So often, I find myself (and observe others) being fixated on the cup, no matter what it will take to get there.  I contend that, sometimes, the best play is to miss on purpose.  Maybe calling it “missing on purpose” isn’t the best way to state it. Let’s refine that to mean that we choose a target different from our natural tendency to shoot for the hole, the flag, or the green itself.

Sometimes, it’s an obvious choice and sometimes, it’s not.

Take, for example, your classic sucker pin.  Say the flag is tucked way to the side, behind water, just on the green, with a nasty bunker off to that side.  I think we would all agree that the play there is to shoot for the safest part of the green.  Of course, knowing that and doing that are two separate things.

I’m amazed how many players will shoot at that pin every time.  Yet, I do think that we’d all agree that, academically, going for it is the wrong play (in most circumstances) and that we should consider going for the fat part of the green.

OK, so we agree that we all can bring ourselves to miss on purpose sometimes.  How about when it’s not so obvious?

Here’s a situation I had to deal with a while back. I was faced with a putt of somewhere between ten and 20 feet, up over a hump and then severely downhill to the pin, which was right at the base of the down-slope.  The green was playing very fast that day.

Going at the flag, it was clear that if I didn’t hit the hole, that I would easily be ten or even fifteen feet past.  Even if I did hit the hole, at that speed, it could have easily hopped over or hit the lip and shot off to the left or right.

I saw something, though, that gave me a little window of hope: the hump ran perpendicular in front of me and then curved up toward left side of the hole but toward the left it flattened out much closer to me than it did in the area down straight toward the hole.

It occurred to me that if my target was a spot around five or six feet left of the hole, I could safely stop the ball there and virtually guarantee myself a second putt of six feet or less, which I felt confident that I could make because it was relatively flat down on that level.

And that’s exactly what I did.  I aimed six feet to the left of the hole, to give myself a second putt that I had a good chance of making.  I don’t remember whether I made the six-footer, but I’m confident that I made the right decision.

It occurred to me at that moment that sometimes I have to be prepared to miss on purpose to give myself the best chance to score.

Here’s another example.  I wish I could point to a specific course and hole, but if you watch enough golf on TV, you will certainly have seen this.

Every so often there’s a situation where a green isn’t very receptive (it’s firm and fast) and where players are forced to hit long shots into it.  Typically, there will be trouble behind, maybe a hazard, or a collection area leaving a tough pitch with not a lot of green to work with.

What you’ll see is a number of players intentionally aiming for a green-side bunker in front or to the side of the green.

Most of us amateurs don’t have it in our wiring to aim for a bunker.  However, given the situation I just described, having an uphill bunker shot with plenty of green to work with gives them the best chance to make par or even birdie (for instance, on a drivable par four, a short par five, or a long par three).

Given the alternative of taking a long shot into an unreceptive green with trouble off the back, a simple bunker shot can be quite appealing.  It might not be so appealing if you have a paralyzing fear of hitting from the sand, but that’s an issue for another day.

It might not be very often you’re faced with decisions like these.  Shooting for the fat part of the green might be an obvious choice, but other circumstances are more tricky.  Shooting for the fat part of the green isn’t even a miss, so much, because our target is probably the fat part of the green to start. It’s the times when we’re naturally fixated on going for the hole when this all means something.

To put up the best score possible, we need to be able to creatively think about course management and how we select and play each shot to put the lowest possible number on the scorecard.  Sometimes the choices are obvious.  Many times, they are not.

We typically mentally allow for some degree of miss, but setting out to miss is not something most of us are comfortable doing when we are naturally resolved to go for the hole or for the green.  Be ready to do it when the situation calls for it, and you’ll be adding a little more shine to your course management skill.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Can You Miss On Purpose?

As most of you probably know by now, grooves in irons have been dialed back at the highest levels to try and reduce the spin that wedges and short irons can impart on the ball.  In recent years, it became common for players to just bomb away off the tee, because they knew that their wedges would still provide high spin from the rough.

