Recently I played with three other players who should have shot at least four strokes better than they did. And that was only for nine holes. The only reason was, that they weren't thinking.
First hole, reed-lined water hazard on the right. Player A hits his ball off the tee into the reeds, but it's playable. He takes out a 7-iron and gives the ball a whack. The ball shoots out, across the fairway, and into a field that borders the course. Which is out of bounds. For his next shot, he chips out into the fairway with a wedge. Why didn't he do that the first time?
Play Yard Baby
First hole, Player B hits his second shot into the same water hazard. He is about to drop his ball one club-length outside the hazard, which he's allowed to do, and asks me if this is correct. I say, Yes, but dropping there would give him an ugly lie, so I mention that he can also drop the ball back as far as he wants on a line connecting the pin and the ball's point of entry into the hazard. Back into the fairway if he wants. So he drops a little further back, but still in the rough, and skanks his next shot.
Second hole, player C is about 100 yards from the green, in the left side rough, with a tree about a dozen yards in front of him. He takes out his wedge (after all, it's only a hundred yards) and hits the ball. Right up into the tree. It caroms straight down to the ground. Why not punch an 8-iron under the tree?
And on it went. Now, these players weren't that bad, they could hit the ball fairly well and were all right around the greens. But not using their head cost them strokes they didn't need to take.
Here's how to do it right. On the final hole, a par 5, I was in the fairway, 240 yards from the green, which is about thirty feet above the fairway. In my wildest dreams I can't hit the green. Nor do I want to go for all the distance I can and end up pitching onto the green from an uphill lie. What to do? How about hit a 7-iron to a place where the fairway is still level, and a wedge onto the green?
The point here is, that you have different shots in your skill set. Use them to get the ball into the hole in the easiest and most certain way possible. No one ever said if you're 200 yards from the green that you have to pull out your 200 yard club. Not if playing short and chipping on gives you a much better chance of getting the lowest score you can.
Before you hit that golf shot, think! There might be a better way to do it.