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

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!

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.

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

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.

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?

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 !!!

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.


 

#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.

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.

 

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.

 

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