Course Strategy

Position Play

Throw to a spot, not just as far as you can.

Why it matters

Distance is only useful where it leaves you a shot you can play. Throwing as far as possible every time means regularly finishing in positions you did not choose, and a drive that ends 40 feet further down the fairway and behind a tree has lost you a stroke, not gained one.

How to do it

Decide where you want to be standing for your next shot before you choose this one.
Pick the landing zone that leaves the approach you are best at — for most people straight and open rather than angled or blocked.
Accept a shorter throw when it buys a cleaner next one. This is a gain, not a compromise.
Think one shot ahead on every hole, and two on par 4s and 5s.
On a hole you cannot reach, work backwards: where do you want to putt from, where does that mean the approach comes from, and therefore where should the drive finish?

Common mistakes

Throwing maximum distance on every hole by reflex.Ask what the next shot looks like from there. Sometimes the answer makes a shorter drive obviously correct.

Thinking about the current shot only.Plan the hole, not the throw. Working backwards from the putt is the single best habit in course management.

Treating a lay-up as a failure of nerve.It is a shot selection. The card records the number, not the ambition.

Key points

Leave yourself the approach you like.
Sometimes short and safe scores better.
Think one shot ahead.

The drill

Drill · Work backwards — 9 holes planned from the basket outwards. On each of nine holes, before teeing off, decide where you want to putt from, then what approach gets you there, then what drive sets up that approach. Play that plan. It is slower and it usually produces a better score, which is the point.

Watch: Making Risk vs Reward Decisions in Disc Golf — Goeringer Disc Golf