Now, with grooves providing less help to players out of the fairway, Faldo made a good point, that reading lies will become more important.  (Note that the new grooves won’t affect most of us for quite a while, but all of this is still worth talking about)

What did he mean by that?

After we hit a shot and approach the ball, probably the most important factor in deciding the next shot is the lie of the ball.  In other words, how will the way the ball is sitting affect the ability for you to put the club head to the ball and have the shot react the way you expect?

There are two important parts to that. One:  can you strike the ball solidly? And, two:  how will the shot react?  The first question is kind of obvious in most circumstances. If your ball is lying against a tree root, clearly your ability to strike the ball solidly is in doubt. It’s the second question, however, that is just as important, but more tricky to predict and to understand.

What that comes down to is, how much spin can you put on the ball?  We might not be thinking of it in those terms at the time, but that’s really what we’re asking ourselves because it has a big effect on the outcome of the shot. If you’re able to strike the ball perfectly in the center of the club face with the club head moving at normal speed, the variable then becomes the amount of spin on the ball.  That will affect distance, trajectory, and stopping power.

Let’s take a look at actual situations and we’ll discuss the factors that go into the outcome of the shot.  It’s not my intent to cover every possible situation here or the mechanics of how to hit shots from all the different lies, but to discuss generalities that will help you to get a feel for reading lies.  Nothing is a good substitute for practice, however, so get out on the course when no one is around to try these shots and see for yourself how they react.

We’ll look at the situations that occur with shots from the rough and from the fairway.  In part II, we’ll look at lies in the sand and some special circumstances.  In each case, we’ll take a look at the questions we should be asking ourselves as we go about reading lies.  That’s really the how-to of reading lies. Knowing which questions to ask and what the answers mean is what this game is all about.

In the Rough

Shots from the rough are really the ones Faldo was talking about when he mentioned being able to read lies with the new grooves imparting less spin.

The main purpose of grooves on the club face is to divert grass and moisture from the club face.  Those things tend to cause shots to spin less.  With the old grooves, much more grass and water were able to be diverted so it was possible to still get good spin from poor lies.  Now, that capability is diminished.

It’s not just grooves, however, that are important.  Remember the first part of the equation?  Can we strike the ball solidly?  If the answer is ‘no’, then there’s a much bigger issue.

In that case, we have to consider that we may not be able to strike the ball solidly and at full speed.   If the ball is buried in six-inch rough, we have to start worrying about what the club head will do as it passes through the grass.  I previously covered how to hit the ball from deep rough, so I won’t go into the specifics here.  But understand that there are consequences to that type of lie.

For instance, there is a tendency for the club face to shut as the grass grabs the hosel. Then, there’s the question of spin.  As we discussed, grooves divert grass and water so that the club head and ball can meet solidly.  Is there too much grass to be diverted?

The Questions

Here is a checklist of things you probably should be considering as you try and read lies in the rough.

How Long Is the Grass?

The length of the grass is really important to being able to strike the ball solidly. Remember that the club head approaches the ball in an arc. It’s fairly low to the ground for a couple of feet before actually getting to the ball.  If it has to pass through long rough, there’s a very good chance that the speed and path of the club head will be affected. The club head will slow down. It will have a tendency to twist (usually closed).  You may be forced to try a lay-up shot, if you don’t have a chance to strike the ball well.

How Thick Is the Grass?

As all of you are certainly keenly aware, rough on a golf course comes in many, many varieties.  Not just species of grass, but the climate and amount of maintenance that it receives causes it to grow differently.

Rough that is thick and healthy presents a huge challenge.  At times, however, long rough might be more dry and brittle and even sparse.  In that circumstance, it presents somewhat less of a challenge.  In either case, you’re still left to answer the two questions I posed at the top.

How is the Ball Sitting in the Grass?

Can you strike it solidly?  If so, then there’s the question of how much grass is going to get in between the ball and the club face. A clean strike means that you’ll get more spin.  A lot of grass means that you’ll get less spin.  However, that doesn’t necessarily mean less distance.

