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HOW TO SCORE BETTER ON PAR 5s! Ultimate Strategy Guide With Matt Fryer.
Professionals and elite players see par 5 holes as their main scoring opportunities, whereas they can often strike fear into the heart of the recreational golfer. The sheer length of these holes can be daunting and often lead to some card-wrecking scores. In this video, Golf Monthly staff writer and PGA Pro Joe Ferguson joins YouTuber Matt Fryer on the 18th hole at Royal Liverpool Golf Club to get some insight on how club golfers can tackle the par 5s more successfully with a better strategy…
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Par 5s, some of the most interesting holes in golf. Elite players and tour pros think
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they're the most scorable opportunities there is, but they can strike fear into the heart of
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the recreational golfer. We're here at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, home of the 2023 Open. We've
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got Matt Fryer and he is going to talk us through the best strategy to attack par 5s
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So we're here on the 18th tee Matt and it looks tight, we've got Out of Bounds all down the right
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are you still seeing this as a scoring opportunity? It can be and it can't be, I think there's a few
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things you have to take into consideration to make sure it does become a scoring opportunity instead
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of turning it into one of the card records that you mentioned earlier. Correct, well for you from
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this tee we've got bunkers down the left there 234 yards to reach 253 yards to get past out of
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bounds all down the right talk me through how you're going to go about this and talk me through
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how a recreational player might make a good strategy from this tee yeah well if we started
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with the recreational player obviously as you said earlier it can be scary sometimes i think
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we get on to par fives and we think oh these are the super long holes see this one here 552 yards
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from where we're stood now. So that can bring a lot of fear into the golfer's eyes
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You know, I think I'm never going to get there in three, four, maybe. It's a long way
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I've got to hit some really good shots. But if we broke it down, I always say to my students
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if it was, you know, three shots that went 200 yards, we're 50 yards over the back of the green
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So it's not actually too long in that sense. So don't let that big number think, well, that's your one destination
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Almost break it down into small parts as we start. But then once we understand if we could do it in segments, you know, three shots, four shots
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bear in mind as well, a lot of people probably have a stroke on the hole because they're usually
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in that sort of lower, lower than 10 on the stroke index for these par fives
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To the team, we've sort of looked at the distance aspect. It's them building a plan, I think. A lot
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of amateurs would walk up here, a lot of friends that I play with would generally get the drivers
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round about that 230 to 250 mark and they'll stand on the tee. They'll hit a great drive
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that goes somewhere down the middle, a couple of dodgy bounces, and you're in a pot bunker
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and then straight away, now you've got to hack out, now you've got to try and get it back in play
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You've almost forced bogey upon yourself. Just one on that, are you
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whilst you're assessing the hazards, are you assessing the severity of those hazards
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to see whether it might be worth rolling the dice? If those bunkers were shallow enough
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to advance it 180 yards, might that be worth the risk of bringing them into play
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Yeah, definitely. And then look at it and say, okay, well, what does it mean if I hit it in that bunker
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Is it almost a definite bogey because I'm gonna be in this small little pot bunker
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that I've gotta flick out? If it was a scraped bunker that I could even hit a three-wood out of or a rescue
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and I can still go for it, you can go for it. So your first thing you've gotta do is assess
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well, what club can I put down there in play that can maybe allow me to go for the green in two
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or allow me to put my next shot into a point where I could hit a wedge or something like that
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into the green. This sounds very exciting. You're talking a good game, let's see it
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Let's see it. As I get this half decent, the out of bounds isn't in play
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and the bunkers shouldn't be in play either. That's a good one
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because I've actually pulled it a little bit left, but luckily, because of the club I've chosen
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I've managed to clear the traps because my carry distance gets by that last one
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Right, Matt, we've located the ball. As you said, those bunkers out of play, they went a little bit left of that
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Now you've got a bit of thinking to do, I guess, what's the first thing that you do now
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I've got a yardage for you, you've got 277 to the pin
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Where does your thought process go? What do you think when you get here? Yeah, again, I think if we go back
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to what the amateur would do, we think oh 277 I need to get up there it par five I need to get there in two that the only way I can make a birdie if I knock it on in two and two put but we got to look at the lie firstly because that going to dictate how I play those next 277 yards and for me here although I managed to get out of the way
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of the trouble that was the bunkers and the out of bounds it's not the best lie that we've got
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so straight away if I were to make the mistake which I think I see a lot of amateurs go um through
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because we've got that distance they think right get one of your long clubs out now whether it's a
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three wood five wood seven wood hybrid we see that in behind the golf ball looking great it's not
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going to be the easiest shot out of there we know that we've got 277 and i like pitching from about
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90 yards i've got a club in my bag a wedge that i use on a um on a clock face style swing that i
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would know would go 90 yards so it's okay well 277 minus my 90. i want to try and get it 187
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the wind's a little bit into us today so i've selected a six iron because this is my 195 club
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but with this wind and how the lie is there's going to be a bit of grass in between the club
