A Tough Decision Made Easier
The short game befuddles many golfers, in large part because it offers so many choices. While there are occasions where there’s only one option – in a bunker, for example – you typically have at least two options to pick from. In this lesson, I’m going to discuss one of the most common short game conundrums: should you putt or chip when the ball is on tightly mown grass around the green?
This Lesson Is For You If:
You’re not sure what approach to take around the green
You haphazardly choose between putting and chipping
You want to get up and down more often
Expectation Management
This wouldn’t be Plugged In Golf if I didn’t include some stats to get your expectations in line with reality. Let’s start with the Tour. For the 2025 season, Scottie Scheffler was the leader in scrambling, saving par after missing the green in regulation almost 69% of the time. That means the best player on the planet is making bogey over 30% of the time when he misses the green.
Let’s dive a little deeper and look at the Tour averages by distance to the hole. When players are less than 10 yards from the hole (not the green), they get that shot within 3’6″ and save par 86% of the time. Those are very impressive numbers, but they also show that even at the Tour level being near the cup is no guarantee of par. When we back out to 10-20 yards from the hole, the average leave is 6’11” and par save percentage dives to 65%. Finally, from 20-30 yards from the hole, those numbers are 9’3″ and 54%. From 60-90 feet from the cup, Tour pros are at nearly a coin flip to save par!
Now, let’s take a look at some stats for recreational players, courtesy of Shot Scope. From inside of 25 yards, scratch players get up and down 63% of the time. For 10 handicaps, that drops to 47%, and it’s just 35% for 25 handicaps.
The takeaway: when you miss the green, it’s hard to make par. Stop expecting to get every chip or pitch inside the leather. Making bogey after a missed green is totally normal.
The Case for Putting
Using the “Texas Wedge” is an example of what game theorists call Minimax – minimizing the maximum loss or worst case scenario. Said more plainly, your worst putt is going to be better than your worst chip. It’s lower risk; it’s more predictable.
If you dramatically misjudge the putt, you might leave it on the edge of the green or hit it several feet past the cup. When you chip, you open up the possibility of chunking the shot and leaving the ball at your feet or blading it across the green.
Another argument for putting is that it offers more control. Most players have better speed and line control with a putter versus a wedge. With this superior control, you might open up the possibility of holing more shots.
The Case for Chipping
A quick definition to start: a chip shot is one that flies a short distance and rolls out to the hole. The ratio of flight to roll will vary based on the club used, less loft creating more roll for a given carry distance.
The argument for chipping boils down to having more control over certain variables. While putting largely removes any concerns about contact or technique, chipping takes out the variable that is the fringe. Even if the grass around the green is cut very short, it’s not quite the same as the green. When you putt, you’re being forced to judge how the ball will roll on two different surfaces. Additionally, there are more likely to be large imperfections off the green – clumps of grass, bare patches, etc – that can dramatically alter the roll of the ball.
Expanding on that idea of removing the fringe, chipping allows you to control your landing point (if you’re skilled enough). This opens up interesting possibilities such as landing the ball a few inches short of the green to reduce its speed when you’re short sided. You might also look for a landing point further onto the green to remove large slopes or breaks.
Finally, if your chipping is well-calibrated, it can require less touch than putting. Imagine that your ball is two yards off the green, ten yards from the cup. To putt this, you need to accurately judge a thirty foot putt that covers two different surfaces. To chip this, however, you just need to hit a six foot chip with a club that rolls out four times as far as it carries.
What Should You Do – Putt or Chip?
The first factor you need to consider when deciding whether to putt or chip is your chipping ability. If chunking or blading the shot is a significant risk, you should probably putt. This will vary over the years and even within a season. As I discussed in “Confessions of a Recovering Lob Wedge Addict” [read HERE], when I’m practicing a lot, I rarely putt from off the green. However, when my game is rusty I putt almost everything.
Factor two is the ground between you and the hole. How thick is the grass? How much undulation is there before you reach the green? Is there anything between you and the hole that would interrupt your roll – sprinkler heads, bare spots, etc?
The final factor – and the one that might override the rest – is your personal situation for that hole or round. If your number one goal is to shoot the best score you can today, you should be guided purely by the first two factors. On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re playing to hit shots or to work on your game, throw out everything else and play the shot you want. Somewhere in the middle might be match play. If your opponent has par locked up, and you don’t feel like you can get up and down by putting, you need to chip. On the other hand, if you just need a bogey to win the hole, use your putter to eliminate the risk of a big number.
