Do you form a game plan?

[Hoganman1]

I play the same course most of the time. Occasionally, I'll change which tees I play for some variety, but it's basically the same course for every round. I usually set a scoring goal before each round, but I don't actually have a game plan. After 50 years of playing I suddenly realized mapping out each shot on each hole would probably help me score better.  I realize things don't always go as planned especially in golf. However, formulating a plan is what the pros do every day. That has to work better than simply hitting the ball, hoping one can find it, and then hitting it again. Your thoughts?

[iacas]

You can't map out each shot because you'd have to be freakishly good to hit the ball into those spots. Even the PGA Tour players can't do that, outside of being very general.

Buy LSW. It tells you all you need to know about building a GamePlan in the section called, oddly enough, "Building Your GamePlan." It's the whole third section of the book. It works for every golfer on every golf course, and it's easy.

[chilepepper]

I play the same course fairly frequently also, others I rotate around. For the most part I know what I'm going to do.....try to do on each hole. Tee location dictates a few changes such as lay up or go for it. The main thing I do is while warming up see what kind of shot I seem to be favoring and play that aim point.

[jkelley9]

Truthfully I have never built a solid game plan. I should update my 2017 goals to include at least 1 round at a new course where I build a full plan. I don't play tournament golf though. If I were to be pulling out a book for each shot with my normal groups at my home course with such a plan it may look a little funny and irritate people (just an assumption). But I do sort of want to do it at least one time. I know it will save me shots.

[mcanadiens]

I usually play a rotation of the same four courses and have played them frequently enough to have a strategy for each hole. It generally involves avoiding danger and increasing odds of having a reasonable next shot. So, there's always a plan. Executing the plan is another thing.

One bit that frustrates me is that I don't seem to retain as much of a clue about the greens. I still misread greens way too often on courses I've played a lot. That seems like it shouldn't happen.

[alleztom]

Pretty much for tee shots. Club selection, line, shape (if absolutely necessary to deviate from my little fade). This is of course depends on conditions on the day but there is a plan there to follow or deviate from. The plan is heavily influenced by LSW (which @iacas refers to above).

[Piz]

I plan to hit every fairway, every green, and hole every putt.  It doesn't work out that way all the time so I revert to plan B:  hit the next fairway, the next green, and hole the next putt.  As silly as that sounds it is my way of it.  There is an old saying...you have to be either really smart or really dumb to be good at golf.  Like most people; I fall somewhere in the middle.

[Patch]

As already mentioned above, I have a scoring goal most of the time. That goal is 80, because it's half way between 78, and 82. 

[saevel25]

I take each shot at a time.

I use the methods described in LSW. It's the best method so far in taking your own playing ability and letting you translate that to getting around the course.

[woodzie264]

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

I take each shot at a time.

I use the methods described in LSW. It's the best method so far in taking your own playing ability and letting you translate that to getting around the course.

Agreed. I do preview the course and, using LSW mapping strategies, plan my tee shots. I don't really bother aside from that since there's no sense in spending a lot of time planning things out when I can't predictably hit it where I plan to.

[p1n9183]

Yes I do and i love it. I always make my game plan for every hole for every course i play using google earth. Even my home course.  

Let´s assume it´s a new course. I go to google earth and look for the course and on internet I search for the scordcard the get the hole´s yardage.

I usually play every course from the back tee´s so every hole i plan it´s based on hitting the first shot from that tee. Either way i also plan the holes in case i have to play from shorter tee´s.

What i do ? look where my longest drive could go. My average drive it´s 270 yards / 250 carry, wind asisted could be 290, and then check if it´s safe to hit that distance.

What to check ? 
- space between OB/Water has to be 86 yards width. If not, don´t hit it here (in this case 290 yards).
  86 it´s the 30% of 290 yards, according to my dispersion stats i hit 95% of my shots in that area, i don´t care about the other 5%.
- space between problem (bunkers/trees/etc) has to be 45 yards width (half of previous value). If not, don´t hit it here. 66% of my shots lands in that area.
- distance to green have to be less than 30 yards or more than 80. Only hit it in the range of 30/80 if the flag it´s in an easy position like middle or back of the green.

