Course Management !

[Gerald]

Let's start a "sticky" on course management ...... it is about my favourite thing in golf.

Last month I was talking to the chairman of our golfclub, because he once said he had a 1i sitting in his garage and I would like to try it.

He asked me why on earth anyone would play a 1i these days, my reply was course management.

He told me to find it a pitty that the layout of our course didn't demand course management, it was just hitting a decent drive and going for the green from there at about every hole. Chairmans mostly have no time to play golf, but I told him course management was a great part of our difference in handicaps .... his is 24.something !

There arent a lot of books on course management either, still I feel it can make or damage a score.

Most available info on course management is based on pro's or low single digit handicappers, playing for par or better, almost useless if you play from let's say handicap 20.

In course management it is important to know what you are splendid at and what your weak points are. It makes no sense targetting a drive slightly left of the center of the fairway, if the chances of getting there are very low.

So let's start making a center of info on course management here.

Let me kick off :

At a par 5 ..... it makes no sense to risk a drive going well into the woods, if you don't plan to reach the green in two !!!

It would be better to hit 3 times a mid iron or easy hybrid to just simply reach the green in 3 strokes, make 2 putts and end up with a par !!! (or if you have a stroke or even more at this hole, why not be satisfied, to reach the green in 4 strokes) ...... I am sure this simple tip will cut double and tripple bogeys from your card.

Hope you all join this thread and make it useful to all !

[birdiedream]

I agree with most of what you wrote. But you probably don't want to hit your third shot with a mid iron. Usually I want my third shot to be 130 yards or less. By hitting a hybrid or long iron of the tee, I think you would avoid most of the trouble. For example for a 510 yards hole, I would hit a 3W for 210. By hitting the 3W you definitely avoid the bunkers which are usually at around 230 to 250 yards. Then I would hit a 4 iron for 170 yards. Then my third shot will be with an 8 iron for 130 yards.

What I don't understand is that people keep hitting their 3W or Hybrids on the second shot when they are about 260 yards out. Most hit their 3W or hybrids at around 190-220 yards. Why not hit a mid iron that will leave you a third shot with a short iron or wedge?

Let me kick off :

[birdiedream]

I want to bring up another course management strategy that will reduce your score is not going for the pin all the time. We should aim for the middle of the green or the fat part of the greens and not going for the pin if it is near the edge of the greens. I usually score better if I follow with this strategy but many times I don't and pay dearly for it.

It is fun to go for the pin but even if you hit close to it, you will two putts most of the time. If you miss and don't have any green to land for your chip, you are now in trouble.

[iacas]

Course management in four words: Play To Your Strengths .

That's it.

Besides that, these threads always bring out a bunch of people who want to talk about playing safe. Playing safe, laying up, etc. isn't course management - it's course chickening out. If I expanded my definition to more than four words, it'd be "Play to your strengths and understand your risk tables." Risk tables are "I can make this shot 7 out of 10 times but it's a two-stroke penalty if I miss, so I won't take on that risk today... and for another shot that you can pull off 6/10 times but which carries only a half shot penalty, take on the risk nearly every time."

Studies show that the old bullcrap about "laying up to a comfortable yardage" is bull for most mid- to high-handicappers. Why? Because they're likely to miss the green from 100 yards. Better to put them at 40 yards where they'll at least hit the green.

I hate laying up, if only because it's only golf, and nobody remembers a layup but everyone will remember the one-in-a-thousand shot you pull off - including you... but odds are you've gotta give that shot a go a few hundred times to pull it off! Does that mean I don't lay up, ever? No. Tournaments are a different beast... but who here plays in tournaments even the majority of the time they play? Nobody. It's 97% "for fun" and 3% for tournaments.

[brgolf]

Yes Iacas I like what you have said and before I read it I was starting to think that this topic is in itself an example of misconception in that OP presumes to know what course management is and that it is to play safe. I take course management to be a much more fluid process, probably based on risk vs reward and playing to the statistics/strengths that you know to be true.

In Iacas example playing layup shots only to miss from 100y is a good reason why theory can not work out. Yet we seem to be very quick to rationalise about what will work and what wont. My personal example of this is that I felt before my last round on a course I had only played once before that I would benefit from hitting a 3 wood on a 420 yard par 4 (because the previous time I played the course my drive went into a bunker 100y from the green). So I wanted to be short of the bunker. As it turned out my 3w left me 205 yards to the pin which for me meant another 3 wood to the green.

