Golf Strategy — Basic Course Management Strategy to Lower Your Scores
The game of golf is simple. Get the ball in the hole in the least number of strokes possible. But oftentimes, we make golf much harder than it has to be by making what I believe are some easily avoidable course management mistakes. Here, I’ll go from tee to green, and outline what I believe are important course management strategies that all golfers can implement to improve their scores.
Tee Shots
I believe that strategy off the tee is the most important area to focus on for lowering your scores. Tee shot strategy focuses on two key areas: the distance you decide to hit your tee shot, and your aiming point for your tee shot.
Distance off the tee
First, let’s start with distance. I believe that too often, amateur players automatically pull out their driver for tee shots on par 4s and 5s. I think this is due to two things — one: the extreme emphasis on distance in the modern elite professional game, and two: people being anchored to the default assumption that you have to hit driver on every par 4 or par 5.
Regarding point one, I think that amateur golfers are missing a crucial point. In the modern professional game, the pros are reaching for driver more often because their misses with their drivers really aren’t that far off line. If they miss with their driver, they know that given their dispersion cones (the range of possible outcomes on a particular shot with a particular club), they will most likely only end up in the rough. Amateur golfers see pros hitting drivers very often and think that the same logic applies to them. But the key thing to remember here is that an amateur’s miss with their driver can be enormous, and their driver dispersion cone is considerably wider than a professionals’. A big miss for the average golfer with the driver off the tee is a tee shot out of bounds, one fairway over, deep in the woods, or in a hazard. The pros pull for the driver more often because they know their dispersion cone is tight, while the average golfer needs to realize that their range of outcomes with the driver is incredibly wide (as illustrated in the below pictures). If the pros knew they had a much greater chance of hitting their drivers out of bounds on a hole, I know they would be dialing back to a shorter club.
Point two feeds into my main strategy choice on tee shots. When you step up to a par 4 or par 5 tee shot, do not automatically assume you’re going to hit driver. While you may be conditioned to think that you have to hit driver on every non-par 3 tee shot, approach the hole with an analytical mindset instead. For the purpose of this example, to keep it simple, let’s picture a straight 370-yard par 4, with no hazards, and a moderate amount of trees in the left and right rough. When you step up to this hole, you can select your off the tee club by working backwards. If you were to have a clear, unobstructed, full swing shot from the fairway or the rough, what’s the maximum yardage that you would feel confident that you would be able to aim for and hit the middle of the green? For me, in this example, I’ll say that I would feel very confident that I would be able to hit the middle of the green with a full swing from anywhere up to about 155 yards, which would be my 9 iron. I know that as I get below my 9 iron and toward my mid irons, I am less likely to safely hit the middle of the green. Knowing that the hole is 370 yards, and I only need to get to 155 yards from the middle of the green after my tee shot, that means that my tee shot only needs to go 215 yards (370-yard hole minus 155-yard target approach distance). If I only need a 215-yard tee shot, then I would hit my 3 hybrid off the tee, not my driver. As you go down the bag from driver to your smaller clubs, your dispersion cone shrinks, meaning the range of possible outcomes of where your ball could land gets smaller. By hitting a 3 hybrid instead of a driver, I shrink my dispersion cone and know that I’m more likely to hit my tee shot into a spot in the fairway or rough that gives me a clean full shot into the green than I would be with the driver. Thinking about it another way, would the potential distance that you gain with your driver offset the potential risk of hitting your tee shot deep into the woods and not having a shot at the green on your second shot? The pros would say yes, because their dispersion cone with their driver doesn’t reach into the woods, but for the amateurs, it does reach into the woods, as illustrated with our above picture.
This exercise can be used on every par 4 and par 5 hole. In our example above, if the hole was instead 330 yards, then don’t be afraid to hit a 175-yard shot off the tee if you know that it gives you your best chance at making an easy par. Don’t feel pressured into hitting driver off the tee just because other people in your group are, or because you have been conditioned to think that you always have to hit driver on par 4s. I would much rather have an easy chip or putt for my third shot after laying back off the tee, then spend time looking for my ball in the woods if I hit a bad tee shot with the driver, than having my third shot be a full wedge into the green after having to chip out, facing down the possibility of a dreaded double bogey.
