What’s the percentage of time that you take out your 3 wood for your second shot on a Par 5 hole? If you’re like most Golfers, the answer could be 80% or higher. Though, the Players on the PGA Tour aren’t even close to that high of a percentage.

So why are you using your 3 wood more than the PGA Tour Player? And please don’t say because the PGA Tour Players hit their Driver so much farther than you – because they play a golf course that’s much longer than the course you play – so things balance out.

I feel this is an important question to ask since we’re always working to help Golfers with their personal battles to combat the ‘Blow-up Hole’. I believe that the number one culprit in holding you back from playing more great rounds of Golf maybe the occasional ‘Blow-up Hole’.

For example: You’re going along – playing a pretty good round of Golf after 7 holes and then all of a sudden ….. ‘Blow-up’. How did this happen? You were playing so well and then out of nowhere you make an 8 on a Par 5 and now your score is back to what it always is after 8 or 9 holes. If you do this once on the front nine and once on the back nine – it’s the difference between the 89 you want and the 95 you keep getting. Or the 99 you want and the 105 you keep getting.

You look back after the 9 holes and say to anyone that will listen (even though they’ve most likely heard you say it after every 9 holes), “If I could just get rid of those ‘Blow-up Holes’, I’d have a good score.”

Let me ask you a few questions – How many ‘Blow-up Holes’ have been caused by your 5 iron? On-the-other-hand, how many ‘Blow-up Holes’ have been caused by your 3 wood? Has your 3 wood caused more or less ‘Blow-up Holes’ than your 5 iron?

Now, there will always be one person out there that’ll say that they make more ‘Blow-up Holes’ because of bad shots with their 5 iron than their 3 wood. Though, I’d probably need to see it to believe it – but I guess it’s possible.

Now what causes most ‘Blow-up Holes’? Does a bad tee shot into the trees automatically cause you to take an 8 on a par 5? No, not at all!

Just yesterday, I was with a Golfer on a par 5 that hit a good drive that had a little hook to the left. The ball took a big jump to the left when it hit the ground and went into the trees about 250 yards from the center of the green with no shot to advance the golf ball closer to the hole. The Golfer hit it out onto the fairway and had 260 yards left to the center of the green after two shots.

What would’ve you done from here?

I feel that if you would’ve gone on to make an 8 or more on this hole, that the bad Drive would’ve had very little to do with your bad score. I believe that the 3 wood that you would be trying to get as close to the green as possible for your 3rd shot – but ended up half-topping into the fairway bunker 200 yards away from the green, that led you into hitting your 4th shot with a 3 iron that hit the sand a little behind the golf ball (in your attempt to get close to the green); that led into your 5th shot being a 180 yard shot to the center of the green with your 4 iron which you hit pretty well and ended up only a few yards left of the green in another sand bunker – did more to influence your ‘Blow-up Hole’ than the bad drive did.

Have you ever – “been there, done that”?

Look at the Stat of the Week below in this Golf Improvement Weekly to see where the Players on the Nationwide and PGA Tour have their worst scores. It isn’t on the Par 5’s where they use their 3-woods less than you do even though the Par 5’s they play are often well over 575 yards.

Well, the Golfer that I was with yesterday took out his 5-iron from 260 yards for his 3rd shot and hit the golf ball to about 110 yards to the center of the green. Then hit his Pitching Wedge to about 20 feet of the hole and made the putt for Par.

And you know what? He made it look simple. And even if he didn’t make the putt – he would’ve got out of the hole that had the potential to ‘Blow-up’ – with a Bogey that wouldn’t have hurt his score.

‘Blow-up Holes’ don’t happen just because of bad tee shots – ‘Blow-up Holes’ happen because you’re not playing to your Strengths. ‘Blow-up Holes’ happen because you’re playing to your Weaknesses.

The Monkey doesn’t play to their Strengths or away from their Weaknesses – they just hit ‘whatever’

The Player plays to their Strengths so that they’ll never even have to consider their Weaknesses

When’s the last time you played like a Player and made a conscious effort to have a PLAN for all 18 holes?

Go Ahead Be A Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon