Sit back and get ready to take off with Dynamic Golf.
Alright welcome everybody, welcome back to Dynamic Golf Podcast.
I'm your co-host Tim McElvanagh and with me is my fellow co-host Sean Klotz.
Hey guys, how you doing?
Glad to have you.
Looking forward to a good topic today Tim.
Absolutely.
So today's topic is going to be about course management.
We're going to talk about some simple strategies to help you get around the course.
Not too much about swing technique but more about what mental strategies you can implement
out there on the course.
I think there's a lot of emphasis into hey, how is my ball striking?
Am I chipping and putting well?
Where is my driver going?
At some point you got a score.
Correct.
That's kind of the point of the whole deal.
Yeah, sometimes you got to stop playing golf swing and start playing golf.
Just getting out there and playing.
Absolutely.
So I got some different things I'm sure you do too.
I always love these sessions because we don't really even prep for these ones.
No, no, this is just kind of off the cuff, kind of letting everybody know.
Stream of consciousness right now.
Just like you guys are on the back porch when you come in after your round and we hear a
lot of different stories.
Absolutely.
Mostly fish stories.
Right, right.
But you hear the golfer, you'll be like, hey, how was your day?
I hit three balls out of bounds on the same hole.
Well, stop doing like correct.
Why didn't you aim a little bit to the right or to the left or maybe even change a different
club club?
Right.
If you keep doing the same thing with driver, let's switch to a five wood switch to something
else.
Right.
You know, I think one of the bigger things I see at least for course management is people's
mismanagement of setting up off the tee.
Yeah, just like what you're saying right there is that a lot of people just throw the golf
ball down in the middle of the tee and not think about, you know, if you're going to
be playing a fade or something like that aimed to the right side of the tee box, as I was
taught if you're going to play a draw, get to the left side of the tee box.
Absolutely.
You know, it's just that little extra mental thought that you have out there that's going
to, you know, keep the ball in bounds for you.
Right.
I think it's amazing.
And you know, we're not being arrogant when we talk about this is just part of the reasons
why we shoot in the seventies and some of our players that, you know, that we teach
don't honestly, they're having trouble breaking 90.
Yeah.
You know, how do I break 90?
How do I break a hundred?
Whatever that answer is.
Right.
Yeah.
How do I break 80?
Because there's different things that are going to factor in all those.
Absolutely.
You play with that, that gentleman or lady and they're, and they're trying to, you're
doing a playing lesson with them.
And like you say, team act, they just tee it up in the, in the center of the, of the
tee box.
And there's a tree 30 yards off the tee box on the left-hand side, like, and they hit
a fade.
Yes.
So yeah, utilize the entire tee box.
Absolutely.
Go to the right side.
No, you're going to play your fade.
We're not going to automatically learn how to hit a draw on the second tee box.
No, no.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, and that's, it kind of goes back to the point of, you know, let's play golf and
not golf swing, right?
You have a shot pattern that you're using for the day, you know, tee up appropriately
where it might be and, and play your game, you know, quit trying to overthink it.
I think that, you know, again, we can do the three hour podcast on this one topic.
Oh, absolutely.
Golf course management.
To me, you know, as even getting a little older, it's still a point, just like the par
five, um, how they, how people approach par fives is just a little shocking.
Sometimes they, what we see is driver off the tee box.
Fine with that.
No problem.
Yeah.
Right.
Trying to get it down there.
Now the second shot is depending on skill level, you know, okay, I've got two, 10 to
carry the brush or carry the water.
Well, how many times do you hit five wood, 210 yards in the air?
Well, I did it one time three weeks ago.
Correct.
And, and you know, the big thing is they sit out there in the middle of the fairway thinking
that they're going to hit this 250 yard or 230 yard shot and nine times out of 10, let's
be honest, it's a doff.
Yeah.
You know, they were into the water, into the water.
They over swing, right?
Right.
Instead of taking like a five iron or a six iron and just poking it down there, 180 yards
or 170 yards and making par the, you know, a little bit easier way.
Yeah.
And then at Lake Bernadette, a good par five, good design.
Great.
Yeah.
You know, you got to kind of position your tee shot on the, on from the tee shot.
Cause you got, especially if you got those teas all the way back.
Yeah.
That's right.
That's a different, we played that this summer.
Um, but then yeah, from the white teas or whatever, we might have maybe two 222, 10,
two 20 into the green, but that green narrows up, you know, there's a significant water
left or there's hazard left.
There's cart path to right.
