Hole Breakdowns  ›  How to Play a Dogleg Right
Hole breakdown #1

How to Play a Dogleg Right (Stop Aiming at the Corner)

Cutting the corner feels aggressive. It's actually the slow way to a bogey. Here's the aim that scores.

Hole type · Dogleg right, par 4

“The one where everyone aims at the corner.”

⛳ Green: guarded front-right
↗ Bunker cluster on the inside elbow
● Ideal tee target: left-center, the fat side
✕ Common aim: straight at the corner
The mistake

Aiming at the inside corner to "cut" the dogleg, which brings the elbow bunkers and trees into play and shrinks your margin to nothing.

The math

The inside line saves ~10-15 yards but roughly triples your odds of a blocked or recovery second shot. Expected score goes up, not down.

The correct target

The fat, outside-half of the fairway, left-center on a right dogleg. A slightly longer approach from short grass beats a wedge-out from trouble every time.

Strokes saved

≈ 0.3-0.5 strokes per hole like this, and far fewer doubles over a season.

“Play the fat side. The corner is a trap, not a shortcut.”

Strokes-saved figures are approximate, based on expected-value (strokes-gained) course management for a mid-handicap golfer (roughly 8-18). These are real ranges, not guarantees.

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The rest of the picture

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