Damn snowmen!

[Stonecold]

I am really close to playing in the 80's but I can't seem to get ride of a couple of horrable holes each round.

My putting has improved to two puts, my short game in general has helped out my score a lot more than I thought it could.

Drives are OK (used to be better but kind of slicing sometimes last few rounds).

Typical round is boggie golf with a few pars and maybe a birdy but I seem to have 2 lost/out of bounds/in the water holes that kill my score.

Only thing I can think of is course managment.

How do you judge when to get agressive and when to lay up?

Anyone have a suggestion for a book or online artical that helped?

[Paradox]

the aggressive/conservative decision comes from knowing your game and what your typical misses are and then deciding what kind of trouble that would get you in on whatever particular hole you are playing.  Theres really no set definition of it but its something you just come to find out from trial and error.

[djackson89]

Honestly, it needs to be a game by game thing.. It's not like you can say "I'm always going to play safe on this hole and aggresive on this one".

Just last weekend I had the best round of my life going at my home course. I was 5 over going into 15 (340 yard par 4) I pushed a 6 iron left into the rough between the tree line. The green is protected by water about 40 yards short of it. I had about 165 to the pin with a tree hanging over me, 10 times out of 10 I would lay that shot up onto the fairway short of the water, but I was hitting the ball so well that I decided to go for it. I hit another 6I clipped the tree as I suspected and ended up with a 7 footer for birdie. (I then went on to make bogey, and put two balls OB on the next tee, but that's another story).

So really it has to depend on how you're playing and how you feel. If you hit a few drives and they are slicing that day but the rest of your game is allowing you to do OK. Maybe try a 3W on the par 4's and let you iron game make the shots. A shot in the fairway is always but than a shot in the shit.

My $0.02 but what do I know.