MichaelStroke: Of course, part of my hatred for it is my cheap balls. I can't drop an approach within 10 feet of the pin. Simply not possible.
You might not be able to stick one like you see being done but that doesn't mean you can't get gimmes off the approaches, you just have to do it a little differently. A couple of pluses with the cheaper ball is that the club yardages are closer to what they're rated and deviation doesn't kill you on missed hits.
This means on a no spin hit with rollout you get what the club says it can do. 180 goes 180, for instance, but the carry might only be 170+, it rolls the rest. Then you factor in spin to control that rollout, trusting the distance you know you're going to get with no spin. Little bs slows it down, little ts helps it along. Think that way when looking at your approaches and you'll be amazed at what you can do. Tour-SDs used to rock for me.
Wind direction plays a big part in stopping and when you see a wind in your face you know you're going to be able to stop with bs so you can be aggressive. With wind help don't even think stopping like that, think using less club and running up.
Maxing irons is really effective in running up as opposed to spinning and choking. 165 out with wind help? Hit 150 with ts. It'll roll more with the wind help where a fbs shot isn't likely to stop. Play to what you have and you can get those gimme approaches. :-)