IF YOU miss the green with your approach shot, the first thing you need to do is to weigh up the lie of the ball and what is between you and the flag.
If you have long grass, a hill or a bunker, your options are limited. You are going to need to loft the ball over the obstruction with either a sand wedge or a lob wedge in a shot that represents a pitch shot, a mini golf swing using your hands and wrist to help elevate the ball.
Depending on the lie it is a relatively high-tariff shot but is worth playing as you have little option over the ball.
If you don’t have any obstacles in the way, the ball is lying on the fairway with the green in front of you and the flag in the middle of the green, then you have many options.
As golf is a game which rewards the fewest shots then we must choose the shot that has least risk and the highest chance of you pulling it off and you hitting it close to the hole.
A lot of people in this situation choose a lofted club that requires a long swing to get the ball up to the hole.
I would try and choose a club that has less loft that requires a smaller swing and has a greater chance of success – either a 7 or 6 iron – and play a chip and run.
May be I could even use a putter and play a long putt.
As the saying goes ‘a good chip is the same as a bad putt’.
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