Playing Tips  

Manage your miss-hits

We all struggle with certain tendencies in our golf swings. Often the difference between good play and bad play is how we manage our misses and play percentage shots based on our shotmaking tendencies.

The good player lowers his scores by eliminating high numbers while recovering from bad shots. For example, he will punch out of the trees back into the fairway with a short iron, get on the green and try to one putt for par and settle for bogey at worst.

In a similar situation, a high handicapper would probably be trying to curve a low iron around or between many close trees and run the ball up onto the green. He inevitably hits even more trees and ends up in more trouble. This type of shot should only be attempted by expert golfers, in a skins games or in a match play situation where an opponent is in good condition where a high-risk play is needed just to produce a comeback. Other examples of poor percentage play by high handicappers are:

1. A lob shot to a close cut or short-sided flag over a bunker or some other obstacle when just getting onto the green should be the goal.

2. A low iron or wood out of deep rough where a mid or short iron is needed to get back into the fairway.

3. Consistently under clubbing into greens

4. Aiming directly at flagsticks (sucker flags) closely cut to hazards or other looming danger

5. Hitting a driver off a tee every time when a 3 wood or even less club is a better play to get in the fairway

Golf is humbling, and to play well you have to be able to check your ego at the door otherwise you'll be spending an entire hole trying to recover from one bad shot after another instead of from just one shot. If you're unsure of your limitations try high risk shots while playing a practice round to find out what you should or should not be trying.

There are definitely times when you need to play a high-risk shot and knowing when and how is one of the great mental challenges of the game. If you shoot in the 90's or 100's you need to eliminate scores higher than a double bogey, if you shoot in the 80's or less you need to eliminate scores higher than a bogey for any given hole.

Part of the lure and fun of golf is trying to execute the perfect golf shot, but perfect golf shots are not needed to score well, only smart shots.

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