Being Aggressive vs Being Safe - What Actually Works Best?

23 Aug

So. You are on a Par 3. 160 yards. Bunkers to each side of the green. Green is almost T-Shaped, with the pin tucked behind the left bunker with only about 15 feet of green to play with? What’s your goto in this situation?

While you ponder that, I’ll quickly welcome you to 54 to Scratch, the weekly golf blog that allows me to get my thoughts down onto something as I work on my golf game, trying to actually get good at this sport that I’ve fallen in love with.

So, back to the question at hand.

There really do seem to be two schools of thought. Some say that by playing safe golf, albeit a little boring, will bring down your scores.

Others say that you can only truly bring your scores down and hit your potential by being aggressive and taking risks.

I guess there is a third way of looking at things and that’s sitting on the fence and choosing a side to fall on based on the shot ahead of you.

The past couple of weeks, as my swing has started to return to something at it’s best, I’ve decided to play a little more aggressively.

My home course (Kingsnorth Golf Club) has some particularly challenging pins at the moment, albeit on some of the easier holes. The pins on the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th are either tucked behind hazards or right in the middle of slopes on the green.

With the greens where the pin is on the slope, the trick is of course to give yourself an up hill putt with as little break as possible.

But on the ones where the pin is tucked behind the hazard, you really have a choice to make. Do you play to the largest part of the green, leaving yourself a long putt? Or do you layup and chip over the hazard? Or do you aim at the pin and hope it sticks (and doesn’t go in the hazard).

As I said, I’ve recently been playing with the aggressive philosophy. And in some cases, it has definitely paid off. I’ve been getting near some pins that normally I would have avoided and I’ve had a few birdies/pars that I might not otherwise have gotten.

But I think hindsight is telling me that the aggressive stance is probably not the way to go. The last couple of rounds I’ve shot 95 each time. But overall, I’ve lost a total of 13 balls, which is very unlike me. My average on the last 20 before that was 2.7 a round, so statistically I definitely lost a lot of shots playing this way.

However, I’m not convinced that the stats are telling the whole story. When I think back to the past couple of rounds, I haven’t exactly had the rub of the green. Some really bad bounces, which obviously can be exacerbated by the hard ground when everything dries up, has led to some lost balls in hedges and in the long rough that plagues the average golfer at Kingsnorth.

Then there is the inevitable thinned shots, fatted shots, shanks etc that come along with tweaking your swing. There have been. A few of those that have resulted in lost balls.

In fact, I can think of only 2 that actually came as a direct result of trying for a pin. On the 4th at Kingsnorth, it’s a relatively straight 290-300 yard par 4 (depending on where the pin is). The fairway is quite narrow and there is trouble down both sides, with bushes to the left and long rough down the right, in between the fairway and the fairway for the 9th.

On this occasion, I hit my best drive of the day and it ended up in the first cut about 90 yards out. The pin is currently at the back left of the green, with a small pond guarding the approach. Now, being in the rough, it would always be pulled slightly left, but not always so I decided to aim at the pin rather than try and hit the large expanse of green that I could have aimed at.

Unfortunately, the ball went straight but a little left and this slight deviation meant it didn’t carry the pond. I then dropped my ball behind the pond and proceeded to chip it straight back in.

Obviously, that counts in the bracket of bad shots I talked about earlier but I wouldn’t have had to play that shot if I was safer.

But I have to say, my confidence is rising playing this way. Some of the shots I’ve played have looked awesome and there really is nothing better than seeing your ball land near to the pin, whether on the green or not.

But obviously losing so many balls isn’t sustainable, but again, a lot of that has been down to poor execution or bad luck, so won’t happen forever. So for now at least, a more aggressive approach will stay and who knows, maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to break 80 at my home club as a result very soon…

Thanks again for taking the time to read! Be on the lookout for my review of the ShotScope X5 coming very soon - I’ve been testing it out for the past couple of weeks so will be doing a review soon. I’m really enjoying some of the data so far, but still a little early to use any of it.

Driver - Callaway Rogue ST

Irons - Taylormade Stealth

Wedges - Taylormade Hi-Toe 52, 56, 60

Putter - Scotty Cameron Squareback

Shoes - Adidas Tour 360 22

Trolley - GYMAX 2 Wheel Golf Cart

Watch - Shotscope X5