This statement by Hank Haney reverberates. I hear it all the time.

Problem is, I don't think it is necessarily true.

I mean, sure..."It depends..." on how well one chips, but Haney's statement leaves no room for that sentiment.

So here is the question, I guess:

You're eight feet off the green, flat lie. Decent lie, three feet of easy rough, five feet of fringe. The pin is fifteen feet from the fringe (yeah, 23 ft total).

Assuming you're a reasonably adept "amateur," and will duff this chip only maybe one in thirty tries, what is the rationale between each decision?

I ask because I am about a 10 HC, and I get looked at sideways a fair amount when I chip these shots (8 or 9 iron, generally) rather than putt them.

Is Haney maybe just a dick?

Unrelated to Haney, I putt this if the rough is pretty passable. My worst case scenario putting is about 4 to 5 feet. Just feel like more can go wong with a wedge. Add a little more rough or a scenario where there are some uneven patches before the fringe and I chip it almost every time.

I'm terrible at judging fairway and fringe and do much better chipping in these types of situations in general. Why turn it into a guessing game when you can just chip and know exactly what the ball is going to do?

The quick and dirty answer is that your worst putt is going to be much better than your worse chip.

Unless you're an excellent chipper, you should always putt.

And IMO, if you have to ask, you should always putt.

BO

I think the higher the handicap, the more true it is that you should always putt. A 20+ handicap will pretty much be better off 99.99% of the time putting the ball. If you are a single digit golfer you should know your game well enough to know if chipping or putting is better for you.

As a fairly horrific recreational golfer I always chip whenever I get half an excuse just for the practice. That said, I know putting is the better option and if I was playing competitively that's what I'd do every time.

^^^A+++++

chipping is more fun

I suck at golf ( only played about 10 rounds total in my life before the start of the season when I suddenly caught the bug to play ) but for some reason i chip ridiculously well. Obviously many of you are much better chippers then me. I just mean relative to the rest of my game my chipping is by far the best part of my golf game. For some reason chipping came more naturally to me and i dont have many bad chips. If we play teams best shot ( scramble i think its called) my chip is almost always the one used. So I'll putt a lot if the ball is just barely off the green, but otherwise Ill chip.

i think he probably doesn't mean in the rough. obviously you be 3 inches in the rough or the rough could quite manageable

i think i subscribe to it, but alot of cheaper courses don't cut the fringe too closely (or better courses don't cut it closely in the winter where there is play). at my home course i can putt hrough 3-4 feet of fringe. can't do it accurately in the winter

chipping with a 7 or 8 iron on longer chips works really well

Chipping is just putting with loft!



(I kid, I kid)

My rule of thumb is 5 feet of fringe. Less than that it's insta-putt.

I never want to land a chip w/in 3 feet of the fringe. The edges of the green are less consistent-the first bounce is unpredictable if it lands near the fringe- even at well maintained courses. Obviously, I'd never putt thru 10 feet of rough, but I might putt thru a yard of rough if there's enough room for the ball to roll out and finish w/in 7 feet.


I'd break the 5 feet of fringe rule, and chip if the green has a false edge then flattens out. I don't want the ball hopping or skidding into a sideslope or an uphill slope. So I'd try to land a chip on the flat part of the green in that case.

I will generally choose the putter if I have any reasonable prospect of getting the ball on the green. That's probably because Ray Charles chips better than I do.

Expanding on what BO said: I feel like it's a mental thing. For amateur golfers, hitting a chip to 7 feet is good. Hitting a putt to 7 feet is bad. By chipping, you leave yourself a better chance of thinking you hit a good shot, while your expected distance to the hole will be worse.

I have a rule of thumb whereby if the putt out of the rough cannot achieve maximum velocity without risking getting hung up I chip. Not sure I'm explaining this right... but if your putt doesn't get to the max speed you intend you are better off chipping over whatever would slow that putt down.