You’ve probably heard the term “flyer lie”.  When the spin on the ball is greatly diminished, you might actually see more distance out of the shot. And, it will probably fly along a lower trajectory (spin  helps the ball fly higher). Not only that, but you can expect it to run further on the green because there isn’t enough spin to stop the ball as quickly.  You should be mindful of what kind of trouble lurks behind the green because you may find yourself hitting it over the back. You might want to consider less club and play for the ball to fly and run further.

How is the Grass Laying?

This is one that we might not consider as much. When grass gets long, or when it has been rained on or trampled, it might tend to lay in a certain direction.  Some types of grass might tend to do that all the time.  On the green, we call it “grain”.  It can happen just as easily with rough, too.

It is very important to pay attention to which direction the grass lays, relative to the path the club will take as it approaches the ball.

If the grass is laying away from the target even with the ball sitting on top, as the club head approaches the ball, it will tend to get down into the grass and the shot will act more like one where the rough is standing up.  The club head will slow. There will be a tendency to twist.  There will be grass between the ball and club face. And so on.

However if the grass is laying toward the target, the club will tend to just pass smoothly over top of it. This doesn’t mean that the shot will be so simple, though. In this case, if the ball is sitting on top of tall rough that is laying over toward the target, it’s easy as the club head approaches the ball, to hit down a little lower (firm turf would resist this a little). This makes it possible to hit the ball a little higher on the club face, reducing both spin and distance.  It’s probably enough just to be mindful of not trying to make an overly descending blow, as if you’re trying to take a big divot.

In the Fairway

When the ball is sitting in the fairway, there is much more uniformity in the types of shots you can expect.  However, it is these shots where we rely on precision.  If you’re 100 yards from the green, in the middle of the fairway, you want your 100 yard shot to go 100 yards, and you want to get the amount of spin that you’re expecting.

We still should be asking ourselves questions about the lie, even in the fairway.

How Firm Is the Turf?

From the fairway, grooves aren’t the primary factor that contributes to spin.  There is usually very little grass that gets between the club face and ball, so there is little grass and moisture to divert.

You may have heard the phrase “pinching the ball”. On tight, firm turf, depending on how much of a descending angle the club head approaches the ball, the club face actually pinches the ball against the turf very briefly.  This maximizes spin.  The firmer the turf, the more that spin is maximized.  More spin means more stopping power, but it can also mean slightly less distance and a higher ball flight.  Softer turf will diminish this slightly.

How Tall is the Grass?

Yes, this even matters on shots from the fairway.  Some courses go several days between mowing fairways and depending on the type of grass, it might be significantly longer after a few days. At that point, you need to be asking yourself how much of an issue you’re facing with grass getting between the ball and club face.  I’ve played rounds where, because of a string of bad weather, fairways were not mowed for almost two weeks.  At that point, fairways started to resemble rough, and reacted like rough too.

How Wet Is the Grass?

Remember how we said that grooves divert grass and moisture?  Well, they can only divert so much.  After they have started operating at capacity, then there will be an effect on the shot.

During or after rain, or even after a heavy morning dew, there is simply too much moisture for grooves to divert.  This moisture gets between the club face and the ball and it will tend to lessen spin.

Putting It All Together

Remember that reading the lie is only one piece of the whole puzzle.  It’s easy to get too wrapped up in the minutiae and to lose sight of the rest of the big picture.

Consider the fact where the fairway is really wet.  You might think, “OK, wet turf means the grooves will be taxed and won’t move all that water, so that will mean less spin and the ball will fly a littler further and run out more after landing.”  In theory, yes, but don’t forget to consider the fact that since it’s wet, the ball can just as easily plug on the green and stop dead, if the putting surface is soft. Or, you might have to take a more conservative swing to keep your balance.

