Course Management

[chingali]

Being at the beginning of the round (hole 4) I am happy to hit the fairway and then the green and make no more than 4. Assuming the hole is flat and it's 173m to the first bunker then I'm aiming at the right hand edge of the second fairway bunker with a 5 iron and hitting my stock draw. With a 5 iron I can't reach either of the bunkers and I am aiming at the biggest part of the fairway. The worst I am going to do is turn it over a little bit too much and be on the left edge of the fairway leaving myself a slightly longer second, very rarely will I lose one right. From there I have about 130m or so to the middle of the green so it's about an 8 iron in. If the pin is cut right edge I'm going nowhere near it, I'm knocking it to the middle of the green.

[ZaPPPa]

Good news. I just broke 50 on 9 holes for the first time two days ago. Managed to squeeze out a 49 by par-ing the 9th hole. Very crisp contact all day. I feel a lot more confident with the low irons.

I noticed that my improved swing and the new NXT balls added quite a lot of yards to my distance, which caused me to overhit three greens. I'd call that a luxury problem.

Anyway, here goes.. a new layout. A mentioned before: distance is in meters to convert multiply by 1.1. For completeness sake, let's pretend the flag is in the back-right and there's a 10mph wind from the right.

Distance to first bunker from blue is ~197 yards. Right now I'd probably play either a 5I or 4I and keep it in front of the left bunker. 4I may be cutting it close on a clean hit though. Aim at the left bunker and hope I don't push it too far right, the wind should help me here.

With about 110-120 left I'll go for the middle of the green with a PW. If I push, at least I clear the right bunker.

[rubbery]

I'd rip the big dog down the chute. No hesitation. Then go flag hunting from there unless I'm too far on the right, I really don't want to mess around with that bunker. The farther right I am, the more I'm playing the middle of the green.

[Jay-Bird]

Just to let you all know, the yardages are in meters...

1 meter = 1.0936133 yards

So the hole goes 345 from the tips, or 326, 316 or 240 respectively. I'd from the gold or whites. for the sake of argument, say gold. 326. I'd hit four iron off the tee, straight at the right edge of the third fairway bunker. If I hit it 221 - I'd end up 105 out - which is a full swing 56* wedge - a shot that would certainly give me a birdie chance. If I miss it a bit and it goes 190 to 210 I'd still have a 9 iron or wedge to the green. Both are great scoring irons. Four iron seems like the easiest chance at certain par and possible birdie over driver. Four iron would be dry more often vs the driver, IMO.

[Jay-Bird]

gold 341y.

Most likely 4 wood and a 56*. Or driver and a little pitch.

[cwo2lt]

Well I'll tell you what, there are 2 sides to golf. One is the fun part and the second is the score.

Nicely put and something for all of us high handicapers to think about. Too often I find myself thinking on making par and instead make a mistake.

[ks8829]

after 4 holes of playing, since I am playing the 5th hole, I would know the flight of my fade shot and the wind condition for the day and take a conservative shot left away from the water and hit the fairway where I would be about 100 yards away playing to your strength and hit it within 10 feet for a possible birdie putt and no less than par.

[mellojoe]

I'd also play Blues.

I'd tee off with my 3w or my 5w. Probably 5-wood. My error is a slice to the right, or it could error as a push to the right. So, I'm aiming down the left hand side. Hopefully I end up in the fairway, most likely at the very beginning of the fairway, well short of the bunkers. Then, I'd layup with a 9I down the left-hand side instead of trying to go over the water to the green. That would leave me with about 50-meters to the green. Wedge, try to land it short and let it roll since you've got a straight shot onto the green. That would, theoretically, put me on in 3, and let me 4-putt for a double-bogey.

[mellojoe]

Play from the Blues.

I'd grab 3-wood and aim slightly down the left side of the fairway. Again, my mistakes push me to the right through either slice or push, but often times the 3-wood goes decently straight. So, I'm only aiming slightly left. I'm hoping to land in that cushy landing zone about 115-meters (126y) from the green. Then, I'll 7-iron, aiming slightly left of the green. If I connect well, I'm on the green without messing with the right-hand side bunker. If I catch it soft, I've left myself an open green, so I can pitch and run. As a beginner, I'd play this as a Par 5. Planning to be on in 3.