He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
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10 Comments
Matt, don’t for forget the hybrid “chip”, especially on tight lies.
A very fine option!
-Matt
I agree 100% here but I myself will chip whenever possible. The main reason (as you eluded to) is that while my putting is plenty solid, I don’t practice off the fringe much at all and I absolutely overthink it and tend to make dumb errors compensating for those guesses of how much more speed I need for the lie change. Conversely, I do a TON of chipping practice around the yard multiple times every week and have a really good feel for placing the first landing zone with a wedge in hand – i feel like that along with a decent green read to pick my spot has put me in many more good spots for a up/down than putting. I know this is uncommon – most people don’t practice nearly as much as I might – but once it’s longer than 20 feet i’d much rather chip it than putt.
Needed Article — We have more options than a putter or a wedge. You have a hybrid and a fairway would beside the usual suspects, especially if a slope is involved, or mud/muck in the winter/spring (wet). When I am off the green by 10 or more yards and it’s relatively flat and wet and the hole is 30 feet into the green, I will take my 4H. On an uphill slope, where you tend to dig, try your hybrid or putter. Think about your weakness – wet uphill slope for me – and avoid it. But it does not need to be wet – slopes that dig – hybrid or putter. Use your wedge in dry condition but flip it so it does not dig – lots of options are available/
It’s also true that after debating and inevitably screwing up their first choice, all golfers have a 100% success rate of getting the other option inside one foot when quickly dropping a second ball and hitting it without aiming.
Toe-down chipping with an iron lofted in the mid-30s has worked very well for me from the fringe. Choke way down, stand closer to get the heel up, and basically a putting motion with enough forward lean to ensure slightly descending ball first contact. Hybrids and fairways, as others noted above, can work great too, I just haven’t practiced those enough (or at all really) to have any feel for them.
I’m in a similar camp – my chipping is usually rusty from lack of practice – so if conditions allow, I’m using my flatstick to minimize risk, as the first option. I’ve tried the hybrid option but struggle, again lack of practice, with distance control as it seems to come off hotter that my putter or a wedge. Maybe one day, when my ego is finally defeated, I’ll concede my ability and just carry a chipper.
My first instructor (I was in the 4th or 5th grade) told me that I wouldn’t be big enough or strong enough to beat the big boys in Evansville, IN. But, he gave me the short game I have today so I could play even with them and, on a good day, beat a few of them. I practiced chip shots so much that I truly expected to make every one of them, and usually did. The old saying that a bad putt is better than a good chip shot didn’t hold true for me. But, you have to practice them to get to that level.
It is not mentioned but you can chip (or chip and run) with most clubs. While my old 50° PW (1980 Wilson 1200LT) was given the nickname the “magic wedge” by teammates back in HS (for so often chipping in) on hard small very fast greens. I also use everything from 6i to (newer) LW – depending on the situation, distances, slopes. I am “re-learning” the magic with my newer to me set of I-25’s, especially the 50° U-wedge; but spending time learning the roll out on everything for ‘certain’ swings so I can be repeatable with distances and results. Because I know my ball rolls, I will often land a hop or 2 short of the green and let it roll roll roll.
But I’ve also last year switched from my 90’s Ping Anser (original) to a 2010ish Craz-E mallet and found that now I can actually putt well off of the fringe (or edge of fairway just beyond sometimes); So I am also putting those shots far more than I ever did; with better success. Not sure why that change boosted my confidence or skill with these shots (perhaps the weight of the putter).
Practice is the big thing. In HS, I played 3 rounds 5 days a week during the summer with that “magic wedge” … (it is 40 yrs old, with over 1,100 rounds, still reacts the same) … Also, practice helps with knowing how your ball works, realistically. We all love the high soft flop or chip that stops on a dime. But 99% of us, the ball isn’t doing that on a chip, even with an 60° LW; So we need to know distances for a given club and swing – carry and roll.
Anyway – that’s my nickel’s worth of thoughts.
This is a constant in the discussions of the group I play most with, the majority being 20yds and in “always putt” – most with pretty decent accuracy from playing only one course. Also most of these are 70+ and several 80+ age wise. Some of us are chippers with everything from 3w to chipper clubs. Me, I’m in the mix it up camp relying heavily on my 50° from tight lies to short rough. One key I’ve found is this – nothing beats solid short game practice which I do a lot of in my backyard – distances up 30yds are part of the routine.