The Best Way to Avoid Blow Out Holes | Tee Shot Strategy
The Best Way to Avoid Blow Out Holes | Tee Shot Strategy
I've played countless rounds of golf, and one of the most frustrating things is the "blow out hole" – that one hole that completely derails your score with a lost ball or a penalty. These are the holes that make an otherwise decent round feel like a failure. It's an issue I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing, and I’ve developed a tee shot strategy that has become my go-to method for avoiding these score-killers.
This strategy isn't about hitting the perfect shot every time. It’s about being smart, understanding risk, and planning for the inevitable miss. To illustrate, I want to tell you about the fourth hole at Emerald Lakes, a par 5 that perfectly highlights this approach.
The Challenge: A Hole Designed to Cause Trouble
The fourth hole at Emerald Lakes is a par 5, and it’s not particularly long. This might sound like a dream, but it’s a hole designed to test your discipline and your decision-making. The reason? A huge water hazard runs along the entire right side. From tee to green, the right side is a place you simply cannot afford to be.
The water isn’t just a small pond; it’s a massive penalty waiting to happen. Hitting the ball to the right means you’re almost certainly taking a drop, losing a stroke, and having to lay up with your next shot. This one mistake can turn a potential birdie into a bogey or worse, completely derailing your momentum for the round.
The biggest mistake I see most golfers make on a hole like this is aiming straight down the middle of the fairway. They think they're playing it safe, but for most of us who have a slight fade or slice, that aim point is a direct line to disaster. It gives your ball a shorter path to the water. This is a classic example of flawed thinking in golf. The middle of the fairway isn’t always the safest play, especially when there’s a major hazard lurking on one side.
My Strategy: Aim Left, Plan for the Miss
So, what’s the smarter play? My key strategy is to aim aggressively towards the left-hand trees. This might sound counterintuitive—who wants to aim for the trees?—but it's a calculated decision. I'm playing the odds. I know my shots have a dispersion pattern, and for many golfers, that pattern tends to move from left to right. By aiming left, I’m shifting the entire dispersion pattern away from the biggest trouble on the course.
The biggest reason this strategy works is because hitting into the trees on the left is a much better outcome than going right into the water. If my ball ends up in the trees on the left, it’s almost always findable and playable. I can likely punch out with a low iron or wedge, get the ball back into the fairway, and still have a chance to reach the green in three shots. Trees are not a lost ball. I'm accepting a minor setback (hitting a tree) to avoid a major one (a penalty and lost ball).
Even though there's trouble, I still recommend using a driver on this par 5. The extra distance is vital, and the strategy isn’t to play conservatively by hitting an iron short of the trouble. The strategy is to use the club you need for distance, but aim it far away from the major penalty. I'm using the longest club in my bag, but with a deliberate, safer aim.
The True Goal: Avoiding Big Scores, Not Just Hitting Fairways
This approach gets to the heart of what I believe is the most important part of a good golf game: avoiding big scores. It’s not about hitting every single fairway. The truth is, even the best golfers in the world miss fairways. The key is to miss in the right spot. The shots that really hurt your scorecard are those caused by penalties, lost balls, and unplayable lies that force you to chip out sideways. [01:31]
When I think about avoiding trouble, I boil it down to two main options:
Hit a club that won't reach the trouble: This is the ultra-safe option. You use a shorter club, like a hybrid or an iron, that simply can't carry far enough to reach the water or other hazards.
Aim as far away from the trouble as possible: This is my preferred method on a par 5 like this. I use the driver for the length, but I aim at a point on the other side of the fairway, well away from the hazard. [02:24]
This strategy is based on the reality of shotgun dispersion. My shots, and your shots, don't land in a single spot. They create a pattern, a "shotgun blast" if you will. My goal is to aim my shotgun in a way that shifts the entire pattern, so that even the most wayward shots on the right side of my dispersion still avoid the major trouble. [02:32] This is a fundamental concept in strategic golf.
To further encourage my aim away from the hazard, I’ll often tee up on the right side of the tee box—the side where the trouble is. [[02:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH_BttEaM2g)] This simple act of setting up provides a better angle to swing away from the danger. My mind is already focused on my left-side target, and I don't have to fight my natural tendencies.
The Role of a Pre-Shot Routine
With this strategy in place, a well-defined pre-shot routine becomes invaluable. A uniform routine helps to minimize overthinking and allows me to execute the shot with confidence. [02:57] I've already made my decision to aim left, so my routine is about preparing my body and mind to execute that plan. I don't stand over the ball and second-guess myself. The pre-shot routine is the final step in a thoughtful, strategic process that began when I first stepped onto the tee box.
In the video, I demonstrated this strategy in action. My shot went a little further right than I had intended, but because my initial aim was so far left, the ball was still perfectly safe. It landed in a playable lie, and I avoided the water penalty. [03:37] This is the beauty of the system. I didn't hit a perfect shot, but because I had a smart plan, the outcome was still a good one. This is how you manage your golf game and prevent a round from going off the rails.
It’s also important to remember that even professional golfers have a significant dispersion with their driver. Their landing zone can be 60-70 meters wide, which just goes to show that perfect accuracy is not the goal. The goal is to have a strategy that accounts for the misses and keeps the ball in play.
By applying this tee shot strategy—aiming away from the biggest trouble, even if it means flirting with other less punishing hazards—you can significantly reduce those frustrating blow out holes and keep your scores in check. It's a strategic approach to golf that focuses on risk management, not on perfection. It's about being a smarter golfer, not a luckier one.
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