Course Management

When I receive phone calls during a round of golf, callers being busy bodies would usually ask where I was and what I was doing. I would tell them that "I am on course". "Oh, what course are you taking?" They would ventured. They must be thinking that it was some kind of seminar and not a golf course. It is precisely that when you are out on a golf course that you are learning "course management" as if it were a management course with decision making all the way. This is why we should keep an office meeting not more than an hour for two hours is a conference and three hours is a seminar and four hours or more is a game on the golf course. One important aspect that can be neglected by some is to turn up early. Not only is this respectful but it is good etiquette and necessary for you not to rush.

The Meal

Professional sportsmen only have certain kind of meals before any game that can help them enhance their health, balance, energy and stamina. Here we have local laksa, mee siam, nasi emak and chicken rice just to name a few. Hardly stuffs that can enhance your game. Choose wisely.

To prevent cramps, you need a bit more salt in your system than usual. Have bananas to boost energy for example. Coffee has caffeine which is like Red Bull. Though Red Bull with its engine roaring and leading the charge at F1, over reliance on it can be detrimental and over dosage can be fatal. Consume your food just sufficiently so you won't end up feeling and looking like a python that has just swallowed a goat. How do these snakes ended up? At the zoo if lucky and maimed and cut in pieces or shot at if not.

The Weather

No matter how good you are at the end of the day, the number of people attending your funeral is dependent on the weather. In Singapore, the weather is unpredictable. Hot and sunny can quickly turn into wet and gloomy and vice versa. So when it looks cloudy, do still paint your face with sun block. Look at the SPF factor and if it's SPF 30 it means it can protect you for 3 hours, SPF 50 for 5 hours and so on but largely SPF 30 is enough since you should re-apply at half-time.

A sunny day is however preferred to a wet one with stoppages or with buggy restricted on track. Sunny days are also no guarantee for good scores and when you are losing I know you pray for rain so that you can get your ABC (All Bets Cancelled). Worse still you are playing so well and leading on all fronts and it rains because it seldom happens. Not the rain but playing well.

Decisions

There isn't any occasion in a day in your life where you are called upon to make so many decisions, some of which are critical and deadly life and death situation and do or die mission. Your decision making process starts at the breakfast or lunch table - what to eat before a game? The savvy pro would usually go for the pro foodstuffs like pasta, a bit of chicken, etc. finish off with some fruits or bananas but at local clubs save for a few they only serve junk food - laksa, mee siam and yesterday's char siew pao. You pay quite an upmarket price for it but most still taste like crap. You will make more decision on the golf course than at the office even if you are a hotshot CEO. Left or right? Draw or fade? 5 iron or 4 hybrid? 7 or 9 iron? Lay up and attack? Many more....

Calamities Galore

Way before you get to this part you will have to get to the club early. Do not make others wait for you. They too are busy and have their problems too. Besides, golf is about timing and being late makes you rush through everything - getting your car parked, changing in the locker room, lunch, etc. and by rushing you will only affect your own game later as your momentum is going too fast and you will swing like the way you feel.

Self Destruction

If you have watched the movie Predator you will notice when the Predator was about to come to an end, it will punch a few key and then it will self destruct by blowing up. Let me tell you that you will see more self destruction at the golf course then in the movies.

First Tee

The first tee is important as it is sometimes close to the club house and even when not, you 'll have buggies queuing and many eyes are on you. You want to make that first impression and have a good start even though a good start is no guarantee of a good ending. Carl Lewis was always last off the blocks but watch him go after 30-40 metres. If you look closely here, you see a stretch of bunker all the way on the left. This means that if you don't wish to get in the bunker you will be forced right where you will find the trees with a driver distance. It was designed to screw you up. Sadistic. What options do you have? Most people would take their driver anyway and let fate decide. If you are good at shot-making, you could try a "draw" shot. Otherwise, use a short club and play right like a fairway wood, hybrid or iron in such a way where your shot will go right but not long enough to get into the trees. Being macho without thinking is like Ip Man going into the market to fight with twenty people and then realise that you are not Ip Man.

