Best Golf Tips: How to perfect course management with the TRAFFIC LIGHT DRILL
If you find yourself in difficult positions on the course and you are unsure what to do, the Traffic Light Drill can help to identify the danger on each hole.
Course management is an extremely important part of your game. When making decisions on where to aim and what clubs to hit, you need to be able to think clearly and rationally.
GolfMagic went to see Lloyd Davies, the head professional at Heyrose Golf Club in Knutsford, to find out a great drill to help you with your course management.
On each hole that you play and each shot that you are faced with, you need to identify where the danger is and where you are aiming for your ball to finish.
The danger area and the place where you don't want to hit the ball is the red light. The area where your ball is not ideally placed but in a manageable position is known as the amber light and the green light is the area in which you want your ball to end up.
In the above image, Lloyd is on the first hole at Heyrose Golf Club which is a testing par-3. On the lefthand side and long of the green, we have out of bounds stakes so this is the red light area where he cannot afford to hit it.
On the righthand side of the green, there is a greenside bunker which is obviously not an ideal area but it is manageable, so he knows that if we find the amber light area then we can make an up-and-down.
The green light is obviously a shot directly at the flag and on to the green, so on this occasion, Lloyd will be totally avoiding the lefthand side of the hole and also making sure that he doesn't go too long.
Now that we have identified these three key areas of the hole, we can focus on what target to aim for that is going to give us the best chance of making a good score.
Course management is all about avoiding big mistakes and plotting your way around the course. The Traffic Light Drill can be applied to many different shots and it is an easy way to simplify your golf as much as possible.
Lloyd has been coaching now for over 15 years in Sussex and Surrey and has recently returned from Dubai, having coached at Arabian Ranches and Dubai Hills Golf Club for four years. He can be found on Instagram @lloydsgolfperformance.
He has worked with European Tour players and enjoys coaching golfers of all abilities. The Traffic Light Drill is an example of how your course management can dramatically improve.
