A Tough Putt

[Patch]

I am posting this to hopefully help others when faced with a terribly tough putt. That putt, where you want to ask the greens keeper "why" just before you throat punch him 

Here's the set up. The pin is cut about 5' feet from the apron. The pin is cut a few inches away from a severe down slope to the apron. The down slope continues through the apron. This slope is about 3/4s the way around the pin. The 1/4 area above the pin also slopes to the pin, but not nearly as severe as the slope past the hole. There is very little, if any, level area around the hole. 

So, the problem is one of finesse if you are more than a tap in away from the hole. Also, since the two straight putts are either straight down hill, or straight up hill on this hole, your approach shot has to be perfect. Who hits perfect approach shots?

 The down hill putt from above the hole is a knee knocker, since if missed, the next putt is going to be up hill from some where off the apron, several feet away from the hole 

After playing this pin location many times, it finally dawned on me, that the easiest first putt is from off the apron, uphill to the hole. This after landing the ball above the hole, and allowing the break to funnel the ball into that straight, uphill putting line.

Obviously, no one wants to intentionally putt from the apron. My point in this scenario is, that sometimes you have to think outside the box to save a stroke, or two. 

Another outside the box example is that hole at  "The Open" where the pros sometimes might bounce the ball off the wall, to get the ball on the green, that is in back of them. "Bumper Golf" anyone? In "Tin Cup" the guy bounced the ball off the out house, to possibly save a stroke. 

One's imagination on (weird) shot selections, can save strokes. 

[Ty_Webb]

Interesting point. I was chatting to a friend of mine who has played (and won) on the European Tour. He's had some injury issues and is currently bouncing between the European Tour and the Challenge Tour. I said that GIR was pretty close to the best indicator of who the best player is (this was before strokes gained really became a thing). He said (and I think he was being somewhat ornery about it) that it is, but it misses the fact that you're not always trying to hit the green. From his point of view there were times when he would rather be chipping from 15 feet away in a good spot than putting from a bad spot. His short game is of a level where a 15 foot chip he's expecting to make probably as often as he holes putts from that range, so that may have something of an impact on it. Mine is not. I thought it was an interesting way of looking at it. Thinking outside the box indeed.

[colin007]

Only putt I can remember falling into this category of "unfair" was a few years ago, I had a 12 footer pretty straight uphill. Ball stopped 2 inches short of the hole then rolled all the way back down past my feet. SMDH.

[dennyjones]

34 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

Interesting point. I was chatting to a friend of mine who has played (and won) on the European Tour. He's had some injury issues and is currently bouncing between the European Tour and the Challenge Tour. I said that GIR was pretty close to the best indicator of who the best player is (this was before strokes gained really became a thing). He said (and I think he was being somewhat ornery about it) that it is, but it misses the fact that you're not always trying to hit the green. From his point of view there were times when he would rather be chipping from 15 feet away in a good spot than putting from a bad spot. His short game is of a level where a 15 foot chip he's expecting to make probably as often as he holes putts from that range, so that may have something of an impact on it. Mine is not. I thought it was an interesting way of looking at it. Thinking outside the box indeed.

I never really gave this a thought but I've seen the pros aim for the sand trap next to a green as opposed to a more difficult putt.  At least that was the announcer's take on the shot.  

1 minute ago, colin007 said:

Only putt I can remember falling into this category of "unfair" was a few years ago, I had a 12 footer pretty straight uphill. Ball stopped 2 inches short of the hole then rolled all the way back down past my feet. SMDH.

I'm playing in a big hole scramble in a few weeks.   Last year my eyes were opened to the difficulty of putting to an "unfair" location.   My partner and I three putted to an 8" hole because the ball return past the initial starting location. 

[Buckeyebowman]

9 minutes ago, colin007 said:

Only putt I can remember falling into this category of "unfair" was a few years ago, I had a 12 footer pretty straight uphill. Ball stopped 2 inches short of the hole then rolled all the way back down past my feet. SMDH.

 

8 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

I never really gave this a thought but I've seen the pros aim for the sand trap next to a green as opposed to a more difficult putt.  At least that was the announcer's take on the shot.  

I'm playing in a big hole scramble in a few weeks.   Last year my eyes were opened to the difficulty of putting to an "unfair" location.   My partner and I three putted to an 8" hole because the ball return past the initial starting location. 

This is what's called a "tricked up" green! This happened to me quite a few years ago. We were playing a local course, and #10 was a 180 yard par 3. I was in the fringe about 17' below the hole putting up a steep slope. I putted the ball up there and it rolled back to my feet! I did it again with the same result!

Next thing I know, here comes the owner of the course on his cart accusing me of slow play, which pissed me off to no end! I told him to sit right where he was and watch. I putted the ball up to the hole and, again, it rolled back to my feet! So I yelled at him that I wasn't causing slow play, it was him and his tricked up greens! He didn't say a word, just roared away on his cart!

 

[Ty_Webb]

On 4/30/2018 at 9:05 PM, dennyjones said:

I'm playing in a big hole scramble in a few weeks.   Last year my eyes were opened to the difficulty of putting to an "unfair" location.   My partner and I three putted to an 8" hole because the ball return past the initial starting location. 

My club back in the UK used to have a "Crazy Pins" competition once a year. They would put the holes on the middle of steep slopes and right on the edges of the greens and all sorts of shenanigans. Scoring was interesting to say the least. There's a good reason that there are guidelines for pin placements.

There was one time I was playing at a course called Hunstanton in the UK. Greens were blindingly fast (putting green was stimping at 15, not sure about the course itself). It was kind of laughable. And windy. The 6th hole, the green is basically a shaved off hump about 10 feet or so higher than the surrounding ground and it was sloping downhill in the same direction as the wind was blowing. We and our opponents were both just on the front fringe and we were away, with about a 40 foot putt. We rolled it up about 6 feet short and the ball fell into a little indentation and stopped. Our opponents hit their putt 6 times and watched it come back to their feet every time. Then they conceded. Had it played out, they'd have had to hole a 40 footer and we'd have then had to hole from 6 feet to win. I think if we missed we'd have been declaring it unplayable and replaying the previous shot, so we'd have been trying to hole a 6 foot putt in half the number of goes that they took. Ridiculous.