The A, B, C’s Of Every Golf Shot

Every shot you face on the golf course basically offers up 3 options. There’s an aggressive option. There’s a conservative option. And then there’s the cautious option. So for every shot you’ve got to get in the habit of assessing the 3 options and then choosing which option you’re going to play for the shot at hand. And here is an acronym which will help you to way up the 3 options…

A = Aggressive

B = Be Conservative

C = Caution (or Cautious)

An example of an A shot would be if a golfer hits a great drive down a long par 4 and they’re in the middle of the fairway with a great lie. They have 190 yards to go to the pin and that’s the perfect distance for a solid 4 wood. There’s a big bunker in the front of the green but this golfer has a lot of confidence in their 4 wood and they’re confident that they’re going to hit a good shot over the bunker. So that’s a situation where a golfer would choose the A (Aggressive) option.

An example of choosing a B (Be conservative) shot in that same situation may be hitting a 6 iron so the ball ends up in the fairway with a simple pitch over the bunker to the pin. But here’s a clearer example where most golfers should choose a B shot.

Let’s say you’re playing a short par 5, which is playing downwind, and you’ve hit a terrific drive straight down the middle of the fairway. You have a good lie and there’s 220 yards between your ball and the pin. But there is a small lake in front of the green that you need to carry. And to carry this lake you need to hit the shot 200 yards in the air.

You have a 3 wood that could do this but it’s at the very limit of how far you can hit the ball with that club. If you miss-hit the shot slightly it will probably end up in the lake. So a B shot would be to figure out a distance you’d like to be pitching from. You decide you’d like to pitch from 80 yards as that is a distance you’re confident from. So to do that you’d have to hit a shot 140 yards. For you that’s a solid 7 iron.

See, that’s smart thinking golf and it’s those sort of decisions that will help to slash shots from your score.

Now here is an example of a C shot. You’ve sliced your drive deep into some trees on the right of the fairway. You get to your ball and amazingly you can have a full swing. You’re 160 yards from a small green that is surrounded by deep bunkers.

As you’re assessing your shot options you notice a small opening in the trees that would be about the perfect height for a 6 iron shot. Also, that is the perfect distance for your 6 iron but you decide it’s too risky, because if you hit the shot just slightly less than perfect you’ll hit trees and who knows where the ball will end up. So you then try and find a way that you can get the ball to finish just in front of the green….before the bunkers.

To do this however you’d have to hit a low punch shot and make sure the ball travels the correct height. Because if it goes too high the trees will catch it, and if it goes too low the rough will stop it and you’ll still be in the trees.

So even though that’s a B shot option you think it’s still too risky. Now the C option (remember, C stands for caution) is to chip the ball out to the fairway and have a shot of about 140 yards. You’re confident you can get that 3rd shot on the green so that’s the smartest play and one that will greatly reduce your chance of a big number.

Now after reading this I need you to understand that you’ve got to apply this mental fundamental to all your straight forward shots as well. For example, let’s say you’ve hit a great drive on a par 4 hole. Your ball is sitting in the middle of the fairway with a perfect lie…and you’re 150 yards from the pin. But the pin is hard to the left side of the green. In fact, just 10 feet to the left of the pin is a big bank that will cause any ball left of the pin to run down it leaving a very difficult shot back.

Now in that case an A shot would be to fire straight at the pin. But you would only ever do that if your confidence was sky high and you’ve been stiffing your iron shots all day. Even then I’d say it’s a very risky shot.

Then you have a B shot which is to aim 15 feet right of the hole. And lastly a C shot would be to aim 30 feet to the right of the hole so it takes the bank completely out of play.

So when you’re assessing your shots you’ve got to look at where the ball is going to land as well and what could potentially happen to it.

This is true for every shot….even putting! And here’s an example to prove it.

Let’s say you’ve got a 5 foot putt with a slight right to left break. Now the A option there would be to ignore any break and aim straight for the back of the hole. To do this naturally you’re going to have to hit the ball quite hard and you do run the risk of running the ball way past if you miss, and possibly missing the next putt. But if you’re putting really well and your confidence is sky high then that may be a good option to take.

The next option…the B option is to aim your ball to finish about 1 foot behind the hole if it misses the hole. At that pace you’ll have to allow for the break but you have much more margin for error than the A option.

Finally a C option would be to allow for a lot of break and for the ball to just die in the hole. That way there’s no possible chance of a 3 putt but then the chances of the ball going in are much less than the B option.

Trust me, every shot you face in golf has these three options. The only exception is a simple tap in putt. So that’s the A, B, C rating that you should use before each shot you play. Now you know this you’ve got to put it into use. To help you do this here’s how to put this into action….

Before you play each shot I want you to see in your mind three types of shots. An A shot (Aggressive), a B shot (Be Conservative) and a C shot (Caution). For example, if your first hole is a par 5 and if you hit a perfect shot with a driver you’d have a good chance of getting to the green in two. That would be an A shot. Then if you hit a 3 wood off the tee you’d have more chance of hitting the fairway but you wouldn’t have a chance of hitting the green in two so that would be a B shot. Finally, you could hit a 5 iron off the tee which would almost guarantee a straight shot but you’d have a longish third shot. Naturally that would be a C shot.

So I want you to do this scenario of an A, B or C shot for every shot you face.

Important Note: An easy way to do this is simply to ask this question “what would be an A shot in this situation?”. Then ask that same question for a B shot and a C shot.

Once you’ve looked at the A, B, C options for each shot I then want you write down on a piece of paper the shot you’ve decided to use for each shot. Do this writing down before each shot and then commit to the shot you’ve chosen.

Tags: course management