I also can’t stress enough that this academic exercise will only take you so far.  There is absolutely no substitute to hitting shots from these various lies to get a true feel for how they will react.  We’re talking about tendencies here, so nothing is absolute.  A certain situation might tend to increase or diminish spin, but that doesn’t mean that it will.  The golf swing is a very dynamic machine and there are a lot of variables that can tip the scales one way or the other.

Next time, we’ll take a look at reading lies in the sand and in some other special circumstances.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Reading Lies on the Golf Course, Part I

Previously, I covered the tee shot on a tight driving hole, and the long carry over water.  Since then, the tight tee shot was overtaken by the delicate downhill pitch/chip over a bunker with the pin cut close, moving it to second place.

It’s very interesting to me that this shot is in second place behind the long carry over water.  The reason being that the delicate pitch or chip over a bunker downhill to a closely cut pin position is a virtually no-win situation.  The other two are almost completely mental challenges.

I would have expected the no-win situation to be more dreadful, but I suppose the things that cause those kinds of feelings are specific to the individual based on ability, experience, and the like.

If you can forget about the water or the trouble on the hole with OB, woods, water, etc. coming in to play on the tee shot, the shots themselves are completely routine.  If you have the ability to hit the ball to a reasonably sized target and carry it a reasonable distance most of the time, then those shots are psychological barriers.

In fact, in the delicate pitch/chip scenario, the bunker is really a mental challenge, as well.  I just threw that in there to add to the anxiety.  I know that many of us have trouble hitting delicate short game shots.  Some players have real trouble with skulling or chunking pitches and chips.  In that case, the bunker does come into play.  However, if you have a reasonably decent pitching or chipping stroke, the bunker shouldn’t even be a factor.

The real issue is, this shot is very difficult, even for a tour pro.

We need to consider our expectations around the greens.  As you probably know, our objective, when the ball is somewhere around the green, is to get the ball on the green and make the putt to save par.  To do that, we need to get our pitch or chip to stop reasonably close to the hole.  Dave Pelz calls that the “Golden Eight Feet”.  If we can get the ball to stop within 8-10 feet of the pin (or closer, obviously) we give ourselves the best chance to make the putt.  Further out, and the odds are heavily in favor of missing, even for a tour pro.

If you have to pitch the ball to a pin that is cut close to you with a severely downhill slope in the way, then the shot is nearly impossible, even if you manage to hit the hole or pin.  It doesn’t matter how much spin you can put on the ball or how adept you are at hitting the flop shot.  When the ball lands and its spin is expended, gravity will simply carry it well past the hole.  And, don’t forget the fact that if you’re forced to land the ball on the slope, the angle will propel the ball forward, giving the it zero chance of landing softly and rolling out.

Prevention is the Answer

Prevention is really why this shot is an issue of course management.  You should be doing everything in your power to manage your misses.  Don’t think for a second that the pros don’t know where the best miss is on every green they hit a shot at.  If their natural shot shape will have them flirting with disaster like that, you can bet that they’re either going to shape the shot differently to keep the ball in a safer area (which you may or may not have the ability to do), or they’re going to aim their shot at a spot that takes the danger out of play if they miss it (which we all have the ability to do).

If you hit the ball for the fattest part of the green, you have a good shot at getting down in two putts or maybe even making a long putt.  Even if you miss the green, you have a good chance of getting up and down.  If you get into a spot where you have that nasty downhill shot, you’re almost definitely looking at the pitch and two putts, and if you hit your pitch poorly and fail to get on, the outcome will be worse.

I Hate to Say “I Told Ya So”

OK, I did, but we both know that we’re all going to end up with shots like that at some point, despite the fact that we know we should try really hard to avoid it.  Even tour pros will find themselves in a spot like that on occasion.

The key is to manage your expectations at that point.  When I’m in that spot, I forget about making the shot or even getting it close.  My number one goal is to get it on the green.

When you start thinking about making it, the first instinct is to try and get cute and feather the ball up there and let it run out as slowly as possible to try and stop it close.  In some cases, if you can just barely get the ball started, you might be able to stop it close.  But I’ve been in situations where I could just set the ball down on the edge of the green and it would roll 10-15 feet past because of the severity of the slope.

