Why You Need This: In this golf strategy video, you'll learn some great tips for making more birdies.

It starts with a plan.

As you approach your shot...

Take a few moments to play out the different scenarios in your head.

In the video, you'll see how I take on a mid-range par 3 that has a bunker on the left front...

And out of bounds long left.

Now, the most common advice would sound something like this...

"Hit it to the center of the green and take your par."

Does that sound right?

If so, when should you go for it?

I mean, there's almost always some sort of danger for each hole...

...whether it be water, a bunker, or out of bounds.

In the video, you'll learn a great process to help you determine when to go for it...

And when not to.

Here's a quick summary to help reinforce what you'll learn in the video...

Shorter shots (within 140 yards): be aggressive and go for the pin unless the pin location is truly crazy like 10 feet away from the water.

Mid-range shots (140 to 180 yards): this is where it starts to get interesting. If you're a low handicap player, then go for the pin. Again, reconsider if there's a crazy pin location.

Longer shots (over 180 yards): this is where it makes sense to be more conservative and to do your best to just hit the ball safely onto the green. The stats reveal that your dispersion at these distances increases to the point were the risk starts to get nutty. Even if you're a great golfer, err on the safe side.

Also, in the video, you'll learn when to fade or draw the ball...

And you'll get some tips on when you should alter your shot trajectory.

Watch this video now to learn my golf strategy to get more birdies!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:53

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, welcome back. I’ve got a great video for you on strategy on these par 3s. We’re going to go over our three-step process on deciding what type of strategy we’re going to use.

I tell you, a lot of strategy out there I just don’t like it, because it’s always telling you to be safe, and it’s always saying to lay up to the big part of the green. Take your par, move on to the next hole, pars are good, all that kind of stuff.

But the top guys that are out there, the guys that are playing really well, they’re making a lot of birdies. You should go out and try to make as many birdies.

If I’m sitting here with a good opportunity to make a birdie, I’ve got to go for it, try to take advantage of that. It’s just a heck of a lot more fun to play golf if you’re making more birdies.

So we’re going to talk about the right strategy to eliminate the big number. We don’t want to make the doubles and triple bogies, that kind of thing. But to also take advantage of making birdies when we can.

The first thing is, is where’s my aiming point. Where am I going to try to hit the ball. So here, w can see the green out in the distance. I’ve got a par 3, about 152-153 yards, it’s probably playing about 157, there’s some wind in to us.

There’s a bunker on the left short, and then to the left side of that you can kind of see, I don’t know if you can see this kind of slope off, but if you miss the green to the left, it slopes down into a hazard on the left.

So not a lot of room left there. The pin is a little bit on the left side, left center of the green.

On the right side it’s pretty flat all the way over until you see the trees on the right, so pretty easy up and down, pretty easy chipping on the right side. The right side is definitely the safe side.

From here, I’m asking myself how often am I going to hit it close to the pin from this distance? If you’re 100 yards out, if you’re 120 yards out, pretty much everybody should be taking dead aim at the pin.

Unless you’re a beginning golfer, shooting in the 120s or 130s, you should be trying to knock that pin down from 100 or 120, unless it’s just a crazy dangerous area for the pin. We’re pretty much going to go at all those pins.

When we get to those mid-range shots, let’s say 140 to 160, then it’s going to depend on your skill level. For pros, or for players that are nearly scratch golfers, you should go at a lot of pins from that range, because you feel comfortable that you’re going to be able to hit the green regardless.

We’re going to try to hit it nice and close. As you get farther out, let’s say 180-plus, especially as you get 200 yards and farther out, from there that’s when you want to go toward the middle of the green.

Play it to the areas where it’s easy to get up and down. The statistics tell us no matter how good we’re feeling, no matter how cool it would be to get a birdie on a 215-yard par 3, it just hardly ever happens.

So hard to hit it close enough to where we have an easy putt to make a birdie. So lay up to the middle of the green there.

Short holes? Let’s go at the pin every time. Midrange, let’s go at some of those if you’re feeling good. If you don’t feel like you have your game that day, let’s lay up a little bit away from the hole.

Then the longer holes, 180-200 yard plus, we’re going to go to the middle of the green on all of those.

Here, midrange, I feel pretty good. Not a ton of wind out today, not an extremely difficult par 3. I’m probably going to go almost right at this pin. Maybe just a few feet to the right, give myself a good chance for birdie.

That’s the line that I’m going to pick, and then now which way am I going to play the shot shape? This is something we talk about a lot in the Top Speed Golf System is, we need to be able to hit the ball high, and low, we need to be able to hit draws and fades.

The reason for this, is so when we get out to the course, we can actually put this to action and really maximize our margin for error.

Here, if I was to play a fade, I’m going to have to line up all the way at the left edge of this bunker, and then get that ball to fade back in. Well what happens if I pull that shot a little bit? It’s going to go in the hazard.

If it doesn’t fade on me, it’s going to go in the bunker or miss to the left where it’s a tough up and down. If it does fade, it will be pretty good. So I’ve got two out of three scenarios are not going to be good for me, those are going to be tough scenarios.

If I’m going to play a draw, now I’m going to line up a little bit to the right of the flag. If I miss it t the right, it’s going to be perfectly fine in the back area of the green. Easy two-putt, or an easy up and down.

If I hit it dead straight, it doesn’t draw, it’s going to be right in the middle of the green, and I’m going to have a 10 or 15-footer for birdie.

If it does draw, it’s going to be right on the flag which would be perfect. I could even overdraw it and it’s still going to be on the green. So I’ve got a lot more margin for error if I can play a draw.

That’s why we practice those on the range, and that’s why I give you guys so many drills talking about how to play a fade, how to play a draw.

Then lastly, we’re looking at how high I should hit this ball. This is more for advanced players, your lower handicaps. If I got wind into my face, I’m going to tend to want to hit that ball lower so it will go through the wind and won’t get beat up by the wind and shorten that up.

If I’m downwind, I may want to go ahead and hit it higher, let it ride the wind out. Also I’m looking at what’s the ball going to do when it lands.

If it’s going to stop dead like this one, it’s not really going to roll out very much. I can pretty much hit any trajectory I want to.

If there’s a big slope and it’s going to roll over the green because it’s really firm and fast, and I can roll it up on the green, then I might want to play a low ball to roll it onto the green, or I might want to play a higher ball to get it to stop.

Again, that’s where typically those longer par 3s, where we’re not going to be able to hit it right at the pin.

Here for me, I’m going to play a little bit of a draw so I can play the safer side of the green. Start out toward the middle of the green. I’m going to draw it right at the flag. I want to go ahead and be aggressive here, I feel like I’ve got a good chance to make a birdie on this one.

Then I’m going to play my normal trajectory, because there’s not a lot of wind, and this ball’s going to pretty much stop no matter what.

I’m going to aim about 10 yards or 10 feet right of the flag, I’m going to try to draw it in right on top of the flag. Let’s see how close I can get.

There we go, wasn’t the best hit shot. I kind of hit it a little bit straight, never really drew too much for me. I blocked it out slightly, but I’m kind of on the right side of the green.

So I mis-hit a shot. Everybody’s going to mis-hit some of them, and that’s what the strategy is about.

I was going for that flag, but because I had a good strategy, I had a bad mis-hit, still on a safe par of the green. I’m going to be able to easily make a par, go to the next one, where I can fire at another pin.