Most of the time, you should be aiming at the fairway straight ahead, especially with a tailwind!  Take a high tee and see if you can get past, or at least stay left, of the sand traps there.  Here’s a hole-out from the fairway after a long drive straight ahead.  It’s not as far as you think from here — even a shot laid up short of the sand straight ahead leaves only 300 yards to the green – here’s a driver hole-out from there.  Here’s another incredible driver shot.  And, a shot in the far sand still gives you a wood into the green.  Even if you end up left behind the tree, you still have a chance to curve one around into the green.

The shortcut area to the left provides a great approach shot, but only if you can stick the far left edge of it — a very difficult task.  A high-teed 5-wood will go over the trees if you can hit it far enough, and a high-teed 3-wood can go through the trees and still end up in the fairway.  Otherwise you can cut a C3-type shot around the corner to get as far left as you can.  Watch out for the church pillar behind the trees too — there are lots of obstacles over there.  As long as you end up off the dirt, you should have an approach shot through the gap.  Here’s a perfect 5-wood hole-out after nailing this spot, and here’s one with a 3-wood.  Even from the rough in front of the fairway, this 5-wood still had the angle for a hole-out!

Also check out this example driver around the left side of the church to set up a great approach shot!

VIDEO DEMO

Nothing fancy off the tee here, just poke it out right and bring in your approach.  Here is a dunk from the fairway!  Here’s another nice hole-out to a back pin.

VIDEO DEMO

Here’s a tricky hole that will test your skill.  The tee shot to the right is difficult to stick due to the narrow fairway, but you’ll be rewarded with a straight approach shot for an easy birdie if you pull it off — here’s a hole-out from there.

If you do play down the left side, you’ve still got 3 options.  If you have a 7-wood in the back, you can stay to the left to give you a shot over the trees.  Here’s a 7-wood over the top and in!

You can also play the gap — here’s a perfectly-placed tee shot that allowed for a nice hole-out!

Going all the way to the end of the fairway, here’s a hole-out around the left side.  If you do play around the left, you can also keep your approach shot left and use the hill as a backstop to bounce back onto the green.

Try a couple of these options out to see what works best for you.

VIDEO DEMO

It’s all about the tee shot here.  Either use a high tee to try to carry the sand to the second part of the fairway, or play a driver cut shot with roll and try to thread the needle past the sand.  You’re good from past the sand.  This driver hole-out uses the hill as a backstop.  If you don’t think you can make it, then just try to get lucky and find some of that rare green space down there as far as you can while avoiding that sand!  Here’s a 3-wood hole-out from between the traps.

VIDEO DEMO

There are a couple of tee boxes here — one shot is longer into the upslope, and one is from the right where the green slopes left.  It’s usually up to the tee, wind and pin to decide whether high or low lofted clubs are better here for the shot into the upslope, but you’ll always be hitting a short iron from the right.

This is a nice 7-wood with bite from the one hitting at an uphill green, and here’s another one to a left pin.  Here’s another beautiful shot using all the green.  Low lofted clubs work great here too — here’s an example hole-out.

From the right, here’s a wonderfully played ace to a front-right pin.

VIDEO DEMO

The safest shot for you here is to high-tee a 4 or 5-wood over the top of the barn at the same angle as it runs.  If you miss this shot too far right, the tree guarding the green will halt your progress.  Likely you will clip some leaves but have enough momentum to carry forward and bounce down towards the green — here’s a great high-teed 5-wood hole-out!  And here’s one with a high-teed 4-wood that worked out great.  The best conditions for this shot are when it’s in the 265-275 range with a right to left wind from the right side of the tee box (otherwise a driver through the bridge is your best shot).

The more difficult option is to cut a driver (low-teed to be extra safe, but probably not necessary) with a C2.5-type shot straight through the covered bridge.  It will then deflect off the hill in the back and settle down on the green — here’s an incredible hole-out using this path!  This one grazed the wall but deflected on, off the back hill, and down and in!  This shot is very difficult to pull off, and if you don’t come clean through the bridge, bad things will happen and you may post a big score — unless, of course, this happens.  Or this one clean through, ha! EDIT – Mouth may be doing this on purpose, which is just incredible…here’s another one that almost went in.

