Brett Waldman on Smarter Golf: Know Your Game, Manage the Day
When players go looking for help with course management, they often arrive with a familiar set of ideas: take the conservative target, avoid the hero shot, play the percentages. Brett Waldman, who runs a golf strategy and consulting practice through his website, says the work usually starts somewhere more basic — with how well the player actually understands their own game.
Start With Self-Knowledge, Not a Rulebook
Asked what the usual advice about course management misses when a player comes in after a stretch of high scores, Waldman said the first step is diagnostic rather than prescriptive.
"The first thing I would start with is understanding how well they know their game," he said. From there, the conversation moves to redirecting specific management mistakes — for instance, "hitting a shot that isn't their standard shot when they are under pressure."
That framing produces concrete questions rather than general principles. Waldman asks whether a player is "hitting their standard shot with a club they're comfortable with versus a more difficult shot with a club they're uncomfortable with," and whether they are "managing their missed shots effectively." The same scrutiny extends to the short game and putting, so that the scoring clubs get the same attention as full swings.
He also flagged the mental side of the game as "just as important" — while noting it deserves a conversation of its own.
Smarter Golf Is Not Perfect Golf
For competitive amateurs, Waldman points to a gap between what strategy articles describe and what actually happens on the course.
"To play smarter golf doesn't mean you have to play perfect golf," he said. "Smarter golf means managing your game for that day which sometimes means being honest with yourself on what shots are working for you that day and which ones aren't."
The recurring problem he sees is players ignoring what they have on the day: "Too many times I see players not playing with what they've brought to the course that day." That, he said, ties directly back to the mental side of the game.
For readers, the practical takeaway is a pre-round and mid-round check-in: which shots are behaving today, and is the plan built around them or around the player's ideal version of their game?
Club Selection Is Decided Too Fast
On the question of what players decide too quickly when trying to lower scores without changing their swing, Waldman was specific.
"I'd say that the one thing that players decide too quickly is making their club selection without taking into account all of the variables that matter for that shot."
It is a small-sounding point with wide reach. Club selection sits at the junction of the other two answers: it depends on an honest read of the player's standard shot, their comfort with the club in hand, and the conditions of the day. Rushing it skips the assessment that the rest of the strategy work depends on.
What Players Can Take Away
Waldman's answers point to a sequence that runs opposite to how many players approach strategy work. Rather than starting with a target or a conservative rule, he starts with the player: what they know about their game, which shot is genuinely their standard under pressure, how they handle misses, and how they manage scoring around the green.
From there, the day's plan follows — built on what is working rather than what worked last month. And before any shot, the variables that feed club selection get their due rather than a glance.
None of this requires a swing change. It requires slower decisions and a more honest accounting of the game a player actually brought to the course.