I am here at TPC Sawgrass with DJ for The Players Championship. Many of the greens are sort of built up higher than the fairway (sometimes called pop-ups) and are super fast and hard. In fact, Wednesday, when we played a practice round, all 4 of the players commented that from Tuesday to Wednesday the greens speed increased significantly and were rolling out a minimum of a foot more, and sometimes as much as two feet more.
Most of the greens have the short cut (fringe height) run off areas except for the greenside bunkers, where balls can run away from the green as much as 10 to 20 yards. So, players this week will have many balls hit the green and run off the green and down these slopes, giving the player a very difficult shot to get it up and down, especially if they end up short siding themselves. Short siding is when the hole is very close, 8 to 10 feet from the edge of the green, which gives the player little room to safely land the ball and stop it close, especially on hard greens.
The difficulty is increased because for one, they are well below the level of the green and second, the fringe length of the grass will make it difficult to hit lob or flop shots, especially if hey have a downhill or side hill lie. So, let's examine two alternative shots these pros can hit to get it up and down.
The first one is to hit a chip and run into the bank that will jump or pop up onto the green. They will use anywhere from a pitching wedge to a 7 iron. They will place the ball back in the stance and hit their regular chip shot, hitting the ball into the bank, trying to get the ball to skip up and onto the green. This shot has a few variables. The pro has to hit it in the right place on the slope and with the correct speed to have it jump up and snuggle up to the hole. Hit it too easy and, as DJ says using the title of an Elvis song 'Return to Sender,' the ball comes rolling back and hopefully not into your divot. Hit the ball too high into the hill and please don't miss it completely or you will likely be hitting it back from over the other side of the green.
The second choice is one that is much safer and has a much higher probability of success. You can putt it up the hill. Using a putter is OK, but is very difficult if the grain of the grass is leaning into you, which will make getting the right speed difficult as the ball will dig into the grass and be slowed down and even pushed off line. Here, like the chip into the hill, you still have the issue of hitting it too easy and your ball coming back to you.
The best solution or shot for this across and up the hill onto the green is to use a 3 wood. The reason is that the loft of the 3 wood immediately lifts the ball on top of the grass so the ball rolls more smoothly, with over spin and with less resistance from the grass. I describe this as the ball is light and on top of the grass, like a puck in the air hockey games. The return to sender issue is still in play, but the margin of error is reduced because putting the ball versus bouncing it into the hill (especially hitting the flop shot), is much more simple and easy.
The setup for using the 3 wood to putt the ball up the hill and onto the green is basically the same as you use to putt on the green. Most players will choke up on the grip, but will use the same stance and ball position, and same putting stroke motion as they do with their putter. Choosing the line and the speed of the 3 wood putt off the green and up the hill are the same as putting on the green.
Like any golf shot, especially touch and feel shots around the green, practice is needed to acquire these skills. Since many golf courses, even out on tour, are incorporating eliminating rough around the greens and changing to these closely mowed runoff areas, getting the 3 wood putt from off the green into your short game is important to helping you shoot lower scores.
The Surge!
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