The Daily Divot: Finding Fairways
Finding Fairways
“Successful tee shots are about keeping the ball in play and avoiding trouble than hitting fairways. Fairway bunkers, trees, penalty areas, and out of bounds cost golfers far more strokes than hitting it in light rough.”
-Jon Sherman (@practicalgolf)
I know checking off a fairway hit on the scorecard feels nice, but it’s overrated. The #1 goal should be avoiding trouble off the tee, and then hitting it as far as you can while achieving goal #1.
A little trick is to tee up on the same side of the tee box as the trouble. So if there’s water on the left, I’ll tee up on the left side of the tee box, and slightly turn my body away from the water. This shifts my dispersion area away from the hazard and gives me a bigger margin for error.
Another key part is accepting that the dispersion of your drive is going to vary a lot no matter how good you get.
The chart above is a dispersion chart for a top-ranked amateur. The players driver variance is roughly 70 yards from left to right!
Stop worrying about fairways, aim away from trouble and as Lou says, Manage Your Expectations.