When you get in that mindset of feathering it, you run the risk of forgetting your fundamentals and decelerating through the shot and hitting it fat (or just simply not hard enough).  Do that and you may not even reach the green.  That wastes a stroke and leaves you in essentially the exact same predicament.

The conservative  play is to just get the ball on the green so remember your chipping or pitching fundamentals and be sure to land the ball on the green and suffer with the run-out.

Depending on the area where the pin is located, you might want to consider the riskier cut lob (flop) shot.  If the spot around the pin gives you a fairly flat landing area, you might have success flying the ball to, or just past, the flag.  If you practice the flop shot and the lie is suitable, then it can be a decent option.  If you don’t practice the shot or the lie isn’t suitable, then you’re primed to either skull the ball over the opposite side of the green or to barely advance it.

Take YOUR Game into Consideration

The basic idea here is that this shot is nearly impossible to get close to the hole.  You need to give your own skill level realistic consideration and try your best to avoid it, and to limit the damage when you end up putting yourself in that difficult position.  Pick your shot carefully and play within your own comfort zone.  If that means accepting that the ball will have to be played well past the flag and that you’ll likely be two-putting, then so be it.  In the long run, accepting a little pain will prevent the big blowups that can come from situations like this.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Dreaded Shots: Delicate Downhill Pitches to Close Pins

I’m a little surprised that this type of shot is the subject of such dread because the solution has nothing to do with swing fundamentals.  Conquering these shots has everything to do with combining an honest assessment of your own ability and game with a solid course management plan and combining all that with a solid mental approach.

Let’s not mince words:  if you’re dreading this shot, it may be because you shouldn’t be hitting it.  There’s no shame in laying up and it will probably save you more strokes than you’d gain if the gamble pays off.

Why don’t we take a closer look at the situation and you’ll see why.

First we’ll define the long shot.  Since everyone’s game is different, I’ll define it in terms of clubs.  Let’s say a long shot is anything longer than a 5-iron.  So, we’ll say 4-iron and up, including equivalent hybrids.  For me, that’s around 210 yards.

Second, we’ll define what “over water” means.  Obviously, if the water is right in front of the tee (or right in front of you in the fairway, for second shots) it is not nearly as intimidating.  I know there are those of you who think of nothing but topping the ball in that situation, and honestly, we’ve all topped one into the drink at some point.  I’m really talking about those situations were the water is near the end of the intended ball flight, though.  This would typically be when the green is on the far side of a creek or lake.  For the sake of this discussion, I’m going to assume you can get the longer clubs to hit the ball in the air most of the time and you’re not really worried with water right in front of you.

Really, there are two possible reasons why you fear that shot.

Honesty and Consistency

Presumably, you have a rough distance for every club in your bag.  If I ask you how far you hit your pitching wedge, you’ll have a number that’s probably good for somewhere within plus or minus a few yards.  Better players will have a much tighter zone.

However, as you get to longer clubs in your bag, the chances become greater that the number you have for those clubs is a “perfect shot” yardage and that the longer the club, the lower percentage of the time you’ll actually hit your perfect yardage.

This is one of two reasons you fear the long shot over water.

If you hit each club in your bag the same distance every time, then the shot becomes nothing more than getting an accurate yardage and factoring in wind and lie.  We all know, however, that players with higher handicaps will come up short most of the time.  The higher the handicap, the bigger the error in  the result usually, except in the case where a player is honest enough with himself to keep tabs on the typical yardages for his clubs , instead of the perfect yardages.

When you have open fairway in front of you, you have the luxury of being able to play to the perfect yardage and then just deal with a chip or pitch.  When water looms in front of you, the chance for getting wet is high.

When you’re faced with this type of shot, there are several things you should do to increase the chance for success.

First, throw out the perfect yardages and pick out a club where its typical yardage will get you safely on the green.   Second, evaluate the conditions to see whether things like the lie, the wind, and so on will help or hurt.  Adjust your club selection to deal with the conditions.

