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Tomorrow my friend is taking me to Bala Golf Club. Bala is a bizarre course with a very goofy layout. It is a par 68, is only 5200 yards from the men's tees, has no par 4's over 400 yards, and has 7 par 4's under 350 yards.

The only problem? It is extremely narrow.

As a result, this course with a puny rating of 65.1 has a formidable slope of 126.

Here's my game plan on some select holes. Is it good or bad?

Hole 1: 323 yards. No big hazards, very narrow.

Plan:

1. Hit 7-wood to get out in play (approx. 133 yards left).
2. Hit 9-iron to get just in front of green (too much club equals lie in woods)
3. Chip (or putt if on green)

Goal: Bogey

Hole 2: 299 yards. Small water hazard, narrowest hole on course.

Plan:

1. Hit 5-iron (since there is a tiny, tiny distance between fairway and trees, I'm just going to get this one 170 down the middle. (approx. 129 yards left).
2. Hit 9-iron to get on green.
3. Putt twice

Goal: Par

Hole 10: 473 yards. Short par 5. However, pretty narrow. Several large traps.

Plan:

1. While driver is tempting, this hole is pretty narrow, so I'll just hit my 5-wood and get 210 down the middle (approx. 263 yards left).
2. Hit 5-wood down fairway (approx. 63 yards left).
3. Approach to green.
4. Putt Twice.

Goal: Par or bogey (I tend to mess up a shot on par 5's. The above plan assumes I hit each shot accurately and crisply.

Hole 17: 286 yards. Very tempting downhill par 4. However, like almost every other hole, it is narrow.

1. Hit 7-wood to get in play (approx. 96 yards left).
2. Hit SW to green.
3. Putt Twice.

Goal: Par

Hole 18: 356 yards. Widest hole on the course. However, fairways are tree-lined, green is guarded with stream and bunkers, and there is a big trap 200 yards down the fairway.

1. Hit 7-wood to get in frint of trap (approx. 166 yards left).
2. Lay up to right of green (green is fast and iron shots tend to roll off) w/6-iron (approx 10 yards left).
3. Approach to green.
4. Putt Twice.

Goal: Bogey

Are these good strategies?

hole 10 seems agressive
wouldnt 2 5irons with a 9/pw to the green be safer ?
i find when i place the ball around the course my confidence lifts and i start scoring really well
and if i aim to par and fail its a bogey
start thinking more positively maybe ?
once your at the green 'be it on or almost' think birdie
chip in ! not at
if you miss then you will be going for par
if your thinking par or bogey then your not taking 1 shot at a time . do the homework around the green .and make stuff happen !

It's tough to say how you should play the holes because obviously you will not hit all your tee shots exactly as you wanted to. I guess it would be best if you find out how you are playing that day first and how confident you are when you get to those holes before decide exactly what you want to hit. You may find that you're striping it that day and get risky with the driver once or twice.

Try using only a 5-iron, a pitching wedge, and a putter. If you hit those clubs with any accuracy and the distances you claim, you'll probably score better than when you worry about all the other options. I hold a 3-club tournament in my golf league and every year at least one third of the players shoot lower than their yearly average using only 3 clubs. It's also a good way to practice.

Well...I'm going to be playing in about 45 minutes, so I'll report my results!

My goal today is a 91. Let's see if I match it.

Enjoy your round and hit'em well!

Just smash your driver on every hole and go see what you go see what you got.

enyo ur my kinda player! bomb it down the middle...and jsu a wedge in to everything...why not

I remember at a tournament this year i started out the day saying i was gonna play conservative, hitting iron off the tee cause it is VERY narrow, and not very long, probably about 6100 yards and i hit driver 7 iron into one par 5 and driver 5 iron and went over the green.
I personally wasn't playing very good and even trying to play conservative didn't help much because the course was that narrow, you pulled and iron and you were in trees anyways. I was so frustrated i started pulling out driver and letting them buck and played better except i was penalized more for the more errant tee shots, but when i did hit a good drive i was rewarded.
Something i am working on is accuracy, i need to work on it, i play a pretty open course, not to many trees and when you miss you are in nasty rough, but other than that you don't have to be super accurate and i have been just trying to get my self not to miss fairways by more than 10 yards.
I agree with the above suggestion, let her fly and hit wedge in.

Is that "strategy" what earned you your user name?

Worked real well for the Americans at Oakland Hills.....

That was the way all the players were doing it leaguegolf, the Euros just put it in the fairway more often and hit the shots closer.

Course it did

I'm not a long hitter so I really don't have a choice.

My driving average is 240. Unless it's a par 3, the vast majority of holes call for the 1-wood.

Bates,

How did your strategy work? I'm dying to know!