Jman's very excellent thread on your most comfortable shot got me to thinking.
First of all, it was interesting to see how many posters cited a full wedge shot and most comfortable/consistent.
Second, it got me to wondering - do you set up your game to give you more opportunities to hit your go-to shot(s) - or avoid your weaker ones?
For example, if you are 220 from the hole and your wedges are your best clubs, do you pull out your long iron/hybrid/fairway and go for the green, or do you play to get on in two, ideally with at least one of your better shots, planning to hit it close?
I ask this because the stats tell me i am an abysmal course manager. For 2016 (14 rounds):
104.9 average score
37.0 average putts
5.1 average penalty strokes
That means everything else is 62.8 strokes tee to green. On a par 72, per hole, that's 1.48 strokes over the GIR number. If I cut that to one over GIR, I can pick up 9 strokes/round - much more than improving my putting or reducing penalty strokes, both of which I should do, along with taking the two-way miss out of my game. But it looks like my biggest opportunity to score better is to take what my game gives me instead of what the scorecard is challenging me to do.
What about you? When I look at it this way, it seems obvious, but how many of you actually work the course this way?
First of all, it was interesting to see how many posters cited a full wedge shot and most comfortable/consistent.
Second, it got me to wondering - do you set up your game to give you more opportunities to hit your go-to shot(s) - or avoid your weaker ones?
For example, if you are 220 from the hole and your wedges are your best clubs, do you pull out your long iron/hybrid/fairway and go for the green, or do you play to get on in two, ideally with at least one of your better shots, planning to hit it close?
I ask this because the stats tell me i am an abysmal course manager. For 2016 (14 rounds):
104.9 average score
37.0 average putts
5.1 average penalty strokes
That means everything else is 62.8 strokes tee to green. On a par 72, per hole, that's 1.48 strokes over the GIR number. If I cut that to one over GIR, I can pick up 9 strokes/round - much more than improving my putting or reducing penalty strokes, both of which I should do, along with taking the two-way miss out of my game. But it looks like my biggest opportunity to score better is to take what my game gives me instead of what the scorecard is challenging me to do.
What about you? When I look at it this way, it seems obvious, but how many of you actually work the course this way?
