safe par, possible birdie chance, but not really anything worse than a bogey.

I think everyone has strong and week points in their games, even the pros do and that is why you see 2 players on the same hole at times play it differently.

If one of your strengths is consistency with the driver then use it, but if your strength is good solid iron play then make sure you get it on fairway as it does not matter if you have a 5i in your hands as this is a strength within your game.
 
HawkeyeMS said:
I would say that the results of this experiment are "inconclusive". I suspect if you did this 10 times it would be 5-5.
Click to expand...

This. To be good you need to know when to be aggressive and when to play sensible. The best players mix both not one or the other.
 
I tend to think the safer option would win more times over 5 attempts. it only take a couple of loose shots when taking EVERYTHING on to rack up big numbers.
 
Your aggressive ball score shows that you were basically playing well. When I'm hitting the ball good then course management comes into it but not as often. However, on those days where you are maybe not hitting it as well, getting into a bit more trouble off the tee etc, I think you would find the more conservative approach would come out on top.
 
Fyldewhite said:
Your aggressive ball score shows that you were basically playing well. When I'm hitting the ball good then course management comes into it but not as often. However, on those days where you are maybe not hitting it as well, getting into a bit more trouble off the tee etc, I think you would find the more conservative approach would come out on top.
Click to expand...

That's a good point actually when I'm having a good driving day its a huge advantage for me but when I'm having a bad driving day then my length off the tee gets me into a lot of trouble when its wayward.
 
garyinderry said:
I tend to think the safer option would win more times over 5 attempts. it only take a couple of loose shots when taking EVERYTHING on to rack up big numbers.
Click to expand...

i would agree with that statement, safe play would probably come out on top more often than not.

i think we all at time try things that are not very sensible. Say you are stood 120 yards out, knowing that you hit your wedge 120. But the pin is cut close to the front 5 yards past a deep bunker, the safe shot is an easy 9i leaving you a nice 2-putt par. Or you go with the wedge, but how many of us are confident enough that we there is not a chance of catching it slightly wrong and it going plop into the bunker. That's the gamble, safe 2-putt par or risk a bogey to try and leave a short birdie putt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Slab
GIR (or not)
2
Replies
38
Views
2K
VVega
V
BunkerPlayer
Games to play on the course with my lad?
Replies
19
Views
1K
garyinderry
garyinderry
Imurg
Removal of White tees
Replies
8
Views
786
clubchamp98
clubchamp98
W
Expected Score For Hole Not Played
2
Replies
24
Views
4K
D-S
D
sjw
Fitting frustrations. Anyone had similar?
2
Replies
38
Views
3K
sjw
sjw
Top