Just a quick post and tip on laying up as I just watched Tim Petrovic at this weeks PGA Event at the Memorial hit at layup shot on the par 5 7th hole.  Many players think the layup is an easy shot and they spend very little time thinking about where they should hit it or how far they should hit it.  It’s my mission to change that and to make sure you think about these two things when laying up.

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So what goes into creating a good Angle Of Attack?

When laying up you need to think about the best angle to access the green or pin.  Depending on your ball flight, where the pin is and where the trouble is located around the green are all areas you need to evaluate.  Although it doesn’t talk specifically about ball flight and green, check out this post and where to tee the ball to further understand ball flight and angles.  Also, I did a great post on evaluating trouble around a green where to miss.  These two posts will give you a better idea of what goes into creating a good angle to attack a green or pin location.

How far to hit a lay up shot?

Just as important as creating a good angle is how far you want the following shot to be.  This yardage is determined by how far you hit the lay up shot.  I always suggest to my students that they should always hit a layup shot to a yardage they feel comfortable with.

As an example of my own game.  I’m am not very strong with shots of 40 to 85 yards.  If I am on a par 5 and can’t get to the green from 230 yards, I will lay up.  Most players will just try and hit a 3 wood or long iron and blast it down as close as they can to the green.  For me, I will try to hit my layup shot no further then 140 yards so that I don’t get myself in that uncomfortable yardage of 40 to 85 yards out which I am not good out.  I have a much better chance of hitting the next shot close with a 110 yard shot from the fairway.

Yes it sucks having to layup with an 8 iron or less and it would be so much better just to try and hit something close to the green like Phil Mickelson does, but if you’re not particular strong with the shot, then why hit it there?!

I once heard the saying that golf is a game of misses.  It’s a game of many different things but this  statement is true and very overlooked.  Most of this post will talk about course management and opening your eyes to what really is a good shot and what is a bad one and I’m not talking how close it is the flag.

If you watch some of the Professionals on TV you’ll hear a commentator talk about a player being “short sided”.  This refers to a player missing the green where there very little green to work with.  So even though you may have hit the best shot of your life, you might actually be left with a short sided chip that will be difficult to get up and down.  Where as you could have hit an average shot to the proper side of the green and easily two putted.

The easiest way to avoid getting into situations where you are often short sided is to aim away from tucked flag sticks on greens.  Below is another picture of a hole at Chambers Bay with tucked flag on the back left of the green with a bunker on the left as well.

Short Sided/Where To Miss

Even though the flag stick and cup are the end goal, it’s best to aim away from this flag stick since it’s a high risk shot.  Chambers Bay is hosting the 2015 US Open and if the pin was in this position, my guess would be that 5% of the field would actually aim at the pin.  So the play is to place your ball as best you can to the right side of the green or even just off also being 10 yards short of pin high.  This give you the best angle to hit your second shot close and get up and down for a par 3.  If you were to go into the bunker left of the hole, a 4 would be a really good score and unless your a good bunker player a par 3 would be almost of the question.

Once again you must create your own targets based on your playability and comfort ability.  If you were a really good bunker play and felt comfortable hitting a shot in the flag with a desired  right to left ball flight, I would say try and go at the pin and see if you can make a birdie.  But if your not comfortable with that ball flight or bunkers then aim at the wide open area of grass to the right of the hole, it’s a much easier shot!  One thing to note is that the yardage to the pin might be 145 yards but for the target that you are hitting at (the big round blue circle) it will be only 110-135 yards so the shot will play shorter making it easier all around.  Also, be sure to aim either left or right of the

So there you have it!  Stay away from sucker pins, come up with your own target, aim point and join my free Golf Instruction newsletter by clicking here and start playing better golf now!

A few days ago I was playing with a group of friends at the club I belong at.  One of the players hits a hard hook and is right handed so his ball flight starts right and hooks hard to the left.  In our group we were playing a match between the 4 of us where 2 players played against the other 2 in a match play format.  If a player is my opponent I never give them any tips or help on the course even though I know what they’re doing wrong and I just LOVE helping people play better!  So this is always tough for me but whenever I can I help my partners.

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On the third hole at my home course there is out of bounds all the way down the left side of the fairway and 80 yards of fairway on the right.  There is also a tree 60 yards off the tee on the right.  This prevents players from directly hitting their tee shots to the right side of the fairway away from the road.

During this particular round my partner who hits the ball with a draw (right to left) just got onto the tee box and hit away without giving any thought as to where to tee the ball.  The result was he hit it on the road.  By teeing his ball up on the right side of the box he really lost his angle to hit the ball out to the right.  His angle was cut down because of the tree so he wasn’t able to play the ball far enough out to the right of the fairway so his hook could stay in bounds.

View the image below to visually see how much of a difference it makes where you tee the ball up. As I do not have an image of this hole on my home course that I am talking about, I have chosen an image from Chambers Bay which will host the US Open in 2015. There is no out of the bounds down the left of the hole but there is a BIG bunker. The red curved line is his ball flight from the right side of the tee box and hooks far too much and ends up in the bunker.

Chambers Bay

After his first shot I pointed out the fact that his angle was very poor hitting from the right side so I told him to tee the ball on the left side of the tee box.  This would allow his hook ball flight to go as far right as possible so it could still catch a piece of the fairway.  The black curved line is his second ball and as you can see he was able to hit it out much farther to the right then his first shot simple because he teed the ball all the way on the left side of the tee box.

Pretty simple stuff but not a lot of golfers I play with actually think about where to tee the ball up.  It took me years to learn this!   This is a great tip that doesn’t require you to pay any money or even to practice this method.  It simply requires you to think about your ball flight, the shape of the hole and where the tee markers are.  At times you can use all of the area in between the tee makers so that means teeing your ball inside the tee markers but standing outside of them.