Course management is developed only by going to the golf course and getting experience to develop your skills. Of course you will make mistakes, but we can avoid making the same mistakes by learning from them and increase the chances of making a good score.

You should always play to your strengths.

Positional Play

Try to look at the angles, easiest is usually best. Observe the position of flag before you get to the green. It is an easier shot to make if you have the right angle, so if the flag is on the left of the green, coming in from the right of the fairway is best.

Sometimes the hole can be cut near a bunker or hazard and in this case you would make a shot to the middle of the green. Sometimes the flag is at the top of a slope, in this case you would want to ensure you have the easiest putt and play the ball below the pin.

Before you start to play a hole, imagine where you would like to position your shots to have the easiest journey to the flag. Hitting from the fairway is much easier than hitting from the rough or a bunker.

Hazards

On some holes you may find hazards that you can’t get over. It’s sensible to lay up short in this case. A common error in ‘laying up’ is to use too much club so ending up in the hazard! If you’re going to lay up, then don’t mess with with hazard, choose a club which will allow your ball to finish short of the hazard.

Dog Legs

When playing dog legs it it always tempting to cut off too much. Is is usually a better plan to be too wide off the tee than too narrow as this will ensure that you have a good view of the next shot without obstacles in your path.

Recovery Shots

Very often even when we have carefully planned where we would like the ball to be, we find that an ‘escape’ shot of some sort is required. The safe option is alway best - it may mean you possibly will drop a shot, but better to drop one than make a triple. Don’t ‘have a go’ unless it doesn’t matter, or you are very confident you can make the shot.

When you are in a bunker, your primary aim should be to get out - in one shot. If you do not use the correct club and end up back in the bunker, then you have made a silly mistake and incurred an extra shot or two!

Course management is the skill of assessing your ability and relating that to the demands of the course correctly. Achieving this to obtain the lowest possible score is what keeps us coming back each week…………………..