Great illustration of course management was Zach Johnson at the Masters in 07, where he laid up on all the par 5's. I think he had only around 210-220 on hole 13, but still stuck to his game plan. Played them brilliantly with probably -10 or so for the week. Of course he knows he has a great wedge game and back then he was one of the best on tour.
Like I said, using a strategy like that requires more skill than people some times realize.
The opposite is John Van de Velde on 18 OMG, I almost get sick for him. Paul Lawrie should put Van de Velde's kids in his will for that was a gift for whoever ended up winning after his collapse.
There's another great misconception. VdV made an error off the tee, but his next shot got the single worst break in the history of Championship golf. He did the smart thing and hit a shot that would get him near the green without taking a risk of ending up in the knee-high grass short of the burn. He hit it toward the grandstand.
But it hit a ROUND railing on the grandstand and bounced all the way back to the other side of the burn in that tall grass. From there, nothing he did was going be a good idea.
Ken for point 1, they are professionals so they already are ahead of most of us significantly. Johnson ahead of almost all pros at the time as well. So he knew his strengths.
For the JVDV collapse, I think he made 2 straight poor decisions. First I 100% agree, driver was the absolute wrong play. You have OB left and water right, so why hit driver? I'm still wondering with a 3 shot lead. He narrowly avoided water right. Mistake with the club selection.
His decision to take 2 iron I don't agree with at all. He had 5 shots from that spot to get down and win. I would have recommended laying up left back into the fairway. Yes his 2 iron shot hit a grandstand, but don't you invite bad bounces hitting grandstands? Mistake IMO for even hitting 2 iron.
We are talking the final hole of the Open Championship up 3 shots on one of the toughest par 4's in the world. He has hit driver and 2 iron! I just rewatched it and I could hear the pain in Peter Allis's voice commentating.
From there it was just tough shots out of very thick waist high fescue, it wasn't the wrong decision as you have to carry water somehow, just a balls hard shot.
Sorry again to JVDV as he played so brilliantly other than that.