[Bill Gayne]

Colin Montgomery on the Golf Channel just said he could caddy for any amateur and make him five strokes better.  

[Jerry Kluger]

Gentlemen: Let me suggest this, you are playing in a stroke play tournament and you are playing a par 5 and have hit your tee shot and now have say 200 to 220 to an island green.  I would venture to guess that barring any strong winds that the vast majority of PGA Tour pros would not even think about laying up.  They have complete faith and confidence in their ability to execute the shot. That's the point - unless they're playing under the conditions of the US Open, there is no hesitancy.  

[Tom_Doak]

Jerry:  Of course they are going for that green.  They can hit that shot comfortably and succeed 95% of the time ... that's the equivalent of you or me going for the same green from 165 yards.

But even still, most Tour pros aren't even going to look at the flag in a situation like that.  They are going to aim right at the middle of the green, left-center if they are prone to missing left, or right-center if they are prone to missing right.  They are going to take the water out of play just as much as possible.

One of the great golf conversations to which I've been witness was a discussion between Ed Sneed and Pete Dye about the 13th hole on the TPC at Sawgrass.  Sneed was explaining how he tried to aim at the bank in the green to get the ball to feed down to the lower left pin position close to the water, and he said that the margin for error for that shot was only three feet, and no pro was that good.  Pete replied that he wasn't making Ed aim at that slope ... he could aim for the pin instead, but he was being extra cautious about not pulling a shot into the water, so he had no right to complain from there.

[Jerry Kluger]

Tom: My point is that it is hard for those who are not at that level of play to consider what is conservative and what is aggressive.  A player at that level recognizes risk but also expects execution and also believes that failure to execute one particular shot can usually be made up by another shot.  They will not view as aggressive the shots which they feel comfortable that they will be able to execute while most of us would not consider such a shot as our percentage of success cannot justify the risk.

[Adam Clayman]

JVB, The context of Tiger (and Jacks) mind refers more to their mental toughness. But, I do agree as a collective. the pro is the best. Which makes this whole discussion sort of moot.

I do think it's extremely interesting when the pros, as a collective, do make course managment mistakes. In the way I pointed out about the 10th at Shinney, and Daniel's illustration on the 9th at The Riv in the Nissan.the

I would say the pros are also the best at recognizing the days specific maintenance meld and adapting. Also, As someone else pointout on the first page, extricating themselves from trouble and removing double from the equation.

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