Have you ever been faced with a shot and had a strong feeling what club you should hit? That little voice inside tells you, “This is a nice 7 iron! Just smooth it up there right next to the hole.” Then your playing partner, with his GPS device, tries to help by telling you the exact yardage, which turns out to be an 8 iron. Now what do you do?

Most of the time you take the “correct club,” the 8 iron, and then at the top of the backswing the little voice that told you what club to hit in the first place reminds you it’s a nice 7 and you have an 8 iron in your hand. This means you’d better hit it hard – and solid too. Oops!

More often than not I’ll go with my first impression - my gut feeling - when it comes to club selection. A lot of people don’t like this conflict of “Do I trust my eye or do I trust the yardage?” I like it when my eye and brain tell me what club to hit, because then I don’t have to spend all that time figuring out what club I hit 173 yards. I’ve found it’s almost always best to trust my eye and the little voice in my head, than to automatically go with the yardage. Besides, 173 yards at my home course could be anything from a 9 iron to a 5, or even more.

It’s all about commitment. If you’re committed to the club in your hand - even if it’s the wrong club – you’re better off than if you have the correct club and don’t feel good with it. I hit the wrong club all the time and by golly, when I pull the trigger with the wrong club I feel good about the shot. I feel like I stand a real good chance of hitting the ball close to the hole. But when I have the correct club for the yardage and don’t feel good with it, I end up adjusting my swing to compensate for the lack of comfort or commitment in my brain.

I look at it this way: My brain is a lot smarter than I am. I figure it has already taken into consideration how I’m swinging that day, maybe I’m hitting it real solid and a little longer than usual, my uphill sidehill lie, wind, etc., etc., and calculated that into the feeling I had when I first arrived at my ball.

I’m a golf professional not a mathematician. Most of the time I don’t like to count beyond four except sometimes when I’m playing a par 5. My brain is my caddie and it knows how I hit the ball, where my strengths and weaknesses are, and how I’m feeling that day. So when my caddie tells me to hit the wrong club I’m usually going to do what my caddie tells me to do.

Trust your brain. It’s probably a lot smarter than the one swinging the club!

Kim Anders is the Director of Golf at Estrella del Mar Golf & Beach Resort in Mazatlán. An accomplished player early in his career, Kim now focuses on the administrative side of golf and helping others find enjoyment in the game. Contact Kim at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .