What Do People Mean When They Say Golf Course Management? (Video) - by Pete Styles
What Do People Mean When They Say Golf Course Management? (Video) - by Pete Styles

When I sit down with a new client for the first time, one of the areas that we go through is we – we go through a tick box exercise scoring each part of their game on a one to 10 scale looking at the strengths and weakness in their game. And what is golf course management? So how is your golf management? Is one question I often ask them and I quite often get a blank look back, people just don’t understand what course management is. I want to explain to them my understanding of course management. They kind of look at me as if to say, so I am not just meant to aim at the flag all the time then. And really that’s the point of course management its understanding that you don’t just aim at the flag with; every single golf shot. And if you do you are probably not playing into the widest part of the fairway, you are not playing away from the hazards you are not playing the golf course like it was meant to be played by the golf course designer. Most holes on the golf course will have some level of strategy and the more strategy you can employ in your golf course management the wider the margin of error is.

So let's pick a sort of a hole we can all remember a hole we can all understand, maybe a hole like a 13th at Augusta. There are so many different ways to play that golf hole, it's a big a dog like par five round from right to left, but the point is you don’t aim at the golf hole there, you simply can't see it off at the tee so you have to pick a point on the fairway that you want to play towards. Now because this is a dog like right to left, the left hand line is tighter and it’s shorter but it's also a lot more near the creek, raise creek down the side there, so it's also a lot more difficult. So you could play to the side and then play back around or you could take on the creek and try and cut the corner one is risky one is safer. Then as you play your second shot down you could be a layup short off the green and chip on for three as it’s a par five. Or you could try and knock it on the green in two, now it isn’t just a case of standing in the fairways and aiming straight to the flag if you do that you will end up in the creek at the front. Then once you have played your second shot down sure to the green which will be the sensible play, you then got a chip shot onto the green, now do you chip straight for the flag? But what if the flag is on a big slope? What if you chip the ball to the flag and it runs off into a bunker runs off into the water or leaves you a very difficult downhill putt. So every element of your game should have an element of golf course management in it, where should I hit my tee shot? Where should I play my second shot too, should I attack and defend and be aggressive r defensive? Where should I hit my chip too, which part of the green do I want it to be on? If I’m in a bunker or if I’m in the trees, how do I play out of the trees do I attack do I defend? So golf course management is a huge part of improving your skills, without even thinking about changing your swing or necessarily striking the ball differently. It's about picking the right clubs at the right time, aiming at the right targets at the right time and understanding when to attack and when to defend. Work on improving your golf course management and your scores will improve without changing your swing one bit. 2014-08-12

When I sit down with a new client for the first time, one of the areas that we go through is we – we go through a tick box exercise scoring each part of their game on a one to 10 scale looking at the strengths and weakness in their game. And what is golf course management? So how is your golf management? Is one question I often ask them and I quite often get a blank look back, people just don’t understand what course management is. I want to explain to them my understanding of course management. They kind of look at me as if to say, so I am not just meant to aim at the flag all the time then. And really that’s the point of course management its understanding that you don’t just aim at the flag with; every single golf shot. And if you do you are probably not playing into the widest part of the fairway, you are not playing away from the hazards you are not playing the golf course like it was meant to be played by the golf course designer. Most holes on the golf course will have some level of strategy and the more strategy you can employ in your golf course management the wider the margin of error is.

So let's pick a sort of a hole we can all remember a hole we can all understand, maybe a hole like a 13th at Augusta. There are so many different ways to play that golf hole, it's a big a dog like par five round from right to left, but the point is you don’t aim at the golf hole there, you simply can't see it off at the tee so you have to pick a point on the fairway that you want to play towards. Now because this is a dog like right to left, the left hand line is tighter and it’s shorter but it's also a lot more near the creek, raise creek down the side there, so it's also a lot more difficult. So you could play to the side and then play back around or you could take on the creek and try and cut the corner one is risky one is safer. Then as you play your second shot down you could be a layup short off the green and chip on for three as it’s a par five. Or you could try and knock it on the green in two, now it isn’t just a case of standing in the fairways and aiming straight to the flag if you do that you will end up in the creek at the front. Then once you have played your second shot down sure to the green which will be the sensible play, you then got a chip shot onto the green, now do you chip straight for the flag? But what if the flag is on a big slope? What if you chip the ball to the flag and it runs off into a bunker runs off into the water or leaves you a very difficult downhill putt.

So every element of your game should have an element of golf course management in it, where should I hit my tee shot? Where should I play my second shot too, should I attack and defend and be aggressive r defensive? Where should I hit my chip too, which part of the green do I want it to be on? If I’m in a bunker or if I’m in the trees, how do I play out of the trees do I attack do I defend? So golf course management is a huge part of improving your skills, without even thinking about changing your swing or necessarily striking the ball differently. It's about picking the right clubs at the right time, aiming at the right targets at the right time and understanding when to attack and when to defend. Work on improving your golf course management and your scores will improve without changing your swing one bit.