What Is 'Target Golf'?

"Target golf" is a term that describes a type of golf strategy — or requirement, actually — in which the golfer's strokes are almost all carry, almost no roll, due to course design and/or course conditions. The golfer is playing lofted shots that stop very quickly, trying to avoid penal areas, with the ground game (options to play shots that lead to the ball running a lot after landing) all but eliminated from consideration.

Golf Magazine once defined "target golf" as meaning "the ball will likely come to rest approximately where it hits the ground. All of the strategy takes place aerially." Target golf means playing almost entirely in the air from station-to-station as dictated by the course, the specific hole being played, or the conditions: virtually all of your distance is in the air, your shots are landing softly, there is very little roll.

Target golf can be contrasted with links golf. Links courses usually play firm and fast, with the ball rolling much more than on a target course. That means more of the game is played on the ground on a links course compared to a target course. And that can open up many more options for play.

For example, if you are 30 yards short of the green but there are no hazards (water, sand, rough) fronting the green, you'll consider chipping or pitching. But you might also consider a bump-and-run with a wedge or less-lofted iron. Or you might even want to use a putter, depending on fairway conditions and green slopes. But if the front of the green is blocked by a small pond or a wraparound bunker, you really have only one choice: loft the ball up over the water or sand, and try to land it softly on the green with little roll.

It's appropriate to compare target golf to links golf because the term "target golf" originated with British golfers who were doing just that: comparing these two different approaches to course design and playing strategy.

Does this mean that target golf is bad or boring? Well, that's in the eye of the beholder — which probably depends on how many different styles of golf courses you've played in order to make a comparison. If typical American parkland courses are all you've ever played, and the ones you play have softer fairways and greens, plenty of rough, penal greens complexes (water, sand, rough) and so on, then you've likely been playing target golf all along even if you didn't know the term. (It should be noted, though, that just because a course is a traditional parkland style does not necessarily mean it encourages or requires target golf: Many of the best-known courses from the American "golden age of architecture," for example, are both parkland-style and provide many risk-reward options. And others are target courses — a target course can be a great golf course.)

But all "target golf" really is is a condition that golfers encounter at some courses, and to which they have to fit their approach to the game that day. "Target golf" is neither good nor bad, any more than, say, any given greenside bunker on the course: it just is. And you have to deal with it if you want to post a score that is good for your level of ability.

In a 1977 paper that, in part, lamented the building of too many "target courses" in the U.S., the California Golf Course Superintendents' Institute defined target golf this way: "... the playing of the ball from one target to another, stopping it quickly on the green after avoiding all kinds of disaster to get it there in the air."

The term has been around for many, many decades. But its first use in The New York Times wasn't until 1982, when The Players Championship was first played at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. The sportswriter described the course, saying, "This is a 'target' golf course that demands planning and accuracy on every shot."

More definitions:

Sources:
Hanna, Robert E. "Golf Courses are for Golfer," Northern California Golf Association, via California Golf Course Superintendents' Institute, Course Design for Quality Maintenance, 1977.
Isaacson, Desi. "What’s wrong with ‘target golf’?" Golf.com, June 21, 2020, https://golf.com/travel/whats-wrong-target-golf-alternatives/.
Leaderboard.com. Golf Dictionary, Target Golf, http://www.leaderboard.com/glossary_targetgolf.
Radosta, John. "3 Lead T.P.C. by Shot Over New Course," The New York Times, March 19, 1982, https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/19/sports/3-lead-tpc-by-shot-over-new-course.html.

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