Tricky Fairways

There will be some holes where the fairway is narrow. In this particular par 5 hole, you have a meandering stream to the left, bunkers in the middle and Out of Bounds to the right. Even the fairway is tilted and sloping towards the left calculated to bring your ball into the water or ending up in the hazard close to the water where you cannot ground your club even if you in the middle. You can hit to the right but not so long as to go OB. Or aim for the bunkers. In any case, always remember that rolling into the water incurs a one stroke penalty but you get to play from the nearest point where you landed before entering the water plus the stroke you have already played you shall be playing your third shot. When you incur a penalty stroke for OB, you will have to hit from the same spot from the last shot that went OB as your third shot (already incurred the stroke you played plus one stroke penalty). It is possible from here you might get into the water or OB again. Otherwise, reach for that shorter club. You can actually get 3 on with a seven-iron on par 5.

Attack Or Lay Up?

This one below is like 330m away with OB to the left after the buggy track and water on the right. Quite often I get asked by golfers: "Which way should I hit?" and I will say "Straight and to the centre of the fairway". Every hole is the same right? The monkeys in your mind start playing tricks. You start thinking "I want do draw it so that it will avoid water on the right" but your draw turn into a hook and bingo. Or you say I want to give it a mighty whack so that I would be left with 100m and then you end up on impact with an open face and it goes right. You didn't get the distance you want from the tee shot and left with 160-170m to the green and there is a waterway and some bunkers protecting the green. Do you have the skills and the distance to carry it out as landing short would be disastrous? Or should you lay it up before the water? Remember, it is a game of percentages. If you opt to attack, what is the percentage of putting it on?

Choose Flat Ground, Tee From Side Of Danger

When teeing off, choose a flat ground to place your tee so as to prevent the club head from digging into an undulated ground. Always tee from the side of danger. If you see water on the right, tee from the right (side of danger) adjusting ever so slightly for your shot to go left of the fairway. Conversely, when you see OB on the left, tee from the left (side of danger) and make a very small adjustment for your shot to go right of the fairway. You are so clever, then what should we do when we have OB on one side and water on the other? Wide fairway, no problem. Narrow fairway, use a 3-wood, hybrid or iron instead of a driver for it is more accurate. If you insist on being macho, it is better to be in the water than OB. You take one shot and one penalty for each scenario but for OB you have to play at the same spot where you took your last shot and may get OB again or go into the water while for rolling into the water, you play from the point of entry. It is safer. Never follow the orientation of the tee box marker. They are there just as a guide. Find your own. Workers will just plonked it down, they are not there to align your target. It is not their job.

Bunkers
If you get into fairway bunkers, first find out if they are waste bunkers as you are allowed to rest your clubs only when they are waste bunkers. If they are too deep use a higher lofted club. From green side bunkers, your aim is to get the ball onto the green - any part unless you are highly proficient do you attack the pin. Otherwise, look for the lowest lid and get out.















Play To Percentage

Everybody wants to tee off long with a driver then hit another long shot to get onto greens in regulation. That is an ideal and as you know ideals in life can get one killed. If like this picture you are 170m away and you probably can get it on only one out of five times, that's only 20%, don't try it unless there are no water, OB, rough, bunkers and trees along the way as 80% of the time you will screw up. Use your most confident club to get close. You will save strokes. Even if you can hit 170m into a bunker, would it not be better to go 150m and land short of the bunker and attack from there. Will you get better results? You bet.

Planning Your Next Shot

When you are about to hit your current shot, you got to think about your next one before you hit. When you don't, that's why you don't play like Tiger. Tiger has a plan on what to do if he lands short or long and he finds the spot for greater margin for error and better recovery, mostly. Away from water or thick rough. If from 262m, what would you do? Most people will pull out their fairway wood to hit even if they do not find it comfortable and get into all kinds of troubles. Some folks will simply hit it so that their next shot is left with using their most confident club say they go for 140m and be left with a comfortable 122m or if their favourite distance is 130m then they just need two similar shots. We have to curb our natural animal instinct.

