You're Correct!

If you are in the rough, quite close to the green and you have quite a bit of green to play with, then a chip and run is an ideal shot.

The type of club you want to use to hit a chip and run ideally is your 7 iron, but you can play the shot with any of your clubs. When using a 7 iron for a chip and run, you should see that you hit the ball about 25% of its overall journey in the air and then the ball will roll 75% of its overall journey. If you know that relationship - that it goes 25% in the air and 75% of roll - you will then be able to get the ball very, very close to the pin for an accurate chip and run golf shot.

Lets look at how to actually hit a chip and run shot. A chip and run golf shot really has a low trajectory, it does not land out too far away from where you are and it rolls most of the way into the flag. To play the shot you want to play the ball in the middle of your stance, with your feet slightly narrower than usual because you are not playing for power here. This shot is all about accuracy and if you just narrow your feet down slightly, you will be able to maintain your balance a lot better.

Hold down the handle of your 7 iron so that your arms are nice and long and then make sure that you set up so that you have created a straight line between your left shoulder, left arm and left hand and the shaft of the golf club. From your left shoulder all the way down to the club head there should be one straight line and you are going to simply maintain that straight line all the way through the shot.

Just before you make your swing, you want to put your left foot directly back about four inches so that the toes of your left foot are level with the shoe laces of your right foot, if you are a right handed golfer. This will just get you to open your hips slightly, basically turning your hips towards the target and it will allow you to swing through the shot a little bit easier, maintaining the club on the target line and helping you to hit a much more accurate shot.

To actually play the shot from this position, place the ball in the middle of the feet, the stance slightly narrower than usual, the left foot back and the straight line down from the left shoulder down the left arm and the shaft of the club. Keep that straight line as you take the club away from the ball and then maintain that straight line as you swing through the ball and into your follow through. Make sure however far you have swung the club head away from the ball on the back swing, you equal that distance and that you achieve the same distance of going through the ball and into the follow through position. The swing should look equal distance back swing to follow through.

If you work on playing the shot like that, that will give you a really crisp chip and run. You will see the ball pops up just slightly out of the rough and it lands on the green and it then rolls through. If you remember the 25% to 75% relationship of how much of the shot is in the air and how much it rolls on the green, then you will be hitting very accurate golf shots and lowering your scores in no time.

Using a less lofted club that you would play a chip and run with, from a bad lie, will not allow you to escape from a bad lie where the ball is sitting down in deeper grass. In this situation, the chip and run is not the correct shot to play. Only play it from shorter rough, or where the ball is sitting up well.

Putting from the rough is often dangerous as the lie or the ground the ball has to roll over ill not allow you to control the distance or accuracy of the shot.

Hitting a flop shot is a risky solution and should only be attempted when there is very little green to work with.

A chip and run is a great shot to play from greenside rough, but only if the ball has a good lie. If the ball has nestled down in the grass and has a poor lie, then you will need a more lofted club to help you get the ball up and out of the grass.