- if all of that it´s ok then 300 yards it´s safe. do the same for 290.. 280.. 270 till 240 witch is my shortest drive against the wind. If none of that yardages it´s safe i have to go down to 230.. 220 etc. till I found a safe yardage.

- After that i hit my shot to the farther safe area of the tee i can reach with my driver/3wood/iron according to wind, elevation and fairway conditions.

- Do the same for lay up zones on Par 5 but the safe yardage are distances to the green not the tee.

- If the hole it´s a dogleg i also set for every safe yardage an aimpoint.

Yes, it takes time but it worth it, speacilly in new courses.
   

[billchao]

Put me down as another LSW supporter.

Mapping doesn't work for me; I can't hit the shots exactly where I want them to go. At most I come into a round with a plan for what clubs I'll use to tee off with, but even that will change depending on conditions and how well I am striking the ball on that day.

[Golfingdad]

Absolutely!  I have a gameplan for every round I play.  For casual rounds it's not as thorough as for a tournament, but I still have one.  It really comes down to finding the best landing zone for each tee shot, as well as noting any areas to expressly avoid on tee shots and approach shots.

• Where is the widest part of the fairway?
• Where is the narrowest part of the fairway?
• Any hazards to avoid?

Also know your ball flight tendency.  Lately, I tend to draw or hook everything that doesn't go straight, so it's a huge advantage to me to just aim down the right edge of each fairway.  If it doesn't move, I hit the fairway and if I really hook it, I still might hit the fairway.

Approach shots are a little easier.  Just aim for the center of every green.  Unless there is something you must avoid along one side, then cheat towards the other side.

 

[phillyk]

My game plan mostly comes on what I do off the tee.  My zone to get to is either 130-170yds, or if I can 75-100yds from green.  That determines what club I initially think of, then I'll decide next on how I feel about the shot.  I get mental (includes thinking about width, tree cover, bunkers, water, etc.).  There are certain holes that look weird and I know my driver will slice, so I go with 3 wood.  There are even days where I won't go above a 2iron because both 3w and driver suck.  But that doesn't prove to be too much issue round my parts since I can hit it 230yds in the summer, which gets me to the outer zone most the time. So, really my game plan is about what shot I'm most comfortable with that still gets to those zones.  But, if the course is generally wide open, I'll rip driver regardless of how I feel about it.

[shanksalot]

95% of my rounds are also at the same course. I have played this course off and on for 5-6 years over the last 12 years. I know it pretty much anywhere I land the ball. I know where I want to hit the tee shot on every hole. Not much planning to do for me. We have quite a few dog legs on the course so if I can see where the pin is on any hole I may tee up on one side or the other of the tee box. 

[Hardspoon]

I don't.

I've read LSW, absorbed it, but I stubbornly pretend that game planning doesn't apply to me since I'm a 20+ handicap.  That's going to change in 2017.  #everylittlebithelps

[Golfingdad]

25 minutes ago, Hardspoon said:

I don't.

Tsk, tsk.

26 minutes ago, Hardspoon said:

I don't.

I've read LSW, absorbed it, but I stubbornly pretend that game planning doesn't apply to me since I'm a 20+ handicap.

For shame!!

26 minutes ago, Hardspoon said:

That's going to change in 2017.

Phew!  OK, that's much better. 

26 minutes ago, Hardspoon said:

#everylittlebithelps

Funny that the "serious" part of my post is in response to your cheeky hashtag, but it is so very true.  You can easily play good golf without a game plan just like you can play awful golf with a game plan.  But if you had a game plan during the good round, it's only possible that it would be better (or same, but certainly not worse), and with the bad round you might have played even worse (but most certainly not better) without the game plan.

[Hoganman1]

Great comments from all. After reading these I guess I do have a game plan of sorts. My target score of 79 is based on being 3 over on the front nine and 5 over on our much more difficult back nine. Also, I try to avoid making any double bogies. I've found that most of the time if I subtract the number of DBs I make from my score it's always around 80. Yesterday we played on a rain soaked course and I had a terrible round. I made six double bogies and shot 86. Last Friday I shot 80 with 0 double bogies.