Your Approach Shots Are Key To Your Golf Score

Even for us amateur golfers, how we approach our shots to the green are very important to how well we score.  I remember a story that I heard supposedly about Ben Hogan and a conversation that he had with an amateur that he was playing with one time.  Now it may or may not have really come from Hogan, but the lesson is still valuable.The story that I heard about Hogan was that he was playing with an amateur who kept asking him to show him how to make the golf ball back up once it hit the green.  Finally, Ben turned to the amateur in frustration and asked how many times he hit his approach shot just past he flag.  “Well almost never” replied the golfer.  “Then why do you need to know how to put backspin on the ball?” shot back Ben.

Now here is a similar point about our approach shots to greens.  So often I see amateurs worrying about the yardage to the pin.  And then trying to hit their golf shot right at the pin, regardless of the placement.  I don’t know about the rest of you golfers, but I’m not good enough to land it on the pin on purpose a majority of the time.

So why don’t we do the smart thing and aim for the middle of the green.  On most greens, if you hit the middle and can two putt a majority of the time, you are going to score pretty well.  But no, we go for the pin in front and end up short in the bunker.  Or we go for the pin tucked in the far back corner and overshoot the green and end up in marsh on the back side.

So much of golf is mental and a big part of that is playing smart.  I encourage all of you golfers to go for it…. that is the middle of the green.  And watch your scores go down.

Good golfing.