And it might sound counterintuitive, but this working backwards from a target yardage strategy works extremely well on par 5s. Amateur golfers are conditioned to “go for it”, “be aggressive”, and “don’t lay up”. But again, those adages are shaped by the professional game and are not based on logic that’s applicable to average amateur golfers. I will expand on this below, but a simple way to think about your par 5 strategy off the tee is that unless you will be at a yardage to comfortably go for the green in 2 shots on a par 5 to have a chip or putt for eagle after hitting driver, then you absolutely do not have to hit a driver off the tee on a par 5. Let’s apply our target yardage logic to par 5s here.
For our example here, let’s again use a flat, straight hole, with a moderate amount of trees in the left and right rough. Let’s assume there are not any hazards, as we will talk about hazards next when we talk through our strategy for picking aiming targets off the tee. As I mentioned above, I will most likely only hit a driver off the tee if I know that after a good drive I would have a reasonable chance of hitting the green, or around the green, and leaving myself with a chip or a putt for eagle. Working backwards, I know that I hit my 3 hybrid about 215 yards (the longest club in my bag besides my driver), and a good drive on a flat, windless hole (as in our example) of about 265–270 yards. Adding the yardages of my driver and hybrid together (215 plus 270) gives 485 yards. Based off of this logic, if a par 5 is 485 yards or less, then I will hit driver off the tee because if I execute solid shots, then I should be up around the green for my third shot. But, since there aren’t many par 5s 485 yards or less, this perfectly illustrates my point that you should not always assume you have to hit driver for par 5 tee shots.
Now, let’s say the same flat, straight par 5 that we have been using in our example is now 520 yards — a fairly typical par 5 yardage. If I hit a 270 yard drive, then I’m 250 yards out from the green on my second shot. I’m not hitting the green from that yardage. What benefit do you gain from hitting driver off the tee here, if the best-case scenario is that you hit your drive 270 yards right down the middle of the fairway? Your best-case scenario is a 250 yard approach shot that you cannot hit the green from, and your worst case scenario is a drive lost deep in the woods. Instead of driver, say I decide to hit my 3 hybrid off the tee, which goes 215 yards. Then, after my tee shot, I’m left with about 305 yards to the green. Now, I have effectively turned a 520 yard par 5 into a 305 yard par 4. Everyone’s score would be lower after every round if they played more 305 yard par 4s, given that the typical par 4s are anywhere from 350–420 yards. From 305 yards out, since I know I’m not going to hit the green, I can pick a target yardage, just like we talked about off the tee in our par 4 example above. Here, let’s say that I would feel very confident in hitting the middle of the green with my 56 degree wedge, which I hit about 105 yards. From my tee shot that’s 305 yards away from the green, less my target approach yardage of 105 yards, this leaves me with a 200 yard shot, which is about a 4 iron for me. This is beneficial, as the dispersion cone on my 4 iron is much tighter than on my 3 hybrid. Oftentimes average golfers automatically look to hit their 3 wood or 3 hybrid for their second shot on a par 5 without thinking of the risk-reward trade offs. If you hit a 3 wood from 305 yards out in this example, your best case scenario is hitting it about 240 yards straight, and having about a 65 yard approach shot into the green. Is that worth the incremental risk of taking on the wider dispersion cone of your 3 wood and ending up in the woods after your second shot? By hitting 3 hybrid off the tee, and then 4 iron for my second shot, I have effectively attempted to create a 105 yard par 3 for myself without taking on much risk on either of those 2 shots. As I mentioned above, everyone’s score would be lower if they played more 105 yard par 3s in a round, given that par 3s typically range from 140–180 yards.
Now that we have a system for selecting your targeted distance of your tee shot, let’s focus on selecting an optimal aiming point.
