My Keys for Course Management
: Preparation Course Management - Preparation
Preparation is essential for course management and should begin before we get to the golf course. We should be dressed properly. Not over dressed or under dressed, either way can cause an unpleasant day on the golf course. We should always make sure we arrive at the golf course with enough time to get ourselves ready. Nothing is worse than arriving at the course 5 minutes before your tee time and you have to hurry all the way to the very first shot. For me personally, I like to arrive at least 30 minute prior to teeing off. You need to be in the right frame of mind to be prepared for a good round of golf. Nothing gets me into the right frame of mind like hitting putts or golf balls prior to playing the round. My favorite is to putt prior to playing. It can be so relaxing and get your mind off all the things in life that can be bothering us on that day and get us thinking about what is ahead….Golf!
We should make sure that we have everything we need before starting our round. The most obvious things would be to have enough golf balls, tees, golf glove, pencil and score card. It may sound so simple, but try playing a good round of golf when you are missing these. We need to be prepared mentally as much as anything. We just have to be ready for the different types of success and failures that are about to happen to us, and oh yes we will have both success and failure during our upcoming round of golf. If we are ready mentally, then we will not let our failures will take over and dictate how we end up playing. Let our preparation get us ready to play a good round of golf and start us on our successfull path of course management.
This is the key to all your course management. You must know your Strengths and Weaknesses in order to make the correct decisions in a round of golf. You need to protect your weaknesses and take advantage of your strengths. We must decide on every shot during our round, to take advantage of our strengths or protect our weaknesses. Playing smart golf produces confidence and confidence creates lower scores. So, how are we going to create confidence? There is no single answer to that question. Knowing our own game and playing towards our strengths and away from our weaknesses will help give us the confidence we desire. We need to have this in mind before every hole, before every shot we are about to hit and the confidence will slowly develop over time. We keep working on our weaknesses and our game will slowly improve. If we keep improving our game and playing to our strengths then our confidence will continue to grow. As we work on improving our game, we will have many more strengths to take advantage of and our scores and ultimately our golf handicap will improve.
When should we play smart golf? This is an easy one…..ALWAYS !!! We need to be disciplined and try our best to always play the smart shot. We should be hitting shots that we expect to have good results. A good result does not always have to be in the middle of the fairway or on the green. A good result could be off the fairway but, on the best side to allow you a good shot to the green. Smart golf can be so different for each player. This is why knowing our own game is so critical to our course management. If we have a drive that requires a 200 yard carry of the ball in the air to clear a river or hazard, then what we would consider smart golf can be different for each golfer. Some of us should be hitting short of the hazard and others should be trying to get over the hazard. It is impossible for anyone but our self to determine this. This smart golf decision making must continue with each and every shot for the entire round.
Smart golf will help produce confidence and then lower scores.
Yes…Aggressive Golf. We all love to play aggressive golf and have that easy par or birdie putt. Good aggressive golf will be taking advantage of our strengths. If we are faced with a shot that we know is too difficult for our own game and we go ahead and hit the shot anyways, well this is not aggressive golf. Aggressive golf is playing a shot that we know we can hit and even if we do not hit the shot just like we planned, that we have not put ourselves into a situation that is going to cause a much higher score. The advantages of an aggressive shot must out weight the disadvantages. Of course there will be times that we take the chances that maybe we should not, and sometimes it will work out and others times it will not. We need to play aggressive when the situation is right for us. Aggressive golf is the most fun part of golf for me, but there is a fine line between aggressive golf and suicide golf. Know your own golf game and learn when to play aggressive for yourself. Aggressive golf can improve your scores.
