Course Management
(Per an excerpt from my first book, Par Your Golf MIND, page 40)
This course management chart is the best way that I know to get you to understand comparisons. I have added each distance to each club to create a times-table like solution for playing my clubs for the best course management I can have. There are 15 clubs on the chart, for the times when course conditions have you swap clubs in and out of your bag before you go out to play, without making a different chart.
This would be laminated and hanging from your bag. Let’s choose a random number of a 386 Par 4. Knowing the distance averages of your clubs like the chart above, what are the options choosing the total distance in the chart. Here’s what we’ve got:
• Driver/GW 381 yards
•3W/PW 382 yards (2nd choice)
•5W/9I 379 yards
•3Hy/7I 386 yards (1st choice)
•4Hy/7I 377 yards
• 4I/6I 384 yards
•5I/6I 382 yards (3rd choice)
I rank these based off of my ability to hit these shots. I’m comfortable with my 3-Hybrid/7-Iron so that is my first choice. My second choice would be 3 Wood/Pitching Wedge. If I am swinging my irons well, the 5-iron/6-iron would be the most conservative choice. For my driver lovers, I realize the closer you get to the hole the smaller the second distance is to the hole, but please understand that
we will both be on the green in two regardless.
The yardages will vary based off of success of the shot and many other factors. It is a guideline, and the more guidelines you have, the better controlled your gameplay will be. Know your yardages and if everything is long, club down. Make the bold decision.
Still today, some three years close to when this book was written, I apply these course management fundamentals of percentage shots, where my head space and timing is at. If there is emotion in my swing, I opt for the more conservative shot, which statistically has a better chance of my ball being in play for the next shot.
Watch this video to assist you with managing the golf course here courtesy of Scratch at 50 Psychology.
-David