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Pitching and Flopping in Heavy Rough?

• Buckeye8084 307 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 3:09 PM

  I have been very fortunate not to be in heavy rough to often very near the green and the hole. The times that I have been I haven't been confident on what type of shot to play. 

  Say for instance I'm 10 yards from the hole in 45-50% hitting up and over a lip to a short sided green. What would you do to be successful? Picture #10 on Congressional in the rough in front of the green. My partner put me there in an Alt game. I tried to pitch it with what I thought was enough to cover the lie and it still went hardly anywhere. Do I need to keep the spin mark high to not slice through the grass?

  I'm pretty clueless what to do. Thanks for you help in advance. 

• LeonDelBosque 1,551 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 3:18 PM

  I probably would've pitched with a 64 degree wedge with full backspin. Never try to baby any kind of shot out of the rough; I always use at least 80 percent of full power. You don't really get much spin out of the rough, but moving the dot down makes the ball fly higher. 

  But the best advice I can give is: Play in practice mode and experiment. Miss the green, chip/pitch/flop, then putt off, then chip/pitch/flop again, etc.

• BIGAL123 202 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 3:26 PM

  I personally flop when in the rough near the green

  If I am near the fringe, I usually chip or pitch

• dario2589 202 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 3:40 PM

  In those cases I use full shot with my 50yds wedge, for reference: half meter of power from 40-50 rough = 14yds

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 4:16 PM

  Buckeye8084:

  Say for instance I'm 10 yards from the hole in 45-50% hitting up and over a lip to a short sided green. What would you do to be successful?

  Pitch full backspin all day. I have the exact same wedges and ball as you and that shot is a 64 wedge pitch. That club only loses yardage in deep rough so you'd probably be hitting that shot about a strong 3/4 swing.

  The pitch with that club is a definite go to shot out of close rough. Well worth learning. Start with full back spin and learn how it rolls quite accurately and is very mappable. You'll be amazed.

• MBaggese 15,367 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 4:44 PM

  YankeeJim:

  Pitch full backspin all day

  Not so fast wise wedge master;)

  That's a great shot to flop to---10/12 yards, depending on slope from the 40/50.

• bubbadork 984 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 6:17 PM

  I personally never use the "pitch" or "chip" modes.  I flop from 15 yards in and pitch from there on out.  My pitch is full mode, throttled back.

  I have yardage loss figures that I use for backspin and the various lies.  I find that the loss actually depends on the percentage of swing more than the absolute distance shot at.

  I got the figures for my clubs and balls using practice rounds.  I pitch off the tee onto the fairway and shoot back and forth, or pitch into a rough lie and hit or pitch out and back, then derive an average loss for the various lies.  It takes a little time but it's an excellent way to develop corrections for spin, wind, and lie.

  It's better to hit the green in reg, but if you practice pitches and flops you can generally get close enough to one-putt and save a par when you DO miss.

• Buckeye8084 307 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 8:40 PM

  That's what I did. I hit the 64 pitch shot with 3/4 spin at about 75% power. I hit close to the dinger and it went about 4 yards. 

  That's why I posted this thread because I was thoroughly perplexed about what happened. 

  I usually hit 64 wedge full shots when I'm around 20-30 yards and have had really good success. With it being 10 yards I thought the pitch would have worked. 

   

• Buckeye8084 307 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 8:42 PM

  When flopping from deep rough do you set max spin? I tried a flop shot out of deep rough awhile ago with full spin and it went no where. 

• MBaggese 15,367 Posts

  Wed, Aug 1 2012 9:27 PM

  Buckeye8084:

  When flopping from deep rough do you set max spin? I tried a flop shot out of deep rough awhile ago with full spin and it went no where. 

  are you talking the 60/70 stuff?  Never flopped from there...just 40/50 and less

   

  a full pitch from 60/70 goes maybe 6 yards or so...so have to be careful where you are at, many times a a choked full/punch is better

  and then there are just some lies you hae to haack out from...lol