Golf humorist Henry Beard wrote: When your shot has to carry over a water hazard, you can either hit one more club or two more balls.”
Truer words have never been written. Whenever you need to carry water, take an extra club. The only real downside to this strategy is in possibly missing the green long. But when you consider all the possible outcomes, that’s not so bad.
If you club up, the two possible outcomes are: 1) The ball is short and hits the green or; 2) The ball misses long. In this second instance, you still have the possibility of saving par by chipping or pitching it back near the hole for a one-putt.
On the other hand, if you don’t club up, there are really just two outcomes: 1) The ball hits the green or; 2) The ball comes up short and lands in the water. In the latter case, you take a penalty stroke, drop another ball and take another shot at the green, hoping to hole out for par.
This tip is an excerpt from The Five Inch Course: Thinking Your Way To Better Golf
. The complete book is available in Kindle format at Amazon.com.
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Yes it’s a pretty simple strategy which makes me wonder why so many golfers don’t do it.
I know for many guys the ego plays a big role. Most guys refuse to grab an extra club because they don’t won’t to seem inferior to their playing partners.
At the end of the day the most important thing is how low a score you shoot and not who was able to get home in the shortest club.