Mike, you can chip from the rough, not just a few inches off the green but many feet off the green. What you can't do is chip gently. Think of it like real golf, thick rough grabs the club, swing to lightly and the club doesn't hvae the oomph to power through the ball, and you flub it. But dont expect a chip from the rough to go the same distance as it would from the fringe. And remember a chip or pitch carries a certain distance in the air, so you need to be able to carry it to the green. Do a practice round, take all 10 strokes they allow, and try a few different things. Its worth the time
Putting, read the tips in the FAQs. Its not so much how to read the green but how to get the most out of the player movements in figuring distance. Like the real game only experience will gain you a feel for how putts will break. We I first started out the putting was brutal and I think it had a lot to do with the 30ft meter on the starter putter. Its hard to dial in the distance on that large of a meter. If the putt is 8ft away and you think you are hitting 8ft on the meter, what if you hit it for 10ft? You could have read the break perfectly for a 8ft speed, but you blew the putt through break by hitting in 10ft. If that at all seems realistic to what you are experiencing, I would recommend completing some of the surveys for credits and getting a better putter with a lesser distance meter. My 15ft meter is much easier to figure where the cursor needs to be to hit say a 9ft, on a 30ft meter I can only guess.