Should You Go For The Green On A Driveable Par 4?

Reachable par fours are the holes you often think about before you even get to the tee. Even if you’ve made a few bogeys early on, these holes should offer some respite and the chance of a birdie to turn the momentum round in your favor. But often, we end up making a hash of them due to a lack of clarity over the optimum strategy. Different golfers play these short holes in a variety of ways - some lay up with an iron to leave a preferred yardage while others reach for the driver to have a crack at the green. So what should you do and does the best approach vary by handicap? We enlisted the help of data from Shot Scope to find out.

Now the first point we need to make is that for most golfers, par fours aren’t usually within reach unless the conditions are especially favorable - be it very firm and bouncy or significantly down wind. This is because the average driving distance for a 15 handicap golfer is 236 yards. The shortest par 4 in the UK measures 245 yards which means in normal conditions, only 10 handicaps or below on average would be able to reach the green. However, if the weather and conditions are in your favour and the green is in range, are you better off going for the green or laying back?

Well the Shot Scope data suggests that every ability of golfer is better off hitting driver than any other club. Gains with the driver range from +0.10 to +0.16 strokes, with the biggest benefit seen in better players. Even 30 handicap golfers gain +0.12 strokes using the driver so the data clearly supports an aggressive strategy off the tee on reachable par 4s.

This is backed up further by tee shot accuracy statistics which suggest that golfers are no more accurate off the tee with a three wood than they are a driver, so the theory of choosing a slightly shorter club than driver for additional control doesn’t really stack up in reality.

One final point to note is that even if the green isn’t quite in range, you’re still better off using driver and getting as close to the green as possible rather than laying back to a favored yardage because there is a direct correlation between distance from the hole and resulting score for every ability of player. Additionally, from 100 yards out a 10 handicap player is only hitting the green 49 percent of the time.

So there you have it, conclusive evidence that you’re far better off going for the green on a short par 4 than laying back. The stats have no doubt provided some food for thought and may well trigger a change in your strategy that could unlock lower scores.