How to Read a Course Before You Ever Tee Off
The shots that save your tournament are chosen at a desk on Tuesday. Aerials, yardage books and the three questions that turn an unfamiliar course into a plan.
Good players do not discover a course during the round; they confirm it. An hour with aerial imagery and a scorecard before you ever visit turns 18 unknowns into 18 decisions you have already made — which is most of what “course management” actually is.
The three questions, hole by hole
Where is the width? Measure the fairway at your driver distance, not at the pretty part near the tee. Plenty of holes are generous at 220 and honest at 280. If the landing zone narrows below about 25 yards with trouble on both sides, your tee club is probably not driver — decide that on Tuesday, not on the tee with adrenaline voting.
Where does a miss still play? Every green has a side that leaves a chip and a side that leaves a prayer. Mark the bailout on your notes for each hole, especially on par 3s and approaches over water. In competition your plan should assume the 70% shot, not the 95% one.
Which pins are not for me? Short-sided pins, pins behind bunkers with no green to work with, pins on the wrong tier — flag two or three per round as “centre of green, take your par.” The discipline to aim away is worth two shots a round at most levels of the game.
Build the one-page plan
Distil it to a single page in your yardage book: tee club per hole, the miss side, the no-go pins, and your green-light holes — usually the wide par 5s and any short par 4 where your wedge game is the favourite. On the course you are no longer analysing; you are executing a document. That is also why this work connects straight to The Mind pillar: decisions made calmly in advance are the ones your routine can actually protect under pressure.
Try it this week: take the course you play most and answer the three questions honestly. Most golfers find two holes they have been playing wrong for years — driver into the narrow neck, approaches aimed at sucker pins. Fix those two and you have bought shots with a pencil.
