To Win, Stop Using the Course Map & Scorecard as Gospel!

Let me start by saying you MUST keep the ball in play off the tee. No aggressive lines that risk lost balls or shots from tough penalty hazards. Instead, your goal off the tee must be to hit the ball as far down the fairway as possible such that you can safely play your next shot without risk of a penalty with at least an 80% confidence level. If that means aiming 50 yards away from water, so be it. If that means hitting iron off the tee because you’re just a little too wild that day with the driver and there’s trouble on each side, that’s ok too! A lost ball is FAR worse than a sub-optimal approach position on the next shot. Lost balls cost strokes that you can’t get back, plain and simple. We’re all different in terms of our abilities, so play with what you have.

In the video above, collegiate advisor and coach @james.berry.1 lays out how the Pros approach the 11th hole at TPC Scottsdale, with water up the entire left side of the fairway and trees on the right. Do the Pros take aggressive lines that challenge the water on the left in order to get the best possible angle into the green? No, in fact, they aim towards the far right edge of the fairway, knowing full well that a decent percentage of the time, they may end up in the woods. And for anyone asking about the balls that did end up in the water, yes, even the Pros are human and subject to an occasional double-cross. It doesn’t mean their targets weren’t well out to the right.

PRO STORY: The GOAT himself, Tiger Woods, would frequently aim AWAY from fairways to avoid bigger trouble, and his caddy (Stevie Williams) had his own metric for “Tiger’s Fairways in Regulation” that did not match what was recorded by the PGA Tour. If Tiger hit his intended target, even if it missed the fairway, that was a successful outcome, so he’d put down a check mark in his notes. You can do the same!

Let’s say you’re a bomber and walk up to a short par 4. It’s 330 yards and there’s a creek at the 270 yard mark but you frequently fly it 290 yards without issue. Should you treat it as a par 3 or a par 4? I’d argue you should approach it like a par 3. With your length off the tee, even if you come up ~20 yards short of the green after the rollout, you shouldn’t have much issue getting up and down if you short game is even average.

OK, now let’s take the reverse of the situation just laid out. What if you’re a short hitter that maxes out a driver at 220 yards… and there’s one par 4 on the course that’s 450+ yards but all the other par 4s are < 400 yards? Should you start tossing clubs when you make a pretty decent bogey 5 on that lone long par 4? No, absolutely not! Just think of it as a par 5 in your head and look to score on other holes that better match your skill level and tendencies.

Watch the above from the Fried Egg Golf Podcast- it might be a bit aggressive, but the premise holds true. When you factor in your own skill level, the “par” score written on the scorecard isn’t always accurate. Sure, it might be what’s intended when averaged across the broader population, but you are not average. You are unique in your abilities, just like everyone else. The scorecard doesn’t matter. Just get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible without pressing yourself to make sub-optimal decisions that can really blow up your scores.

If you don’t understand the concept of “Strokes Gained,” here’s a comical AI video with Eminem, Lebron James and Kim Kardashian put out by the PGA Tour that actually does a pretty good job. Essentially, for every shot you can possibly have on a course, “strokes gained” takes the average number of shots it would take for any player to hole out from that position. So if a par 3 is averaging 3.2 shots to hole out (as shown in the video above), and you happen to make a par on the hole, you just “gained” 0.2 shots on your competition.

If the concept still doesn’t make sense, don’t worry. The general notion being preached here is to make better decisions using data. How many times do you walk up to a really challenging shot and think to yourself, “Man, I’m feeling confident about this one. I think I can attack that left pin that’s tucked behind a bunker with water behind it.” Then you go on to pull your iron long and left and lose a ball in the process. Put simply, when you take feelings or emotions out of your decision-making process and instead rely on data or statistics, you will ABSOLUTELY see your scores go down.

If your stats say you’re absolutely awful out of the sand but pretty average out of the rough, for example, do everything you can to aim away from sand, even if the flag is right next to the bunker! Sure, you might have an un-makeable 50 foot birdie putt or you might have to play from the rough, but at least it won’t take you 2-3 shots to escape the bunker. Play for par or even bogey and avoid double bogeys+ at all costs!

PRO TIP: We strongly recommend tracking a handful of stats, even manually if that’s your preferred method - fairways hit or missed left/right, greens hit or missed left/right/long/short, putts per hole, the rough length of your first putt, and successful vs. failed up and downs around the green and from the sand. If you track this data, it will be pretty easy to pinpoint what you need to practice during your range sessions.

Let’s wrap this up- Perhaps the biggest piece of advice we can offer any golfer is to play to your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Don’t worry about what other players are able to do because you are not those other players. That bomber that easily hits it 300 yards on every tee shot may have a laughably poor wedge game. That guy who seems to make a lot of putts by using speed to take break out of the equation may just be getting lucky because he’s hitting his lines that day. Don’t copy him or you might start blowing every putt 5-6 feet past the hole. Just play your game.

FRIDAY FUNNY: Similar to the Fried Egg Golf Podcast video above, the video below may seem outlandish, but it actually has some truth to it. And if you still think it’s absurd, it’s at least worth a good laugh.

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