Terrain and other variables in golf

Outside of putting, where the surface of the green is typically uniform and the terrain subtle, your short-game shots become more complicated due to varying terrain and other variables, including:

• The immediate lie: What’s the length of the grass? Is your ball lying flat on the ground? Or is it in a divot or a depression? Is the ball lying on an uphill, downhill, or sidehill lie?
• Obstacles: Do you have to maneuver around trees and bushes? Do you have to hit the ball over water or a bunker?

Sure, sometimes you can chip a ball from short grass off a flat lie to an unguarded green. But sometimes you have to pitch a ball off the side of a hill from deep rough and fly it over a bunker. Much of the time, the mere fact that you need to play a short-game shot (chipping, pitching, or a bunker shot in this case) means that you missed the green with your approach shot, and missing the green almost always brings challenges — uphill, downhill, and sidehill slopes, bunkers, longer grass, bushes, and trees — into play. Shot variables demand your attention. Always take them into account when you analyze your situation, plan your strategy, and visualize the shot you’re about to hit.