Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
There's nothing nicer in the game of golf than standing on a nice big wide fairway stood up on a tee looking down on a big fairway up on a par five and it looks like you could never miss it looks like the size of a driving range. The number of times I've seen that situation happen and the golfer hits possibly the worst tee shot of the day and you think how did you get the worst shot when you had such a wide fairway and there's lots of different mindsets that come into play here. and one of the issues that we might have is the goal for suddenly drops trying to hit the ball a lot harder they stand there to look at the fairway as wide as a driving range and I think I can't miss this this is just an opportunity for me to show the lads how far I can drive the ball and they set up in a different stance a different swinging encourage far too much power in their downswing try and hit the ball too far too hard get a bad contact hit the ball over the place and miss that giant fairway that they had in from to them. So that's the first option it is don't try and hit this thing too hard trying keep the ball in play as you would do normally and just enjoy the fact you've got a big fairway to aim at the other considerations might be that sometimes in this situation golfers aren't specific about where they're aiming or they're not specific enough about where they're aiming they're just sort of aiming somewhere down there on the fairway.
If I gave you a narrow fairway you'd be aiming right between that tree there and right between that tree there and trying to land on that strip of turf there and you probably do a pretty good job of doing that but when we give you a big fair where you go up somewhere down there or do they make a big swing and they might miss the fairway. So even on a big fairway be quite specific aim at one stripe of the fairway aim at one particular little tree in the distance and even if you don't hit that strike the fairway chances are you're going to be pretty close pretty accurate and landing in and around that area even if it's not exactly that strike you'll still be nicely on the fairway. Now one last consideration is to make sure that the. What appears to be a big fairway is actually genuinely a big fairway. Now this might sound a bit funny but let's imagine you've got a fair way that's forty yards wide. So forty yard wide flat nice big generous fairway but it slopes like this like dry across you from left to right and if you hit a ball down there at lands right the middle of the fair when it runs to the right hand side and it runs off the fairway. So the next hole you think you have got to aim further up here and you land here and it lands in the middle of I would have this is where you need to aim. Now suddenly you are in here you land in the trees well that fairways not wide at all you aim in the middle it misses you and left it misses you've only got a very small bit of fairway to actually land on. Now imagine you play a thirty yard wide fairway that looks narrower than the forty yard wide fairway but if it's flat or if it's slightly bowled in and every ball bounces into the middle Well that really is a wide valley. So is a time in a place for you to take on the risk or the reward or the concentration that you're needing to hit this supposedly wide fairway. So when you stand back behind the ball consider all these options I need to be very specific about my alignment is the fairway genuinely as wide as it appears and don't try and kill it just make a nice smooth swing aiming at your specific target and hopefully that wide fairway will be waiting to capture your ball when it lands.
2018-08-27 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
There's nothing nicer in the game of golf than standing on a nice big wide fairway stood up on a tee looking down on a big fairway up on a par five and it looks like you could never miss it looks like the size of a driving range. The number of times I've seen that situation happen and the golfer hits possibly the worst tee shot of the day and you think how did you get the worst shot when you had such a wide fairway and there's lots of different mindsets that come into play here. and one of the issues that we might have is the goal for suddenly drops trying to hit the ball a lot harder they stand there to look at the fairway as wide as a driving range and I think I can't miss this this is just an opportunity for me to show the lads how far I can drive the ball and they set up in a different stance a different swinging encourage far too much power in their downswing try and hit the ball too far too hard get a bad contact hit the ball over the place and miss that giant fairway that they had in from to them. So that's the first option it is don't try and hit this thing too hard trying keep the ball in play as you would do normally and just enjoy the fact you've got a big fairway to aim at the other considerations might be that sometimes in this situation golfers aren't specific about where they're aiming or they're not specific enough about where they're aiming they're just sort of aiming somewhere down there on the fairway.
If I gave you a narrow fairway you'd be aiming right between that tree there and right between that tree there and trying to land on that strip of turf there and you probably do a pretty good job of doing that but when we give you a big fair where you go up somewhere down there or do they make a big swing and they might miss the fairway. So even on a big fairway be quite specific aim at one stripe of the fairway aim at one particular little tree in the distance and even if you don't hit that strike the fairway chances are you're going to be pretty close pretty accurate and landing in and around that area even if it's not exactly that strike you'll still be nicely on the fairway. Now one last consideration is to make sure that the. What appears to be a big fairway is actually genuinely a big fairway. Now this might sound a bit funny but let's imagine you've got a fair way that's forty yards wide. So forty yard wide flat nice big generous fairway but it slopes like this like dry across you from left to right and if you hit a ball down there at lands right the middle of the fair when it runs to the right hand side and it runs off the fairway. So the next hole you think you have got to aim further up here and you land here and it lands in the middle of I would have this is where you need to aim. Now suddenly you are in here you land in the trees well that fairways not wide at all you aim in the middle it misses you and left it misses you've only got a very small bit of fairway to actually land on. Now imagine you play a thirty yard wide fairway that looks narrower than the forty yard wide fairway but if it's flat or if it's slightly bowled in and every ball bounces into the middle Well that really is a wide valley. So is a time in a place for you to take on the risk or the reward or the concentration that you're needing to hit this supposedly wide fairway. So when you stand back behind the ball consider all these options I need to be very specific about my alignment is the fairway genuinely as wide as it appears and don't try and kill it just make a nice smooth swing aiming at your specific target and hopefully that wide fairway will be waiting to capture your ball when it lands.
