Strokes gained on the fairway?

[Keith White]

I had a lesson booked yesterday, and I explained to the pro that I was pretty happy with my general swing and can't practice much these days due to physical injuries, so just wanted small general advice to keep my swing in the best shape it can be (no drastic changes please I'm too old now)  So he grabbed a buggy and suggested an hour on the course.  Great idea.

The 2nd is a par 5 and I drove the ball to around 230yrds to the pin on a fairly generous fairway.  The pro asked what I was going to hit, and as always I said " 4 hybrid".  Safe club, and leave something fairly close in from there.  He told me to hit the 3 wood.  I explained that I never take 3 wood off the deck but he asked me to use it all the same.  The shot stayed really low but it thundered off, crossed to the right of the fairway and settled about 30 yards off the green.

He then explained the theory, strokes gained on fairway, which apparently is the favoured strategy for top golfers nowadays.  It's all based around percentages, so although the 3 wood wasn't a great strike, I was close to target and my make percentage from where would be higher than if I had hit a safer club and was further back.  Also, there was still a chanced that the safe option could have hooked or duffed so in his opinion, I'm not really taking that bigger risk with an open fairway that's relatively hazard free (bear that in mind, obviously the strategy would come into question if there was water, killer bunkers, fescue etc)

I can see the logic.  My old "play it safe, ball in play" strategy has it's place on risky holes, but on a friendly hole why not hit a 3 wood.  I was a long way down after the shot, and a better strike could have been greenside or on.  And I guess as I try it more often the strike should get better.  So maybe I have been a tad too cautious, always trying to protect, when in fact I could gain strokes by knowing when to let loose with the bigger clubs a bit more often.  It makes sense to me, would love to know peoples thoughts.

[DaveP043]

The "strokes gained" approach is relatively new to golf, based on statistics.  You could learn a good bit about of it from a book called Lowest Score Wins, written by @iacas.  In it he goes into great detail to explain how to make the best possible decisions in selection clubs and aiming points, as well as a lot of other great information.  I resisted getting the book for about my first two years after I joined this site.  I finally got a copy this spring, and I've learned a great deal more than I thought possible, so I highly recommend it.  You can read some discussion of the book here:

You can get a copy of the book here:

http://lowestscorewins.com/buy

[Missouri Swede]

40 minutes ago, Keith White said:

He then explained the theory, strokes gained on fairway, which apparently is the favoured strategy for top golfers nowadays.  It's all based around percentages, so although the 3 wood wasn't a great strike, I was close to target and my make percentage from where would be higher than if I had hit a safer club and was further back.  Also, there was still a chanced that the safe option could have hooked or duffed so in his opinion, I'm not really taking that bigger risk with an open fairway that's relatively hazard free (bear that in mind, obviously the strategy would come into question if there was water, killer bunkers, fescue etc)

Some of us higher handicappers are also looking at our strokes gained (and lost) to improve our game.

I think you've found a good pro to learn from.

[RandallT]

I'll echo what @DaveP043 says above. Your pro was giving good advice in my mind.

The thought is that distance is a form of accuracy. By advancing the ball significantly each time (and keeping out of the big trouble using the idea of "shot zones" that is explained in the book above), you'll just try to get the ball to a point where you can typically hole out in fewer strokes. 

Why safely lay up to a spot that is 3.1 shots to hole out, when you can reliably get to a closer spot that might have 2.8 shots to hole out from?  It's all about the odds and your tendencies. The "shot zone" ideas flushed out in the book help. 

In general, the closer to the hole, the fewer strokes to hole out- with obvious caveats about lie and how the hole is laid out.

Some related threads on strategy, in case you wanted to occupy some time, as you were looking to focus on those types of things as you recover from injury:

https://thesandtrap.com/search/?&q=how would you&tags=how would you&eitherTermsOrTags=or&sortby=relevancy

 

plus more at the link above...