Then, you need to evaluate what your percentage of success is.  If you’re not looking at a high chance of success, then you need to suck it up and do what makes sense:  lay it up.

I don’t care if it’s an approach shot on a par four or a par five.  If your chances for success are not high, then you’re going to be assessed a penalty stroke more often than not.  If you lay up, there’s always a chance for still getting up and down to save par.  More likely, you’ll get a respectable bogey and put the depressing double bogey out of the equation.

Getting Wrapped Up in Results

The second reason you might fear a long shot over water is that you’re fixated on the water and the outcome of hitting into it.

I know I’m like a broken record always citing the mental game, but it’s because I think there is some serious improvement to be made there.  Most of the mental gurus will tell you that being fixated on the result of a shot before hitting it is a good way to ensure that the bad result happens.

As you’re assessing a shot, you certainly will consider the fact that there is water, along with a hundred other things.  But once you get ready to pull the trigger, you should have chosen your shot, completely committed to it, and visualized the outcome.

If the water is still dancing around in your thoughts, then you have some work to do.  Get to the book store and pick up everything by Dr. Bob Rotella and sequester yourself away in a quiet place until you read it all.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

I see you’re back.  I hope the books were enjoyable.  See what I mean?  Everyone who pretended to go and get books and skipped to this paragraph will be missing out, but those of you who did now understand the importance.

Stop fixating on the bad stuff.  Get it out of your mind.  Commit to your shot, hit it, accept the outcome, no matter how bad, then start preparing for your next shot.

Putting It All Together

To get the best result out of a shot that requires a long carry over water, you simply need a sound course management plan and a solid approach to the mental game.

Be honest about your club distances and how reliable you are about hitting your clubs those distances.  Don’t be afraid to lay up and accept a bogey in exchange for putting the big numbers out of play.  If you decide that going for it is the proper play, then plan your shot, commit to it, hit it, and accept the result.  Keep the possibility of a bad outcome out of your mind.

If you improve in these two areas, I guarantee you’ll stop dreading those long carries over water.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Dreaded Shots: Long Carry Over Water

Now, I should preface that by saying that I’m amazed sometimes at what I think I understand but really don’t, at least until something clicks. This article gave me one of those moments.

We all know all the old standard par three course management tips about staying away from trouble and not under-clubbing. What clicked for me in the article was the par three scoring average for Goosen, Tiger, Phil, and Vijay. Going back 1,468 holes (that’s a lot of seasons), Goosen’s par three scoring average is 3.02 strokes per hole.

That’s right, it’s over par. Tiger was the best of the four at 2.97 strokes per hole. You’re talking about the guys on Tour that usually score in the 60′s.

If I had to guess without having a chance to research it, I probably would have guessed about 2.5 or maybe even 2.75 strokes per hole.

Of course, we have to understand that they’re playing the holes a lot further away than we are. Still, they’re miles better players than we are anyway, so it probably doesn’t matter.

I had all the information I needed to figure this out on my own, but it took an external influence to make it click, I guess.

I have to go back to a concept in Dave Pelz’s teaching called the “Percent Error Index” or PEI. Basically, what he does is calculates the percent error by how far the ball misses the hole and how far the shot was. So, say on a 100 yard shot, the player is 5 yards left of the pin. That’s a PEI of 5%.

Pelz discovered through research that the average Tour pro had about a 7% PEI on full shots.

Let’s go to another Pelz concept: the “Golden Eight Feet”. His research shows that after getting on the green, even Tour pros start to miss most of their putts outside of eight feet. All his teachings are designed to get a player to get their approach shots within the Golden Eight more often, and thus have a more realistic chance at making birdies.

Now, let’s put the two concepts together.

Assume a Tour pro has an average PEI of 7%. Also, assume we’re talking about a 200 yard par three. That means that on average, most Tour pros are going to be about 14 yards, or about 42 feet from the hole after teeing off! Of course, sometimes they miss the green and sometimes they’re really close (or make it once in a great while). But, the long term average puts them at about 42 feet away.

