Don't go pin seeking

This week the Royal Golf Club's PGA Teaching Professional, Martin Robinson, gives tips on tackling tricky shots

COLIN Montgomerie once said that he thought he could save most amateurs six or seven strokes per round just by caddying for them. A lot of the advice he would give would be related to the approach and greenside shots.

In my experience, most golfers with wide ranging handicaps make the mistake of generally taking dead aim at the pin, leaving zero margin for error. As the greens are so vast at the Royal Golf Club there are lots of different compartments.

As a general rule I would say that most of the time you should ignore the pin and simply aim for the middle of the green, but there are some times when you have to be a little more tactical.

It is very rare to play a hole that has trouble on all sides of the green thus leaving no margin for error, unless you ever go and play the famous island green par 3 at the TPC at Sawgrass. So the best policy is to aim your approach shot favouring the side of the green where there is no danger.

For example when playing the 10th hole of the Royal Golf Club's Montgomerie championship course it's a good idea to favour the left hand side of the green as there is plenty of fairway there should you happen to pull your shot to the left. If you miss that green and go to the right, you will have to contend with a nasty shot from the bunker or desert.

This is known as missing it on the right (correct) side. We will not hit many shots exactly where we want so we have to take this into account when picking our target.

Your club selection is another area where you need to be quite tactical - some holes have all of the trouble at the front, some where you are not able hit it long. On the 18th hole for example it would be a good idea to take an extra club because we would much rather miss the green long into the grassy bank, than be in the bunker or water short. And it would be vice versa if the water was over the back and fairway in front.

Some very simple choices can help prevent a few disaster holes from occurring and keep the high numbers off your card. So next time you pick your target or select your club, make sure you plan cautiously but execute aggressively.