Image Up Advertising & Design

Golf Course Management Tips | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | AUGUST 2024 | 23 Here are a few golf course management tips that you can implement in your golf game today. Take a good look at your current strategy on the golf course and see where you may be lacking. WHERE TO MISS Where to miss the golf ball is kind of a complicated thought, but you will get the hang of it if you dedicate the time. You know exactly where you want to hit the ball, but you probably don't think about your misses oen enough. Ben Hogan once said, "Golf is a game of misses," and he couldn't have been more accurate. ink about where things went wrong in your last golf round; likely, it is where a missed shot went somewhere that made a recovery difficult. Did you leave an approach shot in the sand? For example, my miss is a draw, a bigger draw than the one I intend to hit. If I'm going at a pin on the le side of the green and there is trouble le of the pin, I'll go at the center, or even right side of the green, to give myself the best chance at a birdie, but also leave my ball in play. TAKE YOUR MEDICINE You may have heard the term take your medicine in golf. e point here is that when you make a mistake, you need to accept it and move on. Let's say you hit a slice with your driver off the tee. e slice puts you behind a tree with a very small window of opportunity to make it to the green. Of course, this is frustrating, but you have to take your medicine. Take the small punch out, put the ball back in play, and go from there. You still have a chance to hit a great approach shot and make a putt to save the hole. e problem is when golfers go for the hero shot. ey try and weave a golf ball through a series of trees, only to have it hit one and end up further in trouble or even out of bounds. Don't do this unless it makes sense, and you can pull it off nine out of ten times. e risk has to be worth the reward. THE PIN IS NOT ALWAYS YOUR TARGET Do you always aim at the pin when you play? Aiming at the pin can be poor golf course management that costs you strokes in every round. When choosing where to land your approach shots, you must look at the entire green, not just the pin. e pin is your end goal, but by getting too aggressive, you could cause more problems for yourself. Whenever possible, you want a straight uphill putt to the pin. Look around and see where you can land the ball to have the highest chance of that happening. In addition, consider your typical miss and where that could leave you. If a pin is surrounded by bunkers or a water hazard, leave yourself a 15-foot putt, it's perfectly acceptable. e point here is you don't always have to go directly at the pin to get the best results on the course. MANAGE RISKS Risks on the golf course are worth taking. You may have experts tell you to stay conservative, and at times, this can be good information. However, if you want to go low, you have to take risks. e key is to manage those risks and ensure that you are not unnecessarily taking these risks. For instance, if you have a par 5 with water up the entire side and water in front of the green, you may decide it makes sense to just get on the green in 3 or 4. However, if you hit the drive of your life and you have 200 or less into the green, you know you can hit that shot. Of course, there is still some risk involved, but it's a calculated risk worth taking. FINAL THOUGHTS Remember, play to your strengths, manage your misses, and take your medicine to avoid the big numbers. Good golfing! ~ Brian Garlington

• Cover