Course Management: The Secret Skill Costing Amateur Golfers More Shots Than They Realise

As a Professional Golf Caddy I get to see many amateur golfers tee it up in Pro Ams and see the same mistakes being made every time by Club Golfers.

 From scratch players to high handicap players. Course Management ! Just a few simple decisions on the course could save you a number of shots. It’s not often you see a touring professionals rack up 8/9/10s on holes but as club golfers we can often let those scores creep in and ruin our cards.

The typical example is when you hit a poor tee shot on a par 4 it might be short and a bit off line. The instant thought is to get the 3wood out and rip it to the green. This doesn’t quite work out and now you’re in a worse spot looking for a touch of Seve just to get it back in play. Now your chasing. Your 3 wood has left you with a shot off a slope over a bunker to a short pin. You attempt the shot and boom it’s in the bunker.

No amateur is great at controlling bunker shots so you thrash at it and leave the ball 30 feet from the hole. Your 2 putts lead to a comfortable 6. The mistake we make is trying to hit the greatest recovery 2nd shot in your locker. The smart move would have been to take our medicine hit an iron into a good spot chip on and make 4. 

To further illustrate this last year in 2025 We won a tournament in Ireland Coming down the stretch we hit a wild tee shot into some trees off the fairway. My player got to the ball and insisted to me he could go around one tree and over a further tree and make the green. This was a high risk strategy. My play was to chip the ball out to a spot 100 yards from the green. We ended up chipping out and then hitting a wedge to 3 feet and saved par. Who knows what the high risk shot would have yielded. We went on to win by one shot.

The moral of the story here is work on your course management. Don’t assume you will pull off the high risk shot. Take your medicine and move on with minimal stress. My player has always said the minute I cost him shots in a tournament is the last time I work for him. So I always take the sensible option limit the risk always and build the round. More Caddy Tips soon.

Mike Morley