What are you considering before you decide on your club selection from the tee?
Yardage of the Hole
When we see a shorter yardage on the scorecard, we can fall into the trap of hitting less club from the tee but are we making the right play? Here are a few considerations to make before choosing your club selection. Where is the widest part of the fairway? This is a huge advantage when you can identify this It's no good laying back to the narrowest part of the fairway, nobody wants to miss a fairway with an iron. Driver distance could be the widest part of the fairway, opening an opportunity to take the hole on.
Pin Position–from the data Mark Brody collected, the man who introduced strokes gained to golf, showed that the closer to the green you are the greater opportunity you have of achieving a lower score on the hole. However, it's worth taking into consideration the pin position as you could make your approach shot quite difficult if you leave yourself a 30/40-yard pitch to the front flag positioned behind a bunker. Sucker for a par 5As much as we can fall into the habit of hitting less club from the tee on the shorter holes, we are also guilty of opening the shoulders with the big dog when we see a par 5 pop up on the scorecard. Firstly, can you reach in two? Decide on how you are going to play the hole, making a par is good for many. Secondly, what yardage is it to the fairway bunkers? They could be perfectly positioned to catch your driver. Less club could be a better option here to help prevent having to play your second from the fairway trap. Know your yardages It’s important to know your carry and total rollout with your clubs to help be as precise as possible from the tee. It's easy to make unforced errors by not knowing your numbers, I would recommend checking them several times per year and don’t forget to adjust them for severe changes in temperature and altitude.
3 wood vs Driver
We can often believe we are more accurate with our 3 wood but is this true and what’s the difference in dispersion and yardage? Thanks to the likes of Arcos there is plenty of data available on what all levels of golfer do whilst out playing across millions of shots. On average across all handicap levels, golfers average 45.5% accuracy and 226 yards distance with a driver and 46.4% accuracy and 214 yards distance with a 3-wood.I hope this helps you become a more strategic player from the tee, and if you would like more help inn this area please get in contact below.
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