Short Game

Pocket-To-Pocket Pitch Shots

Are you struggling with those pitch shots around the green, whether to hit it high or low, make it stop quickly or skid and roll? Here’s my prescription for making the shot selection and execution process as simple as possible.

In fact, what I love about this shot is that you can basically use the same technique, then just change ball position and clubs to create all the shots you need from 30 yards and in. No more confusion on set-up or execution.

Here we go. Set up…keep it clean!

FOR THE STANDARD SHOT

Stance narrow, just inside hip width (Photo 1)
Front foot dropped back and flared slightly, this will help your body rotate through the shot
Ball position for standard shot, just slightly back of center
Center of sternum over ball
Place more pressure onto your lead foot
Handle of club pointing just slightly forward of belly button.

The Motion

From a nice, compact but balanced set up position, swing your arms back and allow your trail arm to fold until your hands are just off your rear pocket, as I’m doing in Photo 2.

Better Chips Through Quiet Hands

Occasionally, newer and seasoned golfers alike get nervous over the ball when faced with a tough lie, forced carry or tight pin. But if your knees are knocking over every short shot, this tip is for you and better chips are on the way.

Next time you miss a green, let the thumb and index finger of your trail hand go along for the ride.

We’ve all heard “quiet hands” when it comes to chipping. What that really means is the muscles in your arms should be more active than the muscles in your hands. The easiest way to feel this separation is to take the thumb and index finger of your trail hand off the club when practicing chips. Using the muscles in those fingers are great for writing or throwing, but are very often the culprits to miserable chip shots. By removing these fingers from the grip you’ll take the flip move out of your swing, create a wider – more forgiving – impact area, and get up and down more often.

Mike Metz is Director of Instruction at Simi Hills Golf Club, Simi Hills, California

Beat The Buried Lie In The Rough

Have you ever walked up to your ball and found it laying like it is in Photo 1? The dreaded buried lie.

UGH! If you happen to be in Florida or Hawaii and this ball is sitting in Bermuda rough, your level of difficulty just got raised up a notch higher.

What do you do when this happens to you and how can you get out of it?

It isn’t as hard you might think. Always use your sand wedge. NEVER use a lob wedge. If you don’t own a sand wedge, a gap wedge will work. Play the golf ball WAY back on your back foot (for right handed players), as I’m doing in Photo 2. You will have a bit of an open stance (front foot pulled back). Your weight should lead forward. This makes the shaft of the club point in front of the ball, which takes loft off the club.

I like to grip down on the shaft a little (Photo 3). It helps me feel like I have more control. Doing it is up to you. Keeping all your weight on your front foot, use 99 percent wrists and pick the club head up and out immediately, as I’m doing in Photo 4. You will feel like you are about to hammer a nail. Hinge up and chop down. You want the club head to come down as close to the ball as possible. DO NOT try to hit the grass behind the ball. If you do, you will hit it really fat.

Again, you are trying to get the club head to hit as close to the ball as possible. When you do this, the ball will pop out of the rough immediately (Photo 5). When it hits the green, it will take one hop, and almost skid. It comes out very soft and will not roll over the green.

Trust me, this might be the coolest shot you ever learn to hit. It really works.

Cindy Miller teaches at several top golf facilities in Western New York. Reach her at www.cindymillergolf.com

Remember These Chipping Fundamentals

Having good fundamentals in chipping is so beneficial to creating solid contact.

The two tendencies I see a lot of amateurs’ struggle with when chipping is using their hands to much and feeling like they need to lift the ball in the air. By creating some awareness in your chipping set up and motion, your chipping can drastically improve, thus lowering your scores.

At Address

Stance should be square to slightly open to target
Weight should be 70% on your front leg
Hands should be slightly in front of the ball……arms and club form a lower case “y”

The Takeaway

Rotation of swing on front leg axis……no weight shift in backswing
Swing low to the ground in pendulum like motion

Impact

Strive for same positions as at address
Maintain wrist angle through shot
Remember the loft of the golf club is what lifts the ball

Finish

Hips and chest turn through the shot
Hands finish higher than club head
Club finishes at target

Vicki Goetze-Ackerman is Director of Instruction at Buckhorn Springs Golf & Country Club in Valrico Springs, Florida. Reach her at getzack2@gmail.com

How To Pull Off Uphill And Downhill Pitches

Playing mountain golf, a lot of times you can find yourself in tricky situations, with uphill or downhill lies. A lot of players tend to set up a little bit “off.” Let the golf course tell you how and where to stand for uphill and downhill pitches.

UPHILL

Here I have an uphill lie so I’ll set the ball back in my stance a bit. The key is, I will get my shoulder plane going the same direction of the hill I’m standing on. Being a lefty, I want my right shoulder higher than my left; for a righty you want your left shoulder higher than your right. Make a nice shoulder turn toward your target without manipulating the club, and don’t sway off of the ball — let your club do the work and the results will be quite a bit better.

