Don’t Short Yourself
Posted by Double Eagle in Course Management
A common bit of golf knowledge is that high handicappers tend to under-club too often. All things being equal, this is a fix that can be made that will result in instant improvement. Many times, ego gets in the way. But in reality, most of the time it comes down to playing statistical probabilities.
Think of it like this: every golf shot we make that employs a full swing will either be perfect or will contain some degree of error. Let’s pretend that skulling the ball over the back of the green isn’t an issue for now. That means that each full shot is either going to go the precise yardage and direction that we’re expecting or it’s going to be short and possibly right or left of the target. This will happen through mistakes or inconsistency. Hitting a ball off-center on the club face will result in some lost yardage, even with today’s forgiving clubs.
Now we have to ask ourselves: how many shots that we hit every round are perfect? Technically a perfect shot falls in the hole, but let’s also pretend that our definition of “perfect” is that all the expectations for the shot were met. This will vary with everyone and depends on what our individual expectations are. If your only intention is to get on the green, then fulfilling that requirement isn’t as difficult. But if you’re trying to start the ball 5 yards left of the pin and fade it in to a tight pin over water, land 5 yards short and left of the flag and have the ball one hop and run a little toward the flag, then you’re asking for a lot more to happen before you can declare a perfect shot.
What’s my point with all that? Well, what I’m saying is that many of us plan our shots as if our execution is going to be perfect. That’s our egos talking. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll eventually realize that we aren’t going to hit as many perfect shots as we think. Next time you go out, predict how many “perfect” shots you expect to hit before you tee off, then note on your scorecard how many shots you make that precisely meet the expectations you set forth prior to the shot. I’m betting that that your expectations will not be met as much as you think.
This is why course management is so important for high handicappers who want to shoot lower scores. We high-handicappers (I’m in that group for the time being, until I fight my way back to where I was) need to pay more attention to the situations that we’re putting ourselves in. It’s important to consider where the trouble is and try and minimize it, knowing that we’re statistically likely to not meet our pre-shot expectations.
If you have a 9-iron in hand and your “perfect” 9-iron distance puts you one pace onto a green guarded in front by water and a green-side bunker, then you really need to carefully consider what you’re doing. It’s the classic under-clubbing scenario. How many times out of 10 or 100 or 1000 will you execute the shot? If it’s less than 50% then you really need to take a longer club and live with the possibility that you could take it over the back of the green. And that’s not considering that being too short might result in a penalty stroke so in reality the odds better be a lot more favorable.
It all comes down to statistics. To score better, high-handicappers need to play the percentages and be honest with ourselves as to whether we’re likely to meet expectations and frankly, whether we need to manage our expectations better to begin with. Don’t be ashamed to club up, aim for the fat parts of the greens, hit shorter irons off the tees, steer clear of hazards, and the like. At the end of the day, we’re measured by a number on a card, not by the method by which we get the job done.
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