Understanding Your Golf Course

I would bet that a touring pro could play one round at your course and know it better than you do. It’s their business to get familiar with a course as fast as they can so they know the most efficient way to move the ball from tee to green on every hole. These are some things you should know about your course, or any course you play.

After you have played a course one time, you should know which club you will tee off with on every hole and where you want to put the tee shot. The first time around, write down on the scorecard the club you used if that is the one you would use next time, otherwise the club you should have used.

When you get to a point in the fairway where you would like to have your tee shot end up, take a look back to the tee and then ahead on that line to find something in the distance you can use as an aiming marker from the tee. It might be a certain tree, or a neighboring building. On one course I play, the architect did a good job of hiding the fairway, so having a good idea of where to aim your tee shot is the only secure way of hitting it.

On par-5 holes, figure out what strokes to play, and to where, so that you have a money shot into the green, such as your 9-iron or an 85-yard pitch. On par-3 holes, especially the longer ones, see if there is a bail-out area to which you can safely play in order to avoid hazards and yet have a good chance for a chip and a putt.

Notice as you go around the course where you can get a good look at the pin position on greens that you have yet to play. One course I play frequently has an access road you can drive down that lets you see the pin placement on seven of the front nine greens.

Learn which hazards are in play for you and which ones you can ignore. Find places that are not hazards, but will nonetheless cost you strokes if you hit there. Sometimes bunkers are not meant to be hazards, but directional indicators. You’ll find bunkers like this on par 5s and long par 4s. You aim a shot at them or just off to the side in order to put your ball in a good position for the next shot.

On any hole, learn to which side of the green you can safely miss and which side is to be avoided. The usual reason is that it is easier to chip to the hole from one side than another, either because of the condition of the ground, or that the green is more or less receptive to a chip.

Learning the breaks on the greens takes more than a few rounds, but you should at least know if there are one or two greens that are faster or slower than the rest, and the general slope on every green.

Don't make golf a game of chance. In one time around a course, no more than two, you can learn what a course will give and what it will take away. Seek the first, avoid the second. It's that simple.

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