How often do you pull the driver on your local course's par 5 holes before you've even stepped out of the cart? While the driver certainly has its place on many par 5s, there are just as many where it's not the smart play — no matter how far you hit it.
In this golf strategy video, I walk you through playing one of the par 5s at Windermere Country Club and share the thinking process I go through when deciding how to approach the hole. This kind of course management separates golfers who shoot consistently low scores from those who wonder why easy holes keep producing bogeys.
The hole I'm playing in this video is the par 5 15th. In the image below, you can see the layout of the hole and the lines I play on it.
The first shot off the tee puts me in the perfect landing area that leaves me with a wide-open approach to the green — with about the same yardage as my tee shot. So I typically hit a 4 iron off the tee and a 4 iron into the green.
Both shots are around 220 yards, and that's the key. While the hole reads 526 on the scorecard, for me it plays only 440 because of my tee shot placement and the angle of approach for my second shot.
This second shot takes me straight through the throat of the green, so even if I come up short, I'm on the short grass with a simple pitch for eagle.
By taking a longer club off the tee such as the driver, I would have to thread it into a very narrow part of the fairway that is completely blind from the tee.
A 3 wood brings the lateral hazard and trees into play through the fairway, and a 2 or 3 iron brings the small oak on the right side into play — forcing me to work the approach shot and take a longer club since I'd have to hit a big fade.
While you may not always be able to take a 4 iron off the tee on a par 5, there are many instances where something other than the driver is not only the smarter, safer play, but will actually increase your chances of making birdie or eagle — and at a minimum, keep you from making a big number.
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Video Transcription: How to Play Par 5's
Welcome to the 15th hole at Windermere Country Club. It's a very interesting par 5. I do a lot of playing lessons out here, and it never fails — when we get to this par 5, everyone pulls out their driver.
As you look down from the tee, the view is pretty daunting. All you see is weeds and scrub brush. You certainly don't see much fairway except the very left edge — if you look down the cart path you can see just the left edge of the fairway.
What's interesting about this hole is that being a par 5, your first instinct is to grab the driver. But the problem is that's not a smart shot here, because if you look all the way to the end, it's only about 250-260 yards to where the fairway runs out. For many golfers, that golf strategy is going to bring trouble into play.
If I hit 3 wood, I risk running through the fairway. If I hit driver I've got to work it left-to-right and there's water at the end, so the smart strategy here is actually to take an iron off the tee. But the trick is picking the right iron.
How to Play a Tricky Par 5
Normally what I'll do on this hole is take a 4 iron off the tee, which sounds pretty crazy for a par 5 for a lot of golfers. But as you'll see, it's a very effective strategy on this hole. Here's how I'm going to play this par 5.
I take my 4 iron, start it just over the OB pole or slightly left of it, and cut it just enough to work the contour of the fairway. As we look at the overhead view, you'll see there's an opening that gives you a really good chance for an eagle on this par 5.
Let's hit this shot.
As you can see, my ball has ended up in the perfect spot. I hit a slight cut off the tee, brought it back in, played the contours of the fairway, and now I've got about 220 yards to this par 5.
I certainly could have aimed farther left off the tee — a shot you can actually see land on the fairway — but the problem is, going that far over would add another 20, 30, even 40 yards to my approach. Instead of a 4 iron to the green, I'd have a 3 wood in my hand trying to reach this par 5 in two.
By playing smart and taking an iron off the tee — and the reason I chose an iron is that there's an oak tree to my left, and just offscreen another one to the right — this 4 iron puts me at the perfect distance directly between those two trees.
By doing that, I give myself a completely clear shot at the green every time. I know I'm much more accurate with a 4 iron than a 3 wood or driver off the tee, so I can put the ball in approximately the same spot round after round. I see this as a long par 3 on the first shot and a long par 3 on the second shot.
Now I've got a wide-open view going right over the water, straight at the flag, with a very reasonable shot to get this ball on the green and make eagle. I could also go around the lake and lay up, but I'm going to be aggressive here — I'm going to take it right over the water with my 4 iron and see if I can get home in two.
Be right, baby...be right...
Just on the front edge.
Well, at this point the hard work's done. I played smart off the tee. I didn't take a driver or do something overly aggressive with a 3 wood or even a 2 iron. I took a 4 iron off the tee, it left me 220, and I took a 4 iron in. It wasn't quite enough club — I'm just a little short of the green, but I've left myself an easy chip.
I didn't do anything stupid on my approach shot either. Even coming up short, I've got a very easy chip — very makeable — and should be straightforward to get up and down.
Either way, I took the big numbers out of the equation by not being overly aggressive with the driver and bringing the water, lateral hazards, and trees into play. By playing it smart with a 4 iron off the tee, this is the absolute correct way to play this hole.
To give yourself the best chance of making eagle — and I frequently do make eagle here — compare that to guys I play with who take driver or 3 wood, bomb it over, and try to get a 7 iron into the green. A lot of times they do, but there are plenty of times they make double bogey too.
