![\"https:\/\/www.golfdigest.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2026\/6\/luke-bail-out-2.jpg\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2026\/6\/luke-bail-out-2.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.544.suffix\/1781112609036.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nUS Opens aren\u2019t won by doing great things. They\u2019re won by avoiding bad things. Which is exactly the challenge the rest of us face every time we play.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why the US Open is the major we can learn the most from. And the single biggest lesson, the thing you\u2019ll see at Shinnecock all next week, is the\u00a0art of the bailout.\u00a0It\u2019s the subject of our latest Game Plan episode (watch it on YouTube or below!).<\/p>\n
Bailout strategy #1: Play to what you can see off the tee<\/p>\n
On semi-blind tee shots, pros bail out to the part of the fairway they can see clearly. Matt Brilliant from his YouTube Channel \u201cGolf Sidekick\u201d calls it \u201cplaying to what you can see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting your ball into play closer to the hole off the tee, even if it\u2019s in the rough, is why Bomb and Gouge exists, and the stats show it\u2019s a more optimised strategy. But statistics also can\u2019t measure earthing. Matt says playing to what you can see can breed confidence and help you make a committed swing. And a confident, committed swing is always better than a tentative one.<\/p>\n
Brooks Koepka put on a clinic of this at Shinnecock in 2018; go count how many irons he hit off the tees that week.<\/p>\n
For higher handicaps, coach Will Robins has a version of this idea for 80s and 90s shooters: the 10% rule. Take 10% of your club\u2019s total distance, then add it to both sides of your target as a miss budget.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So, a hybrid that goes 200 yards needs a 20-yard buffer on each side, so 40 yards total.<\/p>\n
As soon as you find a club within the hole, that\u2019s your bailout club. If it doesn\u2019t, club down.<\/p>\n
Bailout strategy #2: Knowing when to bail out short and long<\/p>\n
Old courses like Shinnecock are designed with\u00a0bailout areas\u00a0short of the greens and chutes that lead onto the putting surface. Most trouble is pushed aside. That\u2019s because they were designed in the hickory area, when the ground game was more important. Players rolled the ball along the ground more often, so courses were designed to reward that. In the modern era, these blank spaces of grass are often good places to bailout, zones to hit your ball into to avoid a big number and move on.<\/p>\n
Of course, sometimes the worst trouble around the green is right in front of it. That\u2019s when it\u2019s time to bail out long.<\/p>\n
![\"https:\/\/www.golfdigest.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2026\/6\/luke-bail-out-1.jpg\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2026\/6\/luke-bail-out-1.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.544.suffix\/1781112608978.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
When that\u2019s the situation, a good rule is to take the number between the pin or the middle of the green and the back edge and fly the ball to that number. So, if the pin is 150 yards, and the back edge is 170 yards, your goal is to fly your ball at least 160 yards.<\/p>\n
Bailout strategy #3: Putt to the high side<\/p>\n
Amateurs from scratch to 15-handicap three-putt about 25% of the time, starting at around 30 feet. A big reason is that we tend to under-read putts. And because gravity pulls the ball down the slope, an under-read putt keeps rolling away from the hole, while an over-read putt keeps rolling toward it.<\/p>\n
Renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon has a clever trick for this. Imagine a straight line from your ball to the hole. Then, based on the slope, pick a spot you think the ball should pass through about 2\/3 of the way to the hole. Now take that distance and double it. That\u2019s where you should actually aim. Even a little outside of that, to be safe.<\/p>\n
On long putts with a big slope, bail to the high side. You\u2019ll be surprised how many fewer three-putts you\u2019ll have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Opens aren\u2019t won by doing great things. They\u2019re won by avoiding bad things. Which is exactly the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,73434,172562,18664,755,36989,353009,248259,36416,353010,353011,85,1751],"class_list":["post-729021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brooks-koepka","tag-course-management","tag-game-plan","tag-golf","tag-golf-instruction","tag-golf-sidekick","tag-golf-strategy","tag-how-to","tag-putting-tips","tag-shinnecock-hills","tag-sports","tag-us-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}