Bank holiday Monday, I am sitting on a bench at Craigmillar eating my lunch.

Watching groups of golfers as they tackle the 11th hole.

The 11th hole at Craigmillar is around 130 yards long, bunkers front and side, with nothing at the back.

The pin for the day was tucked right behind a rather deep bunker on the right hand side of the green, with a light breeze from behind and very firm greens.

I sat and watched 4 groups of 4 players come through, with the lowest handicap probably around 10 handicap.

Every single player went for the flag!

I proceeded to see balls in the bunker (shown above) or right of the flag predominantly.

Leaving the golfers in question absolutely no shot to the flag and some rather high numbers ensued.

The fat side of the green, what is this?

The fat side of the green.

Anything left, right, long or short (or a combination) of the flag that you potentially have more room to work with on your next shot.

The short side of the flag, what is this?

Short side of the pin.

Anything right, left, short or long of the pin where there is no room to the pin if you miss the green.

So why is this so important?

Well as covered before, if golf is all about making your next shot easier and we know that we do not hit the perfect shot each time.

We should strategise appropriately for this?

Keep the high numbers of you card?

In his recent win at Riveria on the PGA Tour Dustin Johnson, the current world no1, 58 of his 72 approach shots in the tournament were on the fat side of the pin. 4 out of his 5 approach shots were on the fat side of the pin!

So from this we can deduce Dustin Johnson was not aiming at the flag all that much!

I suggest you consider similar tactics! If you are interested in playing a playing lesson then call  07939 564877

A quick nod to this podcast for some of the information on this blog today.

Great information here from Scott Fawcett and Mark Immelman on course management.

Link to the podcast here