Jakobus Nel

How to Improve Your Golf Course Management

One of the ways to drastically lower your score is to improve your golf course management. This basically means improving the way you approach and play each hole on the course. This is an area that most amateur golfers don't spend a lot of time on and consequently waste many shots through inadequate planning.

Do you get on to the tee box of a par four or a par five and automatically reach for your driver? Do you look at the layout of a particular whole and decide which club will be best suited to the teeshot? Do you ever look at the obstacles ahead of you when teeing off or playing your approach shot towards a green and decide on the best position to be in for the following shot? When hitting approach shots to the green, do you always go for the pin?

If your answer is no to all of these questions then you struggle with golf course management. You should ask yourself these questions before every shot.

There are two very important things to think about when playing your shot.

1) If I hit the ball to a certain position on a hole, what will my next shot be like and what is the chance that I will be playing the next shot from the fairway or the green?

2) Where is the best position for my ball to be in for the next shot?

That is basically what it all comes down to.
From were will I be hitting my next shot?

Don't get me wrong, I like hitting my driver as much as the next guy. The problem just comes in when I don't hit my drive straight or the landing area of the drive is riddled with hazards. My next shot will then most probably be a recovery shot from the hazard, which basically is a waste of a shot and after playing one recovery shot on every hole I end up playing 18 more shots than I should have on my round.

So here is how to improve your course management and to get rid of those extra wasted shots.

1) Before hitting the ball analyze the hole ahead and identify all possible hazards.
2) Select an area on the fairway to hit to that hasn't got too many hazards and a relatively large room for error.
3) Select a club that you feel comfortable with hitting to that area.
4) Hit the ball and look forward to a hazard free next shot.

All this method will help you do is select the right club for the shot and leave you in the best possible position to play the following shot. Sure, you might have to hit a 3 wood instead of a driver or aim towards the wider part of the green, but I'd rather sacrifice a bit of distance or accuracy than playing my next shot from a hazard that will cost me an extra shot on that hole.

Hope this helps.

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