Stopping flops and chips

[ABU_Bear]

I've watch some of the better players in this game relentlessly. I find the difference between their game and mine is their ability to stop ANY SHOT right at the pin. I mean you couldn't throw a dart closer..on any green..any speed...any club... any distance. Almost to the point where it's sickening. How do you stop..lets say... a 20yd flop from spinning back off the green?...I don't get how they can do it. EVERY TIME. What am I missing? Or the ability to chip in over 90% of chips....what's the key??

[unclefester75]

I think they don't use the bars to adjust distance but use the backswing. So to go 18 yards, full lw but inly swing so hard.

[AFCTUJacko]

Method A/ If the green slopes severely from back to front, i try my very best not to leave a shot where i have to think about spin. Outside 40 yards for a PW Flop or LW Pitch for example

Method B/ Chip wherever possible. Making them is just about reading the green and knowing how far each club goes (experience)

Method C/ Flop to 25/26/27 yards and use the slope to bring it back to 20

Method D/ Partial swing. Last Resort for me as i am no good at them.

All about course management. If you're not comfortable from within 30 yards you're better off leaving yourself 45-60.

[golfjoe]

First of all those players know the course like the back of there hands 2 the green has allot to do with it the speed of the green the slope whether towards you or away from you 3 the wind against you or behind you. all those things come into the game, another factor that no one will admit to you but i won`t mention as not to course any backlash from curtain people are you on ps4  

[Deleted]

Jan 25, 2016 14:04:36 GMT -5 golfjoe said:

First of all those players know the course like the back of there hands 2 the green has allot to do with it the speed of the green the slope whether towards you or away from you 3 the wind against you or behind you. all those things come into the game, another factor that no one will admit to you but i won`t mention as not to course any backlash from curtain people are you on ps4  

Huh? I won't mention but I'll put whatever it is out there to guess. 

[Moe Slorkman]

Read 5 times still confused by what Joe is saying.

Anyway Jacko is spot on, but the only way to get better is to practice. I personally set out one week played a shed load of rounds on different course with different firmness and deliberately missed all the greens to test the full range of chips/flops. Its 70% maths 20% feel and 10% common sense IMO.

I'm by no means a world better but its saved me 10 shots a tournament my scrambling is probably the strongest part of my game don't hold many but saving pars with tap ins more often than not.

And I play on PS4 just encase anyone is asking

[AFCTUJacko]

A lot of my improvement has come through simple course management.

For instance, I see a lot of people attacking Par 5’s in two shots every time the pin is at a reachable distance. I used to do this, but then realised that an awful lot of the time, whipping out the 3W is the wrong play.

If for instance you have 250 to a front pin, your chances of knocking it close are basically nothing, and going at it could leave you an awkward flop/chip/bunker shot of say, 10-15 yards, or a loooooong putt. Before you know it you’ve made 5, when laying up to 45-60 yards, pitching it in tight and making a 6 footer would yield an easy birdie 4.

I only attack a Par 5 in two now if I have a reasonable chance of ending up within 30 feet with a putt for Eagle.

The top players don’t do anything magical, they just play sensibly, methodically, and have taken the time to learn how far shots will release/roll out in all conditions. Oh, and they make a few more putts than the rest of us.

[jtcurrent]

Jan 26, 2016 11:46:05 GMT -5 AFCTUJacko said:

A lot of my improvement has come through simple course management.

For instance, I see a lot of people attacking Par 5’s in two shots every time the pin is at a reachable distance. I used to do this, but then realised that an awful lot of the time, whipping out the 3W is the wrong play.

If for instance you have 250 to a front pin, your chances of knocking it close are basically nothing, and going at it could leave you an awkward flop/chip/bunker shot of say, 10-15 yards, or a loooooong putt. Before you know it you’ve made 5, when laying up to 45-60 yards, pitching it in tight and making a 6 footer would yield an easy birdie 4.

I only attack a Par 5 in two now if I have a reasonable chance of ending up within 30 feet with a putt for Eagle.

The top players don’t do anything magical, they just play sensibly, methodically, and have taken the time to learn how far shots will release/roll out in all conditions. Oh, and they make a few more putts than the rest of us.

Great point.  I've also been playing around with checking the green before my 3w approach if I know I'll have something like 15-25 yds left on my 3rd shot.  If the green has severe slope I try to hit the rough or deep rough on the approach.  Then the flop or pitch has less spin.  Its a nice play unless the deep rough reduces the % of the next shot too much and judging gets complicated.  Call it a work in progress...like my game!

[Deleted]

I am by no means any good but unless you have heavy slope you are better off lofting to the distance you want taking into account the backspin unless you have insane power control

[ErixonStone]

Jan 25, 2016 14:04:36 GMT -5 golfjoe said:

First of all those players know the course like the back of there hands 2 the green has allot to do with it the speed of the green the slope whether towards you or away from you 3 the wind against you or behind you. all those things come into the game, another factor that no one will admit to you but i won`t mention as not to course any backlash from curtain people are you on ps4  

Translation:

First of all, those players know the course like the backs of their hands. 2) the green has a lot to do with it - whether it slopes towards or away from you. 3) the wind - into your face or behind your back. All those things come into play.

Another factor that no one will admit to you, and I won't mention as not to cause any backlash from certain people...

Are you on PS4?

I'm not sure I know what he's talking about either but if we work together we can figure it out.

[blackaces13]

The 20 yard flop from fringe/fairway where the green is sloping back towards the player is one of the tougher shots in the game.

