One of the least practiced aspects of golf is course management. I will give you five tips to help manage your golf game. By learning to manage your game you will find your scores dropping dramatically, and your approach to golf will be a whole lot different.

If you listen to the commentators on the PGA Tour, you will hear them say things like, “That now gives him an easy approach to the pin, cut back behind the bunker on the left” or “That’s not what he would have wanted as he now has very little green to work with.” Listen to what they say and you will learn that there is a totally new and exciting dimension to this game.

When designing a golf course, the architect does so with particular challenges in mind. Fairway bunkers are not just placed willy nilly on the course. They are there for a reason, and that reason is always to make the game more of a challenge and therefore more interesting. The same applies to pin positions and the tee box in play on any given day.

Learn to look at the game through different eyes and you will soon become aware of subtle but important challenges that face you on each shot. Don’t just tee up your ball and smack it as hard as you can with a driver hoping that it will go somewhere in the middle.

1. Keep the ball in play. A driver off the tee is not always the best option. Take a look at what confronts you on each hole and decide which is the optimal club to use to keep your ball in play. There is no point in smashing a great drive but finding out that you have run out of fairway by hitting it through the dog leg. In such cases, take a lower club to get to the dog leg and to have a second shot.
   
2. Take your medicine. If you do go into the rough or a hazard, consider the safe route and get the ball back in play. With luck you may still save par. At worst you are faced with a bogey. Trying to play a miracle recovery shot that
   you have little or no chance of succeeding with will only get you a double bogey or worse.
   
3. Consider what shot you want to play next. Work out where you want to be to give yourself the best chance of success with your next shot. If you are really confident from 120 yards out, play to that position. Study where the flag is and play your shot to avoid the danger. In most cases it is safer to aim for the middle of the green than to shoot at a pin that has been placed dangerously close to a hazard. With most holes there is a “better” side to land on if you do miss. Err on the side of caution.
   
4. Focus on each shot as it comes. You cannot change what has happened so forget about your past shots, no matter how bad they were. If you must dwell on past shots, concentrate on the successful ones. Do not worry about the outcome of the shot you are about to play. This can be hard to do, but if you have set up correctly, have aimed at the target and have the correct club in hand, simply go ahead and hit the ball. Remember that worrying about the outcome is pointless as you are worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet and may never happen. Take each shot one at a time and concentrate solely on that.
   
5. Make the hole much bigger. When pitching and chipping, imagine a hole that is 10 or even 20 feet in diameter and try and get your ball to stop in this “hole.” You should be able to 2 putt from 20 feet, and you will be surprised how often you will get up and down by using this approach. On long putts, imagine the hole to be two to four feet in radius and putt so that your ball comes to rest in this area. Again you will find that it will occasionally even go in but, if not, a two putt is assured. As your putting improves, you can reduce the radius of your imaginary “hole.”

If you can learn to manage your golf game, not only will you dramatically drop your scoring average but you will find more and more subtle challenges all around you. It is this aspect of golf that makes the game such a challenge and so rewarding.

Lawrence Bredenkamp is a qualified EGTF golf coach and takes great pleasure in helping people improve their games. Head over to his site, Play The Lie, for more information on how to improve your golf swing and lower your scores, and sign up for his free 6-week tutorial designed to reduce your golf handicap by 15%.

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By Martin Vousden

PREVIOUSLY: Club Membership

We should: Study the hole carefully from the tee, trying to understand what was in the architect’s mind, and why hazards, trees, rough and other potential dangers are sited where they are. We should then focus on a particular spot on the fairway (or green) from which we have the best opportunity to attack the flagstick with our next shot.

We do: Always take driver on par four and five holes and aim, vaguely, for “anywhere on the short grass.” Err, that’s it.

Martin Vousden is a freelance golf writer, a former editor of Today’s Golfer and launch editor of Golf Buyer and Swing magazines. His book, With Friends Like These; A Selective History of the Ryder Cup, was published in 2006 by Time Warner. He edits the RareBirdie.com website.

