Risk/Reward strategy for air game vs. ground game

[Kenny Lee Puckett]

Wayne -

Mr. Malone also mentioned that I would enjoy your company there as well!  

I have a follow up question for you.  Assuming that you can carry the ball pin high, is the cut shot preferred to the PIN position in the photo and position that is pinable to the right of that placement?

JWK

[mike_malone]

 Jim,

  When I stood on #9 at Yale I thought that RG's #10 or even #14 had more interesting options for a 200 yard hole. I felt that if I just hit it straight I would be okay. I totally agree that your fade idea makes sense. Most don't realize that the green kicks to the right from that side.

  But, weather and ground conditions control your decision here. If the wind is not favorable or the ground is hard then the margin for error of the aerial route is reduced.

[wsmorrison]

Where's the pin, middle front?  I can't tell.  I zoomed the photo and thought I saw a very pixilated red flag in the middle but can't be sure.

A cut shot is a good play to that pin.  I find if I draw a 3-wood it ends up over the green and I hate that shot back to the pin, especially back as stated previously.  Depending upon the wind, I would hit a draw 7-wood to the front of the green or a cut 3-wood.  Sometimes I try a hard low running 3-iron which I can get moving pretty well.  Tom Paul loves that shot.  However, my ability to do any of these on command these days is seriously compromised as I've had a frozen shoulder for about 9 months and am just starting to play and really SUCK.  My handicap rises with each round, so that's a good thing  

[Mike_Young]

Recovery shots are one of the areas where the ground game option is so important.  There are few if any recovery shots on aerial golf courses (especially those heavily planted with trees) unless you can run balls through bunkers.  

Mark,
I do agree that this is often the case.  however sometimes the architect will emphasize such recovery with an aerial course and in these cases it is a much stronger course.  IMHO aerial courses work much better with tightly mowed surrounds than with rough.  It makes a player think about the short side more and it penalizes an aerial miss much more IMHO.  I think Pete Dye has been very successful with this.

[Mike_Young]

I also think that the ground can still have an effect on aerial golf when the architect creates contours that have spines that are close to parallel to the line of play.  Thus an aerial shot just slightly left or right of such a feature will be exaggerated to the side on which it lands.