Take a playing lesson with your PGA pro. There's no substitute for having a seasoned teaching pro walk you through actual on-course strategy.
When practicing, play holes rather than beating balls. Many pros practice by pretending to play actual holes. You can consult a scorecard for a favorite course and hit a drive, then an iron, and even imagine you have missed a fairway or green and practice recovery shots.
Take a playing lesson with your PGA pro. There's no substitute for having a seasoned teaching pro walk you through actual on-course strategy.
When practicing, play holes rather than beating balls. Many pros practice by pretending to play actual holes. You can consult a scorecard for a favorite course and hit a drive, then an iron, and even imagine you have missed a fairway or green and practice recovery shots.
Never get too ambitious on hard courses. The courses on which the pros play tournaments are tough. It's fun to play them, and even more fun if you adopt a conservative strategy. So lay up on all the par fives and play the long par fours as if they were bogey rather than par holes.
Simple is better than fancy. Given a choice, a pro will usually putt rather than chip, and hit a basic pitch or chip rather than a tricky flop shot. By eliminating big numbers on the scorecard, they create the conditions to be more aggressive when they have a chance to go for birdie or even eagle.
From a bad lie, just get the ball back in play. Bumping a sand wedge 10 yards back into the fairway is always better than trying to hit a dramatic shot off a bad lie. The pros will sometimes go for it because they figure they can recover from a bad shot. Amateurs will probably just make a bad situation worse.
Never get too ambitious on hard courses. The courses on which the pros play tournaments are tough. It's fun to play them, and even more fun if you adopt a conservative strategy. So lay up on all the par fives and play the long par fours as if they were bogey rather than par holes.
Simple is better than fancy. Given a choice, a pro will usually putt rather than chip, and hit a basic pitch or chip rather than a tricky flop shot. By eliminating big numbers on the scorecard, they create the conditions to be more aggressive when they have a chance to go for birdie or even eagle.
From a bad lie, just get the ball back in play. Bumping a sand wedge 10 yards back into the fairway is always better than trying to hit a dramatic shot off a bad lie. The pros will sometimes go for it because they figure they can recover from a bad shot. Amateurs will probably just make a bad situation worse.
