Favorite shots to hit involving a specific architectural feature.

[RJ_Daley]

I just realized I haven't started a thread for ages...

A couple of my favorite shots to hit are:  about a 4 iron draw of about 175-80 yards to a redan oriented green.

And,  from any cut of FW or intermediate rough turf - opening a wedge or sand wedge (I don't carry a lob wedge 58 or 60*) and taking a full swing to pop one up and over a high bunker and/or mound or hazard to a blind higher situated green surface that needs to hold without running away.  Whether from 20-40 yards near the green or 90-100 out from fairway.  I love that shot at Wild Horse #5 second shot coming from the middle right of FW about 100-110 out...

[cary lichtenstein]

Being under a tree close to a water hazard and having to skip it over the water

[RJ_Daley]

Cary, don't they have a contest for that one at the Masters every year?

[Pat Howard]

I like to play a bump-and-run with a 5 iron to pins that are toward the back of the green, just behind a ridge or tier. Most people I play with try to flop the ball all the way to the hole, but there is a large chance for error this way. It's becoming a lost art, but it's one of my favs!

[Adam_F_Collins]

Here's one:

Steep greenside embankment and you're at the bottom of it in the rough. The hole is in the middle of the green but the whole green is blind from where you are and you can just see the top of the flag. There are trees behind you and the long, overhanging branches prevent the lob.

So you take out your 8 iron and hammer down on the ball for about at 25 yard chip -

The ball flies out, low and hot, thumps into the embankment and pops straight up in the air - landing softly on the green and trickling down to the hole.

Used it many times to the right of the third green at Brightwood.

[Paul Payne]

I always enjoy a par three from an elevated tee to a small  VERY protected green at about 150 yards. It is a straightforward shot with lots of room for error. Plus I love the high shot/soft landing. It is just a beautiful thing when it ends up tight to the pin.

I also like an approach from the fairway of about 180 or so where you must use the countour of the ground to get close to the pin. From that distance, picking a target, say a rise off the left side of the green and landing maybe 15 to 20 yards shor of the pin, then watching the ball bounce and roll perfectly towards the cup, priceless.

In fact that carom shot may be my favorite.

[Wayne Freeman]

Any shot from elevation where the ball soars into the incredible blue sky of Hawaii does it for me every time.

[Matthew Mollica]

Great thread RJ.

I love hitting a very short club (nine iron down) on a par three to a small green, preferably with cross winds in play.

Placing a small green at an exposed site is such a neat thing, that too few archies do today. A very short one shotter, where sheer aaccuracy is key is an ingredient sadly lacking from many of today's layouts.

Having to take a lofted club and therefore negotiate the wind is fun. And demands skill.

MM

[John Foley]

Dick,

Again great topic. Here's a few

-Uphill shot choked down on the grip take about three extra clubs and try and keep the ball as low as possible. Very few courses let you play that one.

-Dogleg right tee shot (for someone who plays a draw) and trying to play as big a slice as possible to chase the ball down the fairway.

-Blind shot where you need to move the ball left or right. Pciking out an area of the sky and ball shaoe and firing and then just stolling (never running) to see where you ended up.

-Trying to find the kick points on par three greens away from the flag to get the ball close. Good example is #14 @ Balloyowen trying to get the ball to a fron pin.

[Garland Bayley]

The 18th at my home course is a short par 5 with a "tree gate" at about 150 to 170 from the center of the green. The fairway slopes down from the left to right near the gate. The ideal tee shot is in the right center or right edge of the fairway. As a lefty, I often fade or slice to the left side. I am not a great golfer and have difficulty working the ball, so when I pull off a fade from the left side with the ball above my feet through the gate and reach the green in two, I feel like I am walking on water all the way to the green.

[Lloyd_Cole]

Here's one:

Steep greenside embankment and you're at the bottom of it in the rough. The hole is in the middle of the green but the whole green is blind from where you are and you can just see the top of the flag. There are trees behind you and the long, overhanging branches prevent the lob.

So you take out your 8 iron and hammer down on the ball for about at 25 yard chip -

The ball flies out, low and hot, thumps into the embankment and pops straight up in the air - landing softly on the green and trickling down to the hole.

Used it many times to the right of the third green at Brightwood.

Adam

I love that shot too, and all variations thereof. My old pro Leo Feeney taught it to me. It got me through a sudden death playoff this past year, through qualifying into a tournament for which I was completely out of my depth..

My 2005 favourite shot was one I worked on after I started to carry the pencil bag with a 3/4 set. We have a short downhill par 3 with a 2 tier green that it is easy to suck back down from top to bottom (Greg Norman at Augusta style) if you catch a 9 or PW too sweetly. I like to choke down a 7 and hold it off, cut it slightly. Prevailing wind is usually a hook wind, so this makes the shot even more fun. The ball will stop, but not spin back.

[Doug Siebert]

Last season I was just loving hitting short to mid irons out of rough with the ball WAY above my feet.  Somehow it just clicked with me how to handle that shot, and it has been so satisfying to approach it with confidence.  Its funny when you get good at something like that which is really not an easy shot, so it makes you really think about what you are doing, you end up producing better results than from a level lie in the fairway where it is too easy to become careless!

Another longtime favorite of mine has been short chips and pitches around the green where there's a depression between my ball and the hole.  If it at all possible, I'll select my club and shot with the goal of landing it exactly at the bottom of that depression, knowing that if I'm short I'll hit the downslope and it'll get some extra speed to make up for it, if I go long it'll hit the upslope and lose speed.  Its amazing how few golfers will notice stuff like that.  I've always noticed that one, but reading GCA and thinking more about green contours has had me looking for other opportunities to take advantage of oddities in a green's design.  Its probably a detriment ot my score overall because sometimes I'm making things more difficult by doing so, but if I'm having more fun who cares if my score suffers a bit?

