As a golfer with a lifetime vannity handicap of 16, and who's in love with the 'long ball' and playing from the tips, I've played my share of 7400-plus yard courses. Including one 269 yard par 3 over the ocean (240 yard carry) in Hawaii (Mana Kae); cleared the water, still made tripple. Granted, I've taken a lot of liberties with my scoring on these courses, but, but that doesn't mean that I haven't learned a thing or two about playing courses/lenghts beyond one's abilities (or comfort level).

If a par 4 is 440 yards, it's a very long and difficult hole. However, if you play it as a par 5, it becomes a very short and easy par 5 (of course, it's actually a bogey, but no worse). And maybe you make a putt and salvage par; but you need to gurard against making a 6 by going for the green in 2 with a shot that has less than 30% chance of succeeding.

Take Toka Sticks hole eight one for instance. It's a very long hole, with a well guarded green. It's imperative that you have a good angle into the pin in order to have any chance at chipping it close to the pin. This is a hole that you should play for bogey, and hope for par. It can't be any longer than 450 from the Blue tees. Say you duff a drive 150. Who cares? You only need to cover 300 yards in your next two shots. Moreover, you should be trying at this point to hit your ideal layup distance to maximize the chance that your third shot can be aggressive. Therefore, having duffed the drive 150, now being 290 from the hole, you need to hit a shot 170 yards to leave yourself a relatively short (120 yard) shot into the green. You can hit your hybrid, 3-wood at this point. You just need to make sure you hit it to the left side of the fairway in order to give you a better shot at the pin.

Now that you're laying up at a comfortable approch distance of 120 yards, you need to determine whether or not you really can attack the pin. What if you miss-hit your shot slightly left or right? Will it be in trouble, resulting in double or tripple bogey? If so, just aim for the fat part of the green, two putt and take your bogey. No shame making bogey on the number 2 handicap hole.

What we hacks tend to do, is try too frequently for the spectacular shot (less than 30% success rate) without considering the consequences of a slightly miss-hit shot. There's no reason to go for a green/pin where you're more likely than not to end up in trouble. This applies for long par 3's as well. Playing from the tips, it's not uncommon to see par threes in excess of 200 yards. I'm looking to essentially lay-up, or minimize the affects of a miss-hit, make a chip and a putt to save par. If we were to only bogey the eight most difficult holes on the course, that's an 80 without requiring hitting the ball well!

So when you practice, practice your wedges!!! 50, 60…120 yards. These are the money clubs (and of course putting). Last thought; don't 'ruin' your shot before you even swing. Meaning, make sure that you're thinking good, positive thoughts (no negative thoughts - only positive). Tell yourself that you're going to make a good swing, and then make it! The ball will go where it goes, but for crying out loud, make a good swing!