What The Club Golfer Can Learn From The Masters

Sky Sports Golf's Tim Barter – a long-time PGA Professional - on how we can all be educated by the game's greats.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler told me that he basically just hits the shot with the biggest margin for error. If there’s a pin hard left and no margin for error on the left, then he is going to aim it 25-30 feet right of the hole and try and draw it. If he draws it the right amount, he is going to end up just right of the hole. If he draws it too much, he’ll end up by the hole and, if he doesn’t draw it at all, he’ll end up in the middle of the green. Then, if he pushes it by mistake and misses the green right, he has got green to work with. So he is playing a shot that says the only way that I can miss on the short side is if I massively over hook it. And that is unlikely with his standard of play so he is playing a percentage shot all the time.

Club golfers often just aim at the pin, trying to make birdie on every hole, but there is no margin for error, they make a mistake and a bogey goes on the card. So it could help to actually take a detailed look at your course. Look at where they hide the pins on the days of the club championship and where you cannot afford to miss them, And, if you are in enough control of your game and you are not going to take too much time, have a think about tactically where you're going to aim, as the pin is not necessarily the best option.

If you look at a player's yardage book at Augusta, they are just full of notes. And again I’m very mindful that I don’t want to get people out there writing tons of notes about their own course and slowing up play but just make the odd note. Note down which putt breaks more than you think or which putt is a bit quicker than expected. Or where a particular chip is basically impossible when the pin is on that side – just make yourself more aware of what you want to be doing.