Accuracy or distance

When choosing how you play the game, you have to make the choice: accuracy or distance. Do you want to hit the ball long, and risk getting it into trouble, but also give yourself good birdie looks? Or do you want to keep the ball in play, and not risk making a big number, but not give yourself as good of birdie looks? These questions have been asked as long as golf has been around. The truth is there is no right answer, but one of these strategies will fit your game and your mind set the best. 

Distance opens many doors in this game. Distance allows you to go for par 5's and short par 4's. Distance gives you shorter clubs into greens, and promotes hitting the ball closer. Distance is the aggressive way to play golf. But there are some negative aspects to hitting the ball long. You will not be as accurate the longer you hit it. You will risk getting yourself in trouble if you aggressively play with your length. Length can be the biggest advantage in this game, if you can utilize it at the right times.

Accuracy is the smart way to play golf. Choosing accuracy means that your scorecard will become very boring. Lots of pars, the occasional birdie, the occasional double. But it will save you from making a mess on your scorecard. Accuracy won't give you many eagle chances, and therefore a ton of short birdie chances, but it will give you a lot of medium length attempts at birdie. Which means few bogeys, and many birdie looks, and a few of them will drop. There is nothing wrong with playing steady and letting the birdies come to you, and not make any mistakes. Playing smart can be very rewarding. 

There are many tour professionals that choose to use each of these strategies. So they can't even decide which is better. Take Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, and Phil Mickelson for examples. All of them just pound the ball out there, and scrape off some birdies. But they also are notorious for getting the ball into trouble, and making a big number. All of these players have put themselves in contention at tournaments, and taken themselves out of tournaments due to there length. 

Players like Luke Donald, Matt Kuchar, and Steve Stricker all play a game of how accurate and precise can they be. None of them worry about how far they can hit the ball off of the tee because they know that they are just as good with a 7 iron as others are with a 9 iron. They don't need the length for an advantage. They are all really good putters as well. This helps because when they have a lot of 15-20 foot putts, they can make a fair amount of them. These are the type of players who are always in contention, and seem to be right there day in and day out with a chance to win.

Traditionally, all of the greats have been able to combine both distance and accuracy to climb to the top. The ones who have been the of all time aren't the longest in the game, and they aren't always the most accurate. but they have found a way to hit the ball decently far, and know where to put the ball, so that they don't make a big number. Tiger Woods, Jack Nickalus, Gary Player, Greg Norman, etc. were never the most powerful player on the tour, and they didn't hit every single fairway. But for some reason the combination of the two creates the all time best.