Put another way, they need binoculars to see the Golden Eight. Birdies from that range are more luck than anything (though, on average Tour pros are much more “lucky” than we are). Goosen adds in the article that this is where tournaments are won and lost. The players that perform on the par three holes have a leg up on the rest of the field.

Applying all that to my own game, it exposes a flaw in my basic course management style. I would never say I approach a par three with the mindset that I’d be satisfied with a par. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we should have a negative mindset when approaching a hole, letting stats make us feel as if we’re already beaten.

What it should do, however, is make us adjust our course management strategy to take this reality into account. The fact is, based on PEI and the Golden Eight and on our actual abilities, that par is an excellent score on a par three hole.

Personally, when I play these holes, I do all the things I should do like steering from trouble and making sure to take enough club. But I also get fixated on firing at the pins sometimes, when that might not be the best play. I’m not saying not to have a very specific target, but understanding that my PEI isn’t anywhere close to 7%, I should be picking out a target that’s on the fatter section of the green or on the correct tier.

Things like curving the ball for the sake of getting it really close are what cause the big mistakes. I did it myself last week. I had 195 yards to a par three with the pin left and the wind coming out of the left. I tried to fire at the pin and turn the ball a little left, holding it up in the wind. Well, I overcooked it and ended up way left in a bunker.

I should be very satisfied when I walk away with par, and elated when I manage the occasional birdie. For most of us, playing the par threes very conservatively is probably the best plan. Even when big gambles pay off, only a couple of strokes per round are saved, but when those gambles don’t pan out (which is most of the time), then we’re putting big numbers into play.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

How’s Your Strategy on Par Three Holes?

One of my favorite course management tips: tee up your ball after careful consideration of the shot you’re about to hit.

For example, assume your typical shot is a slice. If you tee up the ball on the right side of the tee (close to the right marker) and aim for the left side of the fairway, you have a lot more room for the shape of the shot you typically play. If it does what you expect, you’ll be in the middle of the fairway. If it unexpectedly goes dead straight, then you’re on the left side of the fairway. And if it slices more than usual, then you’re on the right side of the fairway.

The same is true if your normal shot is a hook. You’d tee it up on the left side and aim for the right side of the fairway.

Now take all that one step further, and use that knowledge to set you up in the best position for your second shot. If the front-right of the green is guarded by a pond, then you want to try and get your ball into the left side of the fairway so you have a look at the green with little or no water to worry about.

One important note: when trying to plan ahead, don’t hit a shot where you end up in trouble if you strike it perfectly, even if that’s a rare occurrence. Using the example of the slicer, if you want to end up in the left side of a fairway that’s guarded on the left by a water hazard, don’t tee up on the right side of the markers and aim out into the water, expecting it to come back to the left side of the fairway. You’ll be penalizing yourself for hitting a good, straight shot.

Next time you’re playing, consider your typical ball flight and pay close attention to where you choose to tee the ball, and you might just save a few strokes.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Use The Tee To Your Advantage

You should be attacking every hole with that information in mind. Before you stand over every shot you should be thinking where you’re trying to hit the ball and where a miss is most likely to go. Then you need to evaluate how likely you are to miss, and what the consequences are for the next shot if you do miss. If you’re hitting a driver off the tee and a sweeping hook that goes shorter than you expect has you flirting with an out of bounds area, then you really should be thinking of a more conservative approach if you feel that your likelihood of getting into trouble is high enough.

Let’s say you’re hitting the ball extremely well and your odds of a serious miss are very low. That doesn’t mean you still shouldn’t be thinking ahead. As you hit every shot, you should be thinking about where that will leave your next shot and how that positions you for the rest of the hole. Say your second shot is to a green where the pin is tucked back right behind a bunker. Maybe your best approach is from the far left side of the hole, giving you more green to work with, a better look at the flag, and less bunker to worry about. That means you need to position yourself off the tee in the best spot to take advantage of that.

