How to Play Par 5's

One of the most important parts on any par 5 is the second shot. If you hit your drive in the rough the most important thing to do is get your ball in a position where you can get the ball on the green and hopefully on the fairway as well.

If you managed to hit the drive in the fairway then you have 3 options. You can try to go for the green, that gives the most risk and the best reward. The most important thing to know when you go for the green is to assess your lie, if the ball is sitting up then go ahead and go for the green. Make sure that you check your aim before you hit the ball. It's always painful when you hit a spectacular shot and then you realize that you were aimed left and watch the ball roll into the water hazard. If you have a bad lie it's best to lay up and give yourself a wedge because topping a wood or a iron will hurt your score and play with your mind for the rest of the round.

The second option is to pick a yardage that your comfortable with like 70,80,90 yards where you know you can hit the green and hopefully get it close. My favorite yardage is 100 yards. If the hole is 500 yards and you hit a drive 250 yards, you could hit a wood up to the front of the green. That poses lots of risk for a very minimal reward, when instead I could hit a 9 iron to the 100 yard marker very consistently and then have my favorite yardage. That is a very good, safe play if your very good from a certain yardage.

The last strategy is to hit your second shot as far up to the green as you can and try to get an up and down or a short wedge shot. If your a good chipper and pitcher this could be the best play for you. The one downside of this strategy is that if your not confident with your woods or long irons than you have to accept that once in a while your probably going to hit the shot in the rough or into a hazard. The upside is very tempting but this is the middling option for risk and if you are not confident in your short game this probably isn't the strategy for you. Hopefully this will help you to succeed on all of the par 5's that your course offers.

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