Find more fairways

Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Keith Wood shares his thoughts on how best to find the short grass more often from the tee

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Hit your comfortable club

First, get a clear idea of what you want to do on a hole. This fairway has ditches and trees both right and left, before turning right and up to the green. It’s not long at around 320 yards, so you may not need your longest club to hit it far enough to make the corner and see the green.

But on every hole, you should be leaning towards your most comfortable club anyway - the one with which you are most confident of finding the fairway - because golf is much simpler from the short grass, even if you can’t then reach the green in regulation. This is where your handicap comes in!

Make sure you know what a hole does via a yardage chart or app, or by lasering the distances to key points. On this hole, you perhaps ideally want to find the fairway at around 200 yards, so pick your most comfortable club to achieve that goal. For some, it may be a long-iron, hybrid or 5-wood, while for others it may be a 3-wood or driver.

It’s different for everyone, but always choose the club you're most comfortable with to help you find the target, especially when it’s a real must-hit fairway.