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Hit higher approach shots into the green, which means that the ball will roll less.

Aerified golf greens or hollow tined golf greens are greens that have just had maintenance work done to them which sees holes left in the green, This has to be done, so all greens will go through this process but, it does make the green very difficult to play on, because it does not give a true surface with the holes that are left in the green and it makes the surface very, very bumpy so when you come to putt on it, its very difficult to control the putts.

It is difficult to know the distance that you need to strike the ball, because when you putt, the ball will hit the holes on the green, slowing the ball down and also the ball can be ricocheted to the left and the right depending on how it is rolling over the holes that have been left on the green.

The best approach to play greens that have recently been aerified or hollow tined is to hit much higher shots than usual so that you can still attack the flag and get the ball landing much closer to it. Because you are hitting the ball higher, the ball will drop more vertically and then when it lands, it will not roll on as far, resulting in you having more control over the ball. If you hit a lower shot into the green you would need to land it much earlier and then when the ball is rolling across the aerified green and the holes left in it, it will start to move the ball to the left and/or the right and it becomes very difficult to get an accurate shot into the green.

Lets look at how to hit a higher golf shot – what you want to do is take your normal stance for your shot and then play the ball slightly further forward in the stance than usual. That will help you to just catch the ball slightly on the upswing and place your hands over the top of the golf ball, so that you have got the shaft of the club pointing at your belly-button rather than leaning it over to the left as you usually would when playing an iron (for a right-handed golfer). Play your hands back a little bit more which will add a little more loft on to the golf club and you will see that you have got more angle on the club face and it will help you hit higher golf shots.

As you set up, make sure your weight is even between your left and your right foot and then put slightly more weight on to your right side. This will help you to catch the ball on the up swing and hit a slightly higher shot than you would do into the green.

Practise on the practise ground and work on achieving a different trajectory than the normal set up position, focus on those key points - play the ball further forward in the stance, the hands slightly further back and your weight slightly further back than usual. You should see that you do hit higher trajectory shots which will land more vertically and you will not see as much roll. This will allow you to get very close, and hit accurate shots into the flag on greens that have just been aerified and it will take out the problem of the hole ricocheting the ball left or right.

Hollow tined greens will change the way the ball reacts when it lands and a rolling ball will roll to the hole with less accuracy.

This is a very aggressive shot and in most cases would result in poor execution by all apart from the most proficient player.

If you play your shots into aerified greens with the idea of landing the ball short and allowing it to run, or roll, across the green to finish close to the flag, then the holes left by the aerification process will result in the ball not rolling “true”. The roll of the ball will be deflected by the holes in the green and this will result in your golf ball finishing further away from hole.