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Do you leave the pin in, or take it out?

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You have the option to leave the pin in if you are not actually on the green. Do you? When don't you? Do you leave it in if you are chipping from off the green but pull it if you are putting from the fringe? Uphill or downhill? What influences your decision to leave the pin in the cup or pull it out?

I'm not making a poll on this because there's too many options and you always miss an important choice when you make a poll.

I prefer to leave the pin in when I am allowed to. I figure it's going to help me more than hurt me most of the time. The only time I would consider taking it out is if it is leaning towards me (and it's not possible for it to sit inside the cup centered). If it's downhill I'll keep the pin in in almost every instance, especially if it's fast downhill.
 
Usually I take it out if I am chipping or putting from off the green(a few feet off that is), but I'll leave it in if I am playing a pitch type of shot. I feel I can control the chips and putts enough that I can take the flag out. But the pitches may need a backboard at times.
 
I can't remember which pro I heard say this, but it's always stuck with me [paraphrased to the best of my recollection]:

"I figure there is a reason the rules don't let you leave the pin in when you are on the green. It must provide some advantage. So I always leave the pin in whenever I can."
 
Even when close to the hole, and especially if I'm chipping it (or putting from off the green - and even putting from the fairway) if I mis-hit it in such a way it takes off, I figure the pin would be a good "get in the way" object, a la Craig Mac.
 
This would be a good question for BlingoQueen or TheAshleys.
 
Harry Longshanks said:
This would be a good question for BlingoQueen or TheAshleys.
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The pro rule is as follows: If you are trying to make the shot, take the pin out, If you are trying to lag it up or just get it close, leave it in! I prefer leaving it in but obviously if you know you'll have decent speed, take it out!
 
David Feherty has said numerous times leave it in if you can.
 
BlingoQueen said:
The pro rule is as follows: If you are trying to make the shot, take the pin out, If you are trying to lag it up or just get it close, leave it in! I prefer leaving it in but obviously if you know you'll have decent speed, take it out!
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I'm with her. If I'm trying to make the shot I will generally take it out. Because when I'm trying to make it, I hit a little chip or bump and run so it rolls like a putt and I want it out. But if I have to hit a pitch or flop shot then I leave it in incase I need that back stop.
 
BlingoQueen said:
The pro rule is as follows: If you are trying to make the shot, take the pin out, If you are trying to lag it up or just get it close, leave it in! I prefer leaving it in but obviously if you know you'll have decent speed, take it out!
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+1

if you think it's going in, pull that flag
 
i leave it in unless i putting cuz chances are better that it will drop if the pin is there in my opinion.
 
Take it out for chips and putts. Hard to imagine pitching from close enough that I have the option, unless there's some really funky terrain between me and the green.
 
Am I the only one who counts on my partner to take it out? I do the same for him.
 
I always leave it in until I'm on the green, as others have said, I figure it will help more than harm if it gets in the way of the ball.

Am I the only one who counts on my partner to take it out? I do the same for him.
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If I have a playing partner, yes, but I often play alone.
 
I leave it in til I have to take it out.
 
Many of the putt-putt courses I tend to play don't even have flags, just holes:rotfl:
 
This is part of why I leave it in:

'I told my caddie (Bruce Edwards) that the shot was makable and I meant to hole it,' Tom Watson said of his famous chip at Pebble Beach.

1982USOWatsonA35T01.jpg
 
I really haven't worked this one out yet for off the green shots. I sometimes leave it in to give me a point of reference but I don't have a lot of faith in pins "stopping & dropping" the ball. I've seen enough shots deflected off pins.
 
It's not so much for stopping and dropping the ball that I leave it in. I've hit enough that went over the hole and kept going. I figure if it hit the pin, it would absorb some of the energy and not go as far. And MAYBE drop in. Maybe.

But also for the times I am chipping and I mis-hit it and send it screaming toward the hole; if the pin is in I MIGHT end up hitting it and again, the pin would absorb some of the energy and possibly keep me on the green instead of over the green and into the sand trap! When you've messed up as many chips as I have, you tend to think about things that might help the bad shots more than the good shots!
 
Depends on my lie when I am chipping. Always out when putting, unless I am lag putting and then it is tended.
 
If it's a tough chip or the green is sloping away from me towards the pin, I'll leave it in, because most likely I'll hit it too fast, maybe get lucky and it will go in. If it's a simple chip that I know I can drain, I don't want the pin ruining my chances of it hitting and bouncing out. So i'll take it out.
 
It all depends on distance for me. The closer I am to the hole, the more likely I am to remove the pin. More often than not, I leave it in just in case it might absorb some energy if I hit the ball to hard and it happens to catch the pin.
 
If I'm on the green, the pin comes out. When I'm chipping, like others here, it depends on the distance. I would hate for a nice chip shot to deflect off the pin :bad:
 
If the putt is longer than 30' or if Im chipping; I leave the flagstick in. From that distance, its sometimes a little hard to see exactly where the hole is.
 
I believe Dave Pelz said leave it in. The pin in a backstop.

If the ball is moving only fast enough to reach the rim, the pin will not prevent it from falling in unless the pin is mis-seated or broken. If the ball is moving too fast to drop in, the pin may stop it. Of course, if it is moving so fast that the collision with the pin causes the ball to leave the hole area -- it is moving too fast to drop in.

I have had several chips go in due to the pin. If the pin was not there, the ball would have gone past the hole. In one case, the rolling ball hit the pin so hard, the ball jumped at least a foot high -- and then fortunately into the hole.

Mike K.
 
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