Target off the tee
A common misconception is that a good tee shot is only a tee shot that ends up in the fairway. That’s not fully correct. While a tee shot that ends up in the fairway is obviously a great tee shot, any tee shot that leaves you with a clean, unobstructed, full approach shot into the green is a successful tee shot, even if the tee shot ends up in the rough. Secondly, and obviously, you should aim away from hazards on your tee shot. Putting these two thoughts together, when selecting the target for your tee shot, you should aim at a target, given your dispersion cone with the club that you selected, that gives you the best chance of an unobstructed approach shot into the green without challenging or playing too close to any hazards. Given this strategy, your aiming point is not always simply the middle of the fairway. For example, if I am hitting my driver on a tee shot, and there is water on the right, and rough on the left, given that my dispersion cone with my driver skews toward a right miss, my target off the tee will be the left edge of the fairway, even if that means I end up in the left rough. That’s still a great outcome for my tee shot, as long as I have a clear shot at the green. This is shown in the below picture, with the yellow line being my central aiming point off the tee, with the red lines representing my driver dispersion cone.
Similarly, if I'm hitting my 3 hybrid off the tee, where my dispersion cone skews toward a left miss, if there's a hazard on the left of the hole, then my target would be along the right side of the fairway (as shown in the picture below, with the yellow line representing my central aiming point off the tee, with the red lines representing my hybrid dispersion cone).
Simply put, take conservative lines on tee shots that decrease your chances of finding a hazard, increase your chances of finding your tee shot, and increase your chances of having a clean shot into the green from your desired approach yardage that we picked above.
Approach Shots
This section covers any approach shot into a green, which could be your third shot on a par 5, second shot on a par 4, or tee shot on a par 3. Once you have a clean approach shot into the green, your goal should be to pick a target that minimizes the chance to make worse than a bogey. Assuming there are not any hazards around the green in a simple example, the optimal target for your approach shot is the middle of the green, regardless of where the hole is located. If you aim at the middle of the green, your dispersion cone should just about cover the green, so even if you don’t hit the approach shot perfectly where you aimed at the center of the green, you can still find the putting surface (as shown below).
If the pin is on the left side, and you select an overly aggressive target on approach and aim at the pin, your dispersion cone for possible misses now shifts into the rough left of the green, which would leave you with a short-sided chip shot (as shown in the picture below). Short-sided chip shots are difficult since you have less green to work with, and these shots require delicate touch. From a short-sided chip shot, an average golfer may end up with about 20 or 25 feet left for their par putt, and be at risk of 3 putting for a dreaded double bogey. If you aim for the middle of the green, regardless of where the hole is located (as shown in our example above), you decrease your chances of ending up with a challenging short-sided chip and increase your chances of hitting the green. On average, this approach leads to lower scores in the long run.
This same logic can apply if there are hazards around the green. If there is water or a deep bunker on the right of the green, aim at the left center of the green on your approach shot. Now your dispersion cone spans the left rough, which would leave you a greenside chip shot to the hole, to the right side of the green before the hazard or bunker comes into play (as shown in the picture below). This target selection decreases your chances of making a costly double bogey, and puts you in good position to make par or an easy bogey.
As an aside, if you find yourself in the woods after a tee shot, your goal should be to punch out and advance your ball on the safest route that you can, while trying to advance your ball as far as you can on that safe line. You need your next shot to be a clear unobstructed shot into the green to minimize the risk of having a round crushing blow up hole. Taking on extra risk and attempting to hit a hero rescue shot that has a slim chance of ending up on or around the green is not worth the downside risk of having the shot ricochet off a tree and end up in the woods again. Instead, focus on what your safest path out of the woods and into the fairway is, and then look to get as much yardage out of that shot as you safely can. Your expected score will be lower on average if your next shot is from the fairway, rather than taking on extra risk to get up around the green. I would much rather know that I can have my next shot be from 150 yards out in the fairway rather than take a gamble where I could either have my next shot be up around the green, or still be stuck in the woods if I took on a risky punch out shot.
