game management.....

Interestingly, your game sounds a lot like mine.  Here's what I do when faced with similar par-5 and par-4 holes where long shots are required.

 

1.  I have a good wedge set and regularly practice shots from 60-110 (or so) yards from the green and feel very confident with a PW, AW, SW or LW in my hand.  When a drive on a long par-5 is either good or not so good, in fairway or rough, my go-to club is a 5-hybrid. This club always gets me to wedge range where I'm comfortable.  Hit a good one and have chance at birdie.  Hit a bad one and I can still get up and down for par or bogey at worst.  Yanking out a 3-wood would be my LAST option.

 

2.  Long par 4s.  I'll always pull out the right club based on distance to the green.  At worse, I'm going to be in that wedge range and likely make bogey.  At best, I'll miss the green left or right and still have a chance at par with an up and down if close to the green.  Again, I'm playing those long holes for at worst a bogey.

 

Golf is so much a game of limiting mistakes.  Thinking your going to hit that 'hero shot' opens up a can of worms that leads to doubles or worse many times.

 

Best advice I give myself is to stay within my game and play to my strong suit which is  wedges and short game.  When I don't have a realistic shot at the green, I use my next shot to setup the best part of my game.

 

dave

If you have 250 for two shots to the green of a par 5, why hit a 3 wood? That makes no sense, thats more for the longhitting low cappers. You could hit an i8 and then a i9 (or something like that) and be on the green in three.  Depends on the distance you like the most for your approach-shot. I like 110 yard for that. So when I have 310 left, I would try to play my Hy3 and than the I9. Less distance Hy4 and than I9, I5 and.....

 

For a long par 4 and you got 200 left, I would play the Hy3, cause I know I will be on the green or near it. But not when there is danger like water on the left or when you hit it short. Than twice the PW. 220 left, I would be tempted to play the 3 wood, probably do it and in 80% of the shots would not be happy.

I've always thought that if you aren't comfy with your fairway woods (I love mine, it's my short game that stinks), then you need to figure out what your best approach shot is -

 

So if you're 250 out and that's a bit long get comfortably tight:

 

If you are great with the 9i at 135 yards, hit it twice

If you are great with that full swing SW at 100 yards, hit the 8i and set up for it

 

the worst is you hit the set up shot thick and short and are still left with a 5i or shorter....

 

 

me?  I'll hit a really good 3w, and leave a short chip - then.....I don't know if I should chip, pitch or whatever....so I blade my next shot over the top anyway and scramble back.  (sometimes)  The short is, sometimes a nice 100 yard pitch to the green is a better choice than playing a touchy lob from closer....depends on your strengths.  (frankly, I should get lessons on the short stuff so my good fairway wood play can pay off - until then, I really like full swings between 100 and 150 and should really set up for that until the lesson pay off)
 

 

I've played my par 5's a few times in practice with two balls for the second shot (when it's in a place I'm considering the wood) - 1st counts, I hit the fairway wood.  2nd for info I hit the 5i and see where it leaves me.  Right now, it's a wash for me until I clean up my 50yd and in game - your mileage might vary.  Have you tried that?

Some really good advice here already. Playing to your strenghts is really important. If you are like rehmwa and you hit two balls to see which option will give you the best result and it ends up being a wash then it doesn't matter. But if you do have a significant strength, choosing the strategy that puts those shots in your hand more often will really change your score like Dave s does.

Also, chosing a club that you feel like you can make solid contact with will do wonders for your confidence as well. Hitting a 3W from the rough is a tough one but if you hit a 5i or 7i you can make better contact. Hitting a good solid shot boosts your confidence for the next shot to the green.

The strategy mentioned is similar to mine.  When I play golf, it is me against par.  My appraoch is to first and foremost, Keep the ball in Play.  Next is to create a scoring opportunity. Last is not follow one mistake with another.  If on the tee I know that I can't reach the green in regulation or that I have an even chance of taking the ball out of play, I go with less club, one that positions me for the next shot.  If I am going to lay up on 5 pars, what is the need for a driver if there is a chance I may be out of play, fairway wood or hybrid.  I choose to lay up most times to a full club out.  So quite often I may hit a fairway wood followed by a 6 or 7 iron leaving 100 yards to a 5 par.  I also tend to play to the middle of the green unless it is tiered, then I play to back or front.  If it is a par 4 that I can't reach in regulation, same rules apply, take the dull easy shots.  Now there are occassions that instead of a lay up to a full club I will go for a shorter distance, but it has to be one where the opportunity to score matches my playing for that day.

 

This approach has basically eliminate penalty strokes from my playing as well as few bunkers and those are only around the green.  My GIRs have increased and even the misses are a better than even odds of getting up and down.  Makes for lower scores, enjoyable round.

If there is big trouble around the green, I lay up 90% of the time from 240 plus. But I always pick a spot/yardage from which to hit my next shot. 

 

Never just "hit it closer" as your layup. Aim for that 120 yd go to shot....or whatever your fave is!

