Why a golf holiday is one of the best places to learn course management

Course management is one of those phrases golfers hear constantly.

We know it matters.

We agree that we should be better at it.

Then somebody puts a driver in our hands and most of the good intentions disappear.

Golf holidays offer a particularly interesting opportunity to change that.

Because for once, you do not know the course.

And that can be extremely useful.

Familiarity can make us lazy

Think about your home course.

How many decisions do you genuinely make?

You arrive on the third tee and take the driver because you always take the driver.

You aim at the same tree.

You know which club you normally hit into the green.

The routine is automatic.

There is nothing wrong with that.

Local knowledge is one of the great pleasures of belonging to a golf club.

But familiarity can also hide poor decisions.

Perhaps you have been playing a hole the wrong way for 15 years.

Nobody questions it because you have always done it.

A new course removes that comfort.

Suddenly you have to think.

Start at the green and work backwards

One of the simplest things golfers can do on an unfamiliar hole is stop thinking only about the tee shot.

Look at the entire hole.

Where is the flag?

Where is the trouble around the green?

Which side gives you the easiest approach?

What distance would you actually like for your next shot?

Then work backwards.

Suppose you are playing a 360-yard par four.

The automatic thought might be:

"How far can I hit the tee shot?"

I would rather ask:

"What approach shot do I want?"

If you are comfortable from 130 yards, then your task is not necessarily to hit driver 240.

Your task might be to put the ball 230 yards from the green into the best part of the fairway.

Those are not always the same thing.

The shortest route is not always the easiest route

Golf course architects understand something golfers often forget.

We are greedy.

Show us the shortest route and we want it.

That is why bunkers, water and narrow fairways so often appear exactly where the ambitious player wants to go.

The sensible route may be slightly longer.

But if it gives you a better angle, a level lie or more room for error, it can still produce the lower score.

This is where playing with a professional can help.

Sometimes all a golfer needs is somebody to ask:

"Why are you aiming there?"

It is remarkable how often there is no answer.

Decide what a good score actually is

Another important part of course management is expectation.

A 22-handicap golfer does not need to make par on every hole to play good golf.

Neither does a 12-handicap golfer.

Yet golfers constantly turn difficult holes into disasters because they refuse to accept a five.

You miss the fairway.

You find the trees.

The sensible play is sideways.

Instead, you notice a gap roughly the width of a golf ball and begin imagining the greatest recovery shot of your life.

Ten seconds later, you are still in the trees.

Now you need the greatest recovery shot of your life again.

Good course management sometimes requires humility.

Take the five.

Walk to the next tee.

There will be another opportunity.

Playing a course again is incredibly valuable

This is one reason I like trips where we have the opportunity to see a course, or a style of course, more than once.

The first round gives you information.

The second allows you to use it.

You remember that the tee shot looked more intimidating than it really was.

You know the putt on the fifth green is quicker than it appears.

You realise there is far more room left of the 12th green than right.

That is how golfers become better at playing golf rather than simply better at hitting golf balls.

A scorecard does not tell the full story

After a round, I am often more interested in certain decisions than the final number.

Where did the doubles come from?

Did we take unnecessary risks?

How many shots disappeared from poor club choices?

Were we consistently short-sided around the greens?

Did one bad shot turn into three?

These questions are important because many recreational golfers assume the answer to lower scores must be technical.

Sometimes it is.

But quite often the swing is good enough to score several shots better than the golfer currently scores.

They simply need to stop making life so difficult for themselves.

This is coaching too

There is sometimes an assumption that coaching means changing the golf swing.

It can.

But being a better golfer involves much more.

Choosing clubs.

Reading situations.

Understanding your own tendencies.

Managing emotions after a mistake.

Knowing when to attack.

Knowing when to stop attacking.

Working out where the next shot needs to come from.

Those things influence your score every time you play.

And they become especially visible when we are travelling and playing courses we do not already know.

Take something home with you

The real value of a coaching holiday should not disappear when the suitcase is unpacked.

Perhaps you return home with a slightly improved short game.

Excellent.

Perhaps we have sorted out something in your swing.

Also excellent.

But I would be equally pleased if you came home thinking differently.

You stand on your own fourth tee and, for the first time in years, wonder whether driver is actually the right club.

You miss a green and choose the sensible recovery rather than the spectacular one.

You accept a bogey and move on.

Those are small changes.

Over eighteen holes, they become significant.

And over an entire golfing season, they can make the game considerably more enjoyable.

That, ultimately, is what I want from these trips.

Not just a week of good golf somewhere beautiful.

I want you to bring something useful home as well.