Short Game Short

Today I'm going to talk about a basic little short game technique, and how to practice it PROPERLY! So, I want you to grab some balls,  either your Pitching wedge, Gap Wedge, A Wedge, 50 Degree, or just your middle chipping club, and head to the chipping green. Find yourself a nice flat piece of turf (for now) and a pin about 15m away. 

Now, when it comes to technique, I am a big believer that if we get into a good setup position, then its pretty hard to mess it up from there. So lets talk about setup. For the most basic chip or pitch shot, I want you to set up with a narrow stance - only about the width of one of your feet between your feet. You also want to feel as though about 70% of your weight is in your lead foot (left foot for a right hander, right for a left hander). This is all fairly traditional - you'd see these same tips in a textbook from 1971. But here is where this textbook and I disagree. 

You may have been taught this growing up, or you may have come across this somewhere in an arcane corner golf YouTube when you went down that chipping rabbit hole after a couple of glasses of red. The theory that you should put the ball back in your stance and get those hands forward. I see many of you around the club chipping like this. Many more than I'd like to see. The problem with this is that it gets you using the leading edge of the club.  That's the sharp pointy edge at the bottom of the face that you often use to accidentally hit that delicate downhill chip shot all along the ground for four runs past the bowler. Either that, or you accidentally stick into the ground two inches before the ball, miss it, and pretend it was a practice swing. In technical terms though, it exposed the leading edge, promotes a really steep angle of attack, and your margin for error is about as thin as my patients wears when watching people chip like this. 

What I'm going to get you to try, is getting that ball position all the way up so its just off the inside of your front heel, and position your hands above the ball by your belt buckle so that the shaft of the club is almost vertical. Now, keeping the hands and arms soft, I want you to lean towards the target, putting closer to 90% of your weight on your lead foot... Notice how this drags your hands forward a smidge? This is all the shaft lean you need. From here, if you look down you will notice a nice triangle between your arms, hands and shoulders. All I want you to do throughout the chip/pitch is to keep your weight forward, and try your best to keep that triangle there - in other words,  keeping your arms nice and straight and turning the body. The feeling is almost as though you're trying to drop the club into the ball, not trying to lift it. 

Why do we chip like this? It feels a bit weird? Won't I thin it? 

All valid questions...

Firstly, we chip like this because its a very simple motion, but it also allows us to use the bounce rather than the leading edge. Using the bounce and the sole of the club stop it from digging into the ground creates a huge margin for error, and it also gives us more control over trajectory and spin. Trust me, hit some and see. I bet you cant flub one like this if you try!

Secondly, it feels weird because its different - we want it to feel weird at first. If it doesn't feel weird, then we aren't doing anything differently. And if you're reading this and paying attention, then your short game must need some work, so you probably should be doing something differently. 

Wont you thin it? Well, no, not if you practice it a bit (I'll get to that later). But if you find yourself playing lawn bowls rather than chipping, then its more than likely that your head is shifting backwards during the downswing, and you're trying to help the ball up in the air. There is plenty of loft on that wedge your using, let the loft do the lifting. Try to feel as though you keep your head in front of the ball. If this doesn't work, then I recommend trying to soften your lower body a little bit, and allowing it to turn through the shot softly as you swing. If THAT doesn't work, then my mobile number is 021431128, and you can book in for lessons here. 

So, now you've got the general idea of the technique, you need to practice. So, grab a bucket of range balls, put them down in the same place, spend 20 minutes hitting them at the green with no target, and then head home without picking up the balls... That's practice right? Sorry, I cant even type that with a straight face. 

TOP TIP for you here... Whenever you practice your short game, do it with your own balls, NOT the range balls. Not just because leaving 100 range balls on the green is a pain to clean up, but your balls react very differently to range balls. They will launch lower, spin more, and do all sorts of magical things that those 2 cent clicky range balls won't. Why practice with something that you don't actually use on course? Do the all blacks practice playing rugby with a soccer ball? No idea actually, but probably not.

So, instead, what you're going to do is grab 6 of your golf balls, and three different wedges, or maybe your 9 iron, P and a S wedge. Go to the chipping green, plop down those balls and pick a flag. I want you to try and hit two balls with each club to the same target... The technique remains EXACTLY the same for each shot. But just notice what happens to the trajectory and run of each shot. Which clubs go higher? Which spin more? Which run out? Experiment with trying different lines, or trying to land it in a different spot. Once you have the basic technique down, you can change shots just by changing clubs. Once you've hit those six, then pick a new flag and a new spot to chip from. Get funky with it, try different lies and slopes, go over the bunker, run it round the bunker. Build up your database of feels.

This type of practice is why kids often have such good short games - they're creative and try fun stuff in practice, and they're not afraid to mess it up. Figuring it out and experimenting is how we learn, and how we improve in this case. But what club you use from each spot, how hard you hit it from each distance, how you read the green and choose your shot are things that you have to discover for yourself. Everyone sees shots differently, and everyone feels shots differently. What I see as a coach may be completely different to what you see, and neither of us is wrong. Long story short, I can help you with your technique and point you in the right direction, but I cant tell you exactly how to play it, you have to work that out yourself... But that's the exciting part!