Virginia Golfer November / December 2014 | Page 10

Your Game by DAVE PELZ with JAMES A. FRANK Choose Your Side I I’m best known for teaching the short game and putting. So why am I writing about tee shots? Just as mastering the short game will help you shoot low numbers, a sound strategy from the tee sets up the rest of the hole, which also leads to good scores. Plus, as I’ve watched golfers at our schools, clinics or wherever I happen to be, I’m constantly amazed by how cavalierly some average amateur golfers approach the opening shot on every hole. FIT TO A TEE Most courses set tee markers fairly far apart, usually 15 to 20 feet side to side. That gives you a very big space in which to tee the ball. Golfers don’t seem to realize that moving from the left side of the tee to the right signifi- 8 cantly changes the angle of their ideal tee shot. If the width of the teeing area is 15 feet, moving from one side to the other and aiming in the correct direction can produce a margin of error of 40, 50 or even 60 feet across the width of the fairway. Ultimately, that can easily be the determining factor between hitting and missing the fairway—as well as the difference between being in play—or in bad country. It’s been my experience that one of the worst things you can do is stand in the center of the tee and try to hit the ball down the middle of the fairway. I don’t know of any golfers who hit it dead straight on a consistent basis. Watch tour professionals and you’ll see that they rarely aim down the center from the middle. They know VIRGINIA GOLFER | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 their most consistent shot pattern and play it, a practice amateurs should pay attention to and adopt. SHORT GRASS SOLUTIONS There is not a recipe for perfect driving, but if you typically hit the ball to the right off the tee, you should tee the ball as far to the right as the markers allow and aim to the left, favoring the left edge of the fairway. If you hit your usual fade or slice, you’re still likely to find the right side of the fairway because you’ve widened the landing area. If you happen to hit the ball straight, it will find the left side of the fairway or come to rest just into the left rough. Whatever the case may be, it’s likely findable and still in play. w w w. v s g a . o r g PELZ: CLEVELAND GOLF; JOHNSON: WARREN LITTLE/R&A/GETTY IMAGES; FURYK: KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES The secret to finding the fairway with your tee shot begins with knowing your tendencies