I swapped around the “it” and “is”, turning your post into a question in my melon. My bad.
My understanding is that you are not required to use a putter on the green. For example, if you are on the green in a location where you cannot putt directly at the hole, you may elect to pitch. For example, the 6th at Riviera has a bunker in the middle of the green.
So, I’m assuming the pros count it as a putt even if they use a wedge?
IMO everyone is certainly free to define these terms however they wish. But I wanted to point out that even this definition is problemmatic, as it allows for individual interpretation. I do not see why there would be “no obvious alternative” to using a putter from the fringe. There are any number of instances in which I might prefer to use a wedge - or other iron - from the fringe.
True - but these are my stats and so I use the criterion "obvious to me’. I am not trying to persuade anyone to follow my system - just describing one possible treatment.
Calcavecchia chipped on the green at St. Andrews (heathen). Hence for him a putt was not obvious, but it would be for me.
there for a while it was all the rage to use a 3/4 wood (or whatever the durn thing is called in this metallic age) to “putt” when the ball was nestled up against the frog hair (fringe for the new generation) but on the green.
also, anecdotally i was playing with these ol’ boys in west texas one day and this feller hits it up about 5 foot from the green. being nice i said well “that’s handy”
he turns at me with a growl and says “yaknow what handy means dontcha? not on the fucking green”.
I used to play every week with a guy who used a “putting wedge”. It had a head like a putter with an angled face and a heavy bottom like a sand iron. He was deadly with it from close to the cut surface. He is a proper player too. When I was playing with him he was off about 10 but when he played regularly he was off 2. I was thinking of getting one myself but he showed me how to use a 3 iron to achieve the same thing.
I remember watching a PGA tournament on TV where a pro had to use a wedge to pitch his ball across a green. It was one of those “L”-shaped greens, and his ball was in the wrong corner.
I remember one of the announcers saying “the head greenskeeper is going to hate this” (presumably because of the potential damage to the green) and the other announcer commenting that when you shape greens like that you have to expect this to happen once in awhile.
I just realised that, for other golfers, the polite thing to do is explain my previous post.
You shift your grip down and hold the 3 iron as though it were a putter. You address the ball just as you would to putt it. And you swing as though you are making a putt, making sure that the club doesn’t start to come up until it is through the ball.
It is really easy to learn how to fly it over a few yards of fringe. The trick is working out where to land it and how fast to have it traveling.
Many years ago someone, I think Tom Watson (but I wouldn’t bet my life on it), threatened to do that at the British Open at (I think) St Andrews because you risked putting off the green if you were on the wrong level on some greens.
I recall a TV special called The One Club Challenge that had a group of professionals including Lee Trevino and Seve Ballesteros playing a Scottish links course with nothing but a 7 iron. They had to use it to putt. The tee shots were amazing - massive hooks to get distance.
Yeah - sounds like the “chippers” a lot of guys carry .
Against the fringe they often talk of the pros opening a sandwedge and hitting the ball righ at the equator - to avoid a putter getting hung up in the fringe. But I never felt like the benefit was enough to spend the time and effort to get dependable on that.
One fun one I like is if you short-side yourself such that you have a short bit of fringe to cover before a steep downhill green. Lots of uys talk about putting off the toe. But you can stand a wedge way up on its toe, and play it just like a putter. The ball comes off incredibly softly, pops over the fringe, and stops quite nicely.
ok since we are talking about hitting it.
one day this cute young thing is our hitting balls on the range.
top, shank, fat, hook, slice - you name it.
finally the head pro can’t take it anymore and goes down to her and explains it is all about the grip.
“you’ve got to hold it just like you hold your husband’s penis”, he explains.
voila. 250 straight as an arrow. 275 straight as an arrow. more follow.
he looks at her and says:
“now we’ve just got to get the club out of your mouth”.