Pick an approach target that leaves room for your misses
The flag is easy to aim at. The harder question is where your ball might finish when you don't quite catch it.
SmartMiss is my little approach-shot planning app. It's built to help you look at your shot pattern around a green and think through where to aim. Start with a hole you know, use a realistic spread for your club, and explore the room you've got to work with.
Try SmartMissBeta: course analysis isn't available everywhere. Check the map and use your own judgment.
Give your normal shot a bit more room
Most of us can picture the lovely shot that finishes beside the flag. Planning for the rest of the pattern takes a bit more thought.
Your dispersion is the spread of shots you hit with a club: how far they finish left or right, short or long. If a reasonable miss brings a bunker or water into play, it is worth looking at another target.
That's the question SmartMiss is built around: where could you aim to give your usual pattern more room?
How to explore an approach
Find the green
Search for the course location, then pan and zoom to the hole. The beta Analyze Green feature is designed to load hazards, bunkers and fairways where coverage is available.
Set up the shot
Place the pin yourself, select your approach club, and adjust the width and depth of the shot pattern. Use a representative spread, including your ordinary misses. If you're guessing, treat the result as a rough exploration.
Compare targets
Drag the pattern to explore another aim point. The app is designed to show an expected-strokes estimate and a suggested aim marker. Use those as prompts to compare targets, then check the situation on the course yourself.
A simple example
Imagine a 140-meter approach. The flag is near the right edge, with a bunker just beyond it. For this example, picture your usual shots spread across an area about 20 meters wide and 15 meters deep.
Center that pattern on the flag and some of those ordinary right misses reach the bunker. Shift the center five meters left and the same pattern now reaches five meters less far to the right, and five meters farther to the left.
If there's usable green on that side, the second target is worth considering. You may leave a longer putt on a good strike, but you've allowed more room for the right miss. If there's trouble left too, that changes the decision.
The point is to look at the whole spread before choosing the target. SmartMiss gives you a way to explore that idea on a map.
A few things worth knowing
SmartMiss is in beta. Some courses won't analyze, and map details or model estimates can be incomplete. Check what you see against the hole.
You place the pin and describe your shot pattern. Check today's hole location, wind, lie and ground conditions yourself. Treat expected strokes and the suggested aim point as estimates when comparing targets.
Try it on a green you know
Pick an approach where choosing a target gives you a bit of trouble. Think about your usual miss, explore a second target, and see what questions it raises about how you play that hole.
Open SmartMiss