Short Game

Old School
The best way to chip the golf ball isn’t the way you might have been taught. In fact, chipping is arguably the most misunderstood aspect of scoring, mainly because there are countless ways to get the job done. Many golfers tend to follow a series of mechanics that have been taught through the years, starting with an extreme forward press of the hands (see photo above). If you do this, not only do you run the risk of stubbing the wedge into the turf, but it also makes solid contact harder to achieve.

Another misconception about proper chipping is laying the wedge flat on the ground with the sole on the ground. This too maximizes friction through the shot, again causing all sorts of possible in-consistencies through the shot.

New School
The right way to chip is, in my opinion, also the easiest. Start by addressing the ball in a more neutral position, with the shaft still leaning toward the target, albeit less than before. A good rule of thumb is to address the hands slightly in front of the ball. As for proper ball position, play the ball in the back center of your stance.

By addressing the ball in a more neutral state, you’re allowing for a more natural, less-forced motion through the shot. To take it even further, consider how the clubhead rests on the ground. The trick is to avoid as much surface-area con-tact through the shot as possible. Lifting the heel slightly off the ground will help the wedge to glide through the shot with less chance of grass or debris getting in the way of the shot.

Distance Check
How far you stand from the golf ball also makes a big difference in your ability to hit good pitch and chip shots. And, like putting, getting the right direction is best attained by situating your eyes just inside the golf ball. This will help you better see the direction in which you want the ball to go, as well as help improve your posture so it becomes easier to rotate the club back and through the shot. Also, if you’re going to err one way or the other, err with the ball too far from rather than too close to you. If you get too close, you can’t swing freely through the ball.

Closed Face
Another misconception about good chipping is the one about keeping the clubface facing the target as much as possible. At impact, yes, you obviously do want the clubface facing the target. But on the backswing, a closed clubface will only lead to awkward positions at impact. From this position, I’ll have to excessively rotate my body to make up for a clubface that’s already too closed at impact, i.e., I’ll pull it.

Another problem with this position is the stress it puts on my hands. Because the clubface is closed, I can’t fully rotate the hands. If I try, I’ll end up hitting down too steeply onto the golf ball. Which as you might guess, makes it impossible to hit consistent chip shots. A fat, stubbed or thinned shot is just a matter of time.

Square Face
A square face and open face are not exactly the same thing. By square, what I’m referring to is keeping the clubface square to the upper body, not the target. So, when you swing the club back, by allowing the clubface to rotate open relative to the target, the clubface is actually staying square in relation to the upper body. As you swing through on the forwardswing, the clubface is in the process of closing relative to the target line, but again, remains square relative to the upper body.

Experiment with a couple waist-high practice swings. As you rotate back and through, keep the clubface angle square to your body. As you do so, you’ll see the clubface open and close relative to the target line.

If you stay square, you’ll not only hit straighter shots, but also find it’s easier to correct bad alignment in a hurry.

Rotate The Body
You can’t hit good pitches and chips by trying to push the ball toward the hole! Let your body rotate, just as it does with any regular swing. The biggest difference isn’t so much that the swing is smaller; rather with delicate pitches and chips, your body weight ought not to shift laterally as much it does with a full swing. Instead, allow your body to rotate; just be sure to keep excess weight shift to a minimum. Stay centered over the ball from start to finish.

More Contact
At the moment of truth when hitting shorter shots, how you come into contact with the ground is more critical than it is with full iron shots. With full iron shots, you take divots on the target side of the ball. With chips, instead of taking divots, you actually glide across the turf. Plus you swing a lot slower, and how you make contact with the green stuff then is even more important. In the case of the photo to the left, it looks as though I’ve hit a decent shot, but notice how low into the grass the leading edge of the wedge is. I actually stubbed this shot, and both the ballflight and spin rate of my ball were lower than I had wanted.

Less Contact
With less friction comes less deceleration through the shot. Not only does this help add a little more backspin, but avoiding too much surface contact also prevents me from opening or closing the clubface at impact, two things that send the ball off the intended line.

If you have a depressed lie, then more surface contact is necessary to hit the ball. With ordinary lies, brush across the top of the grass and let the wedge’s grooves and lofts do the work for you in getting the ball up and airborne.

Release It There really aren’t many shots in golf where you don’t want to release the hands. The same holds true for short shots. By allowing the hands to release through the shot and letting the clubhead turn through, you’re more inclined to make a natural, free-flowing swing in and through the golf ball. Stay relaxed!

