In one of my very first posts about the GC, I discussed how to use a putter to chip from off the green. In this post, I’m going to show you how to chip when you are on the green.
This situation doesn’t come up often–unless you are playing hole #6 at APBA’s Los Angeles Golf Club or ASG’s Riviera course. Here’s a screenshot of that hole for APBA:
In our example, the ball is at 180 R5 and the pin (#5) is located opposite the middle-of-the-green bunker at 170 L10. The course note for this hole states, “A golfer who is on the green without a straight path to the pin location must chip.”
In this situation, you need to use the Update Arrow to record the shot that got you here–not the Ball on Green tool. When prompted for a lie, select Fairway (not Green). If you forget and select Green, you will need to manually edit the lie in the Notes on the Caddie tab. The Notes should now look like this:
With the lie as FW, you can now take an Approach shot in the usual way. In our example, the Approach Caddie looks like this:
Continuing with our example . . . the To Pin distance is 15, so you would use the 15 – 20 Yard Approach Board on the Clubs tab or via the All in One Menu. (Remember, the To Pin distance takes precedence over the Called distance when the To Pin distance is less than or equal to 20; otherwise, you use the Called distance.)
If you are manually scoring and tracking Greens-in-Regulation on the Scorecard, you may want to write “Green” in the comments box as a reminder (assuming it was your tee shot that landed you on the green). If you are using automated scoring (GC 4.2 and later), you will need to edit the GIR box on the Scorecard by putting a “1” in it.
Ed. Note: GC 4.2 is not yet released at the time of this post.
If you are tracking putt stats, you will also need to enter the initial putt distance and count the chip as a putt. Let’s say the tee shot putts the ball 1 straight line and 1 diagonal away but without a straight line to the pin. Enter the two one’s into the Putting Caddie and click Calc. That will automatically put the distance into the shaded Putt Dist box in the Caddie Notes. Even though you must chip the ball, the shot counts as a putt. After you putt or hole-out, manually edit the number of putts as necessary on the Scorecard. Make sure the last putt distance is the number shown just above “IN” on the Scorecard Notes. That way, the Total Distance of Putts Made will be correct.