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Advice from L's & TM's : Difficult Approach

• chris5214 1,937 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 7:46 AM

  Just made TM in 1&1/2 mnths since i joined .. did this by lotsa listening to what the really good & experienced players say & do .. practised the advice absorbed like a maniac ..

  but i need some advice or validation on a shot i'm still battling with .. thought i'd ask the seasoned L's & TM's since i learned alot from them over the last 45 days or so ..

  mid- to long-range approach to green, 150-200yds, tailwind 10mph +, frontside bunker guarded, pin close to front ... especially when green is elevated then even more difficult

  not lots of green to work with & i've hardly ever been closer than 4-5yds on a shot like this .. IF i pull it off perfectly .. i know there will be roll no matter what you do

  I'd just like to know how you guys deal with shots like these .. do you have a certain way that you deal with this ? Or do you just try to get the ball to drop just past the bunker on front lip of green & hope it doesn't roll to far ?

   

• Jerm65 1,413 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 8:36 AM

  150 - 200 is a large range, but......

  With R11's and Nikes, from 150 I'd probably fire right at the pin (with full b/s).....but from 200 would be much more likely to play it safe.  I'd try to make sure I'm on the green and putting, as opposed to not.

  A lot also depends on the slope of the green at the hole.  If it runs away from you, it's a completely different shot than if it slopes towards you.  (think BPB #4 vs. BPB #15)

  There's no single shot that will work all the time in the given scenario.  Sometimes you'll be quite happy just to be on the green with a 25ft birdie putt (preferably uphill and preferably straight....lol).

  Playing the "drop it just past the bunker and hope" game works sometimes, but it's definitely a "risk / reward" situation.  How much of a gambler are you?  And what's on the line?

  Hopefully that helps?  :)

• ETVKPProductions 24 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 8:37 AM

  I haven't been here long either but what I usually try to do is to use slopes in the green to feed it to the hole in this kind of situation it's pretty much the only thing I can do. Feeding works pretty good with greenspeed Tournament so that's what I go with. Best example is probably Congr. 3 where there is a little slope behind the hole that you can work it back with.

  Mr.K

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 9:55 AM

  chris5214:

  Just made TM in 1&1/2 mnths since i joined .. did this by lotsa listening to what the really good & experienced players say & do .. practised the advice absorbed like a maniac ..

  but i need some advice or validation on a shot i'm still battling with .. thought i'd ask the seasoned L's & TM's since i learned alot from them over the last 45 days or so ..

  mid- to long-range approach to green, 150-200yds, tailwind 10mph +, frontside bunker guarded, pin close to front ... especially when green is elevated then even more difficult

  not lots of green to work with & i've hardly ever been closer than 4-5yds on a shot like this .. IF i pull it off perfectly .. i know there will be roll no matter what you do

  I'd just like to know how you guys deal with shots like these .. do you have a certain way that you deal with this ? Or do you just try to get the ball to drop just past the bunker on front lip of green & hope it doesn't roll to far ?

   

  For 200yds It depends on tha amount of green between the front edge and the hole. If it's very close I fire at the hole distance after calculations and always full backspin. If it leaves a downhill putt of less than 15 feet it was a good shot.

  150 is laser pointer time. Full backie and it should stop dead if you're using decent balls.

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 10:05 AM

  Chris,

  I just thought of something.Take a look at the top replay I have in my list. I've been working on the tee shot at 13 on Olympic for over a week and always somehow screwed it up and ended up long. It's 188 so it's right between the distances we're talking about. I noticed  there was fairway cut grass on the walk up to the green from the cart path. I purposely hit the shot short and with no backspin firguring the wind would lean it left and hop it onto the green. It came out better than I expected but I've now adopted this play ay this hole.

  Bottom line is appraoch shots to close front pins guarded sometimes have a side door. Look for it before you hit the hail mary shot.

• saltiresfan 2,266 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 10:50 AM

  How did you manage to get your average down to under 63 when your best ever 18 holes is 64? :p

  Ok, looked at your score history - lots of 9 hole rounds.

  Next question is how you got to L74 in 6 weeks especially as you don't appear to have entered any tournaments?

• BeachedMulligan 1,238 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 11:01 AM

  saltiresfan:

  Next question is how you got to L74 in 6 weeks especially as you don't appear to have entered any tournaments?

  He's been on the juice.

  • chris5214 purchased the World Golf Tour Level-Up Boost (40-59) in the Pro Shop.
  • chris5214 purchased the World Golf Tour Level-Up Boost (40-59) in the Pro Shop.
  • chris5214 purchased the World Golf Tour Level-Up Boost (40-59) in the Pro Shop.
  • chris5214 purchased the World Golf Tour Level-Up Boost (40-59) in the Pro Shop.
  • chris5214 purchased the World Golf Tour Level-Up Boost (40-59) in the Pro Shop.
  • chris5214 purchased the World Golf Tour Level-Up Boost (40-59) in the Pro Shop.
  • chris5214 purchased the World Golf Tour Level-Up Boost (40-59) in the Pro Shop.

   

• chris5214 1,937 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 11:03 AM

  thx guys .. helpfull .. at least i know now my current approach is the correct 1

  Cerino, yeah i always us bspin on all approaches .. sometimes take little off if the shot is say 80yds and i'm hitting full 60deg L/Wedge or whatever the case may be on approach ... i believe any swing under 87.5% strenght will not go the distance if u take .875 x the club's listed lenght ..

  sometimes, on the of type shot i've asked advice on in this thread,  i feel i should play safe, specially when i'm 3-4 under over 9 with 2 or 3 to go .. but i mostly end up goin' for the pin anyway after some carefull math .. can't help myself .. lol .. thx for ur input .. i'll check out ur replay .. hqve only played Olympic full 18 three times .. should play it some more

   

   

• chris5214 1,937 Posts

  Fri, May 25 2012 11:15 AM

  saltiresfan:

  How did you manage to get your average down to under 63 when your best ever 18 holes is 64? :p

  Ok, looked at your score history - lots of 9 hole rounds.

  Next question is how you got to L74 in 6 weeks especially as you don't appear to have entered any tournaments?

  yeah, lotsa 9 hole ranked rounds .. so plenty 30's,31's, few 29's .. shot 27 on Oakmont tday which bumped me up .. yeah that 64 doesn't sit too well with me right now .. just wanna get used to the Tournament speed greens then i'll put some effort into improving it over 18 ..

  Yeah, i juiced up alot .. & on top of that jumped 15 levels alone chomping down on those turd bars .. actually only supposed to be arounf Lvl 55 or so, but wasn't willing to wait that long for the better sticks

• saltiresfan 2,266 Posts

  Sun, May 27 2012 10:38 AM

  I copied your example and played some 9 hole rounds. Kind of reverse sand-bagging as I'm really not good enough to be at Tour Master ;)