VIDEO DEMO

If you don’t have a 7-wood or 9-wood, make sure you lay back towards the top of the fairway to the left to use your 5-wood on the approach.  Actually, you can be a bit of the way down the slope for a 5-wood — here’s an example hole-out.  Here’s a 9-wood hole-out from towards the bottom of the fairway.

VIDEO DEMO

If the wind is NOT blowing left and/or straight out, you’ll try to curve the ball around the mountain to the right and land on the green patch that surrounds it.   The farther around you go, the better approach shot you’ll have, because a driver can be very tough especially with a left pin.  Here’s a great hole-out to a front pin.  Here’s a tough driver hole-out from there that got a crazy bounce out of the sand!  Here’s another well-played sand deflection from there.

For extra distance, you can try an A1-type shot into this green too, but of course it’s riskier.  This was an amazing recovery for eagle.

If the wind is pushing your tee shot towards this water off the tee, you may want to just hit out left and play the easier birdie route.  If you try the above curve shot off the tee and miss, you’ll be dropped there and have a shot at birdie, but it will be long and difficult.

VIDEO DEMO – Part 1
VIDEO DEMO – Part 2

This hole also has two tee boxes — one from the left and one straight on.  Here is where you really need Hawks or a set with low-lofted irons.  With a 7-wood or 9-wood, you may have an awful time trying to keep your round intact.

From the left, here’s a perfectly-played ace.  Here’s another great hole-out to a front-right pin.  Here’s an incredible dunk to a challenging back-right pin!  Check out this perfect cut shot into the gap with a center pin — wow.  Here’s another excellent shot with a 9-wood.

From straight on, here’s a tough-luck rollover after a nice shot.

If you find the pin on the other side of your putt, with sand in between, keep in mind this option!  Here’s another incredible bank-putt for birdie.

VIDEO DEMO

In the minds of many, Auburn lets you off the hook with a very doable finishing hole.  You’ll have a pretty straight shot through the gap to this green.  Above all else, aim for the fat part of the green closest to the pin and give yourself a putt.  You’ll need to nail your distance, but you’ve got a good shot to end your round well!  Here is a nice driver hole-out.  Here’s a great 5-wood to a right pin.

You can also use the tree on the right to kill the ball with a pin on the right — check out this 3-wood tree dunk!

This 5-wood takes an unbelievable bounce and some improbable backspin to the hole — wow.

Another option is a low-teed skip shot with the driver, but it’s not for the faint of heart — check out this amazing shot.

VIDEO DEMO

Golden Tee 2011 is only two months away!  While it’s hard not to get excited for the new courses and features, due to ship in the last week of September to bars with eager vendors, you’ve still got a few weeks left to work on your 2010 game.  Since you’ve probably been playing 2010 for 10 months now, you’re familiar with the courses and execute most shots by memory.  This is the time of year I like to get back to basics and work on improving your fundamentals while also taking more chances on the course.  I recommend working on these tips your next few rounds while you’re waiting for 2011 to come out:

1) Chipping — it’s absolutely true that good chippers save multiple strokes per round by being able to punch the ball in the hole after missing the green.  Work on chipping in all types of situations — everything from low-lofted runners to 3/4 lob shots out of the sand.  Pull back on every chip shot and pay attention to distance.  You’ll want to hone these skills to carry forward into 2011.

2) Pulling the trackball back on every shot — Get used to the distance added by pulling back on each shot and the angle created when pulling back to the side, even ever so slightly.  The great players always combat wind and slope by pulling back off-center to create an angle into these obstacles, and now is the time to pay closer attention than ever to how your ball reacts to different approach angles.

3) Play aggressively!  You don’t learn without experience, so it’s time to take some chances on those tough drivable par 4s and go for the gusto.  Sure, you’ll make some mistakes, but the knowledge you’ll gain is worth those extra strokes at this point.  Learn from what doesn’t work, and store away what does work — I guarantee you’ll always have to execute similar shots on new courses!

4) Play the 2009 courses one more time — on most machines, these will be gone when 2011 comes out, so give the old courses one last spin for nostalgia!

So, enough with the lessons — let’s start running down all we know about the newest version of the game!

