Welcome to SwingWise Golf – the home of smarter golf.
We teach golfers how to lower their scores using advanced course management strategy, we have developed Golf Theory Optimal (GTO), and real-world decision-making framework used by elite players and caddies. If you’re trying to break 90, break 80, or win at the competitive level, this channel will show you how to play *smarter*, not harder.
Every video is grounded in the data-driven principles behind the SwingWise app, including:
• Tee-to-green strategy based on shot dispersion and outcome variability
• Plays Like Distance calculations (slope, wind, lie, temp, etc.)
• Risk/reward shot planning and aim point optimization
• Pre-round and in-round decision models used by competitive players
Whether you’re a scratch golfer, weekend warrior, junior player, or coach – you’ll learn real strategies to eliminate big numbers and make better decisions under pressure.
🟡 Visit https://SwingWise.ai to try the only golf app built to deliver smarter shot choices, not just more data.
🏆 Monthly Giveaway: We award a $250 PGA Tour Superstore gift card to one lucky subscriber every month! Subscribe and stay tuned to win.
📩 Contact: swingwisegolf@gmail.com for sponsorships, collaborations, or coaching inquiries.
Most golfers are losing strokes on decision-m, not the swings they make. Today, I’ll show you the three specific shots that kill your score. These aren’t bad swings. These are poor decisions that arise from poor planning and/or the wrong strategy. I’ll show you the mistake and then the correct play, the one that keeps your scores lower by playing the smart shot. Real quick, we’re giving away a $250 PJ Tour Superstore gift card this month. Just subscribe to an Let’s hop into it. The first shot killer, the ego-driven driver. Hitting driver when you don’t need to is one of the fastest ways to lose strokes and make double bogey. Miss it slightly and you’re in recovery mode. You’ve taken par, let alone birdie out of play and you start to bleed strokes. The better option, use a club that fits the fairway. If it’s a 3-wood or a three hybrid, and it keeps the ball in position for your next shot, that’s the right club. Course management starts on the tea. A lot of things you see sometimes from amateur golfers is you get up to a short par five. This one’s about 470. Most ego-driven males are going to think I can get home in two regardless of their skill or capability. So they can talk about it when they’re in the lounge at the end of the round. Sometimes you let your ego get ahead of you. So I’m going to go ahead hit one like I think amateurs do. They get up here par five 470. They’re not thinking about oh well maybe I could hit a 3wood and still get there in two. They just want to hit the driver to get high and let it fly. So, let’s see how that goes. I’m going do my best Bryson swing. [Music] Oh, no. [Music] To the house. All right. So, for this one, I’m going to try not to get amped up. It’s just another T- shot, right? Granted, if I hit a really good one, I’m going to have a really good scoring opportunity, but I got to treat it like any other T-OT. What I like to try and do is swing about 90% regardless of what club I have in my hand. That’s kind of my comfortable speed to make good contact on any club. So, this should be about the 90% effort. See if we can hit a good one down the middle. [Music] Right down Broadway, Jen. So, try not to let the ego get the best of you when you’re hitting T- shots. I get you get excited. I can hit a par five and two. I might need a little bit more in the tank on a long par4, but the amount of your dispersion increases by swinging too hard outweighs the benefits of swinging smooth and down the middle and trying to play within yourself. So, we’ve got a short par4 here. It’s about 290 to get on the green. There’s also a hill just shy of the green that’ll allow you to run it up. Really don’t want your ego to get in the way of good golf. I’ll show you what typically would happen is somebody like with my skill who really could barely get there with the help of the hill and how this isn’t the right shot to play and it’s something adding strokes to your game. I’m going to get up here. I’m going to try and hit it as hard as I can so I can get it on the green in one. Let’s see how it works. [Music] instead of like swinging out of my shoes and trying to carry all the danger to get on in one. How I play this hole is I aim to the right of that mound. There’s a big landing area cuz it’s a split fairway and then I have a really good angle into the green. So, I’m going to show you the right way to play the hole. [Music] All right, that should be good. So, you can see my ball’s most likely going to land somewhere around here where we’re standing. And then if I got lucky, it would roll up to the the flag. I pulled it a little bit. I hit it really good. So now I have like a 40 yard bunker shot, which is not a high percentage play. Not what you want to do. You don’t want to let your ego get the better of you off the tea and hit a shot that you can maybe pull off 