It is far easier to control the direction and distance of a shot played low to the ground rather than one that is thrown high up into the air. Think of it this way. If you were given one ball to throw into a bin and given two choices of where the bin could be positioned, one where it was just in front of you, by say three feet and the other where the bin was placed 15 yards away from you, you would select the closer bin to throw the ball into. Everyone would because the close the target is to you, the easier it is to hit.

This concept applies to shots that you play from around the green. The closer you can land the ball to you, the easier it is to achieve and the better the result will be as an outcome of this. If you are landing the ball as close to you as possible, then you are playing a shot where you are allowing the ball to roll for the majority of its journey, so it follows that if you putt and the ball is rolling on the ground for all of the shot, you will be most accurate with this.

Putting does not need to be restricted to only being used when the golf ball is on the green. You can putt really effectively from off the green as well and if you don’t feel confident when chipping, then this is a great alternative to play and achieve a close result.

If you are putting from one foot or so off the green, then the slightly longer fringe grass that you are in won’t really slow the ball down a great deal. Generally, play from this situation as you would if you were on the shorter grass of the actual green. The speed of the ball will be really similar. As you get further off the green, the ball will have to travel over longer grass for a longer distance and as a result the ball speed will be different to that which you experience on the green.

The best options for putts from further off the green are to go to your practice area and throw balls down off the green from between 10 feet off and 25 feet off. Hit a few putts from each distance away to learn the different speeds that are required and the different swing lengths and strengths of putting stroke. The further off the green the ball lies, the more you will need to swing the putter to create a larger putting stroke. A larger putting stroke will create more speed in the putter head to be transferred to the ball as it strikes it and the further the ball will travel.

Also practice playing putts from off the green, when the ball is in a divot for example, or where it is nestled down in a bad lie. Putting from this type of awkward situation will again give you a much better result than attempting to chip and if you have prepared yourself on the practice area for this type of situation, then you will achieve a really good outcome when you are faced with it when out on the golf course.

Take into account the length on the grass and the amount of longer grass that you have to play the putt through. The longer the grass is, the firmer you will need to hit the putt. The more long grass that you have to putt over, again the firmer you will need to hit the putt. But there will be a point where the grass becomes too long to roll the ball through it and when the ball comes to rest in this situation you will have to play a chip as you just won’t be able to get the ball rolling through the grass with a putt.