Should You Cut The Corner? What A New Dogleg Study Says About Going For It

A study published in Frontiers in Psychology examined how tee shot strategy affects scoring performance on dogleg holes. Researchers from Hainan Normal University and Macao Polytechnic University monitored 81 male university-age golfers across three dogleg holes, tracking whether they chose an aggressive line over the corner or a conservative line around it. The golfers, who held an average handicap of about 26, chose aggressive lines approximately 35 percent of the time across 243 total holes.

The findings revealed that golfers scored about half a stroke worse relative to par when adopting a more aggressive strategy than their personal baseline. Preliminary data also indicated that higher-handicap players faced greater scoring penalties for taking aggressive lines. The author notes the study's small sample size and advises golfers to weigh normal carry distance, natural ball flight, and miss consequences before attempting to cut a corner.