Golf course management — playing smarter, not harder

On every par-4 and par-5, ask one question before you tee up — what is the worst likely outcome of the driver, and is that outcome recoverable?

If the worst likely miss is in trees, in water, or out of bounds, the right club is not the driver. Sometimes a 3-wood. Sometimes a 4-iron. The expected score for "5 with a 4-iron, fairway, easy approach" beats "5 with a driver, trees, two-shot recovery."

Flag hunting is the costliest amateur habit. Pins sit near edges by design — short-sided to a bunker, tucked behind a slope. Missing on the wrong side leaves a near-impossible up-and-down.

Default aim: centre of green. The 30-foot first putt that results is almost always worth more than the 4-foot first putt you might have left at the flag, given the cost of the miss.

Amateurs systematically under-club on approaches. The data shows about 70% of missed greens come up short. This is because amateurs name their clubs after their best version of the shot — your 7-iron is your perfect 7-iron, which is 5-10 yards longer than your average 7-iron.

Trust the average, not the best. If the number is 152, your 7-iron carry-only average is 150, and there is anything between you and the flag, hit the 6-iron.

A bad layup gives you a third shot from an awkward distance. A good layup gives you a comfortable wedge you have hit 1,000 times.

Pick the yardage you most want to leave yourself — typically a full wedge at 80-110 yards for most amateurs — and work the layup back from there. Do not just hit the longest 3-wood you can.

The single biggest course-management error is trying to make up a lost stroke immediately. The next hole is its own hole. Bad decisions in pursuit of recovery turn one bogey into a double.

After any bogey or worse, the play is conservative on the next tee shot — back to the standard target. The lost stroke will come back over the next 6 holes or it will not. Trying to take it back in one swing usually costs another.