Here’s an early review from one of the pros that got to test out the courses:

“I only got to play one cycle last night and I must say…I am fairly impressed. There are lots of holes that are mirror images of past holes, but have their own quirks to them that make it challenging.

The good:
1) The layouts of these courses are quite challenging. I think that on any one of them it would be fairly simple to shoot -21 or so. However, if you want to shoot -27, you will have to risk shooting -17. Very much like many of the current courses.
2) While the new tees will be required to shoot GT Par, it is fairly obvious when you need to use them.
3) Potentially driveable par 5.
4) Drop for mistakes are very easy.

The bad:
1) Quartz balls and old Black balls do not act at all like they once did. The indicators showed that they cut more and spun more, but the fact is that they do not. They reacted more like stock.
2) The new tees are going to be a requirement, if you want to shoot GT par.
3) Drops for mistakes are too forgiving.

The ugly:

1) The difficult part about the new tees is that backspin does not apply at all when you change the tee height. So you need to raise the tee to drive certain greens and then can’t hold the green anyway.

We know all 5 of the new courses for 2011 — check out the pages for each under the 2011 courses category!  They are Laurel Park, Falcon Sands, Grizzly Flats, Alpine Run, and Timber Bay.  More on each of these as updates are released!

So, this leads us to a couple of the most exciting new features for Golden Tee 2011.  First, we have learned that most old club sets and all old virtual balls will be available for purchase!  That’s right — now everyone can have access to the “old birds” or other popular old club sets, along with any old type of virtual ball you want, all from a 2011 cabinet.  This might be a good time to check out the categories for Golden Tee golf clubs and Golden Tee golf balls — you’ll have dozens of combinations to try out!

Next, and perhaps more exciting, players will have the ability to YouTube any shot you want! That’s right — YouTube is not just for hole-outs any more.  I know I’ve had lots of great and/or lucky shots that ALMOST went in — well now you can capture those as well!  Any type of shot at any time can be saved, BUT, word is that there will be a small fee if you want to save non-holeout shots (this is so that YouTube doesn’t get quite as flooded with Golden Tee shot replays).  It may cost as much as $.50 for a single upload, with perhaps a “3 for $1 deal,” but I’m hoping they reduce this cost since that seems a bit high to most of us.

Another very interesting new feature is the introduction of “Golden Tees,” which allow you to both change your position in the tee box and tee the ball higher or lower!  Bags of these tees come at a small cost but can be beneficial to sometimes significantly improve your position during a challenging tee shot.  There are mixed emotions on this one, but I think the majority agrees this is a really cool new feature (some just don’t like the added cost associated with them).  You can tee it at one of three heights: low, medium (default), or high.  Important note — if you tee it high, backspin and roll will not work!  That’s right, so keep this in mind when deciding whether or not to tee it high.  In contrast, teeing it low increases the effect of backspin or roll — you might even see some double-skipping over water in 2011!

Want to test out Golden Tee 2011?  There are now 4 test locations in Illinois waiting for you!  Help give the Golden Tee team some early feedback while you give the 2011 courses and features a spin!

Keep checking back here often for updates as they are made available!  Here are a few more pictures of what’s coming in 2011:

This opening hole is drivable with a high tee from the front box — check out this nice little hop!  This hole-out didn’t even require a high tee because the look was so good — nice.

Here’s an amazing hole-out from the middle box with a huge A1 high-teed driver!  Here’s another amazing ace with a steeper angle.

Otherwise, it’s a standard, flat opening hole.

VIDEO DEMO

Nothing special here either — just pick a spot and bring it in for birdie.  Here’s an example hole-out.

VIDEO DEMO

This green is big and fairly flat, so don’t lose a stroke here trying to chase a pin tucked away to the edge.  Keep the pin between your ball and the rough, make your birdie, and move on.  Here’s an example hole-out.

VIDEO DEMO

There’s never an issue taking it out to the right fairway.  Make sure you carry it far enough but not all the way through, as it slopes downward a bit.  Use a tee or backspin to stick the center of it.  Here’s an example hole-out from the right fairway.

There may be certain wind conditions or pin placements where an approach shot from the left is more favorable, so keep that in mind too.  Here’s an example hole-out from the left fairway.

