Missing too many greens what’s the answer

[turkish]

If you miss too many greens is it better to get better at approach play or pitching and chipping?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Both without sounding too glib but it depends what level you play at. If you are a mid-high handicapper I wouldn't expect to be hitting too many greens from 170 yards and out but I would be expecting to hit 7/10 from around 130 yards and in. If you have a solid short game to fall back on, it can make a big difference. That can be as simple as getting out of sand first time and ensuring you hit greens with chips and pitches rather than hitting fats and thins but as you get lower it becomes more important to start making up and downs as you have less shots to play with

 

[bobmac]

If you have a good short game it can take the pressure off the approach shot, which means you'll probably hit more greens.

 

[Imurg]

How far away are these greens and by how much are you missing them..?

 

[GolfingPastor]

Take an extra club and take a smoother 3/4 swing gripping down the shaft a bit.

 

[turkish]

Really was a general query as I was terrible at both today.

I use arccos so anyone familiar will know about the handicap stats it gives-
For me: driving 15.2, approach 15.6, chipping 5.0, sand 10.4 and putting 1.0 vs my actual handicap which is 14.6! I actually don’t feel my driving is that bad I just don’t hit very long.

So that’s my comparative handicap for each section so although it says my approach is worst part about my game I’m not sure how that equates into shots as for amateurs we all miss greens. I only hit 27.8% greens in reg.

I had a yippy chipping day today, thins, duffs etc so probably playing more on my mind right now.

 

[patricks148]

maybe your expectations are too high?? even the top pro's are missing greens quite often, not sure what the stats were from memory, but was not esp high.

improving your putting helps, not just chipping as there is nothing worse than chipping close then missing the putt anyway.

limiting mistakes makes a real difference, before i came to Nairn i was a very competent chipper, but the percentage shot here is putting it, TBH i rarely chip unless there is no other option.

i would image i missed half the greens in regulation yesterday, but still got up and down on most of those.

i think you are just to hard on yourself

 

[jim8flog]

Too me short game has always been king. Just as much chance to birdie from off the green compared with the chance with a long range putt.

I used to be a stats man but stopped doing so years ago. Probably reckon that at best I was around 70% GIR around 70% up and down those figures are probably around 50%, 60% these days

On the European tour the best player on the stats only hits 80% of greens in reg
and it very quickly falls to less than 70%

However less than 30%, as in your case is pretty poor, and the fact that you say you cannot chip either to me means working on both but with slightly more emphasis on the short game as you will always miss greens no matter how good you get.

 

[turkish]

See that’s the thing Jim I didn’t say I was a bad chipper- arccos has me equivalent to a 5 handicap (I’m off 15) and I get up and down 23% of the time- they consider chipping anything inside 50 yards. But one star I think skews this is putting from fringe is classed as a chip.

I really don’t feel I’m a great chipper to be honest so I think i need to work on this area but know I need to hit more greens.

I’m not a big hitter I’m down to about 220 yards but hit the fairway and keep it in decent spots a lot of the time. With that distance and the conditions we have there’s probably 4 or 5 holes it makes it hard to get GIR on too. But I probably have 10-12 holes I have a really good look at making the green- within 160 yards and on a good day probably only make half them, on a bad day like yesterday I only make 3!

Think I just need to work on both to be fair

 

[Imurg]

maybe your expectations are too high?? even the top pro's are missing greens quite often, not sure what the stats were from memory, but was not esp high.

improving your putting helps, not just chipping as there is nothing worse than chipping close then missing the putt anyway.

limiting mistakes makes a real difference, before i came to Nairn i was a very competent chipper, but the percentage shot here is putting it, TBH i rarely chip unless there is no other option.

i would image i missed half the greens in regulation yesterday, but still got up and down on most of those.

i think you are just to hard on yourself

This is where I was going with my post above...
I think somewhere in the region of 25-30% GiR for a 15/16 handicapper is about par for the course so I don't think there's an issue as such.
Yeah, everyone wants to hit more greens and that's going to come down to practice and more practice.
To delve deeper still, why are you missing greens?
Is it your iron play or is it your driving that puts in a tough position to make the green..?
People often think the former but often it's the latter.
Also, it's incredibly easy to miss a green from 160 yards out......

 

[jim8flog]

I’m not a big hitter I’m down to about 220 yards but hit the fairway and keep it in decent spots a lot of the time. With that distance and the conditions we have there’s probably 4 or 5 holes it makes it hard to get GIR on too. But I probably have 10-12 holes I have a really good look at making the green- within 160 yards and on a good day probably only make half them, on a bad day like yesterday I only make 3!

So if you ignore the 4-5 holes you cannot reach ( very common for me these days) you are actually hitting 50% GIR which is very good.

It is one of the problems of looking at stats without actually fully analysing them.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

When I collected stats, I was averaging around 20% GIR which Scoresaver had as a 14 handicap standard. I think that would be about right and so for me it has to be about a good short game and about leaving myself in a position to pitch from a favoured distance if I can't hit a green

 

[turkish]

One thing I’ve not mentioned and my mate said to me (who’s a good player off 4) our greens are relatively small. Especially from a width perspective.

Largest is about 25 yards wide but many are about 18-20 and some as low as 13 yards wide so yeah I think it’s a case of work on both.