Don’t Do It!

Jeff Fisher
Director of Instruction
Fisher Bryan Golf Academy at Longbow Golf Club
Mesa, AZ
jfisher@obsports.com

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250 yards to the green, desert on the right and bunker 30 yards short of the green. Better pull out your 3 wood. No! Don’t do it!

These types of decisions are exactly what cause most golfers to shoot higher scores than they have to. They make course management decisions based on what they think they are “supposed to do” rather than on what they should do and actually have a chance at accomplishing.

For most golfers 250 yards equals two shots, no matter how you carve up that distance. So rather than try and hit a 3 wood, which is a high risk low success rate shot for a lot of golfers, why not split up the 250 yards in a way that you can handle much easier? How about playing two 125 yard shots. This type of course management gives you a much higher chance of succeeding with both shots and the risk that comes with the 3 wood shot goes away. If you don’t believe me, go out onto the course and find a spot 250 yards from the green. Hit 10 balls with your 3 wood. Sure, one or two will be great shots. But a couple more will be mediocre at best and at least a few will put you in places that lead to big numbers!

Now go back to the same spot at 250 yards and hit 10 balls with your 125 yard club. I am betting the majority of these balls are shots that leave you clear of any trouble and with right around another 125 yards into the green. From there you play the same low risk, high success rate shot that you just hit. Again, I am betting most of these shots either land on the green or right around it with very few of them in troublesome places.

The notion that we have to play certain shots with certain clubs from certain places is based mainly on what we see on television or assume a Tour player would do. That is not going to help YOU shoot better scores! Remember that the goal is to shoot the lowest score you can and the first step to doing that is to eliminate big numbers. Get the double and triple bogeys off of your scorecard and your scores will improve dramatically!

Jeff Fisher is Director of Instruction at the Fisher Bryan Golf Academy at Longbow Golf Club. Jeff can be reached at 480.414.9330 or jfisher@obsports.com.