Freeze It If you freeze your followthrough, you’re not only more prone to chunking or skulling your chips, you actually increase your chance of shanking the ball off the hosel. It also means you’re keeping your hands too firm, which restricts your swing altogether. The only time you can get away with this type of shot is when the ball is embedded and you have to dig.

If i had selected the right wedge, then maybe I wouldn’t have totally whiffed this shot! Many amateurs think that the closer they get to the hole, the higher-lofted wedge they ought to use. Well, this case proves that theory wrong. I’m actually on a downhill/sidehill just off the green. I played the shot correctly, with my shoulders aligned to the slope and the ball in the right position. Heck, I even made a good swing. The problem? My 60-degree had too much loft, and I slid right underneath the golf ball.

Play The Right One Choose the right club for every shot, and don’t be afraid to mix it up and get comfortable hitting shots around the green with all your wedges. This way, you can make the same swing with each wedge and let the differences in lie, length and loft do the work for you.

Choose Wisely Downhill lies are brutal with higher-lofted wedges. In the case of my whiffed shot above, I should have hit a lowered-lofted wedge to avoid slipping underneath the ball. And by the way, make sure you always assess the lie before you select your club, and not the other way around.

Hold The Face Open To Lob It
A good lob shot means hitting through the golf ball with an open face so the ball flies up and stops in a hurry. To hit this shot, you have to be able to go against conventional wisdom and make a swing while holding the clubface open as long as possible through the shot. To do this, you have to master the art of swinging outside-in–that is, from outside the target line to back inside the target line on the forwardswing. If you can master that, holding the face open will be a lot easier to do.

Activate The Lower Body
Although much has been said about how the upper body should perform, it’s just as important to know how the lower body should work during the swing. My advice? Let the lower body get active in the swing. Don’t restrict your motion. That isn’t the same as adding excessive lower-body motion; rather, as your body rotates, so too does your lower body. With the pitch shot I’m hitting here, notice how my right knee is rotated in through the shot, and my hips are opened as I finish the swing. For chip shots, you’ll rotate less, but the point is to allow your lower body the necessary motion to make sure the clubhead is square to your upper body and you can swing freely without any forced restrictions. Do that and you’ll see how being comfortable over your short shots is key to helping you hit better shots from around the green.

Execute Effectively
You may know how to play a variety of golf shots, but knowing when to play what is just as important. And in case you were wondering, the way Phil Mickelson hits high and short lob shots probably isn’t the way you should do it. In other words, this means playing lower shots whenever possible. Why? Simple–lower shots have forward momentum and are more likely to reach the hole than a high, finesse shot is. With a lower shot, you need to factor distance and direction, whereas, a higher shot requires you to assess trajectory, spin, distance and direction. So when you can, hit the lower shot and use the contours of the course to your advantage. You’ll save par more often.

n Brady Riggs, PGA, is one of the most sought-after instructors in Southern California. To learn more, or to book a golf lesson, visit bradyriggs.com.

Photo location: TPC of Valencia. For information, visit tpcvalencia.com.

Play It Safe
You might be asking yourself why I’m not aiming at the green on this shot. I’ll give you a hint: See all that blue stuff? I don’t want my ball to go in it!

With so much water guarding the front of the green, I feel as though it’s just too risky for most higher-handicappers to challenge it. (In fact, while we were shooting this tip, a group of golfers played through. Two players dunked their tee shots in the water, and the other two tugged them so far left, they went out of bounds. I can’t be sure, but I’d guess the results would not have been the same if only the fairway lay between the ball and the green.)

If you’re at all uncomfortable with a visually (and mentally) challenging shot like this, play it safe, as I’m doing here. Take one less club and aim toward safety (in this case, the fairway). After hitting there, I had a relatively easy pitch shot to a wide-open green. I walked away from the hole happy that I didn’t lose any unnecessary shots. In situations like this, play it safe, and your scorecard will reflect your wisdom.

TAKE AN EXTRA CLUB
Most amateurs don’t hit the ball far enough on their approach shots. Instead of hitting a smooth 5-iron, they typically try to muscle a 6-iron. Unfortunately that usually leads to overswinging and mis-hits, not to mention over-the-top swings that produce the dreaded big slice (if the clubface is square or open) or a pull (if the face is shut).

Consider my situation here. I’ve got a lot of trouble between me and the flag: a long lake and a kidney-shaped bunker–two places I really don’t want my ball to find. So, rather than trying to career my shot, I’m simply going to take one extra club and make a smooth, balanced swing (in this case, a 9-iron instead of a wedge). Good, solid contact will do more to launch my ball the right distance than will tensing up and taking a massively wild swipe at it.

