Jason Day was in contention for a while after winning last week, even though he was ‘all over the place’ during the last round. He still didn’t seem to have much control over the ball on certain shots, but showed his class to get the ball round in a low score each day. He did hit one shot on the Saturday that we can learn from and it’s a shot that we often see during fittings and lessons.

He took a driving iron off the tee on the drive-able 300 yard par four 12th hole and aimed out to the right of the green, presumably to lay up as other hitters of his distance were requiring woods to reach the green, which has water up to the left hand edge. His bad shot has been a hook and this one also started left, to his exclamation, and as one of his hands came off the club in disgust, the ball landed in line with the green, and continued to bound forwards, ultimately reaching the surface and finishing close. The commentators remarked at how far he hit the iron but I’m certain this was a mis-hit.

As mentioned we see this shot often during fittings and it’s actually a very valid way of playing golf. Lots of golfers play every shot this way, aiming way off to the right and hitting a low spinning shot that flies left of where they’re aiming and goes a long way. This golfer would hit the ball much shorter if they tried to improve this situation. In order for them to aim straight at a target, they would need to start the ball off much further to the right and this would make it fly higher, with more spin and ultimately would go a lot shorter. Next time you’re playing, check out the other golfers in your group and I’m sure you’ll see this happening. Aiming out right and hitting a pull or a hook off to the left (now at the intended target) is great way to play if you’re requiring more distance. Just take note that the ball will fly lower and you’ll get lots of run once you reach the green so take less club and go for it. For this golfer, a shot hit where they are aiming would be a bad shot and a bad goal. Going back to Jason Day, he doesn’t normally play this way but he had allowed for the fact this bad shot might occur with his club and aim selection which shows great course management skills.

The next big tournament is the US Open and we will have the sweep set up in the shop this weekend.