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Firing At Pins vs Playing to the Center

Around 100 yards I start going after more pins. Outside of that, I am happy to end up on the green.

Our course pulled all the pins just before winter last Nov or so and it could have been pure coincidence, but I hit the most greens I've ever hit that day with nothing to really aim at except for the green. This year my plan is to go more conservative and just try to be on the green even if it's nowhere near the flag.
 
This is a great topic and something I need to focus on. Thinking back to the last time I was really good with irons I was only using a GPS watch, no laser and focused more on just hitting the green. I'm with you that I'm short siding myself way too often and even though my short game is pretty good in still leaving myself open to bigger errors chipping a short sided shot than putting from a long distance.

Even if you miss the green and aren't short sided there would be more room for error than a long putt correct? I guess it depends on your skill level in each of those areas but there's still a good chance I leave a longer follow up putt after a straight forward chip than I would after a long putt.
 
JB said:
I had a talk this morning with a golfing friend of mine and we were talking about some of my stats from the last two rounds. Both of which saw my GIR down quite a bit, but not missing by much, however with about half of my misses I was short siding myself. In every one of these cases, the pin was cut far to one side of the green and I was missing on that side. He mentioned playing to the center outside of it fitting my natural shot shape would have saved me close to 5-6 shots most likely.

It got me thinking about how the laser has changed my game instead of looking at front, back and center numbers, I laser the pin and go, rarely taking into consideration where the pin is and if it is safer to just play to center.

Am I alone in this thinking?
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I had the same issue when I started using the laser, and it's left me with some really awkward short sided chips more often than I care to remember. I make a conscious effort not to go after those tucked pins anymore as they usually turn out bad more often than not. One of the things that has helped me recently is to take in to consideration not only where the pin is, but also where in my range the pin is for the club I'm hitting. Meaning if I hit X Club 150 and the pin is front right at 155, I'll club up and play to the middle knowing the possibility of me stuffing it close is low. But if it's 155 with plenty of room around it, I hit that 150 club and go right at it with a little extra. Worst case scenario if I strike it well is I have a 15 footer uphill.

My problem is if I'm playing and scoring well, usually that thought process goes right out the window, overconfidence takes over and I start aiming at pins again. Before I know it the score has ballooned out of control.
 
Usually I try to just get to center or on green, most of the time I have more confidence in two putting then chipping up to make the putt.
 
Finally got round to picking up a gps that shows me front middle and back distances.
I'll usually aim dead centre but need to think about going back as I'm often a club short at the moment.
 
AT my level of play, I need to make as many good decisions as I can to help my scoring. FOr me, that takes a lot into consideration, mostly distance, my dispersion at that distance, pin location and greens slope, if I know or can guess it.

I feel confident inside 100 yards, so I may very well fire at the pin, but if it is on an extreme left or right placement, I will probably aim more towards center, to allow for a miss. If it is center, either front or back, I will fire at the pin. MOst times I will choose to miss short, as long is almost always bad. To get there, I check back of the green yardage and make sure whatever club I select isn't going to put me off, long.

Outside 100, I can get some pretty good dispersion going on, with 150+ getting real chancy. In those case, I will almost always aim towards the center, or if there is a throat, aim there. My goal is single bogey, so many times, from those distances, I may lay up and try to give myself an easy chip, instead of stretching for the green, and ending up in some type of trouble.
 
I try to consider the trouble around the green more than anything else. If I have safe bail out area, I'll go for the pin. If I don't, I try to go center or otherwise away from trouble.

I have learned that my home courses have a few greens cut in such a way that you could be short sided in either side of the green, so it's actually better to play a club short or long to have some green to work with in those scenarios.
 
I naturally tend to fade, so I aim at pins on the left, and center if they are on the right. I try to allow my miss to at least catch green.
 
No, my last round was similar. I was short-sided all day. It was a new course for me and I didn't have front and back numbers, but I was trying to fire at the pins all round. Resulted in 1 birdie and a lot of bunkers.
 
I've really thought about putting away the laser for good and going with GPS to help attack the center of the green.
There's a lot of statistical analysis that has gone into aiming for the middle of the green or at least away from the trouble and not worrying about the pin location.
I'm VERY confident in my putting though so I feel perfectly fine having a long putt vs a short chip.
 