The next time you’re in this situation, take one more club, maybe choke down on it and swing smoothly and within yourself.

CHECK THE WIND…THE RIGHT WAY
You’ve probably seen Tour pros throw grass clippings up in the air to check the wind (see inset photo here). While doing this isn’t necessarily wrong, it’s only one ingredient to finding how hard the wind is blowing.

Tour pros also check the wind by looking at the surrounding trees. It makes sense. After all, golf balls fly higher than your head height (and the height those grass clippings reach). Sometimes, the wind in the trees blows harder than the grass you toss; other times, it blows softer. Always go with the trees.

Keep an eye on the flag, too. See if it’s flapping and how it compares to the wind in its vicinity. If it isn’t flapping, that doesn’t mean the wind isn’t blowing up above it.

CONTROL YOUR SPIN
Check out these two photos. On the left, I’m playing the ball well back in my stance, and my hands are ahead of the ball. This closes the clubface and decreases my club’s loft, not only making the ball go lower, but also adding more spin. It’s the kind of shot that better players like to hit because it largely decreases headwinds, and with the increased spin, makes it easier to control the ball when it lands on the green.

In the photo at right, I’m playing the ball more forward. This adds loft to the club and allows me to hit the ball higher with less spin. Be careful–with reduced spin, golf balls tend to hop on firm greens, and are more susceptible to the wind, either shortening or lengthening your shot distance, depending on which way it blows.

PLAY THE RIGHT BALL
The fastest (and cheapest) way to improve your game is to play the right ball. Too often, higher- handicappers buy balls that the Tour pros play, when, in reality, they should play a two-piece distance ball.

First, be honest and assess your strengths and weaknesses as a player. Figure out where you need help. Do you need it off the tee or around the green? Both? I bet, if you’re a higher-handicapper, you need to increase your distance by a good 10-20 yards and can’t consistently control your approach shots and how much spin you generate around the greens. In that case, up your distance so you have a shorter club on your approach shot. Next, buy a sleeve and see how these new balls feel when you putt. If you can add a few yards to your game and feel confident rolling this new rock, then I’d say you’ve found your ball.

GET OUT OF TROUBLE FIRST
If you find yourself unable to make a risk-free shot, then get out of trouble first. Chances are it’ll help you avoid making a big number.

Take a look at the photos on this page. To hit a medium-length sand shot as I’m doing here, take the club away on a slightly more inside path than normal. Getting your club started on an inside path (and staying on an inside path into and through the downswing) will ensure that you make a shallower swing path and ball-first contact. (Typical bunker shots, where you hit the sand first, travel on a steeper path.)

DON’T ALWAYS FIRE AT THE FLAG
It’s tempting to hit toward the flag on every approach shot. That’s why superintendents take great joy in placing them in dangerous locations, like just over a water hazard, or, as you see here, just beyond a bunker and a water hazard!

When you see flags tucked like this, take a moment to reconsider what your target should really be. Just because the flag is there, doesn’t mean you should hit toward it.

Here you can see that I’m aiming to the left of the flag, where a strip of grass divides the two bunkers. Not only does that help me psychologically (it’s always easier to hit over grass than a hazard), it also guards against dumping it in the bunker if I’m a little short. I’ll land in grass and not be faced with a really challenging bunker shot.

PLAY WITH THE ONE YOU BRUNG
I know it’s not exactly grammatically correct, but Sam Snead once said, Dance with the one you brung. What he meant was that if you slice the ball, play for a slice. If you hook the ball, play for a hook. Play what works best for you.

Here, I’m faced with a challenging shot to a flag just to the right of a bunker. If I usually slice the ball and I aim at the pin, the ball will end up well right of the flag (and skip down into a looming water hazard). But if I aim left and play for my natural shot shape, then the ball will likely land close to the flag (even if it’s tempting to aim at the flag because of that bunker guarding the left side of the green).

All too often weekend warriors try to pull off shots that only Tour pros routinely get away with. Rather than hoping for a career shot, do what Snead suggested and Dance with the one you brung.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT WEDGE
While wedges might not be the sexiest clubs in your bag, they are, outside of putters, the ones you hit the most during your round. (I bet you hit them more than you hit your driver.) So it’s vital that you find one (or three) that fit your game (and your usual course conditions).

Wedge variations are virtually limitless, so make sure you factor in how much loft you need (48_¡-64_¡) and what bounce angle best serves your game (higher-bounce models perform best on softer conditions; lower-bounce models on harder turf). As a rule of thumb, I’d suggest four degrees of loft between your wedges.

