Golf Teaching Aid - Using the Right Strategy in Playing the Approach Shot

Do you have difficulty deciding on what club to hit when you're on the golf course and in between clubs to hit? This golf teaching aid will give you some much needed help in this important area.

What do I mean when I say in between clubs to hit? Let's take this example; you're in the fairway and 130 yards from the pin. Normally, you hit your 9 iron 120 yards and your 8 iron 140 yards. So, you're in between clubs with your distance. What should you do?

Normally, people will take the 8 iron and try to take some power off their swing and guide it to the pin. However, this is a mistake for the weekend golfer. Yes, we see Tiger Woods and the other PGA Tour Pros do this every weekend. But, you're not on the PGA Tour. They do this for a living, 7 days a week.

As a weekend golfer your main focus should always be on keeping a consistent golf swing. Work on being balanced and keeping your swing on plane. When you begin fooling around with trying to take a little off your swing, or swing even harder at the ball, troubles begin and strokes start piling up on the card.

Suddenly, instead of having a good lie in the fairway with a clean shot to the green, you're in more trouble around the green. So what's the solution?

The answer is to hit the 9 iron. Yes, you'll be leaving it short unless you have the wind helping you, but this is the smart play for several reasons.

First, what is the worst thing that can happen? You hit it short of the green in the fringe, or you're on the green with a longer putt. That's ok. You're not in trouble, and if you're lucky, you may roll it up there close to the stick. You've taken out potential trouble.

What if you hit the 8 iron long? Now you bring in a whole host of potential problems. When you hit the longer club and miss hit the ball, it could go left or right of the green by a wide margin. If it goes too long you could be in a bunker or in the water if there is water near the hole. You get the picture here.