One of my shots today landed about 6 feet off the green, pin high, in the rough. The pin was approximately 5 feet from the fringe, so about 11 feet from my ball. I used a PW and the ball rolled well passed the hole as I expected. 2 putts later I walked off with a bogey. I didn't know how to get the ball to "stick" near the pin. Given my lie and the hole proximity, the bump and run wasn't a great option. Can you really flop a shot in when you're that close?? What are some good options? At only 11 feet from the hole, resigning myself to 3 shots seems wasteful.

Wow, you don't see that many pins only 5 feet from the edge of the green. I remember hearing that the rule of thumb was a minimum of 10 feet.

Anyway, there is no easy answer to your question. Every golfer is different. Every lie is different, etc. In general, I try to use my 64-degree wedge whenever I am short-sided especially when I am in the rough. Though others on the forum say that this club is very difficult to master and can lead to more misery than playing a more traditional shot.

In some cases this type of shot can be played like a semi-bunker shot. That can help the ball land more softly with less forward momentum.

I was surprised too. It was a muni course.

Open the face and take a full swing Tiger-style......

Is it important/worthwhile to have a 64-degree wedge? I've got a 60 and a 54. I learned that with a small amount of green to work with I should start using my 60 instead of my 54, and that does help a little. I do get many chips you need to slow down quickly, is it time to get a 64?

1.) Don't short-side yourself.

2.) From what you describe, it sounds like it was never stopping a few feet from the hole. It's hard to hit a low checker out of the rough.

3.) Make the par putt

Practice

Why use your pitching wedge? You could have done what you did but with your most lofted wedge. I would have seriously considered using putter.

no amateur should use a 64 degree wedge. waste of space in your bag.

op, as with most shots around the green, the type of shot will be heavily influenced by your lie. then other factors will matter like how far you are from the green and how much green you have to cover to the hole.

as with most short sided shots, more loft will likely be required to be able to get the ball to stop quickly. pw is probably not the best choice in these spots. 56 or 60 is better.

now depending on the lie, you will have to use different techniques. if the ball is sitting up on the rough and you can get the club under it, a flop shot would work best. just make sure you gauge the amount of space under the ball so your club doesn't go completely under the ball.

if the ball is buried in the rough, you will have to pop it out using a more "vertical swing" to hit as much or the ball first. with this type of swing the follow through is not as important as hitting the back of the ball first. depending on how thick the rough is, a more vertical and accelerated downswing will be required.

now learning which shot to use in these conditions is the easy part. learning and applying the proper technique for each shot is what eludes most amateurs and is a topic for another thread.

Flop it like it's hot.

If I was in this situation I would probably take my chances with a ten-fifteen footer coming back and have some serious words with the green-keeper. Any pin less than ten foot from the edge of the green is illegal by the rules of golf.

It's not illegal to have a pin that close, just against the guidelines laid out by the USGA. The minimum on tour is 3 paces (9 feet).

Regardless, if you miss a green on the short side you deserve to be in a position where you can't get it up and down unless you make a long putt. That's why you hear during tour telecasts about OMG he short sided himself.

So when you find yourself in that position, you minimize the damage. You make sure you get the ball on the green to then two putt at worst. Don't get fancy with shots you don't understand.

If you have to ask about all this (which is just fine by the way) you are definitely much better off taking 3 to get down from that position.

BO

yeah this interested me because I couldn't prove it but I was thinking "didn't know that, seems like I've played many times with a hole 5 feet or less from the edge.

then played a round today where it might be over 5 feet but it's pretty damn close. had to take a pic. my length guessing ability might suck, this kinda looks over 5 feet in pic form.

An average flag stick is ~7 feet tall. Use that to measure it next time you're curious.

Have you tried hitting it?

Do people know that an average stride is 3 feet? Perhaps try walking it off? Just a thought.

Something else, most golfers completely suck at estimating distances by eyeballing it. I certainly don't feel I'm as good at it as I should be and have been playing golf for 40+ years.

I'm trying hard not to LOL at these 5 feet claims, but I think in my entire life I've seen exactly 1 pin inside 6 feet from an edge and that was in a tournament where they got funky with the placements.

BO

I once saw 3 different pins within 3 feet of the edge, but it was an 8" cup tourney. Still ******ed.

I'm only "decent" at eyeballing distances because of all the fishing I did on different sized boats. Sounds stupid, but I'm pretty accurate at judging if something is 15-40 feet of distance from where I'm standing lol.


Anyway, BO, I'm sure that after I say this, you'll have some anecdotes of growing up poor and playing muni courses, but I'd wager that you've played on "good" golf courses almost your entire life. There are some serious dog tracks out there that a lot of the people that post here play every day where you would probably just raise your nose and say "nope" if someone offered to let you play for free



ON TOPIC: "flop" type shots don't necessarily have to be big long swings. You can make a smaller backswing with an open faced club and as long as you're accelerating through the shot and not 'giving up on it' through impact, you should be able to make a glancing blow to the ball. There may be some technical things you do in your short game stuff that may not allow you to do this properly, but in theory it's all just physics of collision at impact.

I am fairly fond of my home dog track course

Played tons of dog tracks in junior and high school golf, but will readily admit I've only played a handful since college.

FWIW, I wouldn't raise my nose at any golf course. Golf is golf.

Regardless, I do understand what you're getting at.

BO

IMO the most effective way to learn/practice the short lofted pitch is to use 1 hand. The top hand to start with and once you are comfortable try using the bottom hand as well. By doing this you will learn to let the club do the work and you will more intuatively learn the importance of shaft lean and ball position which is everything on these shots outside of the lie which the most important factor. Start by using a square clubface then start opening it up more and more as you get better. Eventually you should be able to lay your 60 deg wedge wide open and slide it right under the ball in all but the tightest lies and have the ball barely move. Some of you may remember Fred Couples routinely letting go with his right hand just after impact when he hit those little pitches.

I don"t do it as much anymore but I would hone my distance feel while walking down the street. I would estimate how far something was away by guessing what club it would take to get there. Then I would simply walk it off. It was amazing how accurate I was.

Keep the right hand 'quiet'.

There was a guy I played with in a tournament last week, a big multi day year end tournament for all the marbles, who played every shot inside 30 yards with one hand. He said he's just really sucking lately with two handed chips and pitches. You wouldn't believe how well it worked for him.

God I hate when people say this.

The truth can be irritating at times.

BO