How often do you hole out? Hole-in-ones excluded

[Obee]

On 4/19/2024 at 6:53 AM, jda said:

Pros get the ball to the hole except for when there is death long.  Besides, who cares about what pros do since we are not them?  Aim small, miss small.  Most amateurs aim dead and are about a club short.  Take that extra club and get the ball to the hole, or just past.  Not only do some of them go in (not why you do it), but your misses are closer and you can read the greens as it goes by.  If anybody gets the ball to the hole on a regular basis, then you are in the small minority.

 

To hole out more, land the ball short and have it run past a bit.  This is the best way.  Drop and stop does not happen as much.  From the fairway, play an extra 10 yards if you are always short.

You missed the winky face, dude.

I was making a semantics joke. You ball can't be in the hole, if it finishes past the hole.

Yes, most people leave too many shots short.

Regarding holing out (what this thread is about): chipping and pitching and fairway wedge shots are not the same. For chipping, sure, go ahead and be aggressive when you're just off the green and bumping one at it with a good chance to make one to a benign pin location.

For pitches (over a bunker to a tough pin, say) you are hitting a shot to get it close/make it -- but with speed being extremely important: Not too much. Not too little. "Past the hole" shouldn't even be in your mind at all. You should be executing a shot to a spot with a certain trajectory and spin. Period. If it goes in, it goes in.

For fairway wedge shots, same: You should be executing a shot to a spot with a trajectory/shape that fits the hole location -- aiming usually somewhere just a bit toward the fat of the green depending on how far away you are and how good you are at the game.