Around the Green
When faced with pitch/chip shots around the green, focus your strategy on hitting shots and making choices that lower your chances of taking more than 3 strokes to hole your ball from where you are. You should select a club for your shot and pick a target on the green where your worst case scenario would be getting your ball onto the green, and then 2-putting. From any spot around the green, your first order of business should be making sure that your next shot is a putt. When you can, avoid taking on tight pin locations located just over a bunker or hazard, and instead look to select a target for your pitch shot that is to the left or right of the pin that could give you a higher chance of landing on, and staying on, the green. By making smart choices around the greens, you will give yourself chances to convert these opportunities into up-and-downs to get down in 2 strokes throughout the round, while lowering your chances of getting overly aggressive and end up taking 4 strokes to get in the hole. On average, this approach will lead to lower scores in the long run.
Regarding club selection on pitch/chip shots around the green, hit whichever club you feel most confident will ensure that your pitch/chip shot will successfully reach and stay on the green. Another common misconception among amateur golfers is that you should only use your putter when you’re on the actual green. This is not true, and oftentimes, if you are on the fringe or even the fairway around the green, without any hazards or rough between your ball and the hole, putter is a great club selection here. Building off of our strategy above of ensuring that your pitch/chip shot holds the green, your worst putt will most likely end up on the green, while your worst chip could be a bladed chip well over the green, or a chunked chip well short of the green. Our strategy is about eliminating unnecessary risks that do not result in significant enough rewards, so don’t be afraid to reach for your putter when you find yourself off the green.
On the greens
When putting, focus on speed control and lag putting. The goal on the greens is to avoid 3-putting. Just because you have a 20 foot birdie putt does not mean you have to “give it a chance” and run it 6 feet by the hole. This falls under the same kind of common misconceptions that we talked about above, where golfers feel pressured to hit drivers off the tee and never lay up on par 5s. In the long run, on average, your scores will always be lower if you leave your 20 foot birdie putt one foot short of the hole rather than run it 6 feet by, just because you wanted to “give it a chance”. You should make nearly all of the one-foot putts you face, but you are bound to miss your fair share of 6-foot putts (to put your chances here in perspective, on the PGA Tour, players only make 50% of putts from about 8 feet from the hole). By leaving yourself tap-ins on the green, you also save yourself a significant amount of mental energy that you don’t need to spend reading and thinking about your next putt, which you feel the cumulative effects of throughout a round. After tapping in for your par you can already be thinking about the next hole instead of sweating over a 6-footer for par.
General mindset throughout the round
Playing golf and following these course management strategies takes discipline, patience, and practice. Throughout the round there will be many times where if you get impatient and let your guard down, you can make a careless decision to hit a driver on a hole that you don’t need to, take an overly aggressive target off the tee or at a pin on an approach shot, or get too aggressive on a chip or putt, leaving too far of a putt coming back. It takes practice to commit to avoiding these pitfalls and making a few of those poor choices can cost you a few strokes at the end of a round. Over the course of a round, these strategic mistakes may end up costing you about 2 to 4 shots, depending on your total score. If you can work these course management strategies into your game, you can begin to eliminate those wasted shots, and you will be happy with the results. Focus on and stick to your strategy for every shot, and don’t try to make up for previous lost shots by getting overly aggressive on a shot.
Throughout the round, you may get frustrated by a bad hole, and think your round is slipping away, and fall into one of those pitfalls above. Try to forget about the other holes, independently play the hole in front of you, and aim to make the best decisions possible to give yourself your best chance at making a good score on the hole. Don’t get frustrated if you have a run of bogeys. Playing like this, the pars will come, as will some birdie opportunities, and at the end of the round, if you can play smart, execute shots, and thus avoid double bogeys, you’ll be surprised at how your score doesn’t inflate.
Remember, good golf is boring golf, and you can be on your way to lower scores.
