Playing FWD Tees to "learn to score" strategy?

hangontight · February 22

A.) Try to drive every green

...or...

B.) purposely lay back to best approach spot?

Our course is particularly penal around greens...so I think that going for every green would mostly end up being a scrambling exercise. Whereas placement golf with a short wedge would seem to me a better strategy to "learn to score". My son's HS team is playing from FWD tees today...in discussion last night he said his strategy is A. Maybe there is a time for both.

bertsbogeys · February 22

If you take after the professional analytics, they typically get the ball as close to the green as possible and figure out the scrambling part when they get there. I'm sure it'd give your son a bunch of different short-game shots to hit throughout the round which would be good practice

ShortGolfer · February 22

I started with B. In school I was a chess player, not an athlete. It made sense for me to calculate and execute layups.

Which is a skill that not all professionals have, as I often see layup shots roll off the fairway onto the rough on TV.

Like anything, you need to practice to get good at it.

But, for scoring, A works better. I'm a really good bunker player so rarely is there any danger around the green.

My weakness is trees. I hit a lot of trees. Better to aim for a bunker and forget about trees!

Edited February 22 by ShortGolfer

hangontight · February 22

3 hours ago, ShortGolfer said:

I started with B. In school I was a chess player, not an athlete. It made sense for me to calculate and execute layups.

Which is a skill that not all professionals have, as I often see layup shots roll off the fairway onto the rough on TV.

Like anything, you need to practice to get good at it.

But, for scoring, A works better. I'm a really good bunker player so rarely is there any danger around the green.

My weakness is trees. I hit a lot of trees. Better to aim for a bunker and forget about trees!

Good take. He is pretty solid scrambling already ( ...because he practices short game a lot). But I think sometimes he mentally settles for "no harm in a 2 putt par"...which is in part why I think he could benefit from setting himself up with a good approach - wedge it close and make the putt.....the whole learning to go low is a skill idea.

Edited February 22 by hangontight

Pepperturbo · February 22

A - is how recent generations and kids think these days... they see it on tour.

Few buddies think that way too. Thing is, even though they envision better scores, reality has shown me, they and most others don't have scrambling from junk shot skills. One compelling reason for my winning more than losing over the last 15+ years of matches and $$$ games.

B - is the result of paying attention and experience, knowing where and what you'll have left-in.

The reason I still play good golf and have a full bag of irons is least once a month I play tees under 6000yds and only use irons, aiming for under or even par finish. Strategy and course management, and solid ball striking = good scoring.

Yes, there is a time for both, only A, IME depends greatly on honest assessment of shot repertoire, otherwise restricted use.

Edited February 22 by Pepperturbo

hangontight · February 23

OP here with follow up.

They played Forward tees last night. He shot 2 over (9H). I could barely contain my "told you so" grin - my reasonable expectation from his game from the Fwd tees is that he should be at par on worst day. As mentioned , our course is penal around greens and angles are imperative....often better to be be 50 Yards short of green than 10 yards left....angles are very important, just simply cannot hold the greens if coming from wrong angle. In his brief report, it sounds like he went bomb & gauge all day....which got him in some bad positions (even being very close to the green).

The more I think about this, I do think this is very course dependent. I can think of some other local courses where A is a no brainer. Anyway, maybe next time he'll play for position and we'll see how it goes. I def agree that the tour trend, stats, decade golf, etc. all support A....but I think there is value in learning some discipline and focused intent with B...there are def times in "real" golf that you need that skill.

Ty_Webb · February 23

I always thought this was more about learning to get comfortable with being under par (hopefully several shots under par), not so much to learn how to score.

For the strategy side of it, whether A or B is better is a course based and personal game based decision. If you're feeling brave, take a yardage book and mark off what you think your son's average shots to complete the hole will be from each place he could hit it. Then you can look at how likely you think each outcome is and figure out what gives him his lowest average score. Then do that. For the example you gave where 10 yards left is worse than 50 yards short - what happens if you miss right? It may be that his best bet is to center his shot pattern 10 yards right of the green. Some shots will end up on the green and most will end up right, but if right is as good as 50 yards short, then for every shot that hits the green you're gaining. Remember also that laying back is not a guaranteed fairway and going for it is not a guaranteed miss. You need to consider all possible outcomes (or groups of them anyway).

RmoorePE · February 26

I assistant coach HS golf. It is girls so they are already on the forward tees. We have a couple of players, both happen to be my daughters, who are plenty long for the tees they play. One plays bomb and gouge the other plays layup to 90y which is her stock 50deg wedge.

I think players who have decent control of their drivers or long clubs should always try to get as close to the green as possible, unless there is some feature that makes it a terrible option. Other players should try to get to the widest part of the fairway, with whatever club it is. We coach this way, and our team wins most the time.

I also think that hitting high quality layups requires practice that most kids don't like to do. I.e. a kid who is a good scorer has to hit a layup to the correct position in the fairway to try to get a birdie, the kid who is not a good scorer just wants anywhere in the fairway as any par putt is good enough. What we have found is that when we ask the kids who have good long games to layup, they lose focus and hit shots that are not better scoring position than if they had blasted a drive into a greenside bunker. Despite spending hours hitting tee shots to good positions, when the lights come on they want to revert to their comfort and some kids are more comfortable with the accelerator on the floor.

So we teach them to find the bail out areas, and shape their shots to trend to the bail out.