One important note: considering your possible misses and planning around them doesn’t mean you can give yourself the luxury of dwelling on negative thoughts. As Sam Snead once said, “Ya gotta dance with who ya brung.” That means that you work on your swing at the range and when it comes time to hit the course, you live with whatever you have going wrong at that time. There’s no room for dwelling on negativity, but acknowledging reality and planning for it will allow you to shoot the best score possible.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Play It Like A Chess Match

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.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t Short Yourself

Case in point: yesterday, I played at my new club for the first time since I joined (and for the first time there in a year or two). I wasn’t playing great, but the conditions were pretty rough. The course was saturated, there was a ton of wind, and the greens had recently been de-thatched for the spring and haven’t healed yet which made putting tough.

So I’m teeing off on the 5th or 6th hole (I’m still trying to memorize the holes) and there’s some water kind of off to the right off the tee, but not in a position to be any trouble. I was kind of tired from a session at the driving range and got lazy, let myself get out of whack and duffed the ball weakly low and right off the tee. The ball either skipped once on the water or just made it across on it’s own.

When I got over there, I find that there’s a strip of unmaintained rough on the far side of the pond that’s never mowed. And it tends to form huge clumps with little valleys in it. It took me a while to find my ball, and actually found several others in the meantime (a telling sign). Eventually, I found mine and it was nestled down in between a group of clumps.

Now, mind you, this isn’t just deep rough that you just choke down, grip tight, and slop the ball back out to the fairway. These clumps are solid and there’s no way a club can pass through. So, I’m left with a decision. I can play it as is, or I can call the ball unplayable, where the best option would be re-hitting from the tee.

For some reason that I can’t even put into words, I decided to play the shot. I swear, it wasn’t that I was too lazy to go back to the tee or that there were people waiting and I felt guilty. I was free and clear to make the decision. I thought, “well, at worst I’ll just slop it out a few yards and play from the fairway or the normal rough.” Yeah, right.

I decided that my best bet was to take a really steep back swing with my pitching wedge and kind of come right down on top of it and pop it up out of there. I gave it a try and the ball moved maybe an inch. Now I’m annoyed. I gave it another swipe and it pin balled around in there and came to rest in just as bad a lie. So I try yet again. This time, the ball popped 5 feet or so straight up in the air. As I flailed around trying to get out of the way, the ball hit me no less than four times. Great. So I’m hitting seven now, I think. There might have been a complete whiff in there at some point. But I was still in the mess. And at that point, I was just hoping there’s a decision that covers getting hit by the ball four times in one act so it would just be a two-stroke penalty instead of eight.

Luckily, good fortune prevailed and after my Plinko session with the ball, it kind of came to rest on top of one of the clumps and I was able to gouge it out to the fairway. I was so frustrated that I invented a ten-shot max local rule and finished out the hole and called it a ten (the course may already have a standing 10-shot local rule…I should check).

I’m sure my brother was amused by my Three Stooges antics, but I was not. There’s no other way to look at it: that whole fiasco was just plain stupid. If I had played the hole with nothing but my pitching wedge, I could have probably gotten a bogey. It was a complete mental breakdown. Possibly one of the worst golf decisions I’ve ever made.

One of the more frustrating aspects of the situation was the fact that once I played my first shot from the mess, I lost the ability to go back to the tee under the ball unplayable rule because now I played a shot from there. Taking a drop two club-lengths would have left me in the mess. The only other option was to drop behind the pond on a line extending from the hole through the ball. But it was all mess there. I think I would have had to play it on the previous hole under that remedy. Thinking back, that still would have been a better play.

My poor decision meant the difference between a score in the mid-40′s and one in the low 50′s (or mid-50′s if there’s no local 10-shot rule).

The moral of the story is: learn to recognize the difference between digging a hole and digging a grave. Climb out of the hole, set the shovel down, and walk away. Or better yet, work on good course management so you don’t have to start digging in the first place.

© 2007-2010 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Decisions, Decisions