I would much rather have the hundred yard, 90 yard golf shot in and I'm playing with
somebody last week and they're like, what are you doing hitting an eight iron for your
second shot?
I said, cause I want to hit 150 yards so that I have 90 yards left in.
Correct.
That's it.
You know, so playing that position golf, which go into a tour level, I mean, tiger just did
that to the best degree of any, right?
Yeah.
He won British opens with a two iron.
Yeah.
Never hit driver.
Yeah.
Royal lithium.
Right.
And when he won his second us junior, um, amateur tournament, he, he hit two iron the
entire time because he, he was also 15, 16 years old.
So he's out driving the same kids by 30, 40 yards, but he didn't need it.
No, he didn't need it.
Position golf.
That's correct.
Position golf.
So hit to a yardage, figure out what the yardage is that you like.
Yeah.
Right.
Cause even if you let's, let's go with the same example of that par five where you're
good drive and again, you're two 30 away, right?
If you hit the five wood and you hit it, let's call it 200 yards.
Now you got a 30 to 40 yard uncomfortable red shot.
And let's be honest, nobody's really practicing that shot at, you know, around the greens
or anything like that.
So I would also say it's a hard place to look.
There's not a lot of places to practice that shot.
Correct.
30 to 40 yards, 50 to 60 yards.
Like you can go hit balls on a range, but you don't have a green that you're hitting
into.
You don't know what the spin's doing.
You don't know when it's going to stop or it's going to go forward or whatever.
So get to a, Hey, I hit my sand wedge at 80 yards comfortably every single time.
I'm good with it.
Why, why wouldn't you just make that be your correct third shot?
Right.
You know, I think you can score a lot better from that perspective.
And then that bleeds into par fours as well.
Yeah.
You know,
you know, and, and I think you're right, you know, and it bleeds into the par fours is
that, you know, sometimes a bogey is a good bogey too, you know?
And I think a lot of people try to recover too much with the second shot, especially
on par fours I see.
And it just leads to doubles, triples, you know, making sure you kind of, you know, punch
out, take your medicine a little bit and, and lay up to a yardage where you feel comfortable.
You can get it on the green and two putt and make your bogey.
You know, there is such thing as a good bogey.
So, you know, make sure you strategize for that as well.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I know we're talking to a hopefully national audience, but we're talking to a
big crowd.
Eventually.
Yes.
But Silverado up here in Zephyrhills, number three, like talk me how you play that hole.
Let's go, let's go from the white tees, which makes it harder to discuss them.
So how do you play that hole?
You don't hit driver.
No, I'm going to probably hit about a three wood or a five wood right there.
I'm looking at the 150 mark.
But you know, it's a very narrow, tight little green back there.
It's very long and narrow.
Kind of reminds me of 16 out there a little bit too.
And to be honest with you, that fairway is very narrow to hit.
So you know, it's very easy to send it over the over the edge right there.
Or you've got that big oak tree.
And if you kind of miss it just a little bit, you're really looking at a punch shot up to
something.
Yeah.
So that hole particularly and everyone's got this type of hole at their facility.
You know, golf course, we're just talking to one particular hole.
It's basically probably a 360 yard par four.
Yeah, maybe in that ballpark.
But there's a big bailout to the left on that fairway.
Brantley's landing.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And there's a reason why it's no different if you're hitting 160 yard shot from there
with clear wide view, rather than bringing in that oak tree like you're talking about
that's on the far right hand side of the correct or the big bottle brush tree or whatever it
is in the middle of fairway.
Yes.
You know, so when you're trying to thread the needle, and you're a 16 handicapper, maybe
that's not your comfort zone.
No, let's just get something down there.
And by the way, it's gonna lead me to my other point, number three at Silverado is the number
one difficult hard handicap hole.
Yeah.
So I'm a big believer.
What you just said is it's okay to make a five there.
Yes.
Right.
So again, we might have talked about this some other podcasts don't care.
It's good to hear it again.
Basically, when I teach, you know, I really like to, to write the scores out before we
actually play the nine holes.
Yeah.
And really base it on what that person's handicap is.
Yeah, you know, the zero handicap should make par on every hole.
Correct.
He should make par on every hole.
But you know, for me personally, I look at that is that on number two, I'm trying to
make birdie, and I'm going to take my bogey on number three.
So it evens out there, I hope.
But you know, it's not that I'm settling for bogey, but it's not the worst of scores.
And I can I can make it up on the next part three.
And then there's a couple part fives ahead.
