FAST DOWNHILL CHIP

In this common scenario, your ball has hung up on some longer grass to the side of the green, leaving you a downhill chip on to a fast surface that's running away from you.

- ADRIAN FRYER

While it looks like a relatively simple assignment, I would recommend three very different ways to play the shot, with your choice depending on your skill level. Make an honest assessment of your abilities and you can pick your most effective approach.

BREAK 100 Putt it

As long as the grass is not much higher than fairway length, putting the ball makes a lot of sense here. The putter's powerful, delofted face allows for a shorter and more controlled motion, while its shorter shaft promotes accuracy by allowing you get in more over the ball and swing more up and down the target line. But mostly, if your ball is perched on an awkward downslope, the putter represents your most reliable way of generating solid contact. Take these steps:

1. CARDINAL ERROR

The biggest mistake you can make from this lie is to fight the slope by trying to stand upright. Promoting more of a level to-upward sweep, a stance like this puts you in grave danger of catching the grass behind the ball and makes a solid strike almost impossible.

2. FOLLOW THE SLOPE

Instead, lean forwards on to your lead side until you feel your spine is at right angles to the slope. This allows you to find the right attack angle into a ball on a downslope like this. Play the ball just forward of centre in your stance, but visualise a second ball, opposite your lead instep, on your putt's start line.

3. DOUBLE HIT

Obviously strike the ball like normal... but picture the putter staying low through the strike, following through to strike that second, forward ball. This intention will help you swing the putter down the gradient of the slope, essential if you are to find the solid strike you need to send the ball through the grass and rolling down towards the hole.

PERCENTAGE PLAY