Most golf courses that I have played have had little rough around the greens. Many courses use the same machines for cutting areas around the greens as they do the fairway.
The reason is obvious. Could you imagine playing behind a foursome of hackers on a PGA Tour course? It would take 8 hours to play! No thank you.
The lack of rough around most greens on most golf courses leaves a lot of opportunity to putt from off the green. It is almost like putting over a few feet of fairway.
The problem that most people have with this shot is that the ball invariably jumps when you hit it. The grass may be fairly low, but it ain't no green.
Too many times I have watched as my fellow golfers have left simple putts, over just a few feet of fairway height grass, way short or way long. They always say "the ball jumped on me".
Well, of course it did. And it will next time too. And the time after that. That makes one thing obvious:
On putts from fairway high grass, the most important consideration is planning and predicting how the ball will jump of the lie.
Practice it a little bit. Work on controlling how the ball takes off of the putter face. Try different angles of approach. Steeper or more shallow.
Try to find a particular stroke that gets the ball jumping the same way every time.
A putt from off the green is not just a rolling venture. If you don't learn to control the jump of your ball, the jump will control the ball for you however it sees fit.