Yeah.
I mean, my buddy crump run, when we play in two man tournaments out there, we always
said if we can get to number five T box, either even or one over par.
Yeah.
In a two man event where you're playing basketball, we're good because we know that those first
holes a little goofy.
It's you know, yeah, it's tricky.
It is tricky, especially with the water.
You haven't really warmed up, you're not really sure.
And you've got a seven or an eight iron in your hands.
And you've got to, you know, sometimes you just send it a little longer, a little short
on that one, right?
Right.
Second hole is a good par five, but reachable.
And you should be able to get up and down there.
Three is a good par four.
Like you gotta make four, two good shots.
And then four is a good par three.
So even breaking the golf course up into segments, I think something that some people don't,
you know, maybe again, just take from this what you want for the podcast.
I think just take, you know, some of these pieces and, and start applying to your game.
But there's definitely, you know, designers are pretty interesting how they design golf
courses.
They sometimes they just have the natural lay of the land.
So one nine or one set of six holes is going to be more challenging than another set of
six holes.
Yeah, depending on what it is.
Absolutely.
Yeah, you know, so don't, you know, first of all, know what you are.
If you are a nine handicap golfer.
Yeah, that to me means you should make bogey on the first nine hardest handicap holes.
Correct.
You know, and approach it that way.
So if you've got a par four, that's a little bit long, which would usually be in that ballpark,
like a 400 and 420 yard par four.
Yeah.
And you have the, I'm going to give you the license that hey, you can make bogey, because
that's still going to keep you on your skill level.
And it's just, it seems like a little bit of a relief when you tell your student that
like, hey, you've got an extra stroke, right, you know, and they're like, whoo, you know,
instead of saying, hey, here's a par four, you got to make a par.
And on the hardest hole, it really puts a lot of pressure on somebody who's a nine or
a 10 handicap out there.
So giving them that leeway say, hey, you've got an extra shot here.
It just, it frees them up, I think.
Yeah.
So either, like you said, either T shot world, maybe select a different club off the T. Yeah,
just get it down in there, you know, get it out off the fairway.
Yep.
Or second shot world.
Maybe we're not hitting a four hybrid or three hybrid.
Maybe we're just going to hit that six iron like you're talking about.
Yeah.
Chip it up there and maybe make a putt by the way.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, the great equalizer, you know, the putter could always get hot for
you.
And I really try to tell my guys when, you know, you tell them this on the first tee,
okay, this is where we're going to play the course management lesson.
We're going to do it this way.
You're really going to commit to your nine handicap.
That means you're going to shoot 81.
We're going to bogey the first nine hardest handicap holes.
Yeah.
The last nine handicap holes are going to be pars.
We're going to pre-write the scorecard out.
Here you go.
Yeah.
Right.
And then what they, you know, when you walk off with that four on the par four, that is
a handicap of one through nine, I will say them, Hey, nice birdie.
Correct.
And all the time, right?
No, no, no, I made par.
No, you don't understand the concept yet.
Yeah.
Right.
You went one under what your potential is supposed to be.
Yeah.
It's a birdie for you.
Yeah.
I know it's a four on the scorecard, but you're not a zero handicap.
Yeah.
You know, and very few of us are and we aren't either.
I mean, we're no, and threes and what?
Absolutely.
So like you're saying, when you, you know, when you get to a hole, you're okay with taking
the bogey on the hard hole.
Correct.
But you're also knowing that there's other holes in the future where either like good
point like, Hey, number six is another par five.
That's pretty reachable.
Especially when it's downwind.
Yeah.
But you're more warmed up.
Yeah.
Loosened up for me.
It's about my back kind of being, you know, a little bit looser.
Yeah.
Hopefully went to the range sometimes do sometimes don't, but even just, you know, in the, in
the way you're playing, you just kind of like, you're getting in the momentum of playing.
Oh yeah.
It makes sense.
The inner athlete and you starting to come out at that point, right?
You know, you've, you've made a putt on the first hole.
So I can also, now you're starting to feel your putter a little bit.
Like I think all those things matter.
They just factor into you getting into that scoring.
You know, well, and I think there's a reason why you see the pros out there an hour, hour
and a half before practicing, you know, they go to the gym for an hour.
They're getting their body ready to respond to what they need to do.
And they, they get it to respond immediately off the first tee where most of us are probably,
we may hit a small bucket of balls.
Depending on what course you're at, you don't have a place to roll any putts maybe.
