Here is some food for thought in how you could get some easy wins with your approach play.
Do you know your yardages?
A real key for your approach play is knowing your yardages, don`t let the ego get in the way and try to force a club there based on the longest shot you hit on the range on a windy Thursday evening, know your average yardages and be better at playing within yourself. Hitting the right distance is giving you the same opportunity to hit it close as trying to hit it straight, but you are less likely to get into trouble.
One of the biggest findings in Mark Brodies journey in creating strokes gained was the number of club level golfers who are short with their approach play. Make sure you know your yardages and club appropriately. Many stats packages will now show you your dispersion and where you tend to miss, great information for you and your coach.
Shotgun vs Laser
Should you really be entertaining aiming straight at that flag or would hitting the green be a great achievement? Are we good enough to hit it exactly where we want? Or are we better off allowing for our bad shots? More often than not aiming away from the flag and toward the side of the green with more room will pay more dividends. Giving your self permission to only aim at the flag from inside 100 yards will yield much better results in the long run. It’s a skill to develop as firing away from the flag is harder than it sounds.
Are you using a measuring device?
This works both ways but if you know your yardages but don’t use a measuring device then you are seriously doing yourself a disservice.
Two main things to remember here, often the measuring devices that show you how far to the front and back of the green will give most golfers a clearer picture of a space to hit the shot into. Very few golfers hit the ball too far so using the back of green number as a guideline can often be better than the flag itself. The second thing to think about is even when you know your numbers don’t just zap the flag and choose that number, you have to think about where the ball needs to land and could potentially finish and then factor in all other environmental factors including wind and slope.
I hope that gives you something to think about this week, there are so many ways to shoot lower scores without having to reinvent your golf swing.
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