How Do You Choose the Right Club Off the Tee? Course Management Tips

On a par 4, the natural reaction is to pull out the big dog and send it as far as you can. Take one good look at some holes, though, and you’ll see that’s not the shot.

I played a challenging 405-yard par 4 with coach Rick Sessinghaus, and we talked through every decision out loud. Here’s the process, so you can use it on your own course.

This post comes from my YouTube lesson: Out-Smart The Golf Course! (Course Management Tips)

Should you always hit driver on a par 4?

No. We want driver because we want to get as close to the green as possible. But on this hole, the trouble gets greater the closer you get to the green.

So we did our due diligence. Using a rangefinder, the last tree on the left was 281 yards, with a hazard just beside it. That made it a maximum number. A cart in the distance, at roughly 235 yards, gave us a sensible minimum.

How do you decide where to hit your tee shot?

With the students I teach, a lot of it starts with one question: where is the worst possible miss?

On this hole, long and left ran into trouble, and going right with a driver risked losing the ball. That instantly pulled me away from driver. From the fat spot, I’d have a wedge in, with enough height to get over any trees and stop the ball.

So I took a 4-iron. Long irons aren’t always the easiest club to use, so if that’s you, trade it in for a hybrid and tee it up to give yourself the best chance of good contact.

Why does dispersion matter when you pick a club?

Think about how far your misses spread with each club. A driver has a much bigger dispersion than a 3-wood, hybrid or 4-iron, so it goes right or left a lot more.

Your best driver would be awesome. But that’s the smallest spot it could go.

Knowing that frees you up, too. If you know you can hit a 4-iron to a certain spot, you stop feeling so anxious and tight over the ball.

It also changes what a good score looks like. Par is a good score on a hole like this, and bogey may be a good score for an 18 handicap. Rick has seen people make triple bogey here in a heartbeat because they got greedy on the first shot and again on the second. Play it like a little chess match and minimize the damage.

What should you do in your pre-shot routine?

Making the decision is only the first part. Then you get more specific, so you’re committed before you pull the trigger.

For me, that meant standing behind the ball, drawing a line toward the carts in the distance and picking a little drop fade. It may still go right or left, but I want a clear intention. Then I rehearsed a slightly abbreviated, punchy swing, because I know the face won’t turn over and send it too far left.

If your heart is pumping, Rick likes a smooth breath with a longer exhale. I always feel most prepared when I’m in constant motion, because the more I stop, the more tension builds and the more thoughts rush in. For more on this, read about realistic rehearsals in your pre-shot routine.

How do you calm down over a scary tee shot?

On a challenging shot, I go back to visualizing the hole from a bird’s-eye view. That’s why I love GPS maps. A hole looks far less ominous from above, with all that fairway to hit, than it does when you’re standing on the tee.

And when you hit a good one, don’t just move on. Rick’s advice is to reverse engineer it. Golfers beat themselves up after bad shots, but rarely go back over what led to a good one. Did you have a clear target? A clear shot in mind? Was it that last breath that calmed you down?

Want more help finding fairways? Read this simple trick for hitting more fairways.

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