A sure way to get into trouble on the course is to attempt a shot you haven’t practiced. The pros may make the creative shots look easy, but that’s just one of the many reasons they’re on tour and you’re not.
It’s nearly always best to stick to the shots you know how to make. In some cases that means you’ll have to take an indirect or even unconventional route to the hole.
If you’re close to the face of a steep greenside bunker and you haven’t regularly practiced the high lob sand shot, fall back to the shots you know. Play sideways or backwards to a less steep side, and move forward from there. Trying to get a ball up and over is likely to cost you several shots with no gain.
Chipping and pitching are two shots I’ve practiced enough to count as a strength. The flop simply is not in my repertoire. So even when faced with a situation that calls for a flop, I look for ways to pitch or chip instead. While a flop sometimes is the most direct route to the hole, for me, it’s just as likely to run up the score.
In the long run, the real solution is to spend time practicing a variety of shots. When you go the range and practice areas, don’t just hit the same driver and full iron shots time and again. Work on a variety of shots that you may need on the course.
This tip is an excerpt from The Five Inch Course: Thinking Your Way To Better Golf
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The problem we hackers face is that most if not all practice facilities have limited options to try shots other than from a level lie. No downhill, “ball above the feet” or sand shots can be practiced.
Players should take advantage of early and late season play when the courses are not crowded. without holding up play one can toss a couple balls down and experiment. Eventually you will figure out what you can and can not do and try it when it counts.
You’re absolutely right, and I should have included that thought in my essay. For me, spring and late fall are for practice. In fact, I was out practicing at Green Oaks today, trying out shot that I would not normally have played in high season.
In the last two weeks all three rounds on one of our courses I have found myself in the left treeline on a straight hole. I had been playing this hole well, but when I started walking in mid-November, this hole (13th) is where fatigue starts to set in and I have been finding a draw somewhere.
Anyhow, the first round, I had 170 to the hole, with a fair gap on a line to the hole as long as I could keep the ball low. I used the 3 wood to get to the green keeping it low and getting the GIR. Luck on the unpracticed shot. Attempts in round 2 and 3 ended with first topping the ball and going nowhere, and the last time not keeping the ball low enough and nailing a branch. Both times it required the 3rd shot to get out and I ended with a 6 both times.
If my unpracticed shot hadn’t worked the first time, I would have probably had 3 5’s – or maybe even have saved par one of the times.
I think sometimes desperation forces us to try something completely new.