Playing Smart Golf

Tommy Armour was a well-known golfer and golf coach in an earlier era - the 1930's-50's. After helping thousands play better golf he captured the essence of his basic "on the tee" instruction in a book How To Play Your Best Golf All the Time. Old the the book may be (it was first published in 1956), it contains a great deal of wisdom.

At the outset, before he begins to talk about grip and posture and other basics, Armour stresses the importance of tactics in the game of golf. Many people fail to score as well as they might, he says, because they don't play intelligent, smart golf. "Play the shot you've got the greatest chance of playing well," was one of his adages, and another, "Play the shot that makes the next shot easy." Once more, "Every golfer scores better when he learns his capabilities."

One fault Armour pounces on is the tendency to "go for the green" with a big shot, or a difficult shot. Nine times out of ten, he argues, you will find you have over-estimated your capacity. It is far better to play within yourself, and guarantee that your next shot is an easy one. 

I made the blunder of going for "a big shot" this past Saturday. After two great approach shots on a par 5 hole I was well within range of the green. In fact, the choice I had to make was between a nine iron and a pitching wedge. I chose the former, thinking that I would be clever and land the ball near the pin positioned near the edge of a tricky, sloping green. The pitching wedge would have landed me a little short, but on a far safer part of the fairway-green fringe. But no, I had to go for the big shot, the winning shot.  

And what happened? I hit the ball sweetly, but it was fractionally off target. Rather than landing on the green proper it hit its raised shoulder and cannoned off to the side at near right angles. That left me with a very difficult up-slope chip onto the green surface to the nearby pin, a chip that I scuffed not once, but twice. That was enough to jangle the nerves and put me off my putting when I did eventually get the ball near the hole. What should have been an easy par 5 turned out to be a horrendous 9!!!

Armour's advice is worth taking. Don't go for the heroic shots if there is an element of risk in them. Instead, aim to play the shot that you know you can play well, and that will ensure that your next shot is an easy one.