VIDEO DEMO

This hole tests your elevation control, as the wind will play a big part on the way down.  You shouldn’t need to apply any spin here unless you have a tailwind, in which case you should use bite or backspin.  You may also use bite if a side-wind is blowing away from the flag.  Here’s a nice 5-wood hole-out from up top.  And this driver was floated down perfectly.  And talk about the ultimate dunk!

There’s also a box down to the right that has become more common now — you shoot up at this green slightly, but you don’t really need to add much extra club for elevation — here’s a “hole-out” from there!  This 4-wood took a couple of crazy deflections and ended up in the hole!

VIDEO DEMO

Here’s another standard, flat par 4 where nothing but fairway or green should ever come into play.  Here’s an example hole-out.

VIDEO DEMO

This par 3 is where things start to get slightly tricky.  This usually isn’t the place to go pin-hunting either — do what you can to stick the middle of the green and give yourself a putt.  Don’t bring any trouble into play by being too aggressive, because this front 9 is very manageable and you’ll want a good score heading into the back!  Here’s a hole-out to a front pin.

VIDEO DEMO

I haven’t seen a need yet to even consider the right fairway.  The left fairway is always reachable, usually without a high tee, but you might want a high tee to be safe.  Line up with the fairway that juts towards you and hit it straight and hard.  This should leave you a nice approach shot for an excellent eagle opportunity.  Here’s an example hole-out from the left fairway.

VIDEO DEMO

From almost every setup, a high-teed 9-wood can go straight at the green if you’ve got the distance.  Here’s a perfect example of where you’d play this shot to a back pin.  This one actually comes at it from the left — what a crazy shot!  And this one involves a bank, which is even crazier — wow.  Here’s another perfect bank at the end!

If you’re towards the right side of the box, a high-teed 7-wood can go right at the green, but if you’re towards the left, a high-teed 7-wood can curve safely around the mountain.  And here’s a great medium-teed B3 7-wood backspun into the cup!

If you need a longer shot, you can curve a high-teed 5-wood around too — here is a high-teed 5-wood around the corner for a dunk!  If you need backspin, you’re still fine if you play a big enough hook.  There’s even a backstop rock if you need to get lucky!  This one also came in hot off the backstop.  And why not make the route even more scenic — crazy.

The key is to miss left if you miss at all — you can even hug the mountain on the way around, but don’t miss right!

With the stiff penalty for a miss, you may want to lay up out right sometimes — here’s a hole-out from the fairway.  And this shot is not recommended, but what an entertaining video it made!

VIDEO DEMO

This hole looks harder than it actually plays.  Rotate right a couple clicks and play a C2.5-type shot with a hard cut around the mountain, usually with backspin.  This helps the ball come back left and gives you a better angle at the green.  No matter where you end up off the tee, you should have a look into this green, even if you clip the mountain on the left on your way around.

Try not to end up long in the sand — this creates the most trouble.  If you end up in the front left of the sand, though, you may still have a shot!

If the wind is in your face, it creates the toughest approach shot, but it also allows you to keep the ball well to the left with backspin as you curve it around the mountain, giving you a better angle.  Here’s a lofted hole-out to a back left pin, and here’s an impressive hole-out to a tough right pin!

And this was so horribly bad, it actually turned out good — worth a laugh!  Same thing here — terrible shot that got incredibly lucky!

VIDEO DEMO

Lots of tee boxes here create many different looks at this downhill par 3.  Account extra for the wind and recognize the presence of a big grassy hill on the right — it can help or hurt you depending on how you bring it into play.  Again, the best shot is to the center of the green so that if you’re off slightly in any direction, you still have a putt.

Here’s an example hole-out from the middle box.

Here’s a hole-out from the left box that used the hill on the right nicely!

This is a great 3-wood hole-out from the farthest tee box.

VIDEO DEMO

The left or right fairway works here — it’s usually wind-specific.  To the right, you can hit it long and straight or curve a big A1-type shot over there, trying to get past the sand.  You don’t have to be dead accurate — it can bounce off the walls a bit and settle, still giving you a straight look at the green, or perhaps a small cut shot.  Here’s a hole-out after a drive that got just past the sand on the right.  You probably don’t want to try this shot with the wind blowing left at all.

