How would you play this 495y par 5?

[amished]

On 6/3/2018 at 4:16 PM, Carl3 said:

If you hit your driver 250 or less you are getting there in 2 anyhow, so driver off the tee makes no sense as this hole is all about the second shot (unless you are hitting it real well and have a high percent in the center). If you pull/hook your driver you are in the trees. If you push/slice it you may be out of position and may not be able to hit that 44 yard wide landing area. Personally I would hit a series of 190 to 200 yard shots, which is a 4h or 3h depending on how soft the fairways are. 

I must admit that I don't understand this viewpoint at all.  Just because you can't hit a driver 250, or you can't get to the green in two does not mean it's the wrong play.  If you can hit your driver 180-220 but straight, that will get you closest as you can without getting into trouble.  You then still want to be as close to the green as possible after your second shot as long as you don't go into a hazard.

In a hypothetical extremely tight 500 yard par 5, if I could hit my driver perfectly straight 200, and my 3wood 185, I'm never not hitting driver/3wood.  Even if we change the numbers to be driver at 240, 3wood at 220 with the same accuracy, I'm still always hitting driver/3wood as I'd rather be 40 yards out than 80 yards out, or 120 yards out.  So immediately dismissing a club choice because you can't reach in 2 seems arbitrary and wrong in my head.

[Carl3]

9 minutes ago, amished said:

So immediately dismissing a club choice because you can't reach in 2 seems arbitrary and wrong in my head.

That is how I would play it, which is what I thought the question was. My 3W typically has a tighter dispersion than my driver and my 3h tighter than my 3W. The fairway is tight so if you are hitting your driver down the middle, great. Go for it. If you are not hitting your more-lofted clubs tighter then there are probably some other problems with the swing. I would like to be 90 to 120 yards out with my approach. I would rather hit a 3 or 4h to that 44 yard landing area than a 3W. The odds are better for me.

The people that I see that always hit driver off the tee often don't score as well as they could. 

[amished]

2 minutes ago, Carl3 said:

That is how I would play it, which is what I thought the question was. My 3W typically has a tighter dispersion than my driver and my 3h tighter than my 3W. The fairway is tight so if you are hitting your driver down the middle, great. Go for it. If you are not hitting your more-lofted clubs tighter then there are probably some other problems with the swing. I would like to be 90 to 120 yards out with my approach. I would rather hit a 3 or 4h to that 44 yard landing area than a 3W. The odds are better for me.

The people that I see that always hit driver off the tee often don't score as well as they could. 

I'll agree on a couple of points: the way you play the hole is probably best for your game, and some people that always hit driver shouldn't.

The part I disagreed with was your first paragraph that I quoted, specifically the part where if you can't hit your driver 240 you shouldn't; and the part where since you can't get to the green in two, you shouldn't hit driver either.

If you're already "struggling" with distance by not hitting your driver 240, why would you want to give up more distance by not hitting your driver?

Even if you couldn't get to the green in two on whatever par 5 you want that is long enough to qualify for that statement, in my head you'd still want to get as close as possible.  If there's a forced layup, or something like that I would want to get as close to that layup as possible so that I'm less likely to screw up the layup shot.  If there's a ravine at 330 out, I'd rather hit Driver 200 (or whatever) and then a 8 or 9 iron to be close to the layup instead of a 5 iron then a 6 iron to make up that 310 yard target I'm trying to get to.

In each of these cases, I'm hitting Driver off the teebox even though I couldn't reach whatever target you had set up.

[David in FL]

Not necessarily easy, but very straightforward.  Driver, hybrid, wedge.  The same way I play most par-5's.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, amished said:

If you're already "struggling" with distance by not hitting your driver 240, why would you want to give up more distance by not hitting your driver?

Right.

@Carl3, remember "The Rule" in LSW.

[Carl3]

15 minutes ago, iacas said:

"The Rule" in LSW.

Yes, but I was also considering shot zones and that fairway looks very narrow for the tee shot landing area (maybe the tree shadows make it look narrower?). Maybe I am too conservative and trying not to risk penalty shots. I have had some good luck in improving my scoring by staying out of trouble. I would like to get more birdies, but...

Edited June 5, 2018 by Carl3
Tree shadows

[iacas]

1 minute ago, Carl3 said:

Yes, but I was also considering shot zones and that fairway looks very narrow for the tee shot landing area. Maybe I am too conservative and trying not to risk penalty shots. I have had some good luck in improving my scoring by staying out of trouble. I would like to get more birdies, but...

There's plenty of room to the right to fit a pretty large Shot Zone.

And the Shot Zone size for most people between a driver and a 3W is not that big.