In 2007 he won the Masters on a course that most people agree favors the big hitters. Counteracting that, however, he has always had one of the best and most accurate short games.
Zach Johnson has always been known as one of the shorter hitters on Tour, never ranking better than about 150th in the driving distance statistic. This means recognizing which parts of your game will give you the greatest chances at scoring better and playing in a way that allows you to leverage them.Īn example from the PGA Tour comes to mind as a way to describe what it means to play to your strengths: The corollary to playing away from your weaknesses is to play to your strengths. In other words, to play around your limitations.īy minimizing the effect of your weaknesses, you’ll have taken the first step in executing solid course management fundamentals. Once you’ve come to grips with what your weaknesses are, you need to learn how to “play away” from them. One of the first principles of golf course management is to recognize and accept your weaknesses as a golfer.Įveryone has them to one degree or another, even the pros on the PGA Tour. So what, then, are the primary ways that amateur golfers can think their way around the golf course a little better? It won’t automatically make you start hitting the ball better, but it can allow you to play better golf and to score better.īy using good golf course management, you can come closer to fulfilling your playing potential and enjoying your golf a lot more. Golf course management is the key ingredient to manage that.
The secret to scoring better is to make fewer of them and to make sure that the mistakes that you do make don’t hurt you too much. The goal of good golf course management is to always make the right decisions when confronted with multiple shot options i.e., playing the right shot at the right time. When we talk about golf course management, we’re referring to this mental part of the game and how to fine-tune your thought processes before and during your round. The mental aspect involves your psychological approach to the game, which includes both your strategic preparation for the round, as well as how you think about each individual shot that you’re about to take. The physical aspect pertains to the actual process of hitting the golf ball, which entails the setup, the stance, and the swing motion itself.
There are 2 distinctly separate, but obviously related, aspects to every golfer's game: