How Should You Handle Hazards On The Golf Course

While noone wants their ball to finish up in a hazard you have to admit that it is

the fact that there are hazards around the golf course that makes the sport both challenging and exciting. Who amongst us has not watched a tournament and savored the spectacle of watching a player negotiate his way out of an awkward situation?

That said, it is one thing to see other people attempting to hack themselves free of the thorn bushes but you do not want to have to experience it yourself. Thus, exactly how can you at at the very least reduce the possibility of this happening?

The answer lies in reading the course and planning ahead.

Before playing a hole you need to think very carefully about where the hazards for the hole are and evaluate how each one might affect your game if you fall foul of it. Once you have done this you must then determine how to play the hole so as to minimize the damage should you be unlucky enough to finish up in one of the traps.

So, what are the hazards you will meet on the majority of golf courses? Well, in essence, there are 6 hazards which you are likely to run into:

1. The Rough. While troublesome the rough is possibly the easiest of the problems that you will run into and it is usually fairly simple to get your ball back onto the fairway.

2. Hilly Terrain. Having your ball in the right position on the fairway for your approach to the green is always preferable to achieving distance and thus, if you are facing a significant uphill slope to the fairway, you might wish to consider hitting short of it rather than trying for distance and merely having your ball roll back down the course and away from your target. This is particularly true when the slope falls away to one side of the course so that your ball is likely to not simply roll back down the fairway but to roll off into the rough or another form of hazard.

3. Bunkers. Bunkers are essentially a hazard for novices rather than for anyone else and, with some practice, it is generally not too difficult to get your ball out of the sand and in fact you can often make some very good shots out of the sand. That said, all bunkers are not the same and finding yourself trapped under the lip of a particularly deep and steeply sided bunker might present you with significant difficulty.

4. Bushes and Trees. Trees and bushes can prove to be very nasty and even when you are unable to play your ball and are forced to take a drop you might well discover that the lie inside the regulation 2 club lengths is not a great deal better than the original lie.

5. Water. Ending up in the water will normally require you to take a penalty and reposition your next shot. This said, it is sometimes possible to hit your ball from the water if it is accessible and not lying too deep, although this does not happen too frequently.

6. Out of Bounds. Firing your ball into an 'out of bounds' area is possibly the worst of all the hazards because you will need to take the shot again and will also have to take a penalty stroke. This is certainly something that you want to avoid if at all possible because there can be nothing worse than finding yourself driving off into an out of bounds area and having to walk back to the tee again and begin all over again with what will in fact be your third shot to the hole.

by: Don Saunders

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