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The Ringer Tourney as it works in my case:

You play one round on Saturday, one on Sunday. They take your best score from each hole between the two days to get your total score. Basically you're playing best ball with yourself for an 18 hole score.

My question is this:

Would you play conservative and leave the driver in the bag all day on Saturday and try to beat your good holes on Sunday using driver?

Or would you play aggressive and use driver on Saturday and play more conservative on Sunday on the holes where you didn't score well on Saturday?

I have a 17 course handicap at this course and my biggest problem (thought certainly not my only one) stems from wayward tee shots. Unfortunately, I can snap hook a 3-wood, too. It's not just my driver. However, I probably am more consistent with my 3-wood than driver most of the time. I'm just curious what strategy other people would take. Thanks for your input.

TW

I voted for the driver on the first day, even though I don't usually carry one. But I figure you should go for broke the first day and if it doesn't work out then you can play conservative the next. That way theres no what ifs....

i'd play it safe both days if your not accurate enough with your big stick

Bomb and gouge...both days.

Very interesting tourney concept. I would play aggressive on Saturday and then do repairs on Sunday.

I'm going to start both days with the driver and if there's a problem take it out of play...But of the two scenarios you presented I'd go with Driver Saturday, conservative Sunday.

I'm with ThreeFeathers...start with the driver. You may be hitting it. But, do what you have to do to keep it in play.

I guess I should have added options for aggressive both days or conservative both days (even though it doesn't seem like many people would choose this option).

I typically average anywhere from 235 to 250 with my driver with usually 2 or 3 better drives going in the 260-280 range. It's the 2 or 3 holes that I drive it OB that usually kill my scores. I guess I can play aggressive on Saturday and then concentrate on bettering the scores from Saturday's bad holes on Sunday.

Obviously I don't have Tiger or Phil kind of distance, but I always watch them and think, "Don't they realize how much better off they'd be if they played from the fairway more often?" I thought the British Open was a perfect example of that with Tiger. The tournament is the first weekend in September. I'll be sure to come back to post which strategy I used and how the tournament went.

Thanks for the input and keep 'em coming!

i'd pick out the holes the the driver is least likely to hurt you and desinate them as driver holes, the pick out the hole that are definitely not driver holes and designate them as iron holes, for the rest, go with what's working the best for you at the moment.

Yeah I have often wondered about that in tournements where they drive the ball as far off the tee as they can and end up just off of the fair way. I mean if you know you are going to make to strokes to the green why not hit the first ball a little short but in the middle of the fairway where you next shot although longer then normal but easier too.

I kind of agree with Mikey. I don't know if a day by day strategy works as well as a hole by hole strategy. Identify the driver holes and go for it, play conservatively on non driver holes. Hunt flags that are easy, play to center of the green on more difficult flags. Sunday, you will have an idea of what you need to shoot to be in contention so that will really dictate your play, aggressive or conservative, but if you are just playing for yourself, look at your numbers and see where you need to pick up strokes. Maybe you played conservative on a tight-ish 4 and took a bogey. Maybe take a chance with the big dog, because you know you can't do any worse than that.
All this being said, Sunday is by nature going to be more aggressive because you know what you shot on Saturday and every hole you'll try to better your Saturday score, whether it's through conservative play or aggressive play. Interesting concept though...

Just for reference...there's OB on every hole (even on the par 3's).

The course plays 6500 yards with a rating/slope of 72.2/118.

Sounds like my home course with the OB on every hole. That makes a little difference. I would leave the driver more often then and try to make pars and bogeys (as a 17 also, I probably play your game), then on Sunday try to better those numbers.

I would play conservative on the holes that are troublesome. I can hit my 4 iron 200 and my driver 260, you are still going to be chipping to the green at least you will be in the fairway. I played a troublesome par 5 500 yards last night, I played two 8 irons and a wedge. Normally I would have played driver, prayed it went ok, then 3 wood prayed that went ok. Why not play with what works and enjoy the game. Seemed to work for me.

Aggressive on the ones par'd the prior day.
Conservative on the ones bogey'd the prior day