The GC Approach Caddie makes it very easy to plan and execute approach shots. It shows you how wind may affect your shot and calculates the “called” distance for you. It will even let you change the angle of approach on most shots.
In this post, I’m going to talk about three special situations that you may not know how to handle. Each of them has to do with your distance to the pin.
In the first example, we’ll take a look at a situation that is governed by the APBA Golf Master Game rules. Normally, whenever you have an approach shot that is more than 20 yards to the pin, you use the Approach Board that coincides with the Called distance shown in the Approach Caddie.
In the image shown below the Called distance is 90 yards, so you would use the 75 – 100-yard Approach Board.
But according to the Master Game rules, you ignore the Called distance when you are 20 yards or less from the pin. In which case, you would use the To Pin distance to determine which Approach Board to use. In the example below, you would use the 5 – 10-yard Approach Board, even though the Called distance is 30 yards. That’s because the distance To Pin is 10 yards.
In the next situation, let’s look at your options when you want to target a location that will make your Called distance 20 yards or less but your ball is actually 25 yards or more from the pin. The image below shows what I mean.
In this scenario, I don’t think it’s appropriate to use the 15 – 20-yard Approach Board, even though your Called distance is 20 yards because you are not actually that close to the pin. Bear in mind that the 15 – 20-yard and 5 – 10-yard Approach Boards return shot results that are relative to the pin in feet, unlike the other Approach Boards.
There are two other things you could do, though, that I believe are in keeping with the spirit of the rules:
- You could forbid targeting a location that is 20 yards or less. That would mean you’d have to pick a different target location, where the Called distance is at least 25 yards.
- Alternatively, you could target the spot that’s 20 yards away but use the 25 – 45-yard Approach Board. That way, the player doesn’t get the advantage that the closer Approach Boards provide, but he still gets to select what he believes to be a better target.
The last situation we’ll look at is when you are in “no man’s land.” Sometimes, your ball location may be within 100 yards of the pin but your Called distance is not, as shown in the image below.
In this instance, you have a Called distance that is technically outside of approach shot range (> 100 yards). In my view, there are two ways of handling this:
- You could turn off the Approach Caddie by clicking the Off button and take an iron shot (perhaps, a Knockdown Sand Wedge to keep it from going too long).
- You could also target a location that would result in a Called distance of 100 yards or less, then use the 75 – 100-yd Approach Board. (In this case, all you would have to do is change the target from 525 to 520.)
Note that the Game Caddie won’t prevent you in either of the last two examples from playing the approach shot as is. You get a colored Called box warning, but you can just ignore it if you want.