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face and the golf ball so that's going to take yeah exactly it's going to take some distance off
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me i will get a nice bounce here and also i just feel with the six sign it's enough to get the ball
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up out of that lie and still have some control with it i could go five iron potentially or four
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iron but again the out of bounds is still running down the right hand side so i know that that's
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there i still want to maintain an element of control as i'm going through this when we get
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onto the fairway in a moment it's a different scenario just taking you back a second matt
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would you recommend most recreational players getting one you mentioned 90 yards as a comfortable
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one for you would you recommend amateur players finding a number that they they're particularly
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keen on and trying to play to that yeah i think so yeah as a starting point i think a lot of
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amateurs when we you know especially from a layup distance here even if you're on a par four let's
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say and you hit the ball into the trees and you're knocking out you're probably knocking it round to
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some distance around that hundred yard mark all the time so whether it's 75 150 whatever it would
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be if there was something that you were confident with when you find yourself on the par fives what
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you're able then to do is say right okay well what is it i need to do to try and get as close as i
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can to that distance if it's possible if not you will build another strategy to it
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Lovely shot. Wind just bringing it in, there we go, scampering down the fairway and now it probably
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looks like I'm somewhere around that 90 number. Right so Matt you played that one nice and safely
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you were in the rough, I've magically popped you in the middle of the fairway here just a little
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bit further up, I've given you 40 yards as well which is very kind to me, that leaves us 235
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I just lasered in fact, from the middle of the fairway, so I'm guessing for you this would be a
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green light situation. Yes. Talk me through it. What's what what what what consideration are you
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giving this from here because it's still not an easy shot we've got bunkers in line with the pin short we've got out of bounds down the right what do you factor in here a from a strategy point of
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view and b from an equipment point of view? Yeah so I think again strategy comes to that question
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of like what lays in front of us as we saw off the tee it was the bunkers off the off the tee
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and the out of bounds when we were in the rough it was the lie and then also again the out of bounds
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and what i was looking to do here when i get into sort of my green light go scenario here some people
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just go oh well it's my distance that i hit my rescue three wood i'll do it and they don't take
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into consideration like you just said three bunkers guarding the flag that look like they're
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very tight to it the out of bounds is down the right which brings you to where the front of the
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green is so if i wanted to try and get this closer down i'm gonna have to get a little bit of launch
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on this and try and land it a little bit softly because anything coming in flat is going to get
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caught out by those bunkers and get snarled up in them so i've got to try and carry this pretty much
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all the way and get this launching high and landing soft as i go through so then when we move into our
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equipment side of thing you can see here i got three of the woods that i do carry i got my my three wood I got a five wood and I also got a hybrid I chop and change with my five and the hybrid depending on where I playing but all do a very different job these things
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In terms of distance and trajectory? Yeah, distance and trajectory. So my three wood's a longer one, you would expect it to be the longest
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but it's also a bit of a flatter flight. So this is a club that if I'm on the tee and I'm not driving it great
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this is sort of my fallback to fairway finder so if we go down to the five wood this is one that
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again launches a little bit higher due to the loft but what i've done is got a slightly stiffer shaft
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in here and a slightly firmer tip because with a firewood the issue i would find is that they do
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pop up a little bit too much so depending on the profile of the shaft you would select so you're
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managing that lock with the profile of the shaft yeah exactly so we've got the ventus in all of
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these here the the rescue is the only one that isn't a tr one and it's the hybrid model but
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normally i'm a red ventus player so i'd normally see that go into my five wood but it launches
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yeah that's where i have the hybrid so it sort of does the same job as my five would but this is
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sort of the i want to get a par four that's maybe a little bit longer you know the 460s or i want
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want to get a par five in two and it's a nice still day I can launch this off and know that
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it's going to pretty much stop like a seven iron when it's coming in so it comes down to you know
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I think getting a good fitting overall there's there's lots of clubs out there and when we go
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through our bag selection maybe looking at what those woods are especially in that end of your
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bag because I see a lot of people still just carrying a three wood and then when do you hit
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oh off the fairway do you generally have much success with it not really i struggle to get it
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up that's where maybe you know a five wood with maybe a slightly softer profile helps you launch
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it just because it says five wood on it you know my five would nearly goes as far as my three would
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but it's going up a little bit more one more question yeah you've got 230 are you always
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trying to play to the yardage because i hear a lot of tour pros saying when i hear those conversa
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you know the conversation overhearing when the caddies chat to the player on tour right we're
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leaving this short we're we're going to play to the back of the green we're going to play over the you is that something you bring into your game would recommend yeah i would you know i'm
