How should I play this hole?

Par 5...home course. Will be there in about an hour and a half.

I almost always score terribly on this hole. It's my nemesis.

Red indicates OB stakes. The white lines are my 3 ideal shots...240 yds (3 Wood), 146 yds (9 iron), and 121 yds (AW) respectively.

No matter what, I always seem to either slice the first shot into the woods, or hit the 2nd shot into the woods. I score terribly here most of the time. I probably average a 7.

How would you play it? Should I aim for hitting the green in 4 shots instead of 3 and just play for bogey? Interested to see what the consensus is.

That's one of my thoughts. Just whack a hybrid out there about 210-220 since I rarely miss that to the point of OB...then a safe little 7 iron...and if I have a nice view of the green at that point, I can go for it...if not, I can lay up and try to give myself a 50 yard pitch to get up and down.

It'll probably depend on how I'm hitting the ball up to that point. It's the 4th hole if I recall correctly. I'll post up the Game Golf results of the hole here tonight.

Can you aim a little further left?  Because if those trees on the left side aren't in your way and you can aim over them, you should hit a driver.  That would get you past the OB left and allow you to aim as far left as you want to miss the OB right.  Even if you're driver shot zone was as wide as @saevel25 's you could still hit the fairway.

Assuming that you can't do that, then why not drop down a little to either a hybrid or 4 iron?  I mean, you're already only getting to the 120 yard spot in two shots anyway, so instead of 3W-9I, why not go 4I-7I or hybrid-8I?

I could, problem is that my driver has been slicing so badly...I get as much or more distance out of the 3-wood.

No 4 iron in the bag, but the hybrid/8 combo is definitely intriguing...and what I may be leaning toward.

Yeah, there's a green there...which is why it's staked off as OB.

I would take driver and hit it over the trees on the left. Taking right over the right edge of that green. The reason being that my landing zone right side of the fairway. If I pull it the hole opens up towards the left. If I push it then the ball will just go more towards the back right corner, which is a very long ways off. There is no chance of going OB right on that. I just have to make sure I push the ball and not hook it

For you, hitting 3 wood 240. I would suspect your driver is about 260ish. I would say you could cut a bit more off on the left because it starts to dogleg at that point, giving you more room on the left. The more you lay back the more you bring the OB into play. I would take driver.

Whoever designed this course should have their head examined, you never wrap a severe dogleg around a putting green like that, I see there are trees for protection and of course it's on the left side where it would naturally be safer along with the OB boundary but I'll bet there are numerous close calls on that green every week. As far as playing it your white lines are correct there is simply no other option, as an amateur even if I knew it was within my capabilities I would never attempt hitting over another green that's already marked OB, it's borderline negligence.

It does look like a tough hole with OB x 2, water, 90 degree dogleg, and trees everywhere.

Yeah, we can probably all agree that the only thing that really doesn't make sense is the 3 wood.  There's no upside.  It's the longest club - therefore by definition, the crooked-est - that doesn't get you past the narrow landing area.

Heck, if you HAD to hit a 3 wood and a 9 iron for your first two shots, you'd be better off hitting the 9 iron first.  There is a lot more room for error on the second shot. :)

I'd drive over the edge of the green (or OB line) myself, but there's one problem - it looks like the trees keep me from seeing if the green is clear or not.  So it's a bit negligent to hit over the blind area.

Really big opening up there in the corner for the longer hitters.

You're long enough, square the face or a little closed and get your right elbow under control and hit that straight drive you know you have....  ; )

I'm hitting hybrid off the tee.  Unless there's some way that I can't see to put yourself in position to get to the green in 2, there's no reason at all to risk blowing the hole with a bad tee shot when your second shot is a lay up with a short iron either way.....

I generally hit my 1w/3w with a draw , so the first shot isnt a problem for me. If I feel like I might hook too much that day,then I take out my 3 w as it doesnt hook as much as my 1w.

There seem to be a lot of real estate to land the 1st ball, so if you slice maybe take short club 3w/5w/hybrid that will go straighter to a safe landing area.

The 2nd shot would be a nightmare for me as I tend to fade my irons. It looks tight landing area to get around the corner. I would underclub and be slightly short of the corner and hit it hard then to overclub and hit into the woods. As that's where i think i big number for me would come in.

I think that if the OP was capable or confident of belting a driver over the trees on the left and then knocking one out to the right of the fairway there would be no problem.But that isn't the case - so why are we advising him to do what a touring pro would do?

Did some of you not see the OB marked in red or read his description of how he hits his driver into the trees on the right?

But that isn't thcase - so why are we advising him to do what a touring pro would do?

We all have nemesis holes and Google Earth never shows the contours or tree issues that cause the problems.

You could say hit 3 six irons and then an 8 iron  - but that is just as difficult for some as the macho solutions posted here.

I would hit the longest club I thought I could hit and keep in the fairway. Might be a driver and might be a mid iron and might be anything in between. Then I would do the same thing again on the second shot (not necessarily the same club but the same strategy).

That strategy could and would change my club selection for any given day depending on how I felt like I was playing.

I try to stay in bounds at all costs. I hate to go OB!!! Give me a ball I can find and hit again.

I did not realize that the red lines were OB. With that information, I would actually recommend hitting driver.

When you hit you driver, it should reach out further towards the corner than the 3-wood that you put up there. This gives you more room both to the left and right should you miss in either direction, as well as giving you a better angle in towards the green.