10 20% of the time. It’s not what we’re about. It’s not how to score better. So, this is the way I would normally play the hole. We’re pin high to the flag. We’ve got a nice little chip shot here. Technically, I guess you could say we’re shortsighted, but we’re close enough to where I can hit a pretty much normal kind of stock mid-flight tow chip. Should hit roll out just a little bit and get pretty close. It’s uphill, too. So, this is one that I can be aggressive on and should get up and down a good bit of the time. Shot killer number two, the lazy layup. Most players just grab something and swing. No yardage, no aim, no plan. That leads to an awkward distance and/or a poor angle to the green. Better option, pick the aim and club that gets you to your favorite yardage for short approach shots. If your best wedge is from 100 yards, lay up to 100 and make sure you have a good angle into the green. So, we’re on a par five. Second shots too far out to go for it in two. There’s a a creek in front and it’s like 235 to get to a front pin. So, I’m going to make sure I lay up. You know, one thing that’s a score killer for a lot of amateurs is they kind of come up to this shot, they see all that fairway and they go, “Okay, it’s 235. I’ve got like 150 to the end of the fairway. I hit an 8 iron 150. I’m just going to go ahead and hit an 8 iron.” By taking that approach, you kind of don’t account for some factors that you should like. We have a bunch of room to the right. The flag is in the middle. A good spot to come into the flag would be from the right. If you were thinking smart, you’d want to hit something right towards that tree over there, Jen. I’m just going to aim right at the flag and hit a a layup shot down there. This is what often occurs. [Music] He just turned a par into a double or triple bogey. What you really should do is assess the whole situation so you’re set up for success on the next shot. Take the same club to eight iron. Aim maybe 10 yards left of that tree. Take a nice smooth swing. And what I like to do to make it even easier, you might have seen in some of my other videos is I have what I feel is a kind of three/4er punchy swing. And if it’s off and it goes 130 or it goes 140 or it goes 150, it really doesn’t matter cuz I’m still going to be in good position for the next shot. It just opens up more positive outcomes. Here we go. Trying to play it the non- lazy way and paying attention to what you’re doing. And aim just inside that tree. [Music] Think we hit right at the tree. and we should have a very good angle in for our third shot. All right, so we laid up at the tree. Uh we ended up going kind of right at it, not inside it like I want it. But as you can see, when you line up to the if Jen gets right behind me now, I’ve got a lot of room to the right like I would have a little bit more room to the left. The way the creek is formed, there’s still a little danger, but I’m so close that the first part of the creek I’m not worried about. But if I was lazy like I did on the one where I ended up trying to swing hard and rope hooked it, you can see the ball off into the distance straight on that that way. You see it? That’s where the the lazy layup ended up. But if you walk with me, the viewers can see like if I wasn’t intentional about the layup, the further we get over here and if I was aiming at the pin, then all of a sudden I have all the water to go over and it just makes for a scarier shot into the green. So where we laid up is really optimal cuz it gave us a better angle into the pin for the third shot. Even here would have been fine, but it just lessens your chance at making parie on it. From there, we’re in the the primo spot. Grant Horvat, shout out Primo Apparel sponsor me. So now we’re back to where our ball landed. Playing it the smart way and not being lazy, being intentional about your layup shot. So that’s what I want everybody to learn at home is, you know, layups you can kind of fall asleep on. Don’t be lazy about it. Be intentional. Pick a good spot that you want to land it in sets you up for the next shot. And that’s kind of what we do on everything at Swingwise. So, here we go. Got about a 75 yard shot here. Going to do my little standard 54°ree kind of pitch shot. [Music] All right. So, we kind of shoved it out to the right, but we’re pin high. We’re on the green. Parie is what we’re going to get on this hole now. instead of being lacadasical with the layup shot and ending up in the woods or too far left and taking on too much of the water coming into the green. Shot killer number three, the flop shot. This is where double bogeies are born. It’s a low percentage play. Tour players don’t hit this shot as much as you think. And we as amateurs should rarely use this and in only extreme circumstances, the better option. Use your stock greenside chip with the ball off your front heel. Pick a safe line, one that gets the ball on the green 15 to 20 ft from the pin is fine and secure your bogey at worst. Avoiding the double chip. This will shed way more strokes than attempting the flop