Stroke Saver: Try Playing Your Local Course Differently

I post quite a bit about taking your game to the next level. Many times, people confuse this with just scoring better. Sometimes this is the case, but other times, taking a game to the next level is just having more control and more shots in your bag to keep your scores from going up. For example, I have three different modes for playing my local courses in my mind when I arrive there. The aggressive path, the safe route and the consistent shooter. Aggressive play requires that my driver be hot and my wedges be on fire. If either one of those doesn’t happen immediately, I’m better off laying back and playing a bit safer. The safe route involves more irons off the tee, more short irons to greens and shooting for more pars than birdies. The consistent mode is dialing it a bit more back off the tees and trying to leave myself more full clubs into the center of the greens. This is the mode to go to when everything else has just left the building.

Just looking at how I would play the Par 5, third hole at Riverbend Golf Complex will give you a great idea of how these three different methods will look coming out of your bag. Starting with the aggressive play, I would start the 504 yard hole with a driver that should leave me about 205 yards in to the center of the green,. A solid 5 iron will land me dead center. On in two and two putts should land an easy birdie on this hole. Now, if the driver isn’t working for me, the safer play is to rip a 1 iron down the fairway. I could follow that with a 9 iron and a 58 degree wedge to find the center of the green in 3 with an easy 2 putt for par. Finally, there’s the consistent play, where I just use my “go-to” clubs to play the hole. This is the everything in my bag is going wrong, except… For this one, I pull out a 5 iron and blast it down 205 yards into the fairway. Another 5 iron from the fairway and that same 58 degree wedge will leave me sitting on the green in 3 and give me that very reliable 2 putt par.

All three of these scores would be a welcome addition to my scorecard at the end of the day. By running through the options for your favorite courses, you can quickly adjust your game when a part of your original plan takes a vacation for the weekend.