by Jimmy Patrick

Created on: January 13, 2009

Imagine you are 150 yards from the middle of the green on a simple par four. You hit a nice drive, so your ball rests in the fairway and there is no wind to mess with your shot while in the air.

There is a bunker guarding the left, front corner of the green and a steep hill falling away behind the green. The pin is right in the center of the green, nothing tricky about it.

If you were Tiger Woods, you would certainly fire the ball right at the pin. Assuming you are not Tiger Woods or any other tour player for that matter, what should your strategy be on such a shot.

If you are a good enough player, and you honestly feel you can hit a club exactly 150 yards and right on line 9 out of 10 times, then you should fire at the pin. If you are not that accurate, then you need to weigh your options.

Ask yourself what your strengths are around the green. Are you good at playing the ball out of sand bunkers? How about your shots off of awkward hills. Most people would probably answer no to both of those, but some people wouldn't. Some people like hitting from bunkers more than they like hitting a long bump-and-run chip across the green.

If you do like hitting from bunkers and are confident you can hit it close from the bunker, then you can take an agressive line and fire right at the pin. If somehow you come up short and land in the sand, you will be just fine.

If you hate the sand and know that any shot into the sand will cost you several strokes, then aim to a spot on the green that will take the sand completely out of play. In this case, aim to the right side of the green.

The next question has to do with the steep hill behind the green. If you know you are good at those shots, you can choose a club that will be sure to get your ball to the hole and run the risk of being too much club, sending the ball over the green, down the hill behind it. If you don't like those kinds of shots, then you have to eliminate it and aim short.

So if you hate the sand and the hillside chip shots, you will be left with aiming short and right. You will have to forget about the pin completely. If you are able to hit your target right on the nose, you will be putting to the pin from the front, right side of the green. If you miss to the right or short, you will have an easy bump-and-run chip shot from the fairway. If you miss long or left, you will still be on the green, perhaps right next to the pin.

The object is to not only have room for error in your shot, but to see the ball land and feel comfortable and confident that you can get the ball close to the hole from there. This may sound like a conservative style of play and it is, but if you want to be more aggressive, you will have to have the game to support that strategy.

Often times, players known for good short games don't so much have great short games as they have one or two great short shots. They know what those shots are and they continually miss the greens in places where they can put those shots into use. They don't allow their ball to find areas they can't play from.

This may not sound like fun, but if you can get it down and find the mental discipline to use it properly, you will see your scores get consistently lower. You will eliminate all the big numbers on your score card.

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