{"id":1758,"date":"2016-01-31T21:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2021-07-22T06:11:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T13:11:04","slug":"play-golf-like-theres-no-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/play-golf-like-theres-no-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Golf Like There\u2019s No Tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, I put up a post that was secretly about the benefits of playing conservatively<\/a>. This post is openly about doing the opposite.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not contradicting myself. I\u2019m just giving you something else to think about.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re on the course, looking over a tricky shot, and thinking, \u201cI know I can hit that shot, but if I miss, there\u2019s water\/bunkers\/OB\/etc. I\u2019d better play it safe to keep from shooting the Big Number.\u201d <\/p>\n

So you do, and take a Gentleman\u2019s Bogey to the next tee, no happier, and still wondering if you should have tried that riskier shot.<\/p>\n

Yes, you should have. You\u2019ll never know how good you are if you never take a challenge, or if you don\u2019t learn how to take a challenge. And most of all, you\u2019ll never have all the fun golf can provide.<\/p>\n

Not every shot is challenging. I\u2019m talking about five or so shots per round. If you have the shot in your bag, accept the challenge. Play a full-sized game. Don\u2019t go small every time.<\/p>\n

Say you\u2019re 80 yards from the pin, but it\u2019s tucked behind a bunker. If you have confidence in your pitching game, don\u2019t chicken out toward the center of the green. Play right for the pin. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s how you\u2019re going to get your up and down. Regard the bunker as out of play. Forget about it. Play for down in two instead of guaranteeing down in three.<\/p>\n

Narrow driving hole? Out comes your fairway wood or some kind of hybrid iron. <\/p>\n

But if you have a little fade with your driver you can hit whenever you want to (and that\u2019s not a hard shot to learn) go with the Big Dog.<\/p>\n

Yes, sometimes you won\u2019t pull off the challenging shot and you\u2019ll end up with a double bogey. So? There are seventeen other holes.<\/p>\n

Or you don\u2019t want to play this way because bad rounds will raise your handicap. Well, the low scores you\u2019ll shoot offset the occasional bad ones, and why do you even have a handicap anyway, when all you\u2019re out there for is to have fun? <\/p>\n

It comes down to this. Don\u2019t play stupid shots. But if you know you can do it, then do it. Stretch yourself. Step out of your rut. <\/p>\n

You become a better player by hitting shots better players hit. <\/p>\n

And you\u2019ll have more fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, I put up a post that was secretly about the benefits of playing conservatively. This post is openly about doing the opposite. I\u2019m not contradicting myself. I\u2019m just giving you something else to think about. You\u2019re on the course, looking over a tricky shot, and thinking, \u201cI know I can hit … Continue reading Play Golf Like There\u2019s No Tomorrow<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-playing-the-game"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4qtRQ-sm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5809,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions\/5809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}