 

But if there isn't OB or Water or the San Andreas fault....go for it. Bunkers are easy once you figure them out! You never know when that next Eagle is coming!

Risk/reward factor.....

 

Do I stand a better chance at Par or better if I hit the wood? Do I significantly increase the possibility of Bogey or worse if I hit the wood?

 

The guys I golf with often will take out their 3 wood no matter what the lie on par 5s/long par 4s.

 

For me, I take into account where the pin is located first. If the pin is tucked tight to the front of the green and well bunkered, I like my chances of Par or better if I hit a full wedge with spin from the fairway. It's that versus a chip/pitch shot from rough to a pin tight behind a bunker if I hit the fairway wood.

 

If the green is open or the pin is middle or back, I'll take the fairway wood as long as I'm not significantly increasing my chance of Bogey or worse.

 

It's good that you're thinking about this stuff and shows you're realizing there's a lot of strategy to this game.

Hit it to the distances you can control and are accurate with. If you hit a driver, 5iron, 60wedge and 1 putt, its the same as the driver, 3 wood, 2 putt. I dont hit the ball long at all, and I play alot of par 4's as 3 shot holes. I have spent so much time on my short game that I am confident enough that I can get up and down from 100 and in most of the time ( i dont always, but I am more comfortable doing that then trying to hit a 230 yard three wood accurate). It makes no sense to hit a club you cant control when you have clubs you can control,especially if it is 175 and in. Take yourpar 5, if you are 250 yards from the green on your second, if you hit that 175 club, you are 75 yards out and have a better chance at getting it on and 2 putting for par, or getting it close and making the putt for birdie. Why even entertain the thought of going outside your comfort zone, doesnt seem to be anything to gain? I can tell you this, I play with a bunch of guys that hit it WAY farther than me. My best friend used to compete in long Drive and he will out drive me by 100 yards so times, but he has no short game and I do. I still beat him 90%of the time. It takes mental toughness and will power to stick to your game plan. Who cares what the next guy is doing, play your game, play the golf course. LukeDonald is a great example, short hitter but he plays to his strengths and he spent a year as the world number one.

 

Oh, I so approve of this new purchase! Congrats on the Tour Spoon! 

 

Sincerely, 

 

TourSpoon

A long time ago, there was a show on Golf Channel were a teaching pro would play 9 holes with an amateur and observe his game.  The teaching pro would then share a game plan for improvement with the amateur and they'd have a much more interactive 2nd nine where thought process AHEAD of shots was shared with the pro making the amateur play his shot choice instead of the player's shot.

 

At the end of the show, the message was always clear:  Amateurs WAY overestimate their shot making ability;  Amateurs take costly risks that add up to big numbers on holes; Amateurs attempt the 'hero shot' thinking birdie and don't consider more realistic shots to help save par.

 

A round with a usual hack was like 52 on his own and a 44 using the teaching pro's advice after only seeing a guy once and for 9 holes on his own.

 

Golf is REALLY hard to get good at.  This is why I agree so much with limiting unforced errors, taking advantage of your strengths as a player and staying away from what we don't do well if at all possible.

 

Glad the OP saw some scorecard improvement from thinking his way around the course a little better.  I'd much rather have birdie and par opportunities than look at a card with a few 7s and an 8 or two on it while kicking myself in the arse for playing stupidly!!!

 

Now, if the freakin' weather would ever break around here, I could get on with some pre-league practice sessions!

 

dave

 

This the most difficult area of my game as well.  When you compare the yardages, tour pros are hitting 8i - 5i for those distances.  For me those yardages would be 4 or 5 hybrid - 3w and a prayer!  Big difference in success rate of a shot with an 8i compared to a 5 hybrid for anybody.

 

dave

Tee shots I find have always been the easiest part of the game. Most of us usually start out hitting driver regardless. I did for a couple of years.
Switched to hitting a hybrid. Lost virtually no halls since I did and only now have I added a 3W to hit. Worked hard on my chipping and pitching so now I'm getting very good at distances in the 50-120 range.

As the OP says though its the second shot that is my undoing. Sometimes its hard to refuse a chance at a GIR. Its not that I can't hit the distance but the probability that I will hit it sweet.
Much better to go with a 5-6 iron to set up an approach from wedge range. You can take bunkers out of play and I found after my last round that if you end up around the green after going for it some of lies are truly awful
The amount of times I ended up sat on dead leaves or in a small hole in the grass. These were literally feet from the green.

Take the fairway and it will shave strokes.

 

There is an excellent book called the Elements of Scoring by Raymond Floyd that is all about these kinds of course management decisions.  There is a thread on it in the Reading Room forum you might want to check out.  One of his tenets is to play comfortable.  Play the shot you know you can pull off reliably.  Another is, if you find yourself in trouble, make sure you aren't in trouble after your next shot.i.e., make sure you get out of trouble. 

 

http://thesandtrap.com/t/44538/the-elements-of-scoring-by-ray-floyd

Hey bj,

Just curious what course youre playing at?