That for me was an example of poor course management simply for the reason that I gave myself little chance of hitting the GIR and it was a result of taking course management to mean playing safe and being cautious.

So this topic has some worth, I don't mean to be rude about it, but I also feel the need to be critical and say that course management is actually about going for the shot.

[doublesuited77]

great post.

here is my list of top 5 course management mistakes i see people make on a daily basis.

1) not aiming for the center of the green. I would argue that no double digit handicap should ever do anything but aim for the middle of a green and most of the time single digit handicaps should do the same.

2) hitting 3-wood too much. Yes, I'm serious. Given the technology in drivers, most people i play with hit their driver better since it is more forgiving.

3) Not playing a hole backwards. Leave yourself with a shot to the green that you have more confidence in. While I agree with Iacas' point that for many players 40 is better than 100, you should still give you a shot that you have confidence in. In other words, never leave yourself a half wedge unless you have confidence in.

4) Not chipping out from jail. This is how 8s happen. Trying to hit a shot thrugh a ridiculously small opening.

5) Hitting the wrong short game shot. Hitting 40 yard chips with lob wedges, hitting gratuitous flop shots, chipping when you should putt. people dont think of it as course management but for me it is the most basic part there is.

[brgolf]

Yes and the trouble I have with course management most of all that if people are going to misuse it, they'd have been better off not knowing about the notion in the first place...

If I hit a drive on a hole where I have a 1 in 10 chance of it staying in bounds then that isn't so much a failure in course management as pure stupidity. I don't need to brush up on my course management or know new strategies to see the failure in such a play. So knowing course management gives me no benefits there.

And all that is left in course management is the misconceptions. That is the time when I choose to lay up because I think I am doing myself a favor when in reality I am actually throwing shots and distance away.

If the shot is 250 yard carry and I can't drive that far it's not a matter of managing anything rather accepting the impossibility of the shot and playing a different one. If I can make the carry often enough then I go with it, if it's a long shot I don't. Does that process really require the term course management to complicate and confuse matters?

[saevel25]

Well i remember one quote from the Masters about a guy who worked there just passed away, and someone asked him what he thought of laying up, "You can lay up when your dead"

The only time i ever lay up, is if there is a tree in my way, other than that, grip it and rip it.

[The Recreational Golfer]

Course management to me is all about balancing risk and reward against my skills. Every shot involves a choice, and that is, what shot can I hit to advance the ball toward the hole with the best chance of success and the least chance of penalty for failure? One exmple: the first par 5 on the course I usually play has no penalty to speak of for missing the green, so I'll go for it with my second shot. The next par 5 extracts a lost ball penalty for the same miss that I might hit on the earlier hole, so I play a mid-iron second and a wedge to get to the green.

Being a handicap golfer, there are some holes that are just too hard for me to play head on. So I will take an extra stroke to get to the green, chip on for a bogey and maybe sink a putt for a par, but avoid the higher score. As I've improved, I can take on holes now that used to be over my head, but I still know my limits.

I don't get this "lay up when you're dead" stuff. I'll trade a string of bogeys and an occasional par for a string of doubles and worse and an occasional par, any day.

[Harmonious]

here is my list of top 5 course management mistakes i see people make on a daily basis.

Really good points, Doublesuited. Not sure I agree with #2, though. If a driver brings too much trouble, I say use the 3-wood, rather than try to thread the needle. For most mid cappers, they probably hit a 3-wood just as far. For lower cappers, knowing that trouble is taken out of play leads to a more free swing.

I followed David Duval for one round during the New Orleans tournament, and was surprised that he hit so many 3-woods off the tee, even on a couple of par 5s. True, he is not the most accurate driver, but he was also hitting his driver really well that day, so the 3-woods were for strategic reasons. On two of the par 5s, he hit mid-iron second shots to about 50 yards, then hit a half wedge to kick-in distance for birdie. Great course management.

[brgolf]

great post.

I would like to respond by saying that this may depend on what people define as course management but the first port of call for me it to...

