Every round of golf presents the opportunity to play easy and difficult golf shots. Obviously, the easy shots pose the least stress during the entire shot process. Difficult shots have the opposite affect. At Mattawa Golf and Ski Resort there is one shot that still poses a quandary for my game. It is a known challenge and I have not really develop a shot to crack this nut. It is a fun hole and one that needs to be shared.
The hole I am talking about is the third hole, 331 yards, which on the surface seems easy. Well, the tee shot is semi-challenging, however the approach shot is a bear. The green is elevated eight feet from the base of the green and the fairway slopes uphill (slightly) from 100 yards. The green is small and slants back and to the left as we look at the green. Overall, this shot is one of the more difficult I have faced in golf. If you are wondering:
Normally, I am hitting my approach shot from 90 to 100 yards. This would normally be a gap wedge, however, a pitching wedge seems to be club to use because I am usually short with my gap wedge. Having said this, it seems like an easy decision right. Well, not really. Most of the time, this club flies or rolls off the back if I hit to the middle of the green. I have tried many different approaches to this green from flying in hit, bouncing up the hill, hitting into the hill and playing a low stinger from 100 yards. None, to date, have produced the consistent results I am looking for – to shoot under par.
As best I can figure out, when hitting a gap or pitching wedge, the best shot for my game is to land the ball just on the fringe of the green and let it roll to the middle. This landing area is about 4 yards at best (just over the lip of the green in the picture above). If I hit short, the ball does not roll to the green. If I am long it rolls to the back and usually off the green. It is such a delicate shot, that I am challenged every time I am making this approach shot.
How do you think you would play this shot? What would be your most likely shot for success?
Golf offers a plethora of shots. At the Mattawa Golf and Ski Resort, the approach shot at the par 3 is my nemesis.
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
My local course has several of these 100yd approach shots to elevated greens. A front pin is usually the kiss of death. I’ve begun to be happy with a 30′ putt rather than an attack of “yellow flag-itis”
BMc
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BMc,
That is great strategy. I have played the same course the same way.
Cheers Jim
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Jim with such a precise landing area, I’ play for the next shot, i.e. best place to miss it. Sounds like long is better because it leaves your next uphill?
Brian
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Brian, I often do play for the next shot. I make par more often than not only because of my up and down game. Birdie is rare and a boon.
Cheers Jim
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To me that seems like target practice time with my sand wedge. A nice tall flighted spinner with a soft landing that goes nowhere. Just like a thousand other’s I’ve hit on the range out back at that distance. I’d choose gap wedge maybe if it looked like the slope of the green got higher front to back but it looks more inverted bowl shaped and I’m going to err long with the gap wedge leading to the same issue you mentioned I suspect. So sand wedge seems the right choice.
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Kevin,
It usually is the right choice, but my sand wedge does not go that far. Club selection is key, however knowing exactly what you want to hit is important as well. It is a fun hole, but very challenging.
Cheers Jim
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