The Shots In Between
Most players spend plenty of time working on their drives and putts, but the shots in between often get overlooked. A missed 150-foot approach can erase a great drive just as quickly as a missed putt. If you want to score better, learning to control your upshots is one of the fastest ways to save strokes.
Assess Each Lie Like It’s a New Hole
One of the biggest mistakes players make is letting a bad tee shot influence their next decision. If your drive lands out of position, reassess the situation and play the percentages.
Treat every lie as if you’re standing on the tee of a brand-new hole. If you wouldn’t attack a risky gap from the tee, don’t attack it just because you’re trying to save par. Sometimes the smartest play is pitching back to the fairway and taking your bogey. Good rounds aren’t built on perfect shots. They’re built on avoiding big mistakes.
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Have a Routine
The best approach players prepare for every shot the same way. Check your lie. Feel the wind. Pick your landing zone. Commit to a line. Choose an aim point and get your feet and shoulders aligned before you throw.
The exact routine doesn’t matter as much as your ability to repeat it. A consistent process helps eliminate rushed decisions and builds confidence when the pressure rises.
Keep Your Eyes on the Target
Most upshots don’t require maximum power, so there’s rarely a reason to sacrifice accuracy for a bigger reachback. For shorter approaches, keep your eyes locked on your aim point throughout the throw. A shorter reachback often makes this easier while also improving distance control. The goal isn’t to throw harder. It’s to throw the correct distance and land where you planned.
Learn What the Wind Wants
Wind can turn a routine upshot into a challenging one. In a headwind, you’ll want to lean on more overstable molds with less glide like a Pig, Toro, or AviarX3. In a tailwind, try something more neutral like an Firefly or Xero.
Crosswinds deserve special attention. Whenever possible, choose a shot shape that keeps the bottom of the flight plate from being exposed to the wind. A backhand hyzer into a left-to-right wind or a forehand hyzer into a right-to-left wind will usually produce more predictable results. The more you learn to work with the wind instead of fighting it, the easier approach shots become.
Use Nose Angle to Control Distance
Most players learn to throw nose down for maximum distance. Approach shots are different. A slight nose-up release allows the disc to slow down, stall, and land with less forward momentum. That means fewer skips, less ground play, and more control around the basket. Learning to change nose angle is one of the easiest ways to improve touch and distance control inside 200 feet.
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Account for Ground Play
What happens after the disc lands is just as important as what happens in the air. Many players blame bad skips and rollaways on luck, but ground play is often predictable. Pay attention to the terrain and think about how the disc will react when it touches down.
On slopes, try to match the angle of the disc to the angle of the ground. In thick grass or soft dirt, expect the disc to stop quickly. On packed dirt or short grass, plan for skips and slides. The best approach players don’t just plan where the disc lands. They plan where it finishes.
Play the Percentages
Trying to park every approach shot often creates more problems than it solves. Instead of forcing a disc through a tiny gap, consider the wider route that leaves you a comfortable putt. The farther out you feel confident putting, the larger your effective landing zone becomes. Approach shots are about creating opportunities, not forcing perfection.
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Practice Your Putting
The more confidence you have from 20, 25, or 30 feet, the less pressure you’ll feel to park every hole. A larger circle of confidence gives you more options and allows you to play smarter percentages around the green. Better putting leads to better decisions, and better decisions lead to lower scores.