Get the ball in the hole in the least number of strokes. It really does seem to me that as soon as the word course management is used that becomes a secondary consideration. Give me an opponent who is going to hit 3 mid irons to a par 5 anyday! Your points do address times when course management comes into play but I think they try to take the 'management' out of the equation. 1/ I'd say the opposite. Go for the pin most times unless there is an extremely pressing reason to leave a larger margin for error. 2/ The driver is the hardest club in the bag as it has least loft, is longest etc (to generalise). However as I've said before in this topic it should probably be used most often as getting to within 8iron range- in my view is imperative to hitting GIR. And if you don't hit it well enough, it is less a matter of course management, more one of skill. Driver is a necessity, not an option for most players unless you hit the ball a mile and play on a course which you can bully. 3/4/5/ are all solid pieces of advice but not trying to play miracle shots falls under my earlier explanation of not being stupid! There is a thin line between incidence of bad course management and pure stupidity. Truth be told the only time I think we are ever genuinely called to make choices is when the risk vs reward is a marginal decision and it is then that I say we are managing. The rest of the time we are just avoiding excessive caution or complete stupidity- shots which leave us with minimal chance to score well or shots that are hopeless. Even the people with the worst course management skills are going to shy away from impossible shots unless they are completely terrible. Which only leaves excessive caution that comes about because people think they have to manage something other than simply advance the ball into the hole in the least number of strokes.

[hero12]

When you blow up a hole, what do you think about afterward. You think "Why did I do that?" At least that is what I think. Course management for me is thinking things through. "Why did I just try to spin a lw close when I had 10 yds of green to work with?" "Why did I try to hit my 8 iron 20 yds farther than I know I can?" Stupid decisions cost me more strokes than errant shots, and I see it more when playing my high handicap league opponents and patners. Think things through.

[NCSU_MSE]

Course management in four words:

Erik, you really hit the nail on the head there. I get into discussions about "course management" with buddies all the time. They often tell me I should bag the driver and hit iron off the tee, and my response is always the same - "I can slice a 3 iron as easily as I slice my driver." In other words, the reward outweighs the risk.

[Harmonious]

I get into discussions about "course management" with buddies all the time. They often tell me I should bag the driver and hit iron off the tee, and my response is always the same - "I can slice a 3 iron as easily as I slice my driver." In other words, the reward outweighs the risk.

If your sliced 3-iron and your sliced driver put you in the same amount of trouble, then I would agree with you. If the sliced 3-iron puts you in the rough and the sliced driver puts you OB, then your friends are correct. Sounds like your driver is not your strength, since your buddies have mentioned it to you. Good course management, as others have stated, means playing to your strengths.

[brgolf]

If your sliced 3-iron and your sliced driver put you in the same amount of trouble, then I would agree with you. If the sliced 3-iron puts you in the rough and the sliced driver puts you OB, then your friends are correct. Sounds like your driver is not your strength, since your buddies have mentioned it to you. Good course management, as others have stated, means playing to your strengths.

If he feels driver is the right club and hits a bad shot going oob that's golf. I think his friends would be wrong in most circumstances, on most holes I can think of.

If a hole is difficult it still has to be played with courage. Unless it is readily apparent the ball is highly highly likely to go OOB in which case what is there to manage, really? Edit: An interesting supplementary topic to this would be to give examples, possibly with pictures of holes that might demand strategy.

[ERdiesel]

great post.

Agree with every point except #2 and maybe even #5. For #2, I believe that from a course management perspective, most amateurs pull out the driver way too much. I get paired up with a lot of strangers who blindly pull out their driver for any par 4/5 hole regardless of layout of fairway (tight fairways, dogleg, fairway hazards, etc.) and watch as they continuously get themselves in trouble. I would say i'm slightly more accurate with my 3w than my driver, but for those offline shots, my 3w will rarely get me in trouble, which I can't say is the case for my driver. Especially on a hole with a tight fairway. As for point #5, going to playing with strengths, some people do chip far better than putt, and in that case they should continue doing what they do. And the layout of the green and pin placement may call for a chip vs putt.

[Gerald]

Course management in four words:

I agree with

Play To Your Strenghts and coursemanagement has little to do with playing safe, but more with playing wise...... Of course it makes little sense to hit a difficult long iron from the tee if you hit 7/10 (or even better) Drivers to a sound position on the fairway, but it sure make sense to target a landing area from where it is best to play the following shot from. There is nothing wrong with planning a wise routing on each hole, but there must also be a plan b of course. And there is a differnce in playing what a kind of round, if I play with some of my buddies, it is fun to go for a eagle chance on a par 5, trying to reach the green in two, but in playing a monthly medal tournament, ik makes more sense to go for a secure par, hitting a third shot close enough to give yourself the opportunity for a birdie or par. But it is true that course management brings me only few birdies, I play pars most of times and a few bogeys each round, while in rounds with my buddies going for it, I sure make more birdies and the double bogeys etc. are fast forgotten

[$2 Nassau]

Bomb it down there as close to the green as possible. That's my course management.