I outlined six areas of golf that I must improve to reach my 2019 goals. Five of the six target improvement in various aspects of ball striking. The sixth area is how I plan to improve in the strategic aspects of golf. I am blogging in this category before addressing the ball striking areas because the strategic goals are fundamental to addressing and achieving the ball striking goals.

The primary thought I am working on strategically is to play every possible shot as stress free as possible. This requires having a basic ability to safely keep the ball in play. I sacrifice distance for accuracy with every club. I am woefully inaccurate with my driver so that club currently is not part of my bag. I know I have been improving the number of holes I am getting both ESZ and DSZ in and that I am capable of getting to better than bogey golf without a driver.

So how do I develop a stress free strategy? I have developed a feel for what I can accomplish with various clubs at various distances. Knowing this, I examine every course with google earth and scorecard to see which shots are required to reach the green with the least stress. The following clubs and their distances play a part in the planning.

Of note in this chart – I have recently become very proficient hitting a half-swing SW 50 yards within 20 ft of the pin. Similarly, I am very proficient hitting my GW 75 yards to within 25 ft of the pin. Both of these distances factor into my stress free round planning.

Par 3 stress free strategy – for any hole longer than 150 yards I evaluate if trouble surrounds the green and if the wind is favorable to decide if I hit a hybrid or lay-up and wedge on with emphasis of laying up to 50, 75, or 90 yards to the middle of the green. Anything shorter than 150 I choose the appropriate iron that will reach the back of the green if possible.

Par 4 stress free strategy depends on length. If I can hit the 4-wood or 3-hybrid into a reasonably wide fairway leaving an approach under 140 yards, then I go for it unless there is water in front of the green or close in to the fairway. That means par 4’s under 330 yards I should hope to reach GIR for par opportunities. Anything longer requires laying up and I try to select a lay-up club that will easily reach 50, 75, or 90 yards to the green. For example, with 200 yards left I hit an easy 3/4 swing 7-iron which usually leaves around 75 yards. When I am laying up, I choose the least stressful club off the tee, typically 3-hybrid, though the 6-iron comes into play on really tight holes. In that case, I can adjust the ESZ check to 120 yards and in.

Par 5 stress free strategy is similar to par 4, but I have more chances to reach the green. If a hole is really long I don’t even bother with the 4-wood because a 3-H, 4-H, iron usually puts me into the preferred lay-up distances previously mentioned. If I hit a 4-W, 3-H, 6-iron, I can reach a par 5 of 480 yards, but that requires three near perfect shots and does not meet the stress free goals. So I limit my par 5 GIR attempts to holes of 460 or less and use the lay-up stress free approach for longer holes.

Conditions play a role in club selection for stress free golf. Avery Ranch Par-3 11th hole at 185 is reachable for me with the 3-hybrid in the prevailing South wind. Note in the image that the right side, though hilly, is reasonably safe. This plays well with my consistent 3-hybrid fade shot. I aim middle-right of green and swing easy – no stress! However, any other direction of wind knocks distance off the shot so I lay up, usually with an 8 iron, leaving a 50 yard front pin shot or 75 yard back pin shot.

The par 4 hole 9 at Avery ranch is, at 356 yards from the whites, a bit long for my stress free strategy. I almost always lay-up leaving a 75 yard GW shot. However, I recently executed a GIR 2-putt par and know that if a 1 to 2 club north wind is blowing, I can safely reach or land front or right of the green with a 3-hybrid if I hit a solid 4-wood drive into the fairway. It’s only 120 yards to clear the front bunker so anything front or right is safe and fits well with my 3-hybrid fade/cut off the deck.

When I evaluate a round I always look up the wind forecast for the date I’m playing, especially when playing an AGA tournament course. That way I can determine if some holes lend themselves to taking a little more risk if the wind conditions and hole hazard placement are favorable for my shot shape.

For all the time I spend preparing for a round, I still have execution issues, such as severe pulls, or push/fades, and 3-H/4W tops that throws a wrench into my plans. Avoiding triples then becomes the goal. I think the biggest stress reduction I’ve recently acquired is due to what I’ve learned from The Scoring Method as I learned it doesn’t take much to recover from a bad shot with only a double as the result.