Other personal preferences like head shape, color and weight also determine what kind of club you end up buying. Where to start? Try our 2010 Golf Equipment Buyer’s Guide, online now at golftipsmag.com.

PLAY YOUR APPROACH LIKE A PUTTER
From the fairway (or rough or sand), try to see exactly what awaits your approach shot. If, as in the situation you see here, you’re faced with a benign landing area, consider playing your approach shot like a putter. That is, low and running.

Play the ball back in your stance, choose a lower-lofted club (like a 7-iron) and chip your shot so it rolls down the fairway and up onto the green. Obviously if there’s a water hazard or bunker in front of it, choose instead to hit a wedge and hit it higher so it carries the hazard and lands softly near your target.

In general, if you have a lot of green to work with, keep your ball low. It’s easier to control, and your chance of success is far, far greater.

Dr. David Wright, PGA, is considered one of America’s top 100 golf instructors. He teaches at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, Calif. Visit him online at wrightbalance.com and gripsize.com.

Grip it right!
HOW YOU GRIP THE CLUB can greatly influence the type of shot you want to hit. Here are two grip positions. The circled grip is my standard hands position, and the cutout photo below shows a faster hands position.

Faster you ask? Allow me to explain. Typically, when we see a grip like the one below, we think of it as a weak grip, since the hands are situated to release sooner and, in terms of full swings, produce weaker shots. In the sand, a weak grip actually can help you hit the ball higher and make the ball stop faster. Just remember, weak only applies to the early release of the wrist hinge, not actual grip pressure. Be sure, no matter what type of hand position you choose, you grip the club with enough tension so the wedge doesn’t slip in your hands as you make contact with the sand. Experiment and see what works best for you.

UNDERSTAND ALIGNMENT

BUNKER SHOTS can be awfully counter-intuitive. Seems the more you aim left, the more your shots fly to the right. In reality, that’s how things are supposed to work, but it’s not impossible to hit straight shots. The key is in managing your angles. To keep it simple, consider that for every degree open you rotate your stance, match it with an open clubface. As you do that, situate the target right in between the two angles. From here, be sure to swing along your stance and not right at the target! You’ll soon see that your sand shots will fly better.

Plant Yourself
NO MATTER WHAT TYPE of sand shot you intend to hit, always make sure you have a steady footing. If you slip and slide through the shot, no doubt you’ll have a difficult time hitting the kind of shots you want to hit. Plant your feet into the sand just enough so they stay secured through the shot.

Continue practicing this drill until the ball rolls and the line doesn’t wobble from side to side. If you can consistently do that, then you’ve found a stroke that’ll stay on the line you’ve intended.

BEFORE YOU STROKE your putt, take a Sharpie and mark a line on your ball with the Line-M-up tool (finetunegolf.com). That’ll help you align your ball exactly where you want it to go.

SET UP FOR IMPACT

THE SETUP AND IMPACT POSITIONS may look similar, but they’re actually quite different. At setup, the body should look poised to make a hit, with your weight centered, the club hovering above the sand, and the shaft vertical to the ground.

At impact, there are three main differences. First, my weight has transferred to my forward leg. You can’t hit great sand shots off your back leg! Second, the shaft is leaning toward the target. This is a must for consistency. In fact, it’s the loft of the wedge that’ll lift the ball, not a lack of shaft lean. And third, because I need to hit down and into the sand, my knees are flexed more at impact than they were at address. If you can concentrate on making these three differences at impact, you’ll see that hitting sand shots is a lot easier.

OUTSIDE-IN

Watch It!
One of the best ways to make a full swing, inside a bunker or out, is to allow the head to rotate through the shot. By doing so, you’ll swing more freely and without any restrictions. As far as watching the golf ball, go ahead! Just make sure you stay in position as you swing through the shot.

MAKE AN OUTSIDE-IN SWING

HITTING A GREAT SAND SHOT is one of golf’s greatest thrills. It’s also one of the most satisfying ways to save par or even make a birdie. But unlike shots outside the sand that typically require you to swing parallel to your target line, bunker shots are generally best played with a swing that starts outside the target line and moves to inside the target line.

Why you ask? The main reason is that, with a typical bunker shot, you want to hold the clubface open longer than you would a normal shot–meaning, in order to hit the ball straight with an open face, you have to swing along the direction of your feet and body, and not toward the target.

