[Phil Benedict]

One of the most interesting things I have ever read about thinking your way around a golf course was how Payne Stewart approached Pinehurst in the '99 Open.  His starting point was to avoid double bogies.  This could either be a goal or a strategy.  On each hole he identified the areas around the green complexes which brought double bogie into play, and aimed at least 40 feet away from these areas regardless of where the hole was located.  This would qualify as his tactics.

Tom Doak's definition of strategy and tactics is pretty close to Clausewitz.

[Tom_Doak]

Phil:

Webster must have stolen from Clausewitz; I quoted from Webster's.  Guess I should have attributed that.

[Phil Benedict]

Tom,

Here is what Clausewitz had to say about the distinction between tactics and strategy:

"Tactics teaches the use of armed forces in the engagement; strategy, the use of engagements for the object of the war."

In golf terms, strategy may be the approach to the course whereas tactics apply to the individual holes.  I have always thought that people routinely confuse the two in everyday conversation.

[Garland Bayley]

I think you are getting a little detailed on the definitions of strategy and tactics. To me it is simple.
Strategy = planning
Tactics = methods

And I agree with Rich. There is a continuum of strategy.

I need to win a hole in match play. It is a par 5. My strategy is to reach the green in two. My tactics are to hit driver, then fairway wood.

I need to win a hole in match play. It is a par 5. My strategy is to hit a 270 yard drive to the right side of the fairway to open up the approach. My tactics is to cut a driver to that position. Then my strategy is to get the ball on the green reasonably close to the pin guarded by a bunker left. My tactics is to draw a fairway wood to give me as much buffer from the bunker as possible and have the ball going towards the pin position.
 
Note: For the purposes of this illustration, I played the hole right handed.

 

[ForkaB]

When you are talking about the individual golfer, calling what he or she does from the first tee to picking the ball out of the cup on the 18th "strategy" is a bit overblown.  It's mostly budgeting and beancounting with a little bit of pseudopsychgology added, particularly if you are playing match play.

The origin of the word "strategy" is from the Greek "strategos," which means generalship, i.e., marshalling and deploying forces to reach an establsihed objective.  Unless you think that the average golfer is a multifaceted personality who is a mass of contradictions and who hears voices, talks to himself, often makes very irrational choices, and loses muscular control at random moments, it's hard to imagine (bringing this back OT) him marshalling and deploying forces.  Or is it..........?

[Garland Bayley]

So we are going back to the origin of the word? The meaning of words evolve over time. Look beyond the first definition in your Websters.

My strategy is to cut a driver to the right side of the fairway 270 yards off the tee. My tactics is to open the clubface slightly, aim down the center, and swing in line with my aiming alignment.

[ForkaB]

Hang in there, Garland and read more carefully.  You'll get it eventually--maybe in a hopefully Happy new year.

[paul cowley]

....for me its more about creation than application but  thought provoking none the less.

[David Sucher]

I suggest that strategy and tactics are continually nested, like one of those Russian dolls.

Tactics are within strategies. A "tactical" decision is a method of implementing a "strategy. But then that "tactic" itself becomes a "strategy" when you drop down a level and must be further implemented by finer-grained "tactics."

At least that is how I visualize it.

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