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By Martin Vousden

PREVIOUSLY: During the Game

We should: Make allowances for wind direction and speed; whether the shot is up or downhill, and the way we’re striking the ball on that particular day. If in doubt between clubs, always select the longer, on the basis that our golf ball will fall short of its selected target at least 12 times in a round.

We do: Know that we once busted a 7-Iron 160 yards, downhill with a following breeze on a warm day; so forever more we delude ourselves that 160 yards is, for us, a 7-Iron. We also wonder why we keep finding the bunkers at the front of the green, and never put two and two together, no matter how often we play.

NEXT: After the Game

Martin Vousden is a freelance golf writer, a former editor of Today’s Golfer and launch editor of Golf Buyer and Swing magazines. His book, With Friends Like These; A Selective History of the Ryder Cup, was published in 2006 by Time Warner. He edits the RareBirdie.com website.

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By James Langmead

How many times have you selected an option on the golf course where you ignore the signs, go for it anyway and are therefore not surprised with a poor result?

Why do you pull the driver out when you know you’ve ended up in the rough with it all day? Remember when you found the fairway bunker, yet you knew one club less would have left you a little further to the green but playing from the fairway?

Poor decisions such as these will be punishing you every round. In fact, if you are an average handicap golfer you will probably find that, with better course management, you could reduce the score on your medal rounds by up to 8 shots.

Good course management isn’t just about knowing when to go with the hybrid off the tee or when you can risk putting that little bit of extra effort into ripping a driver down the middle.

Do you have a concise pre-shot routine that allows you to analyze the distance, wind direction, hazards, lie, stance and target? Do you review alternate shots, looking for the low risk strategy and comparing it with the potential rewards of the high-roller shot?

Then, are you confident with your club selection, knowing how far you hit each club in different conditions?

Ask yourself these questions, and finally seriously consider how much effort you really do put into your course management. If, like most golfers, it is a very underdeveloped aspect of your game, take some time to change that. Improving your course management will take shots off your scorecard.

Ask your local PGA Golf Professional for help with course management.

James Langmead is a PGA Qualified Golf Professional and former Callaway Club fitter of the year. Visit his UK site, The Golf Shop Online.

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If you’re close enough, you may want to consider using a mid-iron (or even a long one) to scoot a low, running and rolling shot to the green instead.

Definitely something you’ll want to practice at least a few times prior to get a feel for it before actually putting it into play.

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GIST: Dave Pelz answers the age old question, “When chipping, should you leave the flagstick in the hole or out?” Conclusion? His data proves to leave it in whenever the Rules allow, except when…

“… it is leaning so far toward you that the ball can’t fit.”

MY TAKE: I’ve sunk a few with the flag in. And I’ve holed them with it out. But since I rarely get those chips within 3 feet anyway, heck if this revelation matters to me one way or the other. Good thing there are smart, highly educated guys like Pelz who’ve got nothing better to do than generate and assemble the empirical data we need to solve these weighty issues.

For what it’s worth, on the 6th hole of a round I was playing just yesterday (yay Labor Day!), I had a 15 yard pitch to the green, which I then proceeded to skull. Zoom it went horizontally on its way to destinations and distances unknown behind the green… but the flag got in the way. Plonk! Into the hole it drops! Thanks Dave! [GO]

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GIST: Learn to hit one club very well (Nevogt pushes for your 150-yard club), then build your course management strategy around it.

MY TAKE: If you do the math, it makes oodles of sense and will likely bring your scores down. But is it fun? I’m in the “What the hey, I’ll try this 3-Wood through that 3-foot gap in the trees 15 yards away” camp. If I actually manage to punch it through without killing anyone, I’ve got one heck of a big fish story to tell for the rest of my life! Somehow, I don’t think I’ll keep them riveted with a “I broke 90 hitting my 8-iron 150 to the fairway again and again and again… and yet again” tale. [GO]

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