Advise please.

jacket222002

Hi Lads,

I am a reasonable golfer. Play off 13. Can go through phases where I will play decent golf and win maybe 5 / 6 times a year.

However when I go to away clubs things go arseways. I find trees, deep rough , water all the time. By the end of the round it will go through all my game and will even think of giving up the game because it gets so bad.

I think it maybe because of the unknown I am tensing up as I am hitting huge pushes 70 yards right or over the top shots going straight left.


Any advise please.

ShriekingSheet

Working on your allignment and being maticulous with yardage and in choosing a definite target for each shot can help with this.

Very few golf holes are dead straight and so, tee-boxes often don't "point" on the exact line you yourself want to start your ball. If you're not used to a course, this can confuse your allignment for tee shots.

What helps is despite the fact that you might not know a given course well or at all, you need to make sure you get a good definite yardage for each shot - as opposed to on your home course where you might have more of an instinct on club selection. On away courses, ignore what "it looks like". Get your yardage off the 150 or 100 stake and play that number.

Most importantly, on away courses it can be easy to slip into hitting the ball in a general direction as opposed to at a definite target (tree on the horizon, at a fairway bunker that's out of range etc). By having a definite target for every shot, alligning yourself to it and letting the shot go, you'll notice there's no real variable there. It's just like being on a driving range.

Of course there are benefits to knowing a course. You may learn to pick better targets if you knew the course better, judge the wind better or gauge the pitch and roll around the greens easier, but these are only marginal enough elements as opposed to a 70 yard block.

jacket222002

Yep. I get the point about just hitting in a general direction rather than a fixed target. Will try to be more disciplined about that.

Thanks for the reply

Myksyk

Simple piece of advice that works for me if I don't know a course - Adopt a mindset that is more conservative than at home base, especially off the tee - you can make up a 20-30 yard disadvantage that has arisen from taking a three wood off the tee but it's harder to make up ground if you're second shot is from deep rough or trees.

Paulusmaximus

Myksyk wrote: »

Simple piece of advice that works for me if I don't know a course - Adopt a mindset that is more conservative than at home base, especially off the tee - you can make up a 20-30 yard disadvantage that has arisen from taking a three wood off the tee but it's harder to make up ground if you're second shot is from deep rough or trees.

Was going to say something similar to this poster. On your home course you now exactly where the troubles are etc, so you automatically know when to attack and when to be conservative. On new courses you dont know this so that maybe part of your downfall. I'd take the above advice and either hit three wood/irons off the tee or only hit the driver at 80/85% and just think of accuracy. Playing off 13, even with a 3 wood off the tee you should be able to reach all the greens or very close to them in regulation so there should be no real reason for not having a par putt on every hole!!

jacket222002

Thanks lads. Theres some good tips there.