How Can I Best Play a Hole With an Elevated Green? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How Can I Best Play a Hole With an Elevated Green? (Video) - by Pete Styles

How can you best play to a green that’s elevated up above you? The first thing you’ve got to consider here is do you change your swing, do you change your club or do you change both. Now I actually think the most important thing you can do here is to not change your swing at all. Just go ahead and play your normal swing when you play into a very elevated green but change the club. That’s one of the variables that’s the easiest to change. And you need to change the club in appropriation with how high the green is and how far the distance is.

So if I’ve got 150 yards that might be an A time but if I’ve got 150 yards and a 20 yard height change in elevation where I’ve got to go up. My A time probably is not going to land far enough. You imagine the side on profile of the ball coming in but it’s going to land here if the green sits at that level or if the green sits at this level it’s going to come down to its 150 yards. So when it’s hitting at this level to the elevated green it might have only travelled 140 yards therefore it’s short. So you’ve got to use a little bit of judgment, a little bit of experience about how the elevation change changes the club. So I might say 150/20 yards of elevation that might be a seven or even a smooth six so generally in that situation I’d take out my smooth six sign, I’d make my normal swing. It’s quite important I’m not going to try and change and lean back and heave the ball up into the air. I don’t need to, I’m not going to try and cut it more I’m not going to try and draw it more. I’m going to make my normal swing I’ve just changed clubs. So most of the difference, most of the change happens in the pre shot routine. I’ve got my yard it is 150 but it’s 20 yards up, I take my six sign, I set up to the ball with confidence, I have my little practice swing, set up nicely good swing and try knock it nice and smoothly up onto that 150 yard green. When you are playing elevated greens change the club, don’t change the swing.
2014-05-12

How can you best play to a green that’s elevated up above you? The first thing you’ve got to consider here is do you change your swing, do you change your club or do you change both. Now I actually think the most important thing you can do here is to not change your swing at all. Just go ahead and play your normal swing when you play into a very elevated green but change the club. That’s one of the variables that’s the easiest to change. And you need to change the club in appropriation with how high the green is and how far the distance is.

So if I’ve got 150 yards that might be an A time but if I’ve got 150 yards and a 20 yard height change in elevation where I’ve got to go up. My A time probably is not going to land far enough. You imagine the side on profile of the ball coming in but it’s going to land here if the green sits at that level or if the green sits at this level it’s going to come down to its 150 yards. So when it’s hitting at this level to the elevated green it might have only travelled 140 yards therefore it’s short. So you’ve got to use a little bit of judgment, a little bit of experience about how the elevation change changes the club.

So I might say 150/20 yards of elevation that might be a seven or even a smooth six so generally in that situation I’d take out my smooth six sign, I’d make my normal swing. It’s quite important I’m not going to try and change and lean back and heave the ball up into the air. I don’t need to, I’m not going to try and cut it more I’m not going to try and draw it more. I’m going to make my normal swing I’ve just changed clubs. So most of the difference, most of the change happens in the pre shot routine. I’ve got my yard it is 150 but it’s 20 yards up, I take my six sign, I set up to the ball with confidence, I have my little practice swing, set up nicely good swing and try knock it nice and smoothly up onto that 150 yard green. When you are playing elevated greens change the club, don’t change the swing.