Par 4 Scoring!!

OK. I have been keeping stats on my scoring and about 90% of my bad holes where i cars six or seven are the par 4's. For a relatively new player I susually do well on 3's and 5's. Usually I do no worse than bogey on par 3' and 5's and actually par quite a few of the par 5's. Do any of you guys have any tips for scoring well on the par 4's? Thanks for any suggestions.

This is normal. There are always more par4's on a standard course (10) vs. 4 par3's and 4 par5's. So stats will have more opportunities for good/bad %.

Par 4's on most courses will also have the hardest rated holes. Not to say that 3's and 5's are not hard, but generally speaking, 4's are going to have the hardest holes.

This is because they require a prefect drive. Par5's can get away with a bad drive because you still get to recover it out with an extra shot. Par3's are all about the 1 approach shot.

So to score well on par4's, the drive is critical. Getting it into play where you have ANY chance to approach the green will create more opportunities to score on it. Taking risks and forcing length for a shorter iron in is where most get into trouble. They put their misses WAY out and suffer having to scramble like crazy to make it up, again taking huge risk shots to make the heroic par. So big numbers are exposed.

Take a club that will put you in the fairway, giving up on length and focus on accuracy and this will most likely help you remove the big number.

__________________
I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

Thanks Greg!! I will start playing more conservative off the tee on par 4's maybe with irons to tee off with even if I have a longer approach shot to the green. I will try just aiming for the front of the green and be just off even if my approcah falls short. I find if my approach shots miss too far left or right it is also usually trouble.

Shorter par 4's of around 300 - 350 yards can be played with a couple of 7 iron shots, many try to zonk a driver to the green and get OOB or into hazards. The slightly longer 4's can be played with a 3/5 wood or a longer hybrid then another 5 wood or 3 hybrid.

Play the percentage game on par 4's