Since I'm not that good, and approach shots intimidate me in general, I aim for the center of the green regardless. I may aim for the front or back, but definitely the center.
 
Certainly not alone in that thinking JB. I am someone who loved being able to walk off distances from plates in the fairway....especially when it gave front,center,back. Now, I grab the laser, fire and swing. Its more timely for sure but i dont think im taking enough consideration in regards to carry distances like i used to.
 
I'll always laser the pin but then I'll still most often aim center. I can pull, push or happen to hit one relatively where I meant to, seemingly just as often. Aiming center most often offers me leeway for error and it's also helped me realize some great shots. Offline as per intent, awesome as per result.

When it comes to back pins, especially on greens canted a bit running away from me short to long, I'll nearly always pull enough club for center distance.

Really, unless there's a level I need to get on top of, I'll play center to a back pin because I have a tendency to go over (when my iron swing rounds into form, that is. Right now, I'm leaving most everything short).
 
I have tried to get better at hitting a number and not short siding myself more than going after pins.
 
I tell myself before every round that I'm playing to the center of the green unless I've got a good yardage. But, I forget that quickly and put myself in bad positions.

Truthfully, I'm not consistent enough to do anything other than try to play to the middle.
 
PKorf said:
Certainly not alone in that thinking JB. I am someone who loved being able to walk off distances from plates in the fairway....especially when it gave front,center,back. Now, I grab the laser, fire and swing. Its more timely for sure but i dont think im taking enough consideration in regards to carry distances like i used to.
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Oh gawd, if you get slower get more methodical it might be reverse :bye:
 
I use a range finder, but I typically will shoot the pin, something behind the green, the back lip of any trap protecting the front of the green, etc. I want to know how big of a landing pad I've got.

How aggressive I get with targeting pins depends on the trouble, how I've been hitting it that day, etc. But more often than not, I'm aiming for a 'safe' part of the green.
 
JB said:
Oh gawd, if you get slower get more methodical it might be reverse :bye:
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Hahahahahab, well I may not be the fastest but I’m nowhere near as sloth like as some of these turtles around here.


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I "play" to the center but will club up or down depending on pin position. Rarely will I take dead aim at it unless it's an easy looking placement.
 
This is something I need to pay more attention to this year. Arccos is great at giving me all 3 yardages but I too also typically use the laser more than I need to. How often actually hitting the exact number is probably very low.
 
JB said:
I had a talk this morning with a golfing friend of mine and we were talking about some of my stats from the last two rounds. Both of which saw my GIR down quite a bit, but not missing by much, however with about half of my misses I was short siding myself. In every one of these cases, the pin was cut far to one side of the green and I was missing on that side. He mentioned playing to the center outside of it fitting my natural shot shape would have saved me close to 5-6 shots most likely.

It got me thinking about how the laser has changed my game instead of looking at front, back and center numbers, I laser the pin and go, rarely taking into consideration where the pin is and if it is safer to just play to center.

Am I alone in this thinking?
Click to expand...
So this year after the Grandaddy I switched from a GPS watch that had front middle back distances to a laser range finder and now seeing your post, I look back and see this is exactly what I have done and it's almost in retrospect that I need to go back to the basics, meaning still use the laser range finder but thinking about more of an area to shoot for instead of right at the pin. I really think it could help!

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jdtox said:
This is something I need to pay more attention to this year. Arccos is great at giving me all 3 yardages but I too also typically use the laser more than I need to. How often actually hitting the exact number is probably very low.
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It has really caused me to examine a number of things about my game, including my wedge setup.
 
JB said:
It has really caused me to examine a number of things about my game, including my wedge setup.
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More or less wedges? More gaps between wedges or working on different shots?
 
M2Giles said:
More or less wedges? More gaps between wedges or working on different shots?
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I dont want to stray too far off topic, but I dont use all of them nearly as much as I think i did. Same with some clubs.
 
JB said:
I dont want to stray too far off topic, but I dont use all of them nearly as much as I think i did. Same with some clubs.
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When I had my range finder I found myself having bigger numbers on the card and lower GIR’s than I do now with my watch that gives front/middle/back yardages. It’s kind of why I switched up this go round. I have set wedge (AW), 54 & 58. I should be able to hit any shot or yardage with those three. It also gives me flexibility at the top.
 
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