Course Management

Know your real carry numbers, not your best-ever numbers. Write down the club you hit 90% of the time from 150, 125 and 100 yards. Decide your stock shot for the day in warm-up and commit to it for 18 holes — the range is not the place to build a new swing.

• Use your average distance, not your career-best.
• Pick one shot shape and play it all day.
• Set a bogey-is-fine target score for the hardest three holes.

Aim away from the trouble, not at the middle. If your miss is right, tee up on the right side of the box and aim at the left edge of the fairway — that gives you the whole fairway to work with. On tight holes, take the club that reaches the widest part of the fairway, even if that's a 4-iron.

• Tee up on the same side as the trouble and aim away from it.
• Driver is only correct when a miss still leaves a shot at the green.
• The widest landing area beats the shortest approach.

Tour players aim at flags roughly 15% of the time. Take your yardage to the center, add the club that covers the front bunker, and accept a 25-foot putt. Short-siding yourself turns a routine par into a likely double.

• Only attack pins with a wedge in hand, a good lie and no short-side trouble.
• Always take enough club to carry front trouble.
• Miss on the fat side of the green, always below the hole.

The first decision after a bad shot decides the hole. Ask one question: what shot gets me back in play with 100% certainty? Punch out sideways, hit the 130-yard layup, take the unplayable. Doubles come from the second mistake, not the first.

• Advance the ball only if the escape is a 9-out-of-10 shot.
• Never try to reach a green from the trees.
• A penalty stroke taken early costs less than two heroic attempts.

Choose the lowest-risk shot that gets the ball rolling soonest. Putt when you can, chip when you can't putt, pitch only when you must carry something. Land the ball on a spot you can see and let it release to the hole.

• Default to the putter from off the green when the ground is firm.
• Pick a landing spot, not a pin.
• One club, one technique for standard chips builds real confidence.

Play the round in three six-hole matches so a bad stretch doesn't own the whole day. Track only decisions, not outcomes — you can hit a good shot into a bad break. If you commit to the target and the club, you won the shot regardless of the result.

• Reset every six holes with a fresh mini-goal.
• Grade decisions, not results.
• Play the next shot from where the ball is, not where it should be.