Golf question
 

If you could have Tiger Woods at his absolute best always step in for you to hit one type of shot, once per hole, which type of shot would you pick to achieve maximum score reduction? Note if you pick chipping, you forfeit assistance on holes where you hit a GIR. Pick driving, no use on Par 3's, etc. And to be clear, if you pick putting it's only one putt per hole, not every putt.

Re: Golf question
 

Driving, which is undoubtedly the weakest part of my game.

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I am almost positive the right answer is either approach shots or putting, but it probably depends on how good/bad a player you are.

Tiger at his best with either of these shots is going to either give you an easy putt to finish out, or put the ball in the cup. Since par is calculated with the expectation that putting will be roughly half your shots, I think most should probably let Tiger do that, but I suck so I voted approach shots.

Edit: You absolutely must let him hit a shot every hole. And yes I am thinking way too hard about this.

Re: Golf question
 

Approach shots. My drives suck, my chipping sucks, my putting sucks. But a bad drive with a good approach shot should yield no worse than a bogey, even with my poor short game. A great drive could easily be screwed up.

Also, this belongs in the Sporting Events forum.

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I'm just a godawful putter. Easy choice for me.

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It's a little misleading becasue "Drives" could mean with fairway woods/long irons.

But if I take drives to mean tee shots - and I get him to hit 14 of them for me, it almost will eliminate any chance of double bogey - and even bogies would be hard to get because I would have basically a wedge shot into every par 4 and would be able to go for every par 5 in 2 if he's bombing off the tee for me.

I would say that on my good days, I would be flirting with shooting par, and right now, I'm about a 10 handicap.

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Putting, and it's not close (although it would be much more fun to chooser driving -- it would be cool to be chipping to a lot of the par 4s and to reach the one par 5 I've never been on in two).

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I am going with approach shots. I could tee off on any course that I play with a 3-7-iron, stay out of trouble and Tiger could get me a decent GIR often enough that I could two-putt my way to even par . . . and that's now that I suck at golf.

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I suck at putting even worse than I suck at everything else, so that would be it for me.

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The drive sets up the rest of the hole.

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Does it count as a drive when he tees off on a par 3? If so I definitely take drives since you ensure that you get 18 shots from Tiger. There will be some holes on your own that you can reach the green in regulation thus he won't have to chip for you. Or, you miss the green but chip close so his putting isn't that important. I'd take a tee shot from Tiger every hole.

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The correct answer for almost all players is Pitching/Chipping/Sand Shots.

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Approach shots are the smoking crater in my game. Missing greens after good drives makes me want to wrap each and every one of my irons around the nearest tree.

On the upside, I get plenty of practice chipping.

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It depends.........

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I'd say Driving. I cant do anything if the ball is 100 yards right in the trees, OB.

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Approach shots

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I think it's approach shots pretty easily. Unless you're so bad that you basically hit ground balls or knock it out of bounds off the tee every time, you'll see the biggest gain from the approach shots. Put Tiger in the rough from 225 yds at your average course and you're still going to be putting the vast majority of the time. Plus, if I do hit a good drive, I'm pretty much guaranteed par on the whole. Tiger hitting approachs for me takes me from a 13 handicap to scratch immediately. Hitting drives I'm probably still an 8.

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Putting. Only type of shot you use every hole (for the most part). Tiger would one putt everything on the courses I play- their greens are nearly as tricky as the ones he is used to.

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I can't believe anyone would choose putting. You are going to end up 2 putting most of the time anyway.

I would choose letting Tiger hit 2nd shots (slightly over driving) unless of course there were many driveable or almost driveable Par 4s.

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Considering putting/driving are your two biggest scoring clubs I'd have to go with one of them. It doesn't matter how good your approach shots are if you still 2-putt every green.

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if your a hack, you would have picked driving or long irons.
if your a retard, you would have picked chipping.
if your decent, you would have picked putting or approach.
again, if your a retard, you would have picked chipping.

Re: Golf question
 

[ QUOTE ]
if your a hack, you would have picked driving or long irons.
if your a retard, you would have picked chipping.
if your decent, you would have picked putting or approach.
again, if your a retard, you would have picked chipping.

[/ QUOTE ]

This might be the biggest compliment anyone has ever given me regarding golf...outside of "well, at least his swing looks nice"

Re: Golf question
 

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It doesn't matter how good your approach shots are if you still 2-putt every green.

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This is false, if you 2 putt every green you are doing just fine. Even though Tiger is among the best in the world at putting if you have Tiger putt once for you he might save you 4-5 strokes a round if you are even descent with a putter, yet with him hitting your approach shots he will save you probably closer to 8-9 strokes for the average 80-90 golfer.