DOWNHILL

Here we have a severe downhill slope. Again, set up according to what the course tells you. My left shoulder will be higher than my right here, and I use a bit wider stance on these shots, and keep the ball in the center, or just back of center. Again, make that good shoulder turn with soft hands, and the club will do the work to get you on the green, with a great chance to save par.

Caleb Olsen is Head Golf Professional at Grizzly Ranch Golf Club in Portola, California

See Caleb’s tip on playing tricky par 5s

For A Great Short Game, Pick Your Landing Spot

I love short game situations. There are so many choices and not a lot of “rights versus wrongs” — it can be the best display of creativity.

But sometimes we all “mix the fundamentals” of one shot with another, and the short game shot we were hoping to gracefully see head toward the cup ends up either zinging across the green or landing well short because we “chunked” it.

Here’s some help.

Let’s chat about three common shots: The Pitch/Lob, the Pitch and Run, and the Chip.

To help separate how you might set up for each shot, we’ll start with your likely intention.

Once you know what you want to do to approach the cup from around the green, depending on where you are and what you might have to go up, over, or through, we’ll make sure you have a checklist of sorts to help you create the shot. Half the battle is committing to the type of shot (how much height/how much run out).

This alone leads to a higher chance of success when your goal is to get up and down from off or near the green.

I like to envision aircraft approaching the green.

If you can imagine a helicopter landing on a helipad, on a crowded city building rooftop, you will think of this coming in from high and settling calmly on top of the building. This is a great “picture” for a pitch/lob shot, as in Photo 1…it is like an underhand pitch in softball, too. Think maximum time in the air, minimum time on the ground.

Next, almost the polar opposite of the pitch/lob shot is the chip shot. For this shot, see if you can imagine (from the fringe around the green) a large 747 airplane touching down on the runway and taxiing out after landing, to eventually slow at the end of the runway before turning around to park at the terminal gate. This large plane comes in low and still has speed upon touchdown before slowing (Photo 2) … the end of the runway is the cup! Think minimum time in the air, maximum time on the ground.

In essence, you can also see it as two targets of sorts: the touchdown point and the eventual stopping point, which is the cup.

Depending how much green you have to work with, you can potentially use the same simple stroke and just change the golf club based on some carry and roll info. Every club has a carry and roll ratio in a chipping situation; knowing in general what these are can help you commit to the club you believe in before you create the shot. Again, half the battle.

Finally, if you are off the green with more than wide fringe in front of you, you might imagine a corporate plane coming into a private airport (Photo 3). That plane won’t need as much runway upon landing…it can touch down and taxi to slow, then to stop, in a shorter distance. The touchdown point of this plane is the pitch (kind of a medium height shot) and the smooth-to-slowing taxi part is the run for the pitch and run shot.

Lob, sand, pitch, and gap wedges are generally good club selections for this shot. The pitch and run can be an excellent percentage shot (versus the high pitch) because you can take less swing and less can happen that might be unfavorable. I like to refer to this as the “in-betweener” shot: not quite as high as a pitch/lob and not quite as low as a chip shot.

Here are some considerations for these three short game situations:

Pitch/Lob

Ball in middle or forward of center, depending on height and distance desired
Hinge elbow and wrist to form a letter “L” on both sides of the body. The shape of the swing may appear to be a steeper vertical “V”
Shift and turn to finish facing left the target
Smooth rhythm/timing/tempo/balance for finesse using a gravity drop feeling

Pitch and Run

Ball in middle or back of center, depend-ing on touchdown point on green and amount of green you have to work with
Move your hands down the grip end of the club halfway to shorten the club for control
Slight hinge of elbow and wrist to have the shape of the letter “U.” Waist-high to waist-high matching swing sides.
Quieter shift and turn to finish with body facing slightly left of target and club at target
Smooth rhythm/timing/tempo/balance for tension free touch and small swing-ing motion

Chip

This is a putt with a flying start…kids love to call this a “PuttChip.”
Steady body with a confident arms/hands swing with minimal wrist hinge to prevent too much backspin
Ball slightly right of center/handle end of the club has slight lean forward to help keep trajectory low
Move your hands down the grip end of the club to shorten the club like a putter
Clubhead does not get higher than your knees on both sides of the swing/stroke.
Don’t be afraid of a small assertive
“Pop” at the ball/bottom of swing to help the ball touch down before it starts to taxi to the hole

Some ratios to consider for chipping in a carry-to-roll picture: 9 iron is 1:3 (ball touches down at your carry of “1” and rolls out 3 more), 8 iron is 1:4, 7 iron is 1:5, and so forth. If a pitching wedge were still numbered in the set, it would be marked as a 10 iron and the sand wedge would be an 11 iron: 1:2 and 1:1 carry and roll ratios, respectively. The ratios can give you a good starting point before looking at other things (slope, the wind, green speed, etc.).