[rjsimper]

Any long sliding fairway wood to a reverse redan oriented green with a back right pin...either a long par 3 or going for a par 5 in two.

[Mike McGuire]

Facing two different architectural features......120 Yard shot to green:

#1) Ball close behind (soon to be removed)  spruce tree with 12" of clearance  between branches and ground.

#2) In woods with opening and swing but going to SUPER elevated green , big bank but  no sand in front.

Solution = Driver !

Obviously the lie has to allow it but this is a low risk  shot that I rarely see attempted.

This thread gives me a reason to use my new Christmas snowshoes to get example pictures of the two scenarios above.

Never mind ......Its RAINING in Wisconsin Jan1 ?

Happy New Year to all !!!

[John Kirk]

Any long sliding fairway wood to a reverse redan oriented green with a back right pin...either a long par 3 or going for a par 5 in two.

Similarly, the big fairway wood fade can be an extra beautiful trip.

On Pacific Dunes #17, a 210 yard regular redan hole, I usually chase a hooking 3 or 4 iron up there, resulting in a par or bogey.  The last time I played there (last May), I faded a 7 wood to a back pin and made birdie.  Really sweet.

[texsport]

A hard draw with the driver on a right to left Cape hole.

A punched, uphill, iron shot to a back pin position, or to a reverse slope green.

A hard, high, iron shot to a front pin tucked behind a bunker.

A high, spinning sand shot to a close pin.

A high, cut, hybrid or 3 iron to a right pin position with water  or sand to the right.

The second shot on #8 at Pebble Beach.

Any uphill, 1 foot, eagle putt.


 

[RJ_Daley]

Of these favorite shots of yours, what % of the time do you think you can pull it off as planned/conceived? For me, I'd say about 20% of the time.

Another fav of mine is to take a 4-5I from tree trouble up right side, and hit an exagerated low cutter shot of about 150-60, really making that ball turn big time left to right onto a reverse redanish oriented green.  

Did anyone see the contest Lehman and Woods and a few others had at Torrey Pines on year where they had a barrel of water about 10 out and were hitting various choked down long irons, stinger fashion about 2-3feet off the ground, trying to hit the water barrel.  Lehman hit it multiple times and really seems to have that shot down.  

I guess I have to make these trick shots my favs because I get into so darn much trouble...

[Bruce Katona]

#18 onthe Plantation course at Kapalua; hitting a hard running 2 iron draw way right of the green and watching the ball tumble down toward and on to the green in 2, by using the ground contours.

[Tyler Kearns]

I enjoy playing shots to specific portions of the green that funnel the ball to a tucked pin.

TK

[George Pazin]

I like cutting corners on blind doglegs. Something about swinging away and not knowing where it's going to end up, I guess. Same thing goes for uphill approaches to skyline greens.

Putts with huge breaks, 10+ feet. Something vaguely masochistic about setting up for a putt with your back to the hole.

 

[A_Clay_Man]

Dick,
This is a bit OT, but one of the ideas I recently had while playing winter golf was how beneficial it is to understand important playabilities of features, and how that relates to the conditions.

 While not all supers are everything, (trying not offend anyone) and most are probably extremely technically sound, I suspect many could benefit from going around thier venues, when things are rock hard, to see where maybe some minor tweaking can be best implemented, for summer.  
The hard winter ground causes many more features to become playable, or "come alive". Opposed to summertime with lush grass and a soft turf, makes them disappear or are virtually non-existent. I think there might even be more benefit than just shaving a mound or a green side, there could even be areas that require the longer grass or the softer turf. Anyway, the point being I suspect they do not teach playability at super school, and since each site is specific, having standard practices in this competitive enviornment seems intellectually lazy and fiduciarily irresponsible.

Sorry for the hijack, but one of my favorite shots is to bank balls out of greenside grass swales and that can only be accomplished in the winter.

[George Pazin]

While not all supers are everything, (trying not offend anyone) and most are probably extremely technically sound, I suspect many could benefit from going around thier venues, when things are rock hard, to see where maybe some minor tweaking can be best implemented, for summer.  
The hard winter ground causes many more features to become playable, or "come alive". Opposed to summertime with lush grass and a soft turf, makes them disappear or are virtually non-existent. I think there might even be more benefit than just shaving a mound or a green side, there could even be areas that require the longer grass or the softer turf. Anyway, the point being I suspect they do not teach playability at super school, and since each site is specific, having standard practices in this competitive enviornment seems intellectually lazy and fiduciarily irresponsible.

I agree with the premise that softer conditions are causing the loss of features, but I'd guess it's more the players and management's complaints that supers are responding to, not any lack of awareness re: features. Most golfers, though probably not most on this site, wouldn't even understand why you'd want to play rock hard winter golf.

 

[A_Clay_Man]

. Most golfers, though probably not most on this site, wouldn't even understand why you'd want to play rock hard winter golf.

 

Why to simulate the conditions at the best u.s. open ever. The Michaud Open of ought four.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Approaches to skyline greens ..... of any distance.

[Doug Wright]

Punch shots under trees, any distance/any club (I get a lot of practice at these so I've gotten better at them...   )

I've also grown fond of the fairway wood runup from off the green, even from greenside rough and from bunkers when there's no lip or a negligible one.

As a corollary to Tyler Kearns' comment above about playing shots that funnel to tucked pins, my favourite example of this is a shot to #8 at Pacific Dunes that intentionally misses the green to the right and funnels down the hill to a tucked pin behind the right greenside bunker.