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Playing from Fringe!

• nilitara1 1 Posts

  Fri, Mar 10 2023 5:25 AM

  Hi all

   

  A relative novice here, hoping for a little guidance. I’ve been playing for a few months now, and I’m averaging just over 75 on level 64. I’m pretty happy how I’m going along, but the most definite weakness is playing from the fringe either playing a pitch or chip shot, I just can’t seem to judge distances to the pin.

   

  Any tips would be greatly appreciated, tried looking for tips on YouTube, but have got lost when spreadsheets and the like are brought up! I just need a roughy guide, and in time the shots should come as natural. It’s the gauging of how to judge the distance in the air, and roll of the ball that’s been a pain

   

  Thanks in advance 

   

  Nige

   

   

   

   

   

   

• SamSpayed 4,895 Posts

  Fri, Mar 10 2023 10:39 AM

  nilitara1:

  A relative novice here, hoping for a little guidance. I’ve been playing for a few months now, and I’m averaging just over 75 on level 64. I’m pretty happy how I’m going along, but the most definite weakness is playing from the fringe either playing a pitch or chip shot, I just can’t seem to judge distances to the pin.

  Any tips would be greatly appreciated, tried looking for tips on YouTube, but have got lost when spreadsheets and the like are brought up! I just need a rough guide, and in time the shots should come as natural. It’s the gauging of how to judge the distance in the air, and roll of the ball that’s been a pain

  Thanks in advance 

  Hi Nige,

  For right now, I'd suggest you forget about chips and just focus on pitches.  For now, always hit them with full backspin.  I'd also suggest going to a flat green in Practice mode (Kiawah #1 works well for this) and map your pitches with your 64° wedge at 40% power, 50%, 60%, and so on all the way up to 100%, with the ball you use.  That will give you a rough idea of how far your ball will go using each of those power increments.  You can then adjust your power according to your distance to the pin when you're playing a ranked round or coin game.

  Bear in mind that the amount of roll you get will vary based on (a) the green speed, and (b) the slope of the green along your shot path.

  A full-backspin pitch will generally go about 80% of the distance in the air and about 20% of the distance rollout from there.

  Hope this helps.  

• CSM111 119 Posts

  Fri, Mar 10 2023 12:08 PM

  Good advice, I have a question on mapping, I mapped all my wedges as you stated  . And worked great on practice green. But it seems that when I am playing the courses for real the ball goes a lot father then what was mapped. Question is when playing I am wearing all the bonus clothing items. Is this the reason? When you map practice on courses is it WITH or WITHOUT the extra appearal

• alosso 21,032 Posts

  Fri, Mar 10 2023 3:50 PM

  nilitara1:

  the most definite weakness is playing from the fringe either playing a pitch or chip shot, I just can’t seem to judge distances to the pin.

  Try a flop shot instead - it works well unless you are too close for a close to 100% shot.

  Put full backspin on the ball, aim a good way to the left and off you go!

• Dex000 109 Posts

  Thu, Apr 6 2023 10:40 AM

  You should putt from the fringe. Depending on how far back you are, add a little extra power, 5% average, and you'll be good. There's more forgiveness when putting from the fringe, so you'll make more putts than you think once you have the power figured out. 

• callaghan159 6,220 Posts

  Fri, Apr 7 2023 2:51 AM

  Personally I dont putt putt from the fringe...never had much luck with it no matter what I tried. I always pitch from the fringe with full BS. Not sure what others do but when pitching from the fringe I always take 1 yard off because I found I was always 1 yard longer than I wanted to be and also with higher elevations, like 6 feet or more your ball will roll some but it depends on what the spin rating is on your ball. My 2 cents. Cheers.

• SamSpayed 4,895 Posts

  Fri, Apr 7 2023 12:34 PM

  Dex000:

  You should putt from the fringe. Depending on how far back you are, add a little extra power, 5% average, and you'll be good. There's more forgiveness when putting from the fringe, so you'll make more putts than you think once you have the power figured out. 

  I think the putt vs. pitch decision hinges on what the breaks are along the path to the hole.  When there's not much break, I tend to putt it.  But if there's a significant break along the path, especially right at the beginning, I'll pitch it, so as to take that break out of play.

• ct690911 7,194 Posts

  Fri, Apr 7 2023 12:39 PM

  I dunno about all the advice you're getting...putts, pitches, flops...very confusing. Personally, I used a driver from the fringe. It would usually leave me a few hundred yards from the hole, but at least I got it out.

  just sayin'

• HamdenPro 2,409 Posts

  Fri, Apr 7 2023 1:14 PM

  nilitara1:

  Any tips would be greatly appreciated

  As you can see, some say chip or pitch, some say putt or flop (totally ignoring Colin's driver, but-alas, it can be done)...

  All different opinions from very good players. What to make of all of that?

  The fact is, IMHO, you have to learn what works best for you. Personally, I always mess up trying to putt from the fringe and learned you definitely have to hit it harder than usual. My pitches are often short and chips, on tournament and champion greens, tend to run to far past hole for me. In any event, you have to find what works for you and your game.

  For me, with my wedges and balls spin, I prefer flops from the fringe. If it is a relatively short shot, 12 yds or less, and if uphill, I may go with the chip. I have holed out many more flops than anything else, but that is the shot that works for me.

  My suggestion (although I hate, and seldom play, practice rounds) is to go to a practice round, hit the ball to the fringe and using mulligans, find out what works for you, find your "go to" comfort shot.

  Well, just my two cents..