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[ QUOTE ]
I can't believe anyone would choose putting. You are going to end up 2 putting most of the time anyway.

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Not when you're me. I hit a lot of greens, but I also 3 putt a lot and 2 putt when I should 1 putt. I'd definitely save more shots with Tiger putting (or chipping) than with approach shots.

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The other problem with approach shots if you need to be a pretty good driver to always have them setup. Hitting out of a pine forested ravine from 230 yards doesn't count as an approach shot.

Re: Golf question
 

[ QUOTE ]
The other problem with approach shots if you need to be a pretty good driver to always have them setup. Hitting out of a pine forested ravine from 230 yards doesn't count as an approach shot.

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I disagree. If you're a lousy driver, he'll be able to help you even more by hitting your approach shots for you. Barring your extreme example. He's going to be able to hit shots you couldn't come close to duplicating.

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i can drive as long as tiger, so i dont need help there

but my iron play sucks a$$

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FWIW, I voted approach shots. I think this applies more to the courses I play. If I hit a good drive, he'd most likely stiff it with a short iron, and if I hit a poor drive, he'd recover better and more frequently than I could.

If I were forced to play the courses he plays, I would definitely want him to tee off, because I doubt I'd ever reach the fairway on some of those holes with a long carry.

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[ QUOTE ]
i can drive as long as tiger, so i dont need help there

but my iron play sucks a$$

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I'd be wanting the accuracy of his drives more than the yardage.

I guess 1 way to look at it:

Tiger drives: I am hitting 80-90 yard wedge shots into par 4's from the fairway

I drive: Tiger must hit a lot of 140-150 yard shots from rough/sand traps.

I think I could be more accurate with my wedge shots than TW with these harder shots.

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The correct answer here is approach shots.

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I'm amazed at how many good long irons/fairway woods plaers we have here. It's the area that people need the most help with.

I'd say it's the hardest area for most golfers.

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Maybe I should explain my previous post. You should pick approach shots unless you are just extraordinarily bad at another phase. Even if you hit a horrible drive, odds are Tiger could get you near or on the green from just about anywhere. However, I suppose there are some good ball strikers out there who just can't put, so maybe approach shots isn't always the right answer.

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[ QUOTE ]
I'm amazed at how many good long irons/fairway woods plaers we have here. It's the area that people need the most help with.

I'd say it's the hardest area for most golfers.

[/ QUOTE ]

The point of the question was that you get Tiger's help for one shot per hole. Even I, a crappy golfer, do not have cause to hit a long iron/fairway wood more than a couple times per round, so his assistance would be wasted.

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I can only drive 220-240 yards, but usually I'm pretty good at hitting the fairway.

At most courses I play on, the holes aren't long enough to force me to have to hit long irons.

I'm a very good chipper (probably the best element of my game), adaquate at pitching and ... OK, I can't hit out of sand to save my life.

When I'm playing consistently, I can putt OK. Right now, I couldn't three-putt from 20 feet.

Still, I'm taking approach shots. If I drive like I usually do, and Tiger sets me up from 10-15 feet with his approach, I can handle the putting.

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I am around the green in 2 on most every hole (par 4), but my chipping/pitching is pretty bad, so I would have him do that. He's going to put it within a few feet of the hole, and I make a hell of a lot more 3-4 foot putts than I do 10-15 foot putts.

Also, if you hit a huge drive on a short par 4, does your next shot of 30 yards or so count as an approach or a chip/pitch?

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Putting from the fringe with a fairway wood. It's the only part of my game I need him for...



















...or this...

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I voted approach shots. I think this applies more to the courses I play. If I hit a good drive, he'd most likely stiff it with a short iron, and if I hit a poor drive, he'd recover better and more frequently than I could.

If I were forced to play the courses he plays, from the tees he plays , I would definitely want him to tee off, because I doubt I'd ever reach the fairway on some of those holes with a long carry.

[/ QUOTE ]

(fixed a little bit...I'd still tee off if on his courses, but from the whites...)

Re: Golf question
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i can drive as long as tiger, so i dont need help there

but my iron play sucks a$$

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I'd be wanting the accuracy of his drives more than the yardage.



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He's 168th in driving accuracy this year. But 4th in GIR. That's how incredible his iron play is, and hence I believe approach shot is the correct answer for the majority of players.

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One more - are people assuming the par 3 shots are approach shots? If so, that would swing me toward having TW hit the approach shots.

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[ QUOTE ]
One more - are people assuming the par 3 shots are approach shots? If so, that would swing me toward having TW hit the approach shots.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes I'd consider Par 3's approach shots.

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OK, switch me from drives to approach shots..