If anything, play your next bunker shot as though you wanted to slice it toward the hole. This will instinctively help you both swing from outside the target line to inside the target line, as well as make it easier to hold the clubface open through the sand shot.
Just remember, a good bunker player doesn’t try to lift the ball from the sand; rather he or she uses the sand to push the ball up, and the clubhead slides through the sand and under the golf ball.

HOLD THE FACE OPEN

NEED MORE PROOF? Because you swing along your open body line (open relative to the target), you have to keep the clubface open through the shot. It also helps get the ball airborne quickly, as well as imparts more spin for a quicker stop on the green.

That said, how much is too much? Eventually the hands will rotate, and the clubface will close. The key is in maintaining the rotation of your body. The more you rotate through the shot, the easier it is to keep the clubface open through the bunker shot.

Just remember, if your goal is to hit a high bunker shot that stops quickly, the trajectory and bite isn’t going to come from flipping your hands through impact. It’ll come from an aggressive rotation of the body through the shot with the clubface open.

USE SPEED, NOT MUSCLE, TO REACH THE TARGET

DON’T DIG A HOLE IN THE SAND. Really, to hit solid shots out of the sand, the more you try to dig deep and use muscle to excavate the ball, the more likely you’ll find yourself hitting more than one shot from the same bunker.

The key is to think “speed,” not “strength.” By thinking speed, you’ll be more likely to make a more complete swing through the ball, as opposed to hitting down into the sand as you would in a chopping or hitting motion. And when it comes to speed, for that matter, we’re not just talking about the hands. As the previous tip alluded to, good bunker shots require the entire body to get activated and make a rotation.

The bigger the body rotation through the shot, the less the hands have to get involved. The less the hands are involved, the easier it is to hold the clubhead open through the shot and the better your bunker shots will be! So think speed, not strength. You’ll find that type of mentality will help prevent you from stabbing into the sand and instead swing right through it.

FLAT-FOOTED SHOT

IN THE SEQUENCE ABOVE, check out my feet. Notice anything unusual? If you notice my back foot (my right foot), it stays flat-footed through the swing. I do this because first, by keeping a stable footing, I lessen the risk of slipping or sliding through the shot. Second, the more rigid my lower body is, the faster my upper body will rotate across the ball.

Try this technique the next time you’re practicing your bunker shots. Allow your weight to shift as it naturally would; just do it with both feet on the ground. I’ll bet you’ll pick up some upper-body speed in no time.

UNDERSTAND HOW THE WEDGE WORKS

JUST ABOUT EVERY WEDGE YOU CAN BUY can be played at least two different ways. You can tell by looking at the wedge’s sole. Along the center of the sole, if you’re going from heel to toe, you’ll see a bevel in the contour. This is what’s referred to as the wedge’s bounce angle. The greater the bevel in the sole, the higher the bounce angle, meaning the wedge becomes less diggy and actually more prone to bounce off the sand. The less bevel, the lower the bounce angle. This will make the club dig more easily into the sand.

The wedge’s bounce angle can be amplified just by opening the clubface. When you do that, the leading edge lifts up, and the sole minimizes digging and lifts the ball up in a hurry. The opposite effect would be to play the wedge square. This brings the leading edge way down toward the sand. It’ll want to dig into the sand like a knife and won’t want to bounce as an open-faced shot would.

OPEN AN OPEN-FACED BUNKER SHOT is best for when the ball is sitting up or just barely indented into the sand. With a moderate amount of sand between the clubhead and the ball, the clubhead should slip through the sand and bounce upward. As for the ball, it’ll fly high and stop quickly.

SQUARE A SQUARE-FACED BUNKER SHOT is best for when the ball is embedded, or plugged, in the sand. (A closed-face shot is never a good idea). With the leading edge low, the club will dig into the sand to get below the ball. With this lie, expect a lower shot, and the ball will roll when it lands.

SWING WITH THE SLOPE

MATCH THE SLOPE FOR BETTER BUNKER SHOTS. The best way to play a bunker shot on a slope is to match your swing to the slope as best you can. To do this, you’ll have to manipulate your weight and body position. In the case of the photo here, the ball was sitting on an incline toward my target. That meant I had to align my shoulders parallel to the slope, and situate my body as perpen-dicular to the slope as I could by placing my weight more toward my back foot. This meant I had to work harder at making a weight shift toward my forward leg. As for the rest of the details, everything was played just as though I were on flat ground. The key with this shot, and with all bunker shots, is to make things as simple as possible.

Bobby Hinds, PGA teaches at Woodley Lakes Golf Course in Van Nuys, Calif. His popularity is attributed to helping players of all ages play their best golf with easy-to-understand principles. For more info, visit www.bobbyhinds.com.