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Chipping From the Rough

• wayneacampbell 64 Posts

  Fri, Jul 10 2015 4:23 PM

  I find that I am some what erratic in terms of distance control when chipping from the rough. Is there some sort of format to apply - i.e. 30- to 40 % lie add appropriate additional  amount of force. I find that often the ball will come up short on one occasion and on the next occasion run well past the hole using the same chipping parameters. Any input most appreciated.

   

  Regards.

  Wayne.

   

   

   

   

• Wheels65 744 Posts

  Fri, Jul 10 2015 6:11 PM

  Wayne, you are showing starter clubs and if you are expecting ANY accuracy or consistency with them, well, NOT! At your level, you should be playing with better wedges.

  When you get them, go to Bethpage Black Back 9 and "index" them (hit up and down the fairway - noting distances on 'dinged' shots - and average 1 up and 1 down). Doing this on greens is better, but the fairway numbers are pretty darned close to what you should expect on the greens. 

  The Cleveland 64 Deg. wedge with 100% power and a Cally L33 ball, will chip, onto the green, like this:

  Full Back Spin -  5 yds

  No Spin           -  7 yds

  Full Top Spin   -  9 yds

  I do not try to chip if the rough is greater than 30%.

  A couple of years ago, someone posted these tips for Pitch shots and they are as follows:

  15%  sand          -1 yd

  30-40% rough      0 yd

  40-50% rough    +2 yds

  The whole thing though, starts with better wedges.

  Good luck

   

   

• mantis0014 8,946 Posts

  Fri, Jul 10 2015 8:14 PM

  Wheels65:

  Wayne, you are showing starter clubs and if you are expecting ANY accuracy or consistency with them, well, NOT! At your level, you should be playing with better wedges.

  We should not give tips to a person on that level...  No offence to the OP

• alosso 21,060 Posts

  Sat, Jul 11 2015 12:11 AM

  Wheels65:

  Wayne, you are showing starter clubs and if you are expecting ANY accuracy or consistency with them, well, NOT!

  +1 for that part!

  Any other distance chart fails due to the minor characteristics of the Starter wedges. Add low trajectory and you might find the general rule:

  Don't chip from rough with Starters!

  There are good chip&pitch tutorials around, take this as a starter:

  A chip must land on fringe or green, difficult with the short Starters' flight.

  For the sake of completeness: Pitches must land on FW, fringe or green, and Starter flops are but high pitches.

  If you dare to rise in tier, think of buying two short wedges which would also benefit your bunker shots. You might ask for one or two high-level ones in the Summer-Christmas giftings.

• LOLserver 3,522 Posts

  Sat, Jul 11 2015 3:35 AM

  wayneacampbell:

  I find that I am some what erratic in terms of distance control when chipping from the rough. Is there some sort of format to apply - i.e. 30- to 40 % lie add appropriate additional  amount of force. I find that often the ball will come up short on one occasion and on the next occasion run well past the hole using the same chipping parameters. Any input most appreciated.

  Regards.

  Wayne.

  Sorry to disagree with some of the guys above. You can be good enough even with starter equipment, all is a matter of knowing the properties of your equipment.

  With starters, your ball will roll more on the green/fairway because of the properties of your wedges. So considering that, if you land your wedge shot on green you will have; either to be very precise to get the right roll (distance), I mean to land short of the pin and let the ball roll close to the pin or simply accept you will have a long putt back.

  It also depends on the shape of the surface you are chipping to, chip with starters is just difficult because there is no back spin at all, I would consider that flop, with full bs will be better even for shots under 10 feet. 

  Flop makes the ball FLY higher and drop with better chances to make it stop faster, while with the chip, there is almost no fly on the ball and the ball rolls much longer.

  Must say, you on rough aiming to a down hill green is no way to stop the ball no matter what you do. This is a situation where ONLY with better equipment & better balls you can make the ball stop.

  As mentioned, the more back spin you wedges have the more chances to make the ball stop.

  Don't get discouraged Wayne, just accept the facts of your equipment & consider upgrading if you believe it is time to do so.

  Eric

• Wheels65 744 Posts

  Sat, Jul 11 2015 10:15 AM

  Roger, the player is a level 82 Tour Pro.  While you are correct that Tour Pros may not benefit from sophisticated advice (which, I certainly did not give), the level make this player eligible for better equipment. I doubt that anyone on this site will argue that better equipment hinders your game.

  Alosso, the CG-16/588 numbers are accurate. The "corrections" relate to clubs above the starter level. It has been so long since I played the starter clubs that I do not remember how they behave, but of course, I can't remember what I had for dinner last night either!

  LOL, likewise is correct, if you want to minimize your score, you MUST master your equipment. I doubt, however, that anyone would willingly choose a Starter Lob Wedge against a Cleveland Wedge in a game for credits.

   

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Sat, Jul 11 2015 10:30 AM

  Wheels65:

  I doubt, however, that anyone would willingly choose a Starter Lob Wedge against a Cleveland Wedge in a game for credits.

  At that level of competition, probably not, but since the rough changes a while back that Starter wedge is as good as the CG. The changes turned stop on a dime ups to ones where you have to know the roll because everything's rolling from rough, ball notwithstanding. The OP's concern was getting out of 30-40 and such.

  @wayne-learn how much roll to expect out of rough shots like that and then play it like it was a putt after you figure out where it will land, knowing it's going to roll.

• alosso 21,060 Posts

  Sat, Jul 11 2015 10:48 AM

  Wheels65:

  Alosso, the CG-16/588 numbers are accurate.

  Of course they are correct for you - with the Cleves. Alas, Starters are in no way comparable to these numbers nor to their characteristics, that's where my remark was intended to point to.

  Also, I am reluctant to demand "You must buy better equipment!"

  A L82 TP certainly isn't the guy chasing through the tiers. He has been playing long time, apparently with little ambition and perhaps with little effort. Whatever he does in better equipment will very soon catapult him to Master tier and longer tees, demanding more than Starter equipment. Thus, his current equipment may be the best for him ;)

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Sat, Jul 11 2015 1:21 PM

  wayneacampbell:

  I find that I am some what erratic in terms of distance control when chipping from the rough. Is there some sort of format to apply - i.e. 30- to 40 % lie add appropriate additional  amount of force. I find that often the ball will come up short on one occasion and on the next occasion run well past the hole using the same chipping parameters. Any input most appreciated.

   

  Regards.

  Wayne.

  Chipping well with the starter wedges takes a heck of a lot of practice and really reading the shot situation before taking a swing. Green speed is critical as well as elevation. It can be done and done well. :)

  GL

• wayneacampbell 64 Posts

  Sun, Jul 12 2015 10:33 AM

  Thanks for the input Eric, as to the shot I had outlined I was faced with almost the identical shot in my last round (real golf) with the ball sitting down in about 2" of rough and about 20 Ft. of green to work with. I play Titleist equipment with Vokey wedges and Pro V1 ball. In the real game I in fact had to play a flop shop and the ball still ran about 4 ft. passed the hole. I guess in learning how to play on WGT. I apply the same principles as when I started out in real golf. I started out with a basic set of golf clubs and as I incrementally improved I graduated to better equipment. My approach is to play starter equipment until I reach what I feel is a level of proficiency I feel merits an upgrade in equipment ( in real golf you cannot buy a game and  you see many people try) I know golf  on WGT. is certainly harder with starter equipment but I view it as a challenge and no I am not in any way discouraged.

   

  Regards.

   

  Wayne.