Working shots

It has to do with what shot is going to leave them with the best percentages.  By this I mean, say that the hole is located on the extreme right side of the green.  On tour, this is very common, so it only makes sense to hit a little bit of a fade into the hole, because that way even if he mishits it, he's still on the middle of the green.  Its all about managing your misses, and shaping your shots helps you do exactly that.  If he had chosen to hit a straight shot to the hole, but accidentally added a little cut to the ball, he has just left himself short sided.  Plus, its still hard for a tour player to hit every shot dead straight, there is much more of a margin of error if there is a purposeful draw or a fade added to the ball.  Hope this helps!

Bringing a nice draw or fade into the green is what also helps the ball to roll sideways on the green torwards the pin.

This needs to be emphasized more!  How many of us wasted a ton of time as a beginner trying to hit it straight, when predictable is far better?  Sure, a 30 yard hook sucks, but it's playable - there's no obligation to start the ball at the middle of the fairway on every shot.  Yes, lower handicaps tend to have more narrow shot cones than the rest of us, but it's not like they're hitting everything on a rope to a spot the size of a golf ball.

Think about it this way, its nearly impossible to hit a straight shot. So lets say you want to hit it at the pin thats on the right side of the green, missing right is death, short sized, deep bunker, impossible up and down. You aim for that straight shot, but you don't you leave the clubface slightly open, your dead, bogey town. Now lets say you hit a draw, you can aim at the pin, and draw it to just left of it, and if you hit it straight your going to be close to the pin, but you take dead out of play. Thats why they shape shots, to avoid risk, thats why straight shots are pretty bad choice

When they "work the ball" it looks pretty straight to me. They're fade is just a ball that doesn't go left and vise versa for a draw. Not too many guys hit big benders like Bubba Watson  does unless they have to. There are exceptions, but for the most part they ball isn't bending to the right or left like an amateur who peels one OB.

* their - stupid no edit feature!!!

Most of the time, working the ball eliminates trouble. That's the big thing for me. If I'm hitting into a green where there's O.B. right (thinking of the 'nemesis hole' on my home course) of the green...I'm going to hit a high cut into that green so that there's no chance of putting it in the woods.

The other big reason you see guys working the ball is off the tee...trying to 'cheat' or 'use' the wind to squeeze out a few extra yards. My home course has a ton of wind, so I'm trying to work every tee shot I hit to maximize distance. There are a lot of tee shots where using the wind and not using the wind can lead to a discrepancy of 20 yards or more...that's a HUGE difference...the difference between a 6 and 8 iron, 8 or PW, PW or LW, etc.