Proceed With Caution For Golf Pitch Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles
Proceed With Caution For Golf Pitch Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles

As a golfer, I want you to improve your scores on the golf course. We always have this in-built tendency to always try and strive to hit the ball as close as possible towards the flag. And there’s a time and a place for that, but also we’ve got to be careful of the caution, we’ve got to weigh up the advantages and the disadvantages always aiming at the flag. And certainly when we’re inside a hundred yard, if we’ve got a hundred yard pitch shot on towards the green, there’s that real tendency that we always want to hit the ball as close as we can towards the green and towards the flag but we have to careful because golf course designers are quite smart and they’re going to set those challenges. And the challenges are often going to be the bunkers and the hazards and the water around the green. And so to make the golf course quite exciting, we’re going to want to see a flag on the green and then a bunker or a hazard or a slope.

Now, as a golfer we think I’ll aim straight at the flag, I’ll aim straight at the flag, I want to get the ball close to the flag to make a putt shorter, but just consider what the downside of that might be. And then if you were to aim that ball straight to the flag that make a small margin of error and put the ball in the hazard, in the bunker or down the slope. That could actually cause us a couple of difficulties trying to get the ball back on or maybe even penalty shots. So sometimes when you’re inside a hundred yards, you’ve really got to be careful that you proceed with caution. So yes, you can look at the flag, you can work the wind direction, you can work out how hard you want to hit the shot but you’ve also really got to consider if I aim straight to the flag, what’s the pitfalls, the disadvantages, the advantages? Sometimes, it’s the case of a golfer has to understand his margin of error and actually play away from the hazard, play safe to be wide apart to the green. Maybe forego the fact that you might not be able to get your path directly in but you can get your second path in as well. So on to the green, path down, path in. That might manage your score better than trying to be aggressive going straight for the hole, knock it in a bunker, take in two to get out of the bunker and then take in two paths and that’s going to actually wrap your score up. So play within your margin of your skill if you like. So understand your skillset. If you’re very good, very confident inside a hundred yards, go to the flag. But if you’re not very confident, not very consistent, play to the wide apart to the green and take your putts, and manage your score better by being less aggressive from inside a hundred yards. 2016-05-09

As a golfer, I want you to improve your scores on the golf course. We always have this in-built tendency to always try and strive to hit the ball as close as possible towards the flag. And there’s a time and a place for that, but also we’ve got to be careful of the caution, we’ve got to weigh up the advantages and the disadvantages always aiming at the flag. And certainly when we’re inside a hundred yard, if we’ve got a hundred yard pitch shot on towards the green, there’s that real tendency that we always want to hit the ball as close as we can towards the green and towards the flag but we have to careful because golf course designers are quite smart and they’re going to set those challenges. And the challenges are often going to be the bunkers and the hazards and the water around the green. And so to make the golf course quite exciting, we’re going to want to see a flag on the green and then a bunker or a hazard or a slope.

Now, as a golfer we think I’ll aim straight at the flag, I’ll aim straight at the flag, I want to get the ball close to the flag to make a putt shorter, but just consider what the downside of that might be. And then if you were to aim that ball straight to the flag that make a small margin of error and put the ball in the hazard, in the bunker or down the slope. That could actually cause us a couple of difficulties trying to get the ball back on or maybe even penalty shots. So sometimes when you’re inside a hundred yards, you’ve really got to be careful that you proceed with caution.

So yes, you can look at the flag, you can work the wind direction, you can work out how hard you want to hit the shot but you’ve also really got to consider if I aim straight to the flag, what’s the pitfalls, the disadvantages, the advantages? Sometimes, it’s the case of a golfer has to understand his margin of error and actually play away from the hazard, play safe to be wide apart to the green. Maybe forego the fact that you might not be able to get your path directly in but you can get your second path in as well. So on to the green, path down, path in. That might manage your score better than trying to be aggressive going straight for the hole, knock it in a bunker, take in two to get out of the bunker and then take in two paths and that’s going to actually wrap your score up.

So play within your margin of your skill if you like. So understand your skillset. If you’re very good, very confident inside a hundred yards, go to the flag. But if you’re not very confident, not very consistent, play to the wide apart to the green and take your putts, and manage your score better by being less aggressive from inside a hundred yards.