Golf Strategy, How Should I Play A Hole With A Very Narrow Fairway (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Strategy, How Should I Play A Hole With A Very Narrow Fairway (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now we’ve all been enjoying that nice round of golf where we’re hitting the ball beautiful and crisp down the middle of the tee. And then suddenly we get to a hole where the fairway just does that and it’s a narrow fairway. And now the golf course is asking us a slightly different question. How are you going to play this one? Do you still hit driver into that narrow gap or do you lay back a little bit maybe 3-Wood, maybe even an Iron off the tee to play a bit safer.

I think one of the first things we can do to establish this is well how wide is narrow and how can I practice on the driving range aiming at narrow fairways? So this is a brilliant little tip, something that a navigator taught me about 15 years ago. And he said the way he aims for a fairway on the driving range is he takes his fist, sticks it out in front of him at full arm length and then looks between the gap of that knuckle and that knuckle. And he says when he does that with one eye closed that tells him how wide a relatively narrow fairway is, so no point coming to the driving range practicing aiming at the whole field. Get your hand out there make a fist, look between the two knuckles on either end there, that’s about 10 degrees and that will be a nice narrow fairway width. Try it next time you’re on the golf course and I guarantee if you can keep your golf ball straight to the nose two knuckles, you’ll be hitting most fairways. So when you come to the range, you set yourself a fairway like that, that marker and that marker and then practice banging the ball down the middle of them. And if you taking your driver and you’re just struggling to hit that narrow fairway lay it back to a 3 Wood or even a 5 Wood or even a 9. Find a shot that now consistently hits that fairway. Then when you go out onto the golf course you stand there and you think well that looks a bit narrow but is it as narrow as it was in the drive in range? Hand out, yep there you go, it’s a narrow fairway. But I know on the driving range I can hit 80% of those shots onto a fairway as long as I use that club that was successful for me. And if it looks nice and narrow you think well I don’t have a driver very well on the driving range, don’t play the driver on that hole. There’s nothing that says just because you’re on a tee box and it says power 4, power 5 on the teeing ground doesn’t mean you have to hit driver. Lay it back a little bit to a more lofty club. Then when you’re setting up to the golf ball, take really careful aim at a spot in the distance. Line yourself up in that good alignment, so you bang down the middle of that narrow fairway and then go at it with a bit of confidence. Be nice and assertive. The one thing we often see for golf from narrow holes is they kind of chicken out, they got a bit scared of it, they try and stir it down the middle and so they’re not making a normal and proper swing. So if you’ve picked the right club, you’ve practiced aiming at narrow fairways be nice and confident and assertive and knock it straight down the middle. And those are my top tips to playing on narrow golf fairways. 2014-11-04

Now we’ve all been enjoying that nice round of golf where we’re hitting the ball beautiful and crisp down the middle of the tee. And then suddenly we get to a hole where the fairway just does that and it’s a narrow fairway. And now the golf course is asking us a slightly different question. How are you going to play this one? Do you still hit driver into that narrow gap or do you lay back a little bit maybe 3-Wood, maybe even an Iron off the tee to play a bit safer.

I think one of the first things we can do to establish this is well how wide is narrow and how can I practice on the driving range aiming at narrow fairways? So this is a brilliant little tip, something that a navigator taught me about 15 years ago. And he said the way he aims for a fairway on the driving range is he takes his fist, sticks it out in front of him at full arm length and then looks between the gap of that knuckle and that knuckle.

And he says when he does that with one eye closed that tells him how wide a relatively narrow fairway is, so no point coming to the driving range practicing aiming at the whole field. Get your hand out there make a fist, look between the two knuckles on either end there, that’s about 10 degrees and that will be a nice narrow fairway width. Try it next time you’re on the golf course and I guarantee if you can keep your golf ball straight to the nose two knuckles, you’ll be hitting most fairways.

So when you come to the range, you set yourself a fairway like that, that marker and that marker and then practice banging the ball down the middle of them. And if you taking your driver and you’re just struggling to hit that narrow fairway lay it back to a 3 Wood or even a 5 Wood or even a 9. Find a shot that now consistently hits that fairway.

Then when you go out onto the golf course you stand there and you think well that looks a bit narrow but is it as narrow as it was in the drive in range? Hand out, yep there you go, it’s a narrow fairway. But I know on the driving range I can hit 80% of those shots onto a fairway as long as I use that club that was successful for me. And if it looks nice and narrow you think well I don’t have a driver very well on the driving range, don’t play the driver on that hole.

There’s nothing that says just because you’re on a tee box and it says power 4, power 5 on the teeing ground doesn’t mean you have to hit driver. Lay it back a little bit to a more lofty club. Then when you’re setting up to the golf ball, take really careful aim at a spot in the distance.

Line yourself up in that good alignment, so you bang down the middle of that narrow fairway and then go at it with a bit of confidence. Be nice and assertive. The one thing we often see for golf from narrow holes is they kind of chicken out, they got a bit scared of it, they try and stir it down the middle and so they’re not making a normal and proper swing. So if you’ve picked the right club, you’ve practiced aiming at narrow fairways be nice and confident and assertive and knock it straight down the middle. And those are my top tips to playing on narrow golf fairways.