Play the game properly!

Have a question to ask of you all. Please be as honest as you like (for some, that ain't asking much).

Recently during a round, I was about 15 feet from the side of the green. There was as bunker in between but only the second third was in my way. At the right end of the bunker it went up into a slope like mound.

Instead of playing a lob wedge and going over the bunker, I proceeded with my Chipper.

I aimed for the slope of the bunker and let the Chipper hit the mound and then kick left onto the green. I overhit it slightly, but the end result was that the ball was exactly in line with the pin, about 10 feet behind it.

A playing partner scoffed and said "Play the game properly!"

He said I should have used a lob wedge and not been cheeky enough to have used the edge of the bunker.

Surely, that is what made the likes of Seve great! Inventive shots.

Please guys, how many of you agree with my playing partner.

Dave,

Think that you partner was just being bitter! Same sort of thing happened to me a while back when i chipped in with 3 iron from just off the green, i just gripped the iron further down the shaft and palyed a putting stroke, the result was the ball cleared the 2foot of rough and apron and struck the pin and dropped..... my parter claimed that it was "shoddy" and "lucky" play. I have since played the same shot with good results, however i now use my 7 for this as most other people do. 

I just pointed out that i could have used my driver to do the same if i felt like it and to concentrate on his own game (he was having a mare). 

Dont let it get to you, its usually players that are on a tilt that comment on things about parters games. 

Well thats my tupence worth anyway.

The game is 'how many' not 'how'. I like to see imagination and invention.

On the course where I am a member we have a dog leg par 4 the second half of which is steeply downhill and funnelled at the top of the hill.  I was really chuffed when I realised that a 5 iron chip for the second shot results in a green side lie if you get the ball in the funnel.  I am sure I am not the first person to work this out but its great when you visualise a shot and it works out.

On a similar theme the young American who was in contention at Augusta used a lofted club on one of the greens to take out a mound.  If you can be unconventional at the Masters it must be alright.  I wouldn't have wanted to be him though if he had taken a divot.

Keep dreaming up new shots Dave.

Danny, your shot choice was perfect. Not sure about your choice of playing partners though.

Shame on you Dave Doncaster (sounds like a radio dj), not for the shot, no, shame on you for rounding on our great northern leader, the great orange man lead us to a famous victory, if he say's it's not proper then you should have said sorry and asked for forgivness.  

Oh Wayne.  Mr Pot, meet Mr Kettle.  See N v S tournament results.

Can't recall sevy ever using a chipper regardless of his inventivity...

Thought they were for girls anyway.....

 "Chippers" complete with lipstick holders and vanity mirror....

No wonder the Captain of the victorious north was taken aback at such a shot...

Chippers....ROFLMAO....

Sorry but when I hear that term "chipper" it lightens my day.....

I am feeling quite "chipper" at the moment.....

Surely Dave you must have come in for some stick in the past when pulling out your, erm, chipper from friends/playing partners, assembled galleries, fair game to me.

I have never seen a "good" player using one, but not having seen you play I may be wrong    

Dave right behind you on this one, think i remember tiger pulling out a 3 wood and roling around a bunker a few yrs back and he was a leader of change or words to that effect.

As for the comments about your chipper, as far as i was aware your aloud 14 clubs in your bag and its your choice entirely!!  surely the chipper is just another type of wedge but easier to use. 

I just think its a shame that some cant abide by the same etiqutte that os followed on the golf course in forums but maybe thats just me!!!

Wayne id gladly join you for a game when work and kids permit!  where in this beutiful country to you reside!

perhaps we can get something arranged for a little bit later in the summer

Dave

 i never realised you were so close!  i think we will have to get something sorted out in the very near future so you can show case this chipping stroke of yours!

Any recommendations of course out your way? theres a few over near warrington but as i have only lived here a short time i dont know them all!

"Oh what it must be to be a professional golfer and scoff at a club in someones bag."

"oh oops sorry your not, your a 20 handicapper. Maybe if you had a chipper too, you could get a lower score ROFLMAO"

David, your opening line said "be as honest as you like" - so I did.....

Well spotted, I am not a professional golfer and yes a poor "off the whites" 20 handicapper. Maybe your right in that I would lower my scores with a chipper.

But only because I would then be playing off the red tees.

Chippers.........

Stewart,

Having a crack on an open forum can hardly be compared to ettiquette on a golf course otherwise David would not have started this thread..

Yes but only on a good day Dave...

Next time though you will be a different player - thats how it goes..

Happy chipping Dave....

I have not read all the responses in full, but having a playing partner say play the game properly like this is just wrong.

I'm not good enough to play the game "properly" either, and I'll choose my club or shot depending on how I feel at that very moment.

5 years ago at St. Andrews Old Course, I was sitting on the hill south of the 18th green with the valley of sin between me and the pin. The other three people in my group all putted from the fairway as that was the proper way to play the shot. None of them came close.

I took out my 52* wedge and my caddie said no you should putt it. I told her that I was not good enough to judge this type of shot but that my wedge is a better option, IF I don't skull it like I did on the first hole and promplty rolled it into the bern on that earlier shot. Well, I nailed this shot to within 3 feet of the pin, made my par and broke 100 with a legal 99. Caddie kept score.

So next time he says something like that, tell him to coach someone else and learn how to play in a foursome properly!

Sorry, didn't mean to "sound" venomous.  Your original post did not tell of the followup grovelling by this guy.  

I've just played with too many people in my 10 years of golfing who really ruined my round trying to coach another player with unsolicited advice.  Even more annoying is that I usually play as a single joining other groups and to have some of these people tell me I'm using the wrong club or whatever.

Even though I'm a 21 HC, that's only because I have not played but 6 rounds since moving to the UK, otherwise I was down to a 14 HC prior to my arrival.  And a 14 primarily due to those two or three holes where I shoot an 8.