toffeelover wrote:
el_pappje wrote:
I Had some funny chipping episodes though, where I can only advance it 1 yd at a time from greenside rough
I avoid chipping like the plague, I change them to flop shots to avoid duffs (seems to work, though I've only played 3 rounds).
Any of the better players (MU Fan, Mr Green....) found fail-safe ways of avoiding these duffs?
Thanks for regarding me as a "better player". To be honest, I'm not that great at the game itself (i.e. the skill of clicking the mouse on the line), but try to plot my way around as best I can...
Firstly, try and avoid situations that you have to pitch/chip. In other words, if you've got 250 yards to go to the green and there's rough before the green, then LAY UP - "stiffing it" for par is much more likely from the middle of the fairway (from 90 yards) than from the rough (from 40).
Also, there's certain pins that it's pointless going straight at - you won't stop the ball on the green...and I try to put as much backspin as I can for every approach shot. Once you've got the pace of the greens sorted out, a 40-foot putt is much easier than a pitch/chip.
Only chip the ball when you're only just off the green and have very little/no rough to play over. Chipping is the most likely way to hole it from off the green, so is probably the best choice in such circumstances.
Otherwise, use the lob or pitch function. I tend to put enough power to go two or three yards past the flag, so that if I do click the mouse some distance away from the line, at least it gets somewhere near (obviously if you do hit it perfect, it'll go the two or three yards past - but that doesn't happen all that often and I'm still confident of holing the putt back.)
This is where many club golfers go wrong in real-life - they choose the right club for a "perfect shot", but the reality is that they rarely hit it perfectly!
Finally, look at the slope of the green. This will ultimately have more effect on your ball than the wind for such short shots.
I've now given up on Bethpage, with 76 being my best.
On my first and only excursion away from there so far, I played the front nine tournament on Kiawah Island (Pro) and went round in level-par (one birdie, one bogey - and didn't hole anything of note). The best recorded (Pro) score for this nine is 32 (four-under), which certainly isn't out of the question (unlike the 62 at Bethpage!)
Being a "single play" event, I really should have practiced the course several times first - the wind isn't a problem, but was certainly fooled by the "slow" greens, which didn't seem any slower than Bethpage!
The ball seems to travel a bit further at Kiawah (hard bounces on the fairway), and chipping is much easier as there isn't as much heavy rough.
I'll play a couple more times before I embark on the back-nine tournament, I think...
92 round Bethpage my best so far, interspersed with a couple >100. Had some funny chipping episodes though, where I can only advance it 1 yd at a time from greenside rough 
I have tried to play this game all morning, yes it loads but from then on it's a nightmare for me. I played a few closest the holes and then tried a virtual round. I experienced complete freezes and repeated annoying slow motion play. Giving up, I don't think my lap-top can handle it 
(apologies to Colin, only spotted your message after I'd logged off for the evening)
