Scenario 1 - You step up to the tee. The fairway is clearly defined by rough, with the hole curving gently to the right. There's a bunker on the inside corner of the dogleg, and thanks to the elevated tee, you can see fairway safely beyond the bunker, which you know you can carry with a solid shot. You set up for a power fade - and hit it perfectly. The ball flies well past the bunker, falls gently to the right and settles in the middle of the fairway.
Scenario 2 - You walk over to the tee. A wide field lies in front of you, mowed mostly all to fairway height. You see a flag in the distance, but it's not at all clear what's the best way to get there. You've played the hole many times before, with mixed results from each side of the fairway: the green seems to favor an approach from the left, but there's a pot bunker, invisible from the non-elevated tee. You are a little uncertain as you decide to play left. When you hit the shot, it comes off perfectly as you envisioned, but as it bounds down the fairway, you're still hoping it doesn't bounce into that bunker lurking out there somewhere.
Scenario 1 sounds like a few of the holes at Torrey Pines. Defined narrow fairway, carry bunker on inside of dogleg, or both sides pinching in. You hit the perfect shot just at the distance enough that it must be hit well to carry, and you end up where you can see it, in the middle of the narrow FW. So, I think that if you are competing at stroke play, you like everything defined and visable from the tee, know exactly what you have to do.... and if you are like Tiger, hit it about 1/2 the time like you'd want to (carrying trouble on inside of dog leg and in make it into FW). The other half, Tiger don't pull the shot off, and you don't pull it off 3/4 of the time or more (assuming you are playing your correct tees and the carry is a good poke for you and for Tiger at his tees). And, BTW, what is inside of the inside bunker of the dog leg? Is it trees, high rough; another words what if you pure slice it, not power fade it? (which is what >80% of high handies will do) Power fade my butt. Are you lining up with the left rough side to power fade? My idea of carrying a bunker on the inside is to hit it straight over it! I try to fade around a corner, not over a hazard on the fade side, but maybe I'm wrong and that is why I'm a 11-12.
Scenario 2, you hit towards a preferred side, into an ambiguitous vision of field of play. You know there is a small pot on the favored left side (line of charm sort of thing). You can "choose to flirt with it" or try to play safer right. You hit what you think 'has a chance to do well or flirt with the bunker' and you won't know until you walk out there a ways.
I like scenario 2 more as a match play player, or as a gamesman playing various games of match play, gambling type games, etc. Anything except tournament stroke play. It is nice to have the wider field to choose to play away from known trouble, and know that there is wider and more forgiving land out there, and it is only 'favorable' to challenge on the left side - not a sure thing with the uncertain flirtation with that small pot bunker hazard.
But, my point is that in either scenario, we always frame these questions like we CAN choose to play up one side or the other. In reality, on many days not even Tiger can just simply play a favored side and accomplish that favored side of a FW even 1/2 the time. So, we talk like IF we can choose to do so -that is what we will get - a tee ball where we choose to play it to one side or the other, at our will.
Come on folks! Most of us are lucky and happy if we get either side of any FW at all!!!
