Golf Professionals and their caddies rarely place much focus on the distance to the flag when they consider an approach shot. First, they determine their cover number (the minimum number the ball must fly to avoid the worst trouble). Then, they think about their shot dispersion pattern for the club they’ll be considering.

Of course,  they’ll be aware of the width of their shot dispersion pattern.
Note that most right-handers have a shot dispersion pattern that will reflect a pulled shot to the left and will probably go further than a faded or sliced shot to the right. That means that there’s a tilt to their shot dispersion pattern.

But they’ll be as interested, if not more interested, in the front-to-back dispersion.

That’s because they want to make sure that their imperfect strike goes further than the worst trouble they can find. They’re planning for their ‘miss’.

If they were planning for perfection, they would be aiming at the flag.

Instead, they look at the ‘cover number’ and their ‘shot dispersion pattern’ and aim back left. That takes the bunker out of play. Pull it long, and they still have an up-and-down opportunity. And the imperfect strike leaves them with a birdie opportunity. 

There’s an amazing implication in that thought. It means that many of the birdies you see professionals make, are the result of IMPERFECT SHOTS.

Thinking golfers know that while “golf is the search for perfection, it is a game of misses”.

In a playing lesson, we’re looking to help improve your golf so that the scale of your “misses” is reduced and the likelihood of you hitting good shots is increased. We’re also trying to help golfers adopt an approach to the game that reduces the frustrations, improves their enjoyment, and lowers their score. Book a playing lesson with us below.