Last month I wrote about Intuition … this month I’d like to rant about Strategy.

The other day I was listening to the Golf Station on the radio, and they were talking about if instructors were paid by how much they improved the student’s handicap. Pretty interesting concept and conversation. Before I start a lesson, I ask the student if they want a band-aid or surgery. Most of the time surgery is too expensive (time and money-wise) and not necessary for their goals. Most people just want to play well enough so that it’s actually a game.

That’s where strategy comes in. They want to play well enough so that their game actually can use strategy. If you can’t even hit the ball or if every shot is just random and wild – it’s not even a game. There needs to be a certain amount of control of the ball to be able to play golf as a game of strategy and skill.

Strategy is based on a realistic assessment of your skill. Tour Players need to make birdies to make money. They are keeping their foot on the gas all of the time. If most of us played like that, we’d just crash and burn. Scratch players are mostly trying to make pars and only trying to make birdie with a wedge in their hand – and a pretty accessible pin. Too often average players try to play too aggressively. Golf is very much a risk/reward game … and the risks usually out weigh the rewards. Consistency is highly rewarded in golf.

I can’t tell you how many players tell me that they would be good golfers if they were consistent. Wow – that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the game. The random great shot is basically irrelevant. It’s the bad shots that ruin your score. The secret is to have playable bad shots – your mishits have to stay in the park.

Of course some people don’t care about score and just want to hit the random 300 yard drive or the 150 yard wedge. And of course they have every right to do that. But that’s not really playing golf – they can do that at the driving range. The game of golf is about keeping score over 18 holes.

Years ago when the Oldsmobile Scramble was a big deal – we hosted one of the largest course qualifiers in the nation and send a lot of teams to the Sectional Qualifying Tournament. Because we had more teams than Pros on our staff, I invited other course Pros to play with some of our teams. Some times our players complained that these Pros weren’t “good enough”. These Pros hit the drives in the fairways and the iron shots on the greens – they probably would’ve shot even par on their own. But my members thought these Pros should be driving the ball 300 yards and hitting iron shots stiff. Actually the maniac young guy 12 handicap player is the better scramble player. They’re used to swinging full-out with their driver and always firing at the pin … that’s why they’re a 12 handicap player and not scratch – their reckless game is inconsistent. Why are golf tournaments 4 rounds? To see whose game can hold up for 4 rounds … not just who got lucky for one round.

Does being consistent mean having a perfect swing? No. Lee Trevino was probably the most consistent player of all time … definitely not a “perfect” swing. My rule is to not attempt shots that won’t work most of the time. Here’s a classic situation that I see all of the time: A player hits a crummy drive off of hole #1. Then – while upset – he tries to hit a 3 wood out of the rough to make up for the poor drive … which usually is a grounder or a wild shot out of bounds. Thus he winds up making 8 on the first hole (or worse) and is freaked out for the rest of the round. After the crummy drive, he should of hit a 7 iron just to get the ball back in play and get back some confidence hitting the ball … make bogey and move on. I try to survive the first 3 holes … and hope by then I’ve found some feel and rythum so that I can try some shotmaking the rest of the round. In high school I used to pitch, and sometimes while warming up it was pretty obvious that my curveball wasn’t working or that my control was wobbly … so that when the game started, I couldn’t try much – I had to just survive.

That’s at the heart of strategy – knowing what you can do.