Cant stop the ball on the green

[SasQuatch<3]

Around the green, pitching and wedging seems to have become more difficult for me. I hit the ball, no further then 5 yards and the ball just seems to keep rolling. I tried a bunch of lofts and a couple different methods; hitting in front, behind with stance, choking up, ect. The ball goes up, lands and rolls forever past the hole. What methods or suggestions is there for stopping the ball or putting more spin on the ball, what works for you guys?

[ks8829]

1) when you set up for your wedges you can open the club face and aim slightly left of the target and you will notice the ball will check up.

2) you can also practicing taking the club back on an outside in line so that you cut across the ball

3) ball position is important and if you are playing the ball too far in the back of your stance causing you to deloft the club and making the ball roll out.

4) The type of ball can make a big difference. Pro-V1 will check up or playing a similar type ball.

5) what wedge are you chipping with? 60 degree or lob wedge?

6) you can always practicing chipping on the fringe or light rough and taking speed off the ball but this takes precision and lots of practice.

7) finally the ultimate is to play a lob shot similar to Phil or Tiger. risk reward shot that need lots and lots of practice.

[shankapotamus]

Instead of adjusting your swing, you could adjust your power and try to use the roll to your advantage.

[Mathlete1123]

Be sure your keeping your hands from releasing through impact too much, try and finish with the clubface pointed more upwards than to the left of your target. Swing with a smooth rhythm and accelerate through the ball, even on the really short ones and they should check up more.

[sp33d]

Your ball is very important when your talking about it stopping.

It also depends on how far your chipping from, 5' vs 20' makes a huge diffrence in how much spin you can create on a ball. Its hard to create tons of spin when your taking a 1/4 swing. Because your club head speed is directly related to the amount of spin on the ball.

Learn to play the roll much easier, if you want to stop it by better balls and learn to impact the ball just right, if you slide under neath the ball is will roll after a small check. you have to swing fairly steep to stop it (at least for me) It also depends on what surface your hitting off of? Med rough, thick rough, green side fringe etc, thick rough is hard to get the ball spinning. If you want to learn the short game study Phil Mickelson, with feet position, ball placement, lofting/de-lofting clubs etc. the man is almost surgical.

[Zeph]

Unless you get a lot of spin you have to bump it along the fairway first. If all your shots roll off the green, you are hitting it too low and/or too hard.

Don't expect to pull of shots like they do on the PGA Tour, those guys are experts.

- Aim square to where you want the ball to bump or roll, like a putt
- Put the ball slightly forward in your stance
- Keep 70% of the weight on your left foot throughout the entire shot
- Take a short backswing, hands usually no further than up to the waist
- Start out with the wrists and lock them
- Slight shoulder turn
- Pivot through with the hips and hit the ball first (Important!)

If your grooves are OK and you are not playing a Top-Flite rock, the ball will get some backspin, but more importantly, you will control the distance the ball goes.

[DaveLeeNC]

Around the green, pitching and wedging seems to have become more difficult for me. I hit the ball, no further then 5 yards and the ball just seems to keep rolling. I tried a bunch of lofts and a couple different methods; hitting in front, behind with stance, choking up, ect. The ball goes up, lands and rolls forever past the hole. What methods or suggestions is there for stopping the ball or putting more spin on the ball, what works for you guys?

A ball only carrying 5 yards - VERY tough to get to "check up". It is more about trajectory for that kind of shot.

How far does your ball roll if it carries 5 yards? If you were saying that a ball struck with a SW or LW that carried maybe 15 yards was rolling "forever past the hole" it would be a different story. But 5 yards - something seems odd here. For me if I hit a LW 5 yards it might roll out 2-3 yards. If I hit a 9i 5 yards it might roll out 8-10 yards. If I opened the face of a LW a whole bunch (and didn't skull the damned thing) it would not go more than maybe 1 yard, although that isn't a shot that I ever recall playing or practicing. dave

[cirem22]

I had that same problem then fixed it recently. I was able to produce more loft on my lob wedge and this caused the ball to stick and move very little once it landed on green. Only problem with that is i have very small chance of rolling in the hole since it lands and stops, for now i will deal with that problem until i become more skilled and can spin the ball. I think club head speed with loft is key.

[Zeph]

I play at a course with very small greens with lots of undulation and often hazards behind, but I still use my chip shot on most of them and get the ball to stop on the green. It's a much easier shot to pull off than a high-lofted flop kind of shot to stop the ball. Maybe you should attack the green from another angle, they can't all angle down off the green, should be possible to chip the ball onto it.

[billysandy]

If you are using one of your irons, you wont get much spin off them even with the sw. My mate recently got a 50* vokey spin milled and he span it back so much today. get new wedges, or maybe get the ball high up in the air

[imtomtomim]

I gotta say, spin is the last thing that you need to worry about right now. You need to learn what happens to the ball when you hit it the way you do and how to control that and that alone. Later on, you'll learn to hit a different shot, and you'll see how the ball will spin differently and you will learn how to work with that kind of spin. Trying to force spin on the ball is the wrong thing to do. Get contact first and consistent chipping before you worry about getting fancy. Learn one shot at a time.

[flopdarock]

i think we need more details...
are the greens you play super fast/hard?
what clubs have you tried? from what lie?
where is the hole placement?
chipping to me is mostly a "feel" shot... you have to work with your tendencies ... if the ball is gonna run... aim for a landing spot that you can run the ball to the flag

[SasQuatch<3]

Ok medium, heavy rough with a 60 degree wedge. The greens are fast and yes i've been using Titleist Pro V balls. I havent been opening up the face unless its a really good lie and thanks for the help with aiming left when doing so. New wedges are coming soon and for now I only have a 60 and a 54. When hitting 1/4 shots I notice when the ball goes in the air, it almost has no spin, maybe a little back but it hits the green and runs. I got some practice to do and thank god my putting game has been on lately to fix these little mistakes!

[HSip]

Ok medium, heavy rough with a 60 degree wedge. The greens are fast and yes i've been using Titleist Pro V balls. I havent been opening up the face unless its a really good lie and thanks for the help with aiming left when doing so. New wedges are coming soon and for now I only have a 60 and a 54. When hitting 1/4 shots I notice when the ball goes in the air, it almost has no spin, maybe a little back but it hits the green and runs. I got some practice to do and thank god my putting game has been on lately to fix these little mistakes!

If you're playing out of medium/heavy rough then putting spin on the ball is going to be pretty difficult. Your best bet is to try to hit a high soft shot - Good luck.

[flopdarock]

forget your wedges... pull out your 3h-4h or 3i-4i and give it a putt like stroke popping it enough to get it out of the rough and onto the shorter grass... roll that baby to the hole