 

 

 

[RussUK]

55 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

The "strokes gained" approach is relatively new to golf, based on statistics.  You could learn a good bit about of it from a book called Lowest Score Wins, written by @iacas.  In it he goes into great detail to explain how to make the best possible decisions in selection clubs and aiming points, as well as a lot of other great information.  I resisted getting the book for about my first two years after I joined this site.  I finally got a copy this spring, and I've learned a great deal more than I thought possible, so I highly recommend it.  You can read some discussion of the book here:

You can get a copy of the book here:

http://lowestscorewins.com/buy

Im sure its a good book, but is it worth the price below?

[DaveP043]

1 minute ago, RussUK said:

Im sure its a good book, but is it worth the price below?

I'd suggest you contact @iacas directly, I'm sure you can get it in the UK for less than 170 pounds.  I just went through the International Shipping link on the www.lowestscorewins.com website, using a random postal code in St Andrews, and came up with a total cost of $47, including shipping.  That seems reasonable. 

[RussUK]

Just now, DaveP043 said:

I'd suggest you contact @iacas directly, I'm sure you can get it in the UK for less than 170 pounds.  I just went through the International Shipping link on the www.lowestscorewins.com website, using a random postal code in St Andrews, and came up with a total cost of $47, including shipping.  That seems reasonable. 

Yeah i noticed that. The £170 was good old Amazon. For that price i'd want Erik to come to the UK and read it to me personally

[iacas]

2 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

I resisted getting the book for about my first two years after I joined this site.  I finally got a copy this spring, and I've learned a great deal more than I thought possible, so I highly recommend it.

Lowest handicap ever recorded by you this summer, no? 

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

I'd suggest you contact @iacas directly, I'm sure you can get it in the UK for less than 170 pounds.  I just went through the International Shipping link on the www.lowestscorewins.com website, using a random postal code in St Andrews, and came up with a total cost of $47, including shipping.  That seems reasonable. 

UK buyers can contact Andrew Norrby. He has many copies and can sell and ship them to you directly from where he lives… in the UK. Much less expensive for you that way.

All of you in Europe can do that, actually.

Keith, while many pros are still very, very slow (like @DaveP043 ) to upgrade their mindset and approach… it sounds like you have found one who isn't. What's his name, btw? Perhaps I know him.

[DaveP043]

Just now, iacas said:

Lowest handicap ever recorded by you this summer, no? 

Indeed it was, although its impossible to tell how much was the influence of full-swing instruction, Aimpoint, or LSW.  All in all, its been a good summer.

[Keith White]

12 minutes ago, iacas said:

Lowest handicap ever recorded by you this summer, no? 

UK buyers can contact Andrew Norrby. He has many copies and can sell and ship them to you directly from where he lives… in the UK. Much less expensive for you that way.

All of you in Europe can do that, actually.

Keith, while many pros are still very, very slow (like @DaveP043 ) to upgrade their mindset and approach… it sounds like you have found one who isn't. What's his name, btw? Perhaps I know him.

The Pro is Sam Smith at The Bedford GC, and it's in Bedford UK.  He has a Face Book page "Sam Smith Golf" He's a very good pro who embraces new ideas such as this, and aim point, and really tailors the sessions to the particular student.  He actually touched on the aim point philosophy when we were on the green and the things we did were eye opening in regards how you read a green and where a ball breaks etc.

Thanks to everyone for the comments so far, glad it's an enjoyable thread.

[DaveP043]

20 minutes ago, Keith White said:

Thanks to everyone for the comments so far, glad it's an enjoyable thread.

Its nice to know that you're getting what sounds like sound instruction.  We hear lots of tales of poor instruction, your story is a breath of fresh air.  Good luck going forward!

[klineka]

FWIW the first round I played after reading LSW and actually thinking about and mapping my shot zones and penalty buffers for the course I was going to be playing, I shot the lowest score of my life and had 0 penalty shots. Well worth the money