Should I Ever Chip From The Golf Putting Green (Video) - by Pete Styles
Should I Ever Chip From The Golf Putting Green (Video) - by Pete Styles

So you join me here doing something that I’ve never been called to do before normally which is chipping from the edge of the putting green. I find myself in a position just on the practice green here, but you can imagine the situation on the golf course, where the kidney shape of the green kind of cuts in here. My ball is actually on the putting surface, importantly it is my putting surface, if it was on somebody else’s green you got a free drop away from that. You’re not allowed to play from somebody else’s green but if I was on mine, the kidney shape of the edge of the green in cutting in here, and I’ve decided I wanted to chip that ball. Even though I’m on the putting surface it’s very difficult to get the ball chipped cleanly off the putting surface, and not something I would normally take on a tour. Something you occasionally see the guys doing with all gusto. I want to change over, I want to try and putt this same ball, where clearly to putt through to the red flag. I’ve got an incredibly difficult shot, I’ve got to get through with so much rough, the real danger to actually putt this thing into the bunker but come on let’s give it a go it’s only for practice. But we’ll give it a good rip, it’s got to come through a lot of long grass, and I’m going to try and get closer than my chip. It’s come through okay, it’s bundling down there.

On a normal day it wouldn’t be the end of the world but in that situation compared to my chip that I hit, my chip was an awful lot closer to the hole. So the chip has actually rescued quite a nice situation. I could tap it in and make a decent score; you see the difficult situation I had with this in the way, to putt through it is a risk. Having said that, chipping off a putting surface is probably the biggest risk that most golfers would take because there’s very little grass to get underneath the golf ball, so I chip back down there with [Indiscernible] [0:01:59] to get quite cleanly off the surface and it came out and rolled out down nicely towards the hole. The putt that I had to take there, probably less risky in terms of how I was able to hit it, the strike was always going to be pretty much a given but playing from that awkward situation there, I wasn’t quite sure how the ball would roll through the grass, and maybe even if it would snag off and drop itself into the bunker. So generally speaking, you would never actually try and chip from the putting surface, but if the situation plays where there’s nothing, there’s no other option because the grass is in the way, it’s quite an awkward situation, and your confidence is good, and you’re in a position maybe match play stable for competition, maybe not in a medal play but match play stable where if guys were broke then as I did there chip over the corner, roll it down quite nicely, if your confident with your chipping game. If you’ve got no confidence you might as well take your putter roll it down to here or tap it in. A worst case scenario actually plays to the big part of the green, and putt across. There’s nothing that says you have to put directly for the hole if there’s a big bunker in the way along the grass, you don’t fancy putting through it, play round it, you’re probably admitting you’re going to take a 3-putt but that might actually be the best option. But if confidence is high, chip it over the corner and then run it with your putter in your hand and tap it in as quickly as you can because you’ve made a decent save. 2014-10-13

So you join me here doing something that I’ve never been called to do before normally which is chipping from the edge of the putting green. I find myself in a position just on the practice green here, but you can imagine the situation on the golf course, where the kidney shape of the green kind of cuts in here. My ball is actually on the putting surface, importantly it is my putting surface, if it was on somebody else’s green you got a free drop away from that. You’re not allowed to play from somebody else’s green but if I was on mine, the kidney shape of the edge of the green in cutting in here, and I’ve decided I wanted to chip that ball. Even though I’m on the putting surface it’s very difficult to get the ball chipped cleanly off the putting surface, and not something I would normally take on a tour. Something you occasionally see the guys doing with all gusto. I want to change over, I want to try and putt this same ball, where clearly to putt through to the red flag. I’ve got an incredibly difficult shot, I’ve got to get through with so much rough, the real danger to actually putt this thing into the bunker but come on let’s give it a go it’s only for practice. But we’ll give it a good rip, it’s got to come through a lot of long grass, and I’m going to try and get closer than my chip. It’s come through okay, it’s bundling down there.

On a normal day it wouldn’t be the end of the world but in that situation compared to my chip that I hit, my chip was an awful lot closer to the hole. So the chip has actually rescued quite a nice situation. I could tap it in and make a decent score; you see the difficult situation I had with this in the way, to putt through it is a risk. Having said that, chipping off a putting surface is probably the biggest risk that most golfers would take because there’s very little grass to get underneath the golf ball, so I chip back down there with [Indiscernible] [0:01:59] to get quite cleanly off the surface and it came out and rolled out down nicely towards the hole.

The putt that I had to take there, probably less risky in terms of how I was able to hit it, the strike was always going to be pretty much a given but playing from that awkward situation there, I wasn’t quite sure how the ball would roll through the grass, and maybe even if it would snag off and drop itself into the bunker. So generally speaking, you would never actually try and chip from the putting surface, but if the situation plays where there’s nothing, there’s no other option because the grass is in the way, it’s quite an awkward situation, and your confidence is good, and you’re in a position maybe match play stable for competition, maybe not in a medal play but match play stable where if guys were broke then as I did there chip over the corner, roll it down quite nicely, if your confident with your chipping game. If you’ve got no confidence you might as well take your putter roll it down to here or tap it in. A worst case scenario actually plays to the big part of the green, and putt across. There’s nothing that says you have to put directly for the hole if there’s a big bunker in the way along the grass, you don’t fancy putting through it, play round it, you’re probably admitting you’re going to take a 3-putt but that might actually be the best option. But if confidence is high, chip it over the corner and then run it with your putter in your hand and tap it in as quickly as you can because you’ve made a decent save.