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a big user now of the of the watches so i look at front middle and back and if it was a shot like
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this where i can see that there is trouble there there's three pot bunkers that if i get them going
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in there and the faces look rather high from here it's going to be a struggle getting it up and down
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so two three five i'm on my hybrid but actually for this shot i would probably say right i'm going
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I'm going to get five wood out because I know I can carry it there. And if I do go a little bit beyond, what we tend to find
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is that there's not much trouble at the back of the green. Well, that's pretty much as you drew it up, Matt
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High, floaty, middle of the green. Look at that. I think we're looking at an eagle, Pat. Let's go and have a look
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We'd sell that one. Right, Matt, we're here. We're at your layup. you've got 93 yards so it's very good distance control from the rough i'm impressed with that
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you've actually opened up the angle as well here you're right half the fairway pins left
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is that something that was deliberate or is that a happy accident obviously okay obviously we go
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so right you're back in position give me your thoughts from here yeah it's you know like we did
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we planned to get this distance and now i've got a swing that i'm happy with i've still got to take
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in the lie i've also got to take in the conditions we've got some wind coming in off the right so
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that is gonna change how I may play this shot because as we look at where the hole is
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that green, sorry, the flag is tucked right in the back left corner of it
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So aiming straight at it, the bunkers are still there on that left-hand side
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If I don't quite get it, the wind could kill it and knock it down towards it
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So I probably actually gonna aim in between where my second shot from the fairways ended up and where the flag is to allow the conditions dictate what the flight of the ball will be and then again i think from the amateur
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standpoint i see sometimes we get a little bit excited and we forget to do these things we just
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got to stick to a consistent plan as we go through this scenario and try and build the score a lot
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of people think if i hit this close i'm going to make birdie it'll be my first birdie of the round
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or you know first birdie ever and they forget everything else that goes into it and subsequently
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end up hitting a poor shot so six into play yeah i think it's a case of like we just you know
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mentioned that consistent plan we've done it from the tee the layup go through it again just a
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couple of questions where's the trouble what club do i need to do again even technology comes into it
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here for what club you're using i think a lot of people have two um two stiffer shafts in their
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wedges and they're generally not using the correct loft as well well let's see this i think i think a
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good shot here would still be inside that five wood you've just hit yeah if i get it inside that five
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wood i've i've hit a pretty decent one it's it's pumping up a bit isn't it the wind it is all right
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Stay there, hold up. Ooh, just off the back. Right, down on the green mat, how would you assess that wedge shot
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I know we're not, you hear all these people thinking you've got to stiff it every time with a wedge
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Based on the yardage, the crosswind, the difficulty of that shot, how would you assess 22, 23 feet from there
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Yeah, well, if we go back to where the tee shot was, I'm happy to be here because we've managed to take what wasn't a great tee shot
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and set up the option of a birdie now. But yeah, 22 feet, pretty decent to be fair
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It's just giving yourself that chance. If it would have been on the tee shot
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I decided to hit a hybrid or a three wood because I thought, right, the only way I'm making birdies
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by knocking it on in two, I probably would have been in the out of bounds
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So it's good to be in this spot and still have something available. So you've been pragmatic. You've got the chance to break par
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Let's see it. Let's roll the birdie put in. No pressure then. No pressure. just to win the open
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Lovely part, great pace, and the most stress-free part you can imagine
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I'll give you that one. Let's go and see the aggressive shot with a five wood
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has left you with a similar length for eagle. Now no pressure, this would be a really grandstand finish
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You've been aggressive, you've taken the shot on, you've pulled it off. How do you control your excitement levels here
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I see that a lot of times in amateurs. I think it's acceptance in it, we have hit a great shot
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The amount of times we would hit this shot to here, you know, it's probably a two out of 10, something like that
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So it's, you know, yeah, eagle's gonna be great, but let's just take everything into account again
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read it, calm ourselves down, go through that consistent strategy. If we hold it, brilliant
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If not, let's make sure it was another simple, stress-free tap-in like we had a minute ago
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looking good just a little shy of pace that's enough for me left it short but it's good enough
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for me and a very easy birdie so two very different ways of attacking the par 5 there we've highlighted
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yeah what's your takeaway message for those at home i think for me it's you know finding the
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trouble you know don't be overwhelmed when we get on the tee firstly find out where the trouble is
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throughout the hole, have a consistent plan, and then if we are looking at the top end of our bag
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get the clubs right for the job. Don't just pick clubs off the shelf thinking
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I need a three wood or five wood. Pick the ones that are right for you. Get the right shafts that are gonna help you do
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the right shot for you. There you have it. Strategy, don't be overawed
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Get the right equipment and attack the par fives
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