Club selection depends on so many different factors. The weather, the distance, the lie of the ball, the terrain, the wind, pin placement and our stance can all determine what club we should be selecting to hit. You will never have the same shot twice, not even on the same hole. All the factors that come into play will make the same shot change each time and possibly make you change your club selection. I would not recommend too much thought about all the different factors that can affect each shot, just quickly recognize the conditions around you and make your choice. Do not second guess your club selections to the point that it is affecting your golf game. Make your club selection, see the right shot in your mind before you hit and then hit your shot and know that at least you were ready. If we make a bad decision, and we will, then we should just remember it and apply it the next time we are in a similar situation. One of my favorites thoughts prior to an approach shot to any green is to just hit the middle of the green. The middle of the green rarely puts you in any trouble. I say this now because most of your difficult club selections will come when you are hitting an approach shot to the green. We must recognize all the different factors that come into play when we make our club selection. We must also know that we will make the wrong decisions at times and that we will use our wrong decisions to our advantage the next time. Do not think too much about the club selection, just make our decision knowing we have thought it through and feel positive about our selection. This positive thinking prior to hitting the shot will allow you to improve your scores and eventually your golf handicap. I have a nice little personal story about course management. Every time I play a round of golf, I always play the entire round, hole by hole in my mind long before ever hitting the first shot. I have never played with anyone who does not do this. It was about 3 years ago and the first night of our golf league was starting. All day at work I went over each hole and how I was going to play each hole. Oh did I play a great round of golf at work….. Finally the first hole came for us, me and my brother and the team we were playing. I had already played this hole in my mind, now it was time to play it just like I had many times already today. The first hole is about 375 in yards and it is kind of straight, but the trees on both sides of the fairway almost force a dogleg from the left to the right. My plan was to hit a fade from left to right on the drive and be right in the middle. Then hit what should be a short approach shot close to the pin for a nice birdie attempt and a par tap in if the birdie misses. I walked off the first green with a birdie and not at all how I had played it so many times already that day. My drive ended in the trees off the fairway to the left. I hit an approach shot short of the green and chipped the shot in the hole for a birdie. So much for my planning and course management….huh !!! Actually when I look closer at the hole, maybe the shots I hit were not perfect, but my course management was just perfect. Let us look at it closer to see why this is true. I hit the drive down the left side of the fairway, hoping to fade the ball back to the fairway. I know on this hole that if I miss the fairway on the right, that it can be a real problem with so many trees now between me and the green. If I miss the fairway on the left, then I know I still have a good chance of having a good shot to the green. So I was playing to the safe and smart part of the hole. Of course I was hoping to fade the ball back to the fairway, but it just did not happen and I ended up in the trees on the left. Once I found my ball in the trees, I now discovered that I had to take a risk to hit the next shot onto the green. The shot was fairly open for me to hit right in front of the green. The trees were in my way to have a good shot directly to the green. At this point I had to decide, do I go for the green and risk hitting more trees and staying in trouble or do I go for the front of the green and playing it smart. My plans all day were to be putting on this hole for a good chance at a birdie. The shot was just too risky to go for the green and I decided to play the safe shot. Even if I had chipped and 2 putted for a bogey, this would have been the smart play. How can being in so much trouble, be good course management, we ask. I knew where the real dangers were on the hole and I knew my own game. I played to my strengths and I played a smart hole. No, I did not play the hole like I had envisioned all day, but how often do we truly do that. We have to make smart decisions while we are playing. In this situation I did make the smart decisions and the score reflected it. I shot a 37 on this day, 2 over par. If we look at my example, we can then see how I used my keys to Course Management
Course Management - Preparation I was early to the golf course and took my time to be ready mentally for a good round of golf. I know on this day I arrived early enough to putt for at least 30 minutes and just get ready for golf. Course Management - Know your own game I knew my game by hitting the drive down the left side of the fairway. Yes I know I was planning to fade the ball back to the fairway, but I did play the correct shot for my game.
Course Management - Know when to play smart golf On this hole I played 2 smart shots. First I hit the drive down the proper left side for this hole. Second I played smart by laying the ball up short of the green and not bringing more trouble into play. Course Management - Know when to play aggressive golf I did play a fairly aggressive on my second shot. I had a very easy shot that would have left me around 50 yards short of the green. I chose to hit a much more aggressive shot that had to stay low to avoid hanging trees and attempt to hook the ball to bring it closer to the green. The shot was aggressive and also the right short for my game.
Course Management - Club Selection I hit the driver off the tee, which I would always do on this hole. My second shot, I selected a club to keep the ball low to avoid the trees. I did play the correct clubs for each situation that arose.
Course management is such an important part of our golf game. This is one area that we can take advantage of with no real cost of money or time. We just need to develop these theories into our golf routine. This is a self discipline that we should all be practicing to improve our scores and eventually lower our handicap.
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Step 4 - Course Management