To the left, you’ll sometimes get a nice wind and be able to carry a high-teed driver over the sand to the next fairway.  Here’s a hole-out after a long drive to the far left fairway.  Otherwise, you’ll lay up in the fairway as close to the sand as you can get — here’s a hole-out after laying up short of the sand and curving it around.  Even if you play it really safe behind the sand on the left edge of the fairway, you can still curve a driver around.

VIDEO DEMO

This is the hole that seems to define your round.  The risk/reward is more evident here than anywhere.  It requires a precise A1-type curve around this mountain with exact distance to hold this green and give yourself an eagle putt.  If you miss in any direction, you risk the chance of a re-tee, which is devastating.  If you haven’t mastered your cut shots left, don’t let your round blow up here — just lay out left and come in for birdie.  Eagles are tough here, and bogey or worse is more common for most of us.

Here’s a 5-wood around the corner — dunk!  This 5-wood got a nice, gentle kick off the mountain back and in.

VIDEO DEMO

If you get the front left box, you can high-tee a 3-wood and play a small cut through the gap — here’s an ace from that box.

From the middle box, this hole may be drivable — check out this high-teed 3-wood that nearly went in!  It takes a precise shot through this gap, but it can be done from here.  This one caught a nice little deflection off the rock.  This one made it clean through for a dunk – awesome!  And this high-teed 4-wood had a perfect wind to aid this perfect shot.  This one is just fun to watch, haha.

Otherwise, rotate left to find a nice landing spot up in the rocks — a 3-wood or driver will settle nicely in there!  This gives you a little floater into the green instead of having to navigate the very tough fairway with a difficult approach shot.  And while you’re up there, take a listen for the Bradys yelling for Bobby and Cindy — hilarious!  You’ll hear that in various places on this course if you stray too far.

Some setups may make the fairway more attractive, and here’s a hole-out using the traditional route.

Finally, you CAN sometimes drive the green from the right box — you’ll just have a hard time sticking it!

VIDEO DEMO

Gauge the wind here to determine the tee shot that will give you the best approach into the green.  First, you can rotate left and play a drive straight over to the second fairway.  You may sometimes want a high tee to ensure your distance is enough.  This gives you a clear shot at the green for your approach.  Here’s a hole-out from there.  This one came up a bit short in the dust but still had enough of an angle to get it home!

You can drive along the right fairway too, which is just fine.  If you position your drive correctly, you can have a very short approach shot with little to no cut required.  To the contrary, this one had about as much cut as you can put on the ball for an amazing hole-out!

VIDEO DEMO

This hole presents all kinds of opportunities!  The green can be driven most of the time, but you’ll have to control a deflection off one of a couple rocks while choosing the right club depending on the wind.

If the wind is blowing between 3:00 and 6:00, play a high-teed 5-wood with backspin into the top of the obelisk straight ahead.  The harder the wind, the more you tee it to the left.  This creates a deflection towards the green, and the wind will push back against the ball at the same angle it’s shooting over, creating a soft landing.  Here is an example with this setup.

However, you may also be able to play a \ angled shot into the mountain with a high-teed 7-wood with backspin with these types of winds — this one was with a wind at 5:00 and still managed to climb over because it hit the rock at the correct spot!  And here’s another one that dropped in the cup for the super albatross!

If the wind is blowing between 12:00 and 3:00, play the same type of shot with a high-teed 7-wood with backspin.  The ball won’t deflect with as much velocity to the left, but that’s where the wind kicks in and keeps pushing it forward a bit, but also back right to slow it down.  Here is an example with this setup.  Here’s another one played with a C3 that just barely caught the obelisk rock and deflected over.

If the wind is blowing straight out, you’ll want to shoot over the wall to the left of the obelisk.  The 7-wood can have a tough time holding the green, so use a high tee, move left, and play a spinny C3 9-wood into this wall.  It should grab the wall and barely climb over, dropping forward onto the green.  This 9-wood almost went in!

If the wind is blowing hard to the left, play a high-teed 9-wood or 7-wood (backspin) with the same C3-type shot, giving the ball room to carry down to the left as it drops towards the green.  A straight shot can also work.  Here’s a high-teed 9-wood that took advantage of this hard left wind to drop on!  Use the 9-wood whenever possible with this shot because the 7-wood can hit the face of the rock and come straight back.

