How Much Should Water Change Your Target?

Here is the decision that gets golfers in trouble. The flag is 154 yards away. The pond ends at 143. You have hit your 7-iron 155 before so that club comes out of the bag.

Before long, the swing has a little extra speed in it. The player knows the strike must be good, even if he never says it. The ball catches the bottom of the face and splashes into the pond. Nothing about that result was surprising.

I do not move every target away from water by the same amount. I want to know where the water is, what it takes to clear it and where this golfer usually misses. Those answers may point to another club. They may move the aim 15 yards. They may leave the original target alone.

Get the carry number first

Forget the flag for a moment. If the pond ends at 143 yards, that is the first number I need. I want enough club to cover it without asking for a perfect strike. Take a look at the bank as well. A steep slope can send a marginal shot right back into the water.

The lie may change my club choice. A 7-iron could comfortably cover the number from the fairway but produce a much less predictable result from the rough. Grass caught between the clubface and the ball can change launch and spin. I want some room for that uncertainty.

Go back to that 154-yard flag. If the front of the green is 146 and your 7-iron normally carries 148, there is hardly any room for an average strike. I am taking the 6-iron. It may finish beyond the hole and that is fine. I can work with a putt from the back half of the green. I cannot coach the last shot after it disappears into the pond.

That is why I don’t rely on the laser alone. It gives me 154 to the flag but says nothing about the 143-yard carry or how much green is behind the hole. The hazard and target yardages on a GPS fill in those blanks. Once I have all three numbers, I can tell whether the 6-iron has somewhere sensible to finish.

When the pond runs along the right

Now put the pond down the right side of the green. Carry is no longer my concern. I am thinking about a ball that starts right or drifts there.

Five yards of room will not help a golfer whose iron miss regularly finishes 10 or 12 yards right. I may aim that player at the middle of the green. On a narrow target, I may use the left edge. I make that call from the shots the golfer has been hitting, not the shot he hopes to hit next.

This is where golfers get caught by their own shot shape. A right-handed player aims over the edge of the pond because he expects the ball to draw. Then he hits it straight. The strike was fine. The starting line was not. Unless you can produce that curve on demand, do not make dry land depend on it.

If the big miss finds a bunker, we deal with it. What I will not do is aim a decent swing into the water. Move the starting line until the straight ball finishes on grass. Then picture your normal curve from there. That is the shot I want you looking at.

MyGolfSpy’s course-management guide makes a useful point about letting the lie and surrounding trouble influence the decision. Two shots from the same yardage may need different targets.

The flag can wait

Golfers get attached to a front pin over water because it is the number staring back from the rangefinder. I look behind it. If there are 20 yards of green between the hole and the back edge, the player has room to use another club. A putt from 30 feet is not a mistake.

With a back pin, I work from the other end. Another club may handle the carry but where will the ball finish? If long leaves a downhill chip or brings another hazard into play, I would rather play 10 yards short and take the uphill putt. The target has to make sense for the shot you are hitting and the one that follows.

Do this with one iron

Take the iron you usually use for this shot and hit 10 balls. Pick one marker for the flag, another for the front edge and decide where the pond begins. Count the thin shot. Count the one that starts right. Those balls belong to your pattern, even when you wish they did not.

After 10 shots, look for the miss that keeps coming back. Three balls starting right tell me something. One shank does not. If the range does not give you a clear target, place two alignment sticks flat on the ground to frame your starting line. Keep both sticks far enough from the ball that there is no chance of striking them.

Hit another group after changing the club or the target. Change one thing, not both. An extra club may clear the front without reaching the back. Moving the target left may keep eight balls dry instead of five. Use what you learn on the course.

Once you have chosen the club and line, look at the target rather than the pond. The water has already affected the shot. It does not need to follow you into the swing.