I never make double bogey here. I end up in the same spot every time off the tee and in the same spot on approach. Normally I make it to the green, but either way I make eagle more often than they do, and definitely make no worse than par, by just playing smart. That's how to play a par 5.
Put the driver in the bag sometimes. Even though it's 525 yards, there are ways to work around it. You don't have to bomb it 300 yards to score well. You have to hit solid shots, and you have to hit smart shots.
Now I've given myself an easy shot at an eagle. Let's see if we can make this.
I didn't make eagle, but I did give myself an easy tap-in birdie, so I made four on this hole. It should be a birdie hole every single time you play. The question should be par, not bogey or double bogey — unless you make a really big mistake.
I'll walk up, finish this tap-in, and call it a day.
Now we're going to look at how to play the par 5 15th at Windermere Country Club from overhead. When you're down on the tee surrounded by huge scrub oaks and brush, it's tough to get a clear picture of the hole — but from above, you can see exactly what's going on.
The tee is back in this tiny corner, and the angle you have goes right over the lateral hazard. The last tree you could see in the video is right there, about 265 yards away. The fairway runs out about 15 yards short of that.
For me, if I hit a straight shot, my 3 wood goes about 260 — and a normal one is going to land in the brush. So 3 wood is a really risky play. I could take a 3 wood and cut it into the throat, but you can see the landing area there is pretty tight.
If I take the driver, I'm begging for disaster. You can see this part of the fairway has a generous landing area, while this part is dangerous. The last thing I want on a short, easy par 5 where eagle is a real possibility is to dump the ball in the water, hit a lost ball, or throw it into the hazard and be staring at double bogey.
For me, the shot that is hands down the smartest play is to take it along this line. From the tee area, I start it right here, hit a slight cut, and end up right about here — roughly 220 yards off the tee.
This image is quite old, so you can't see the oak trees that are sitting here now, but one of them is perfectly positioned to be an absolute nuisance — and it does an excellent job of it. If I take a longer club to make the approach shot shorter or less over the water, I inevitably find myself having to work the ball around that tree.
If I take a 2 iron I'm right behind it; if I take a 3 wood and try to cut it but don't cut it enough, it brings problems — so the smart play is simply to play short of it.
When I hit just a little 4 iron, I'm never going to reach that tree. It's about 235, so never even on my best day would a 4 iron get there. If I land between those two trees, I've got a completely wide-open, clear shot over the water to the green — a great angle to attack the hole.
There's nothing to gain by taking a different club. If I were feeling aggressive and decided on a driver, the ball would end up somewhere in this area. If I hit the cut in here, it's dangerously close to a lateral hazard. If it hits the cart path, it's gone — there's OB at the end if I catch the path. Nothing good comes from that play.
I can land it in this narrow slot, and I used to play it that way — starting a draw and trying to hook it in here. But the brush is too tall now, and every once in a while you don't catch it right and dump it in the water, or you catch it too well and end up in the hazard. It just doesn't make sense to hit driver here.
The 3 wood is the next closest option. It's close, but it still brings all this hazard into play. The 2 iron brings that oak tree into play. So the smart play is to look at the hole from a completely different perspective.
When you lay up to this spot, I took 220 off the tee, another 220 from here, and it's a straight shot. The brilliant thing is that the throat of the green is right there.
On this particular round, I came up short — but because I was going straight at the hole, I ended up in a grassy area that left me with an absolute no-brainer chip. Easy birdie tap-in.
From the other angle, it brings the bunker into play on a short pin, plus the long bunkers. This is just the all-around smarter play.
Nobody figures this out on the first try — I certainly didn't. It took me probably playing this hole 30 times before I realized, "This is such a short, easy hole. Why don't I make more eagles and a lot more birdies instead of dumping it in bunkers and scrambling?"
Interestingly, our course is on the rotation for the Moonlight Tour — one of the mini tours down here — so I play this with a lot of different professionals in tournament situations. I've never once seen anybody pull an iron off this tee.
I always see 3 woods threading down here, drivers taking aggressive lines. It's telling, because you can see a mindset of just pounding driver and hitting 7 iron into everything. The 4 iron approach I play just isn't acceptable to them.
But at the end of the day, 9 times out of 10 I'll outscore most people on this hole simply because I play it smart. It's not that I'm the greatest ball-striker by any stretch, but course management wins over raw aggression. If you play the percentages, eventually you're going to come out ahead. To practice with real-time AI coaching that helps sharpen every part of your game, check out a free AI golf lesson.
When you're on your home course, start looking for situations where something doesn't add up — a hole that seems easy but keeps producing bogeys. Start examining the layout and try a different approach. You don't have to bomb it 300 yards and then try to nuke it over the water from 240.
Think about playing holes differently. Think about playing holes smart, and watch your scoring average drop.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
15th hole, Windermere Country Club
This zoomed-in view is all you can see of the fairway from the tee
Overhead view
Hitting a cut & bringing it back in put the ball in the perfect spot
Just short of the green
The tee is shown in yellow
First shot & oak
A driver shot would follow the yellow line
Second shot