So you know, those first three or four holes, we're just trying to figure out where our
game is, you know?
And that's, you know, that, that's, you know, one of the things we got to kind of take into
to account as a, you know, you know, as a higher handicapper, mid handicapper is that
you're going to have a couple of holes to have to warm up to.
Yeah.
I think it's so true.
It really is.
I think it's, you know, yeah, we don't see them what they're doing.
We see them on through golf channel.
Like they're warming up that you go to any tour event, they're warming up obviously.
And then the expectation level from the golfers.
We talked to is, yeah, my game's not where I want it to be.
Well, did you do any stretching at the house?
Yeah.
Did you hit, did you warm up?
Did you loosen up?
Did you make some swings?
Did you stretch off the golf cart?
Yeah.
Did you get the blood flowing at least?
40 to 60 year old, whatever.
Right.
Yeah.
And, and especially as you're older, right?
Especially as you're older, right?
I love it when I see that 60 year old out there.
He hasn't hit any balls.
He's, you know, you, you gotta warm up, right?
You gotta warm up.
And that's a little, little side note, I would say for golf lessons, you know, when you come
for a golf lesson, be warmed up.
Yes.
I know it's not shocking, but you're paying us for our time.
Yeah.
And you want to try to maximize what we're trying to do.
You can't just use the first 15 minutes to loosen your body.
I mean, that's pretty much what it is.
It's a 45 minute lesson.
If it's an hour, 15 minutes, if you get warmed up, you know, telling me, you know, I don't
usually do this, Duff and it, and I'm like, well, yeah, we haven't warmed up yet.
Once we warm up, we'll start seeing our shot pattern and what we're supposed to do.
So warming up, I think is very vital.
It's it.
Every other sport does it.
Yes.
Baseball players, basketball, you always see them just went to the hockey game last night
or two nights ago and, you know, got there half an hour early and every single player
was out shooting at the, at the goalie and Vasilevsky is getting kind of warmed up, getting
some shots in his face.
Absolutely.
And that's obviously, I don't know what they do the first three hours before that, but
they were there 15 minutes prior.
Yeah.
Just shooting.
And I think maybe there's a workout some point in time in their day where they're out there
in the gym working out.
You can't be a professional athlete nowadays and not do that.
So that's a, that's a big point.
So I think as we kind of get, you know, the course management side, it's, you know, we
want you to break 90, 100, whatever that number is that, but you've got to, you've got to
have a written goal of an attainable goal.
One of my first questions they ask golfers when I first meet them and we're talking about,
what are you trying to achieve from this golf lesson?
What's your end goal?
What are you trying to do?
I say, you know, what, what, what are you happy with when you walk off the golf course?
Meaning what score puts you in a good mood?
You're happy with whatever.
Yeah.
And if they tell me 82, great, no problem.
Let's go, let's go do that.
So let's try to get to 79, you know?
Yeah.
But if you tell me, you know, 90, that's absolutely fine.
But just again, when you're shooting 96 consistently and you're trying to break, you're trying to
shoot 90.
I think it's just, you know, having that idea, having that game plan in your head of like,
okay, well, what I don't like team act, cause it's a good one.
What I don't like is, well, if I just make a bogey in the last hole and a par in the
hole before that, I'm going to break 90.
Oh no, no, we've kind of lost.
Correct.
There was a lot more holes before that, that we could have opportunities for too.
Right.
And, and, and just the, just that like now you're putting, you're not doing what you're
not in the moment.
You're not doing what you got you there.
Yeah.
The thing like if you're having a good round and all you gotta do is make bogey in part
type of thing, I guess what I'm trying to say is I probably have some concept of where
I'm at like numbers wise stroke wise on 14, 15, 16.
But typically the best rounds that you and I have both had, we don't even know what the
score unconscious, right?
You don't even know.
Yeah.
Just doing it.
Absolutely.
You get done with the end of the round and you're just, you're kind of what?
Yeah.
I shot a 72, 73, whatever it is.
You're just like, wow.
Right.
And it was just so much fun.
Yeah.
I think this is one of those stories and it's not an arrogant boasty story, but it's going
to kind of, kind of come out and sounded like that.
Father's day 2008 was over at green Valley country club.
That's where it was working.
Okay.
And shot 36 on the front, which was great and everything was fine.
It was just kind of a normal 36.
Like I don't mean to be even be like that.
I just kind of played good in the zone.
Yep.
And I go Eagle on the par four, number 10 birdie Eagle birdie.
Getting low.
So six under through four holes.
