The Hardest Shots in Golf, According to Morning Read Readers
We asked you to tell us the most difficult shot in the game and we heard from a whole lot of readers with great answers.
Based on your responses, these are generally the hardest shots in golf:
- Shots from uneven lies
- Forced carries
- Approaches with a fairway wood
- Shots around the green that require a lot of touch with trouble lurking
- "The next shot"
- Mid-range bunker shots
We'd love to hear more. Let us know what you think is the hardest shot or about anything else in golf at inbox@morningread.com.
Here are some of the best responses we got:
It’s not the 40-yard bunker shot. Just use an 8-iron and nip the ball off the surface of the sand.
If you channel your inner show-off, the first-tee drive with everybody watching is an easy shot.
Really, through, every shot is challenging and if you miss it no one says anything because they know they might have missed it, too … except for the very short putts.
Stand over one of those and you think, “I don’t want to two-putt from 18 inches,” and then guess what happens? I hate those putts.
Thank you very much.
Bob J.
Salem, Oregon
My Top Five
1. 10-foot breaking left to right putt to win club championship
2. 50-yard pitch over bunker to a close-cut pin
3. Fried egg in greenside bunker
4. Hitting over marsh or anything on any shot
5. Hazard on the left side of the fairway when your natural ball flight is a draw and sometimes it's more of a hook.
Maria M.
Atlantic Beach, Florida
I think it is the pitch shot off a downhill lie over a bunker with water on the other side of the green. The bunker leads to a blasted lob wedge into the water, the water leads to a chunked shot into the bunker, one or the other.
Mike M.
El Paso, Texas
Downhill chip over sand onto a green sloping away from you.
Gary N.
Olympia, Washington
Hey, that is an easy one. The HARDEST shot in golf is also the MOST IMPORTANT shot in golf and that is the NEXT ONE!
Not the drive, not the putt, not the last one or the last nine… the NEXT ONE!
Thanks,
Steve B.
Carson City, NV
THE NEXT ONE!!!!!
Duane R.
Chicago, Illinois
I’m 70 years old. My index is 14.9. Without question, the most difficult shot for me is a 190+ yard carry with a 3-wood, from a good, flat fairway lie.
Thanks,
David V.
Hmmm....
A gnarly, second-cut on a short sided green?
A 70’ uphill putt?
A water-fronted green with a stiff wind in your face?
A 140 yd bunker with a high lip?
Hitting a cutter off the mulch when you miss the fairway?
Shooting the ball through the hole in the branches (high or low)?
Naw, it’s being 150+ yards on a steep incline with the ball above your feet. It’s hard to get my hips to lead (as a 62 year-old), make clean contact and judge the correct line and distance. I never think to practice these at the range....hmmm.
Steve C.
St. Louis, Missouri
A 3-foot putt on the 18th hole to tie or win the match, especially to tie and not lose it.
Jim P.
Cary, North Carolina
A downhill lie in a bunker, on a long bunker shot, to an elevated green with a short-sided pin.
Dang! Automatically a bogie or worse
Chuck P.
Auburn, California
A downhill chip shot over a greenside bunker
Gary G.
Boston, Massachusetts
A par-3 over 200 yards with a water hazard in front of the green and wind in my face.
Mark M.
Hamburg, Michigan
For me it's pitching over a bunker to a shallow green.
John D.
Portland, Oregon
Greenside, with the ball along side the rough.
Rick B.
Shoreview, Minnesota
I believe the hardest shot in golf is the 40-50 yard bunker shot. Not only Is it difficult but there seems to be a flurry of tips as to how it should be played
Gary K.
Kiawah Island, South Carolina
All of them!
John S.
The Villages, Florida
A four-foot putt for the win!
Darrell S.
Van Buren, Arkansas
The hardest shot is, the next one. You can have a great drive 250 yards down the middle or a poor attempt out of a bunker. No matter what happened before, it’s this shot that matters now.
David F.
Ontario, Canada
One of my hardest shots is a 15-yard pitch over trouble to get up and down.
Dudley L.
Lincoln, California
The most challenging shot in golf is the downhill lie in a green-side bunker with a high lip between the ball and a tight flag location 9-feet from the fringe with the green slope tilted (running away) from the golfer. Good luck with this one.
Claude Brousseau (PGA Master Professional)
Wailea, Hawaii
Twenty yards to the green. Flag close. Bunker in front of me. Ball on hard pan. Got to use a 60-degree lob wedge for a flop shot. Formula for skull-the-ball disaster that flies 80 yards.
Tom S.
Santa Rosa, California
A short, downhill-lie chip shot, just off the green.
George A.
Burr Ridge, Illinois
Is getting a letter published in what used to be the best daily golf newsletter.
Dave C.
Las Vegas, Nevada
Hitting a low cut from deep rough is the toughest shot in golf.
Jim N.
San Marcos, California
Fried-egg lie, under lip, in the front of a steep greenside bunker so you have to stand above the ball, with a tight pin, in the pouring rain and the temp in low 50s with gusts to 25 miles per house. I live in Florida so to me that's really cold.
You're welcome.
Jay P.
Indialantic, Florida
A downslope sand shot in a green-side bunker with a lip about six inches in your back swing, needing about a 10-yard carry over at least a 10-inch lip to a pin 10 to 20 yards away. From firm sand :)
Rene L.
Boca, Raton
The hardest shot in golf is being a foot or two off the green in rough with the pin 15 feet or less away on the green.
Brian S.
Monroeville, Pennsylvania
A greenside shot with the ball sitting down in deep rough or a fried egg in a trap to a tight pin with the green running down to a water hazard.
Ron E.
Myrtle Beach SC
The first time I played The Old Course, St Andrews, just before my tee time two coaches of tourists pulled up and proceeded to line up behind the first tee.
There must have been 80 people watching, I’m a 12 handicapper, faced with the widest fairway in the world yet all I could think was “hit the ball, don’t miss the ball." I was so relieved to look up and see it sailing down the middle. Ended up with a par too.
Best regards,
Jason E.
Blackpool, England
For me the most difficult shot to hit is a fairway metal, either off a tee or in the fairway.
Sometime in the last year my ability to hit that club has completely vanished. I can hit every other club in the bag, even long irons, with confidence. My other clubs feel like fine instruments or precision tools if you will, but when I pick up my 5-metal it feels like a stick with a big lump on the end. What happened?
Bob A.
Ottawa, Canada
I can only hit my 7+ Big Bertha metal wood about 140 yards (125 yards in the air), hence my toughest shot is over a water hazard that is 125 yards across to the landing spot!
Ray M.
Lewes, Delaware