shot. We’re shortsided. The pen rolls away from us, so I need to really hit a high flop shot to try and get it close. It’s not what I would even do, though. Normally, I try to do something that gets safely on the green 90% of the time. hitting a flop shot here, you know, trying to get it close usually results in a very bad shot and not close to the hole. Just as amateurs, we don’t practice as much as pros do. So, I’m going to open up the face, wait on my front side, and try and hit it real high. See if I can’t get it close. [Music] Ah, just short, huh? So, here’s what I would do normally. Put it in a similar lie. I’m going to try and hit kind of like my normal kind of stock toe down shot with a little bit of height. Just open it up just a tad and try and land it somewhere between there. And even if it lands on the green and rolls to the other side, I’m kind of good with that. I just know if I play it this way, worst case scenario, I’m going to have like 15 to 20 ft and I should never end up not making it on the green. Woo. I’ll take that all day, Jen. Hope everybody gets what I’m trying to explain here is it looks like a lob shot is required there. But if you really inspect it, I had a good I don’t know about 8 9 ft of rough and fringe to land it in to deaden it. And by hitting the toe down, I exposed more bounce, making better contact, so I can feel like I can swing at it a little bit more. And then you got another like 13 ft for it to roll out. ended up getting it like five feet, maybe five and a half feet away from the hole. Really good shot. Be honest, anything in like a 10 to 15 foot circle around the hole would be great. That’s how it’s done. In summary, when you have what looks like a lob shot, make sure it really is a lob shot and in only extreme circumstances, hit the lob shot. So, most people would look at this and say the only way to get it close is to hit a lob shot. And for the most part, I would agree, but it’s not the best way to play the shot to keep your score from being inflated. So, I’m going to show you what happens when you try to play the lob shot. And then I’m going to show you the recommended way I would play the hole normally day in and day out. So, all the weight on my front, open up the club, then grip it, and then I’m going to try and come through with an open club face and hit a real high one that clears this little ravine or whatever you want to call it and gets close to the hole. [Music] So, that’s what happens. You don’t hit it hard enough because you’re so scared to hit it too hard. Doesn’t clear the area. What I really recommend you do, and you’re probably tired of hearing if you listen to more than one video on the channel, but I like to do the toe down. I just open it up a hair and I just kind of rock my shoulders and through the ball. Do the back swing and the forward swing at the same pace. And that should result in kind of a floaty mid- height shot that will also sit down when it gets up there. [Music] Go in. And that’s how you hit your flop shot without it being a flop shot. A little toe down just a smidge open. Rock your shoulders like a putting stroke. Very effective. Think we can make it with the 58°ree. So, when you think you need a flop shot, you don’t. Thanks for watching the video. Hope you made it this far. So, in summary, what we just covered was don’t let the e your ego get the best of you when you’re hitting the ball off the tea. Sometimes it’s better to lay up. Also, if you’re trying to get to a par five and two, don’t let your ego take over and fight off more than you can chew. It’s fine to lay up. It puts you in a better position to score better long term. The second thing was be intentional with your layups. I see a lot of people get lazy. They hit a good T- shot on a par five and then they’re like, “Oh, I’m just going to lay up.” So, they just grab like a seven iron and take a swing at it. Take your time. Pick an aim point. Pick the right club to go the right yardage. And then take it one step further like I do and come up with like a punchy shot that you know that goes maybe a little bit lower, goes left less left or right than maybe your full swing does. Just something that has more control to get it in that general vicinity so you’re in a good position for your third shot. The last one was the flop shot is not an option for you if you’re trying to break 90. There’s too many things that can go wrong with it. If you have the time and you’ve perfected it, sure, but pros really only have enough time to do it. And they only do it in like a break in emergency cases. I showed you a feet close together towed down shot that comes out a little floaty. Use that. The objective when you’re around the green is to get it on the green. Even if it’s 15, 20 ft, at least you have an opportunity to make your par. Worst case, you make your bogey and move on to the next one. Thanks for watching. Like, subscribe, comment, all that good stuff. If you have anything you want us to do, we’re down to hear it and down to do it. Have a great day. See you in the next one. [Music]
