Learn to Hit any Golf Shot Yards Further than Your Playing Partners

Deciding when to lay-up on a golf course is a tactical and strategic decision that will allow you to play to the best of your abilities.

It is often ignored at the peril of the amateur golfer, resulting in more strokes on the score-card and a round of golf damaged beyond repair.

To “lay-up” is to play the ball shorter than normal to create the chance of the next shot being more favorably to the golfer

A golfer may hit a 7 iron with greater consistency than a Sand Wedge – so they are looking to get the ball as far away from the green yet within the distance the 7 iron will hit the ball.

There are two reasons why a golfer will ignore laying the ball up short.

The first golf problem when hitting long shot is due to automatic conditioning

Upon approaching the tee a golfer will think unconsciously he or she has to hit the ball as far as possible and will reach for their driver, the big club in the bag. Secondly there is an element of ego-boost, in being able to hit further than your playing partners. A general look at club-reviews on most golf sites and golfers will always mention how far they can hit with the suggested clubs.

To overcome this it is necessary to think about what golf is

It is purely a game of distances. The distance is to the pin from the tee-off area. The aim is to get as close to the pin in as fewer strokes as possible. This may seem like an overstatement but the explanation is necessary to explore the following.

A typical Par 4 hole of 360 yards should be broken down into 2 shots to get to the green to achieve GIR (Greens in Regulation is being on the green with 2 putts for par)

This then gives the golfer 2 putts to get par. Now let’s go back to the distance of 360 yards. It can be broken down into two distances. A tee-shot of 200 yards and a second shot of 160 yards, places the ball on the green for GIR. There is no need to hit the biggest club as a 200 yard shot can be achieved with a 5 wood or a 4/5 iron.

Consideration should be given about when to play this “lay-up” shot

On a difficult Par 5 of 496 yards, from the tee-area there are two hazards. There are bunkers on the left at 220 yards and a pond on the right also at 220 yards with the fairway between being very narrow at about 30 yards.

The idea here is to take away the risk of trying to drive these two hazards

Ideally you would want to hit a ball about 160-190 yards with your tee shot thereby removing the hazards from ruining your hole. Your second shot now will only have to carry 50 yards to be clear of the hazards, and you will also notice that the degree of open fairway has expanded in front of you so creating more room for error on your second shot.

If we go back to the distance concept and we break down the Par 5 into 3 shots to get GIR, then we will notice we have 2 shots to total 300 yards – this will be two very easy 7 iron shots.

Your playing partners will be surprised about this, but you have accomplished three results. Your ball is safe from the hazards, you have a greater percentage of success with the follow-up 7 iron shots and you will protect your round by keeping the big numbers off your score card.

Thursday 4 December 2014