Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
One of the most difficult shots you might get when you’re on the putting green is the situation where the ball is rolling up to the edge of the fringe of the grass, at the back edge of the green and you’ve got a big fringe just behind the golf ball. It’s very difficult then to get a good clean contact and I’ve kind of setup to up here in a little practice area where I can actually practice this sort of shot. So what a club laying down on the floor which is a way that is going to work like the fringe of the greens to stop me getting to the bottom of the golf ball and playing a normal putt.
So I’m just going to talk you through how I would suggest playing this shot, trying to get the best results and the best contact on the golf ball. First thing is using your putter, grip down to the base of the club to make it a little bit shorter, to give you bit more control but also just play it slightly back in your stands, a lot further back than for a normal put. That would help you hit down on the ball with a slightly steeper angle of descent. The most important thing here is you don’t try and get the ball lifted into the air by grounding the club first because that would just hit the fringed grass. That would be very difficult to control your speed.
So you play it to the back of your stance, hands in front of it and just hit down in the golf with a nice little chopping action. The ball will probably bubble as it comes out and forward but it should really stands the whole with relative sort of accuracy of your distance control. Just avoid hitting it fat or hitting it heavy. Another shot that you might consider playing, having watch a few golfers on the TV, you often see them play the ball with what we call a bellied wedge. So it’s taking a sand wedge or log wedge and actually aiming to hit halfway up the top of the golf ball. It imparts a lot of over spin on the ball so it will release nice and quickly towards the hole on quite a straight line. So we play this sort of middle of the stance, hands low again and just try and skim the top half of the ball. We’re not trying to hit down underneath the golf ball at any point here.
It’s just taking the top half of the ball and just gets it bumping forwards that way. What we want to avoid is leaning back and capturing the fringe grass as it obviously makes that a very heavy shot. Another option that you might use here is maybe a little sort of chipping shot, maybe a highbred chipper. Just play the ball backward the highbred chipper and again just straight down on the ball for a decent contact. Just try and get the ball jumping forwards and if you’re really adventurous, you might play something like a toad putter where it will actually turn the toe of the putter downwards, that’s going to produce a very steep angle of attack and just again chipping the ball forwards.
But anyone of those four techniques that just gives you some relative consistency that shifting the ball away from that fringe grass, just get it releasing nicely down towards the hole because in this sort of position if you can take two to get the ball down into the hole, you’ve done well. So have a little practice of that next time you’re on the chipping green or the putting green.
2012-06-06 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
One of the most difficult shots you might get when you’re on the putting green is the situation where the ball is rolling up to the edge of the fringe of the grass, at the back edge of the green and you’ve got a big fringe just behind the golf ball. It’s very difficult then to get a good clean contact and I’ve kind of setup to up here in a little practice area where I can actually practice this sort of shot. So what a club laying down on the floor which is a way that is going to work like the fringe of the greens to stop me getting to the bottom of the golf ball and playing a normal putt.
So I’m just going to talk you through how I would suggest playing this shot, trying to get the best results and the best contact on the golf ball. First thing is using your putter, grip down to the base of the club to make it a little bit shorter, to give you bit more control but also just play it slightly back in your stands, a lot further back than for a normal put. That would help you hit down on the ball with a slightly steeper angle of descent. The most important thing here is you don’t try and get the ball lifted into the air by grounding the club first because that would just hit the fringed grass. That would be very difficult to control your speed.
So you play it to the back of your stance, hands in front of it and just hit down in the golf with a nice little chopping action. The ball will probably bubble as it comes out and forward but it should really stands the whole with relative sort of accuracy of your distance control. Just avoid hitting it fat or hitting it heavy. Another shot that you might consider playing, having watch a few golfers on the TV, you often see them play the ball with what we call a bellied wedge. So it’s taking a sand wedge or log wedge and actually aiming to hit halfway up the top of the golf ball. It imparts a lot of over spin on the ball so it will release nice and quickly towards the hole on quite a straight line. So we play this sort of middle of the stance, hands low again and just try and skim the top half of the ball. We’re not trying to hit down underneath the golf ball at any point here.
It’s just taking the top half of the ball and just gets it bumping forwards that way. What we want to avoid is leaning back and capturing the fringe grass as it obviously makes that a very heavy shot. Another option that you might use here is maybe a little sort of chipping shot, maybe a highbred chipper. Just play the ball backward the highbred chipper and again just straight down on the ball for a decent contact. Just try and get the ball jumping forwards and if you’re really adventurous, you might play something like a toad putter where it will actually turn the toe of the putter downwards, that’s going to produce a very steep angle of attack and just again chipping the ball forwards.
But anyone of those four techniques that just gives you some relative consistency that shifting the ball away from that fringe grass, just get it releasing nicely down towards the hole because in this sort of position if you can take two to get the ball down into the hole, you’ve done well. So have a little practice of that next time you’re on the chipping green or the putting green.