Getting low.
Okay.
The problem was the guy that I'm playing with on the 14th T box, right?
You know, you know, right?
Oh my gosh, you're six under.
I'm like, Oh, don't bring all that up.
No, no.
And then you start playing defensively steer.
Yeah.
You just start steering it in.
Yeah.
And I did, you know, everything I could to get it, kind of get it in at a good number.
But the point is, yeah, it's like the baseball pitcher.
You throw in the no hitter, you know, you don't want to know.
Yeah.
You just want to stay in the moment.
Keep swinging the golf club.
I like what you said before.
You kind of threw it out there.
Like aim for the 150 marker.
There's a reason that the course designer put that there.
Yes.
It's a, it's a, it's a spot to aim at.
And typically most of all of our listeners, if we put you between 120 and 170, you're
probably okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Go practice those shots, you know, instead of, you know, going out there pounding driver
all day long, you're only going to hit what 14 of those, but you're probably going to
hit a lot more irons than you are throughout the day.
Hopefully if we just talked to some of our students down, a couple less, right?
A couple three woods thrown in.
Yeah.
So, so, you know, be smart off the tee box.
Like you said, I love that.
You know, use the entire tee box.
Yeah.
Sometimes on a par three, you don't have to tee up exactly where the tee markers are.
Cause maybe you want to hit a shot that goes four to five yards further.
So you might want to go to two club links back and use a tee on the par threes.
I can't tell you how many times I see guys just drop the ball on a par three.
I just love Arnold Palmer's idea.
If they're going to let you have a tee, use that tee.
Almost almost never see it on tour.
Yeah.
No, yeah.
You know, I think we're both fans of it.
If we see something done on tour, we should probably be doing it.
Absolutely.
Copy it.
Repeat it and copy it.
Exactly.
So yeah, be smart off the tee box, select the right club.
Drivers, you know, drivers are fine option.
Obviously we're not talking them down driver.
It's just, if you're not hitting driver well, take a three wood.
Take a three wood.
I mean, being 10 yards less is not going to kill your game.
No, and we've talked to some golfers who tell me that they hit their three wood just as
far as driver.
Yes.
Which is a different problem, but that's for a different podcast right there.
Yeah.
Yeah, position yourself down the hole, make sure you're in position.
Like you saying, you know, just even if you're even, I think that there's a lot of chances
of a person getting up and down better than there is a person of hitting a hybrid from
180 on the green.
Yes.
So hit the six iron and now you're 15, 20 yards away.
Chip it up there, roll a putt in.
Right.
Go to the next tee.
Absolutely.
And keep enjoying the game and staying getting frustrated about it.
I big, big fan of all that.
So hopefully, so we got some, you know, get some good ideas in there for the listeners.
Just get them to kind of new year, maybe kind of rethink their thoughts as they get approach
of golf course, pull that scorecard out before you get there.
You always have a little bit of time to look at the difficult holes and put it on there.
Okay.
Hey, I'm okay to make a bogey or even a double, depending on what kind of break.
Yeah.
Depending on what your handicap is.
Don't be afraid to take a, you know, an extra stroke or two extra strokes, whatever it is.
And use a tee out there.
Yeah.
Use a tee.
I like that.
So, okay.
That's good.
So want to thank you once again, Dynamic Golf Podcast here.
We're really enjoying bringing you the content.
I'm your cohost, Tim McElvan and with Sean Klotz.
Hey, T Mac.
This has been great.
We're looking forward.
We got the PGA show come up in two weeks.
So we'll get some good, hopefully some good guests and also just some good reports and
some of the stuff coming up.
It's cool to see the PGA back in action.
Yes.
Sony invitation was last week and it's a different winter.
Well, a lot of news in the, in the world of PGA, right?
The PGA starting back up.
Tigers left Nike, probably getting a new caddy.
So it's really exciting this time of year, I think.
It's hard to like almost follow where the guys are at now.
Like Roms with the live tour.
I need a program just to keep up with everything.
Exactly.
No, but it's good stuff.
Good, good time to be a golfer.
It will get better in Florida.
We know it hasn't been the greatest weather.
The weather's been a little trash, but it's snowing up north.
So we can't whine about it too much.
Exactly.
If you can't play outside, you come indoors.
Come on over here to one stop golf shop.
That's it.
Exactly.
So anyways, I look forward to the next one.
T Mac and good luck to you guys.
Just think your way through the golf, through the golf course a little better.
Thank you and have a great day.
Bye.
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