Par 3s

Par 3s are the shortest even for the longest ones at 200m. It seems the easiest but is it? This is where you need a bit more precision on landing and distance control. In golf, distance is measured from the tee box to the middle of the green - always. Front pin is always a red flag, pin in the centre is either white or sometimes yellow while blue or chequered is for pin at the back of the green. Tee box markers where you tee from may not be the right distance to the green as they will shift them all over the tee box for maintenance, so the correct distance is from the stone marker on the tee box which they do not shift. Add or deduct from there. You could be teeing from an elevated tee box going onto a downhill green and you will need to subtract some estimated distance from there. A strong head wind can reduce your distance by as much as 10% while a strong back wind will help carry your shot but not as much as 10% you find in resistance from the head wind, slightly less.

When you have a large green, you may put it on but when it is too short or too long, you will find yourself putting from 30m. It may be better to be on the fringe and nearer to the hole and as in George of the Jungle - watch out for that tree!

What do you do when you have a pond before the green? Play it longer as it is better to be over than under.

In this one below, you are 180-190m away with a large waterway in play. A hook or draw can sent you into the watery grave. You will also find strong head wind or sweeping side winds. The landing area near the green and the green itself is sloping towards the water and you may still end up there. You wil either have to play it short to get in or much further right if you want to attack it long.

On a bad day, you can be driving your car in a desert where there is only one tree and you can crash into that lone tree. I don't know what you might call it but when you hit that tree the ball can ricochet anywhere or drop just below the tree. This is then call "tree under" as in "three under".

Narrow fairways surrounded by trees can be intimidating even when there are not water or OB. For many weekday or weekend social golfers, the more you wish to avoid the bunker or the tree, the more you find yourself getting there. You will hear folks suggesting to you that if you want to avoid the bunker aim for the bunker and if you want to avoid the tree, aim for the tree. What kind of logic is that? Warp? Well, maybe sometimes, it works.

Short Par 4s

Short Par 4s put you in two minds. Do your regular stuffs or attack in style. This one you see here is about 310m dogleg right. If you hit to the left side of fairway you are left safely with 130-140m to the green. Long hitters will have a problem this way as their shots will roll over and into the thick rough at the other end after the buggy track. It is slightly better if could you hit over the left bunker but that is tricky if you are found short. Alternatively, you have the the game and the guts, just go for the jugular when you have a good back wind - attack just left of the right bunker but ensure it doesn't go too right to hit the trees. When you can pull this off, you will be left with 50m or less. Besides, you can strut around like a peacock.

The Fat Lady Sings

In soccer, the game is not over till the referee blows the final whistle. In opera, the concert is not over till the fat lady sings and then curtains. You are leading and approaching the last few holes sometimes leading crucially and marginally but you are also tired, maybe hungry. You can get careless. I must have lost a few condos here. Not only me, the professionals experienced it too. Keep fit to play golf and not play golf to keep fit.

I don't know about you but anyone who can go for a week without drinks are really camels. Trouble is some golfers can push beers into your hands you suspect they may be working for beer companies. The temptation is always there for a few tippers in our hot and humid climate but it can affect your last few holes. Ah, now I know why I am getting the drinks. I notice that I get more beers when playing well and left alone when playing badly. However, when you are feeling tired or frustrated, do not let your opponents know it. You need to appear like a swan. On the surface, you appear calm, elegant and graceful. Unseen and below the water, paddle like mad.

Well, you think all planning and decision making ends here. The option is yours to shower first or not and decide what to eat. If it's your regular club, you get weary just thinking of the food even if they were good.

Just relax, watch the sun set and enjoy the silhouette of the sky and light dance.

A bad day for a golfer can be very frustrating but a bad golf day is better than a good working day! If you feel hopeless and in despair at any time, just click on this life-changing video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcctg0esEQE

Remember, golf is for people who haven't got enough frustrations at work or in life.

Golf as in life, play as it lies.