I will usually club up to an SW or even PW and try to hit a 50-60% quick flick shot while leaving it at the default (100%) loft. This shot comes out with much less spin than the standard fully lofted LW.

If you know the course and greens, these shots are to be avoided, as should all <100% shots in this game because it is very difficult to control power that way, as opposed to dialing it in on the loft grid.

You're also far better off being in the heavy rough than the fairway when facing this type of shot.

[Nemecyst]

Jan 24, 2016 7:00:14 GMT -5 ABU_Bear said:

I've watch some of the better players in this game relentlessly. I find the difference between their game and mine is their ability to stop ANY SHOT right at the pin. I mean you couldn't throw a dart closer..on any green..any speed...any club... any distance. Almost to the point where it's sickening. How do you stop..lets say... a 20yd flop from spinning back off the green?...I don't get how they can do it. EVERY TIME. What am I missing? Or the ability to chip in over 90% of chips....what's the key??

Like a few others have pointed out, there's a ton of variables you have to look for on approaches to greens. Green speed/firmness, headwind/tailwind/crosswind, slope of the green, current lie of your ball(% of lie + slope you're on), club selection, loft, are you going to use fade/draw, elevation change. Take your 20y flop shot for example: Are you hitting it from the fairway, light rough, heavy rough, plugged in sand, sitting up in sand? Is the green where you're aiming sloping away from you or back towards you? Is the green firmness soft/firm or somewhere in the middle? You really need to understand what each different variable will do to your current shot situation and put them altogether like a puzzle to come up with how to play it. If you have a 20y flop shot out of a bunker to a firm green, it's not going to spin back much even when fully lofted. 20y fully lofted flop from the fairway to a soft green and it's going to rocket straight back to your feet. I've started using half and 3/4 swing flops to minimize spin in certain situations where I'm at an awkward distance and don't want it to spin back. It's tricky though and I've been learning that you have to be careful with this, a 50% power flop shot with a 30y club will not go 15y, more like 10-11y. 

As far as chipping goes, I don't think anyone actually makes 90%. Maybe 90% of 4-5y chips as you can basically just aim straight at the hole ignoring all break. For longer chips, I think the better you get at putting, the better you'll get at chipping. 5-12y chips become just like putting trying to read breaks. Knowing how far each club rolls out on a chip helps. Also, don't forget you can loft/deloft chips as well. 8y chip slightly uphill? Deloft your 4y chip shot slightly to get a little bit more roll out. 7y chip downhill? Loft up a little bit to reduce the speed. I always look at it as a puzzle, you have all the pieces you need, just need to figure out how to putt them all together. 

[Deleted]

You need the EA ball spin DLC.      

[bassman70]

The best responses here are the ones that mention course management...here's why...this was mentioned above as well. I play the courses on the PGA once before a tourney...just to get an idea of how scoring will be, and see if there are any risk reward holes, and check the firmness, and I also play them as fast as I can, not caring too much about score. First off the par 5's...you have to birdie ALL of them! This means stop going for the green in two!! Unless you can see you'll have a REASONABLE eagle putt from about 20-30 feet no more and with no crazy breaks. If you can't do that, then you LAY UP!!!! The magic spot is around 45 yds...WHY you ask? Because you can now pitch it and stop the ball next to the pin and ALWAYS have a birdie putt from inside 4 feet, and as you get better with that shot and really learn it, you'll be inside 1-2 feet every time...trust me! Also, on tougher courses, know when a par is a good score. Not every hole is a birdie hole. Yes, yo do have to learn how to chip and also learn how the ball reacts coming a out of a plugged lie in a bunker for example...out of a plugged bunker shot the ball will ROLL!!! A LOT!!! If you don't know these things it will hurt your score quite a bit. Again, course management is really key and you have to be able to look at the greens and what surrounds them and know where the safe spots are and learn the BAD spots you don't want to be. This isn't Tiger Woods golf, this is much more realistic. I hope this helps a bit. But think about if you could always birdie every par 5 how much better your scoring will be. In a 4 round tourney with 4 par 5's, that's already -16!!

[Deleted]

Jan 30, 2016 7:28:45 GMT -5 bassman70 said:

The best responses here are the ones that mention course management...here's why...this was mentioned above as well. I play the courses on the PGA once before a tourney...just to get an idea of how scoring will be, and see if there are any risk reward holes, and check the firmness, and I also play them as fast as I can, not caring too much about score. First off the par 5's...you have to birdie ALL of them! This means stop going for the green in two!! Unless you can see you'll have a REASONABLE eagle putt from about 20-30 feet no more and with no crazy breaks. If you can't do that, then you LAY UP!!!! The magic spot is around 45 yds...WHY you ask? Because you can now pitch it and stop the ball next to the pin and ALWAYS have a birdie putt from inside 4 feet, and as you get better with that shot and really learn it, you'll be inside 1-2 feet every time...trust me! Also, on tougher courses, know when a par is a good score. Not every hole is a birdie hole. Yes, yo do have to learn how to chip and also learn how the ball reacts coming a out of a plugged lie in a bunker for example...out of a plugged bunker shot the ball will ROLL!!! A LOT!!! If you don't know these things it will hurt your score quite a bit. Again, course management is really key and you have to be able to look at the greens and what surrounds them and know where the safe spots are and learn the BAD spots you don't want to be. This isn't Tiger Woods golf, this is much more realistic. I hope this helps a bit. But think about if you could always birdie every par 5 how much better your scoring will be. In a 4 round tourney with 4 par 5's, that's already -16!!

Great post. Agree 100%