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The tee shot is the start of a golf hole and it can determine how you eventually finish the hole. If you are a player who hits a lot of fairways, you will have other weak points to focus on but if you are a player who misses a lot of fairways, then forget putting, chipping and iron shots, you need to focus on driving because keeping the ball in play from the start will have the biggest influence on how you eventually finish the hole.

There is a lot of danger facing players from the tee shot, some holes are worse than others which may include hazards, long rough, bunkers or out of bounds. Other tee shots look easier without bunkers and average length rough, however, both offer difficult complications to the second shot.

A player coming out of the rough, whether it is long or short, will lose a certain amount of control of the balls distance and spin as it heads towards the green and lands without spin. Bunker shots can cause the ball to travel less, spin more than usual or go higher than normal, which results in finishing short of your target. Out of bounds tee shots will lead to dropped shots, bogeys or worse.

Hitting fairways is something the best players in the world can do on a regular basis, and it is this that sets up birdies and keeps those dropped shots off the card. If you are an 18 handicapped golfer then you are faced with the task of bogeying every hole on the course to play level with your ability. However, if you can hit two to five fairways per round then this will enable you to hit greens in regulation but under your handicap regulation and providing you two putt, the outcome is better than your handicap.

Finding fairways is a way to drop your handicap quickly, then look to work on other aspects of your game to improve your scores further.

The second shot has more of a chance of being effective if the ball is on the fairway because shots from the rough, bunkers or hazards may have limited success because the spin and control is hindered.

Fairways are certainly not over rated because they give you the chance to hit the ball close for your second shot. Regardless of your level of golf, hitting fairways can get you under par whether it is nett or gross scores.

Good fairway stats do not necessarily mean low scores but it can certainly contribute.
Statistics are important to every golfer and a player with good stats can enjoy some good rounds of golf.