In this edition of Play Smart, Gary Player explains how to get more fairways with a simple course management tweak.
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Welcome to Play Smarta regular GOLF.com game improvement column that will help you become a smarter and better golfer.
Power may be king in the current era of golf, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. accuracy off the tee. If you can’t find the short grass in a good grip, it won’t matter how far you hit the ball.
Hitting fairways at a higher percentage doesn’t always require changes to the swing. In fact, by making a few simple adjustments to your setup, you can easily improve your shot without doing it any changes in your swing.
Gary Player He recently published a fascinating post on this topic on X, which you can see below. In it, he explains that a major mistake he sees recreational players make is trying to hit the ball straight. It may seem like a counterintuitive line of thought, but once you break it down, it makes a lot of sense.
Fix this glitch to hit more roads
Think about the last round of golf you played. How many shots have you hit that would qualify as fair? Now, how many of those shots came with the driver?
If you’re like most recreational golfers, you likely haven’t hit many fairway shots. As the Player said in his post, Ben Hogan used to say that the fair ball was “a fluke”. That’s where the trouble starts for weekend warriors. They always settle for the right shot.
Trying to hit a fair shot is not bad course management, but it’s also not the smartest strategy. Most golfers have a typical swing shape, whether it’s right to left or left to right, and most driver shots move in that direction. You must use that knowledge to your advantage.
When you decide on the fairway, you are giving yourself maximum room for error on both sides of the fairway. However, if you know your shot will travel in a predictable direction, aiming with that in mind will make the fairway effective bigger ones.
For example, if you’re right-handed and you hit the ball, line up on the left side of the fairway. As long as the ball is moving in its typical direction, you will have made the fairway twice as large as when you aimed for the middle. If you usually draw the ball, line up to the right.
“If you aim for the middle, then you cut the road halfway,” says Player. “That means a shot that pulls a lot ends up on the hard left and a ball that fades a lot ends up on the hard right. The game is quite difficult, so try to give yourself as much advantage as possible.”
It’s a small change, but one that can pay big dividends if you implement it correctly.