The only setup that it consistently difficult to land the green is when the wind is blowing between 6:00 and 9:00.  It’s hard to carry the high-lofted club over, and the 5-wood deflection shot will continue left and likely find water, similar to what happened on this attempt.  However, this high-teed 9-wood had a slight head-wind but made its way over for the SUPER ALBATROSS!

And here are some shots that are not recommended but worked out in this case!  If you hit a 3-wood here with a strong left wind, you may also make it there — incredible!  This one got it done too — left rock, right rock, over to the green.  And this 4-wood shot up off this rock and carried over the top, settling on the fringe!

For tee shots where you don’t go for the green, there is a layup spot straight ahead through a crack in the mountains — it should be a 5-wood or high-teed 7-wood, and if it settles correctly, you’ll have a little wedge punch-shot onto the green for an eagle putt.  If you happen to miss too far, consider banking it back off the rock, like this resourceful effort!

Another shot you can try off the tee is a driver cut shot into the mountain straight ahead at the corner of the fairway.  It’s a C2-3 thumb driver shot.  The cliff is facing towards the left fairway, and it should give you a deflection and bounce off left into that fairway, giving you a clear approach shot for eagle!  To make it simpler, you can use a low tee, move it to the front right of the box, and thumb it just a hair right of 2 into this cliff — this should work pretty consistently.  If you notice an X in the cliff straight ahead, you can aim just left of here to find the right spot.

The “standard” option is to curve something like a 7 or 8-iron around the corner, using the slope of the fairway to carry it down left.  If it carries down far enough, you can curve your next shot around the mountain into the green.  This is especially a good option with a wind blowing right, because it helps to stop your tee shot and then to help it on the curve around to the green.

VIDEO DEMO

In beta, this hole did NOT have a sand trap in front.  If you played the Flares and had a strong wind in your face, you didn’t have much option other than stroke limit, so be thankful you now have somewhat of a bail-out spot!

This hole alone makes me want to use Hawks to have a 2-hybrid for that headwind, because then you can actually hit that club pretty full with no spin and stick the green.  Otherwise, if the wind is really in your face and you have to hit a wood, you should probably be aiming for the green in front of the sand and letting the ball roll back into the sand for a chip.  That is, unless, you have perfect 5-wood distance control.

Or, you know, you can just put it up top and watch the show…here’s a roller coaster-type shot that’s very entertaining.  When you try this, just hope you don’t have this happen!

Another note about the sand — the lip is VERY STEEP on the right side!  You may not be able to get your lob wedge over the top to a right pin.  If that’s the case, rotate left and punch it out so you at least have a putt at par.  Yeah, this hole is a beast with a headwind.

Here’s a 7-wood that played the side-wind perfectly.

VIDEO DEMO

Here you’ll be aiming straight through the small gap straight ahead, to the left of the green.  It’s too risk to try to cut it left to right — instead, shoot straight through and use the hill to the back left of the green to deflect back down onto the green.  There is water left here, but your ideal shot is to carry the top of the hill to the right of this water (or even the base of this mountain backstop) so that you get a small deflection back down the hill towards the green.  If you hit too hard or get a bad bounce, you can deflect all the way past the green into the water as well.

That being said, here’s a perfect shot with a 7-wood — clean through the gap, gentle roll down the hill and in!  Here’s another high-teed 7-wood with just a small cut right through the gap, using the hill at the back.  This high-teed 9-wood was also clean and bounced down perfectly off the hill.

This high-teed 4-wood was played high off the back mountain but came back perfectly to the cup.  This high-teed 5-wood came off the mountain hot but caught the cup!

Here’s an incredible 5-wood double-bank and then a little kiss off the bottom!  And here’s another double-banker for an ace.  This deflection and camera angle are amazing, in addition to the results!

You can carry around the right side too, but it’s really challenging and requires a great setup.  This one got caught out right on the rock, but check out this amazing recovery for eagle!

VIDEO DEMO

Lay up towards the end of the first fairway and bring it in for birdie.  Here’s an example 9-wood hole-out.  Don’t take this one for granted — you’ll need to nail your distance with sand short and long.

VIDEO DEMO