Stableford Medal tomoz, need a new tactic!!!

Ive recently tried a different approach to my game

take the 1st hole at Aylesbury 385 par4 SI 5 (so I get 2 shots).. It has a stream running diagonally from about 180 left to 160 right

Depending on the wind i'd take the driver, sometimes id carry it, sometimes not, if not its a penalty stroke, still got to clear the stream , under pressure so the third shot would go right into another ditch, hack or drop out and im still 150 yards out and looking at a 7 or 8.

Then I decided to forget the driver and lay up with my 7 iron, leaving me 20 yards short of the stream, the green being reachable with a sunday best 3 wood. Inevitably id end up back in the ditch on the right and looking at a 6 or 7, better, but not perfect.

What I do now is to still lay up with my 7 iron, then another easy 7 iron which should leave me about 100 yards out. a PW onto the green , 2 putts for 3 points. thank you very much.

Of course when my handicap drops i will only get one shot at this hole, but its safe golf, its those tempting shots that we see Mickelson and McIlroy doing that we want to copy that are the ones that get us into trouble

last week I had 3 8's on my card and each time it was because I was over confident and tried a shot that I only had a 20% chance of pulling off, ending up in waist high clag that took 2 shots to hack out from.

So next time i have a 220 yard shot to the green, im going to take a 9 iron followed by a PW

We have a stableford on Wednesday, we shall see

Fragger
 
I realise there is lots of good advice there, so here is my tuppence worth lol

Dont go for par 5's in 2 with anything more than a 6 iron.
Same for long par 4's, if they are 450 yards, hit a club off the tee you know 95% of the time will work, even if its a 7 iron. in theory you could hit 3 7 irons to the green and make a comfortable 5 with two putts, you could make 4 with 1 good putt.
Do you have a yardage you are comfortable from? Me I like 100 yards, if you do, dont try to get as close to the green as you can if you are not happy there. leave yourself a shot you like.
Taking out the trouble on holes will give you a better chance to score well.
Dont be defensive, be aggressive but with the right clubs, ie 8,9 pw, not 4,5,6 iron or 3 wood.
Most of all i guess is have fun, and dont worry if you hit a bad shot, everyone does, just relax and play the next one!

Good luck.
 
well here goes the result...

front 9 46 shots 21 points
back 9 50 shots 16 points

had 2 back to back blobs on 13 & 14, never hit a good drive all day but long irons/hybrids of the tee and fairway were spot on, chips and putting were awesome had 4 1 putts due to good chips, had 1 ob tee shot and still managed to scramble a point on it. No bunkers hit all round aswell also missed a 1ft putt for a 3 pointer instead of 2...

All in all a half decent round with a good few points thrown away. Lesson gonna be booked for driver/fairways and maybe a new driver when cash permits

oh yeah, par 5 18th, topped drive, duffed 2nd then creamed 3 hybrid 220yds to the left edge, chipped to 3 inches and putt for par 5 (net birdie)!!! was extremely happy ;)
 
Do you play golf for fun, or to play like a robot and have the best HC you possibly can? Personally speaking, I want to score well, but the most important thing for me is to have fun doing it.

Take the other day for instance. 18th hole, 582 yard par 5. I knew I was on for a best ever score as long as I scored a 7 or under. Did I play it the easy way, safe irons all the way to guarantee the score? No. I took driver off the tee and pulled it way left onto the rough on the adjacent hole (the FAR side of the fairway) Hit a scrappy 8 iron out of the deep stuff which just about got me back to the short rough on the 18th, still a good 240 to go. Pulled out the brand new MD 5W with the intention of spanking it as hard as I could. Hit a bizarre slice that went higher and further right than it went forward, this time onto the up-slope of the raised first tee! 165 to go, surrounded by pines with no view of the green, uphill lie meant I could hit a 7 iron and still get the ball up quickly enough to clear the trees. Hit the shot of my dreams to within 5 feet. Missed the put, walked off with 6. But all I can think about even now is that seven iron.

I enjoy golf for its ability to go from the sublime to the riduculous and back again in the space of one hole. I cant imagine playing the game, never going for the glory shot. True, 9 times out of 10 I'd have thinned the 7 iron into the trees, but this time I didnt...
 
I would never want to play robot golf Bucky, had to hit 2 hail mary shots today that came off an 8 iron from 159 to pin high and the 220yd 3H on 18

even if I scored 20 points I still would rather be playing golf badly than doing almost anything else :D

thanks btw fella's
 
Each to their own and if 'going for it' makes you happy then that's up to you.

Ask a low handicapper or pro the quickest way to lower your scores and there could be 2 answers. Short game or course management.

Enjoy it however you decide to play. :)
 
Well done mate. There is a difference between robot golf and sensible golf especially with card and pencil in hand. I played a medal last week and pulled the drive down 7. I had a choice of a hybrid all carry over a hazard or an 8 iron over a tree back into play. Took the second option and made an easy 5. Did a similar thing in a social game today. Even better lie than before and with no pressure pulled the hybrid immediately Granted it didn't come off as I wanted but the point was I had a bit of fun taking the shot on as there was nothing to lose. Give me robot golf everytime in a competition if it means keeping 6,7 0r 8's off the card
 
thats the thing though isnt it Homer, its ok with mates and if it comes off then great, when it comes to having a card in your hand then as you say a steady 5 or even a 6 is better than a 7/8 or even 9 for sod all

now got to sort a lesson or 2 and start from scratch with the driver as it just isnt happening :(
 
I hate being a high handicapper. 23 is too high, Im capable of better.

so if its a medal or a stableford and you really want to get your handicap down, you play sensible golf, you dont hit the low percentage shots, unless its blob or bust.

once you have your lower handicap, you can then have lots of fun trying to play to it for the next 3 months :-)

Fragger
 
Didn't mean to get anyone's back up with my post. Just seems everyone here is very concerned about their handicap, and all their energy is put into getting a cut, but we are mostly amateurs who should be trying to maximise our enjoyment. Hell we spend enough money and time on it.

Granted I am not playing any comps so am not facing the same 'pressure' as you guys.

I am not by any means some kamikaze golfer, I just like to take on a challenging shot once in a while.
 
Take the other day for instance. 18th hole, 582 yard par 5. I knew I was on for a best ever score as long as I scored a 7 or under. Did I play it the easy way, safe irons all the way to guarantee the score? No. I took driver off the tee and pulled it way left onto the rough on the adjacent hole (the FAR side of the fairway) Hit a scrappy 8 iron out of the deep stuff
Click to expand...

You're not Jean Van de Velde are you?
:( :( :( :( :(
 
Didn't mean to get anyone's back up with my post. Just seems everyone here is very concerned about their handicap, and all their energy is put into getting a cut, but we are mostly amateurs who should be trying to maximise our enjoyment. Hell we spend enough money and time on it.

Granted I am not playing any comps so am not facing the same 'pressure' as you guys.

I am not by any means some kamikaze golfer, I just like to take on a challenging shot once in a while.
Click to expand...

You'll find there's a good mix on here Bucky. A lot of people follow each others golf on this forum and are very supportive. With Gibbo he's newish to golf and trying to find his way like a lot of folks on here. We do after all have forum meets and you get to make new friends and then you follow how theyre doing on here.

We try to give advice and cajole and steer where we can to help the process of h/c reduction. This in turn usually leads to folks enjoying their golf as they feel and can see they are getting better.

There are also many folk on here who have gone past worrying about what h/c they are and just play golf. Justone is a prime example , but he is as supportive and helpful a bloke as you will ever meet.
 
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