I hope these images help you create these three shots with ease. Your score will be significantly improved if you can pull these shots off with grace and touch. Think of each of these shots as your first putt — if you get good with these, you will two-putt more often.

LPGA Master Professional Deb Vangellow teaches at Riverbend Country Club in Houston, Texas. She is the 2012 LPGA National Teacher Of The Year, an LPGA and Golf Digest Woman “Top 50” Teacher, a Golf Digest and GOLF Magazine “Top Regional Teacher,” a US KIDS GOLF “Top 50 Master Kids Teacher” and a GRAA “Top 50 Growth Of The Game Professional.”

Photo 1: HeliHead/Shutterstock. Photo 2: Rebius/Shutterstock. Photo 3: Alexey Repka/Shutterstock

Make Your Greenside Bunker Play Better With Umbrella Drill

A green-side bunker shot is supposed to be one of the easiest shots in the game. After all, it’s the only shot in golf where we can hit up to three or four inches behind the ball and still get an acceptable result.

Most golfers struggle with a green-side bunker because they have a difficult time controlling exactly where the club hits the ground. If you hit the sand too far behind the ball it stays in the bunker…hit too close to the ball and it goes sailing over the green. Learning how to control where the club strikes the ground is paramount to getting out of the bunker on the first try.

That’s where the “Umbrella Drill” comes in.

In Photo 1 you can see I’ve drawn several lines in the sand that look like the ribs of an upside down umbrella, beginning in the middle of my stance and progressively angling out toward the toe of my front foot. The idea is to keep your feet in the same place and make practice swings progressively erasing each “rib.” It teaches you how to move the bottom of the swing arc forward or backward in stance as needed.

Finally, place a ball on the rib opposite the inside heel of your front foot (Photo 2) and practice trying to make the club hit the sand between the two ribs on the umbrella (Photo 3) … allowing you to take just the right amount of sand.

Brandon Stooksbury, PGA, is Director of Instruction at Idle Hour Country Club in Macon, Georgia. Visit him at www.stooksburygolf.com

Three Keys To Better Greenside Bunker Play

The greenside bunker shot doesn’t have to be scary. In fact, it should be one of the easiest shots in golf, because you don’t have to strike the ball at all, just the sand underneath it. Here’s my three-step method for becoming a great bunker player: FACE, BASE AND PACE.

So just what is a bunker?

Rules: USGA Rule #12

The definition of the Bunker: A specially prepared area of sand which is often hollow from which turf or soil has been removed. Bunkers are one of the five defined areas of the course. There are a few things you are not permitted to do when your ball is in a bunker. These include testing the condition of the sand, touching the sand right around you ball and making a practice swing that touches the sand.

In other words:

You can remove loose impediments (natural and artificial objects) from the bunker.
You can set your clubs down in the bunker and rake the bunker
You cannot test the sand around your golf ball.
You can’t ground your club or touch the sand (except to remove loose impediments) around the ball.

Here’s how to get out of the sand every time — and stay within the rules.

Three Keys To A Sharp Short Game

Most of us are guilty of moving elements of our full swing into the short game. Quite frankly because that information has been handed down for what is now generations: “the small swing is the same as the full swing.”

Always, as in life, it is not quite that straightforward. The goals of full swing are much different from those of the short game.

In the full swing, maximum speed is important, while the bounce of club and added effective loft are often harmful.

In the short game, speed must be well managed, softness has a value and so does controlling the ground interaction of the club’s bounce.

Standing up and hitting a driver as far down the fairway as we can is a different skill from being able to hit the ball 15 feet with a controlled spin rate. The caveat is that in playing the game of golf we would like to be relatively skilled at both.

Here’s how to make that happen.

Get Your Golf Short Game On Plane

Most of you struggle with your golf short game because you swing the club too far inside on your takeaway. When we videotaped the best short game players we found when the club reaches parallel to the ground on the takeaway the club was parallel to the target line.

So how do we learn the “On Plane” takeaway? Put an alignment rod on your toe line parallel to your target (Photo 1). Then dress-rehearse the takeaway several times, where you stop when the club is parallel to the target line and above the alignment rod (Photo 2). This takeaway blends the right amount of inside takeaway with the proper attack angle coming back into contact.

Many of you hit behind the ball because the club is coming in too shallow from your inside takeaway (Photo 3). That causes the chunks you leave short and skulled balls across the green. Some of you might be swinging the club outside the plane (Photo 4), but usually this doesn’t happen because the deeper divots you make don’t lead to many good shots.

Once you have mastered this takeaway, try to hit the ball with that specific length swing, as I’m doing in Photos 5-7. We call that “Blocked” practice. You really shouldn’t hit to a target when you are working on your technique, but just work on proper contact and hitting the ball on the intended target line.

Now that you are comfortable with this technique, you can start using other clubs and other swing lengths to hit to various targets. But what you have done in ingraining the proper takeaway that will lead to better contact.

Shawn Cox is Director of Golf at the Grand Golf Club in San Diego, California