Planning Your Play Around The Course Can Save You Strokes
How many times have you seen a tournament player huddling with his caddy over a little notebook he pulled from his pocket before selecting the club to use for his next shot
? Often, right! That is probably because it was the caddy who filled the book with notes as he walked the course behind the greens keeper who was setting up the tee box markers and placing the pins for that days play.The caddy paced off distances to every hazard and to every pin placement, marked off the relative position of every major bump and hollow that could lead to an awkward stance, plotted a route from tee to green on each hole that would allow the least obstructed path to the hole. Around the green he carefully measured the distance to the hole from several points around the edge and noted the topology of the green with specific interest in the area right around the hole.
PLAN THE PLAY
The pros call it course management. They know to within a yard or so how far they carry every club in their bag, and they know how much they can spin every shot when taking a full swing. Armed with this knowledge and the information in their "little notebooks" and their confidence in the consistency of their game, they are ready to plan their play.
You only have to be aware of the statistics kept by the PGA to rank players to get a clue about planning your play. First, number of greens hit in regulation; second, number of drives that stop in the fairway; third, putts per round; fourth, trouble saves like up and in from a bunker or from the rough. There is a direct correlation between keeping the ball in the fairway and hitting the green in regulation. There is also a correlation between hitting greens in regulation and fewest putts per round. Those correlations are in large part due to course management,i.e. planning the play.
Making par consistently, and having an occasional birdie or eagle keeps you in contention to win. Anything you can do to increase your chances of making birdies or eagles improves your chances of winning. Likewise, avoiding wasted shots that lead to bogies, doubles and the dreaded "other", also improves your chances of scoring well. Golf is definitely a risk versus reward game. The trick is to plan your play to take advantage of your strengths to create birdie opportunities for yourself and to avoid taking wasted shots.
PLANNING ELEMENTS
Distance-You have to be able to reach the green in regulation OR you have to plan your play so that your approach shot at the pin will be made with your favorite club from a comfortable and controllable distance, leading to a one putt finish with the fewest strokes possible.
If you are not long enough to reach a green in regulation, but have honed your short game to the point were you can get up and in (chip and one putt), from one to twenty yards off the green, nine out of ten attempts, you would want to plan your play to get within that range with the fewest strokes possible. If,however, your short game is not that good, you should plan your play to set up your shot to the green from a position of comfort and confidence.
Direction-There is a preferred approach direction to any pin placement on any green, except the par 3, seventeenth, known as "ALCATRAZ", at the TPC in Palm Springs. There are not very many ways to approach an island green from a fixed tee box. That is true for all island greens. A green may be "protected" from attack by sand traps, its proximity to a water hazard or by deep rough and extreme slopes that seem to coax balls to trickle off its edges. There usually is one unguarded entry and other less obstructed approaches that afford a player the chance to get his ball close to the pin if he plans his play to take advantage of the opportunity offered.
The bailout option or plan B-There are factors that can not always be predicted or controlled. A bad lie in an unreplaced divot; a sudden gust of wind; wet ground from a broken sprinkler that causes your ball to plug on impact. You get no relief from the rule book, play it is it lies. Your confidence in the originally planed shot is now uncertain. So, if you are going to miss this shot, where do you want to miss it? Short or long? In the rough or in the trap? On the green far from the cup or in the fringe ten feet away? Pick the shot you have the most confidence in for your next shot, then favor that result as you attempt the shot you originally had planed to play by shifting your aim point, adjusting your swing, or moving up or down one club length. The object is still to get the ball in the hole using the fewest strokes possible!
The planning process should be completed for every hole before the start of play. Then stick to the plan. If you have a mishit and get in trouble on one hole, plan your way out with the fewest shots possible. If you have to card a snowman (8), so be it. Do not let that sway you away from your plan for the rest of the round. Your plan was to complete the round in the fewest shots possible while playing within your ability and comfort zone. It just does not get any better than that, so why abandon the plan?
Keep it on the short grass and I will meet you on the tee.
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