Thanks for the question. In terms of chipping as Dave laid out in this post, you really want to focus on the carry and roll method. Kudos to Dave on the explanation of this, you really did a great job of explaining. Tony, I would say that your best bet is to get the ball on the ground as quickly as possible and let it run out toward the hole. You are less likely to have “weird” things happen with the ball on the ground. Remember that your obvious goal is to get the ball as close to the hole as possible and this is truly the best way. Over time and as your short game skills and confidence grow you can experiment with using more carry and less roll…using a more lofted club and flying the ball further with less roll. However, your technique needs to be flawless or tour quality for this….this shot depends on a great deal of spin or “check” much like you see the guys on tour do. To accomplish this you need tour quality technique.

The only situation where I can think of that you should use a much more lofted club then what is called for in typical situations would be when your ball (just off the green) is in a spot that is much higher then the spot the pin would be in….a downhill situation…especially if the green is very fast. Using your highest lofted club, I would suggest looking for a spot just on the green (or slightly off) and trying to hit that spot and let the ball run down to the pin. Remember that in situations like this, you are much, much better off with your ball ending up below the hole so that you have and uphill putt for your up & down.

I’m sure Dave will cover our work on pitching and other short game shots in future posts.

Hope this helps!

Have you and Brendon discussed any special situations where it’s best to use a lofted wedge, or try and land short of the green?