You work hard at your swing. You scan magazines for golf tips. You take golf lessons to increase distance. You do drills in your back yard. And you spend hours hitting balls at the range. All are great practice habits. Yet you still can't seem to knock a lot of strokes off your golf handicap. Is all this time and work wasted? No. It helps. Any effort to improve helps.
But if you really want to cut your golf handicap, you must work hard on your short game as well. That's something many weekend golfers don't always do. Improving your short game is the key to slashing multiple strokes off your golf handicap. Golf tips and golf lessons also help. But to really to lower your golf handicap, you must also spend 50 to 70 percent of your time practicing chipping and pitching.
Secrets of The Short Game
To generate dramatic improvement in your short game, you may need to organize and simplify your practice sessions. You also need to simplify your approach. Here are some golf tips on doing that:
* Practice your short shots as often as possible. They are the real stroke-savers.
* Use one chipping stroke for all distances. The idea is to change clubs not swings.
* Stay away from the fringes. They're unpredictable. Don't land the ball there unless you must.
* Use the shortest stroke possible, which enhances control.
* Use a chipping stroke that's mostly arm swing. It's simple to duplicate and it stands up under pressure.
Pitching Is Trickier
Another key way to simplify your short game is through your mechanics. For example, always keep your hands ahead of the ball. This is critical. Many weekend golfers try to scoop the ball from the ground. That's a mistake. Keeping your hands ahead of the ball eliminates the temptation to scoop it. Also, use a narrow stance. With your hands ahead of the ball and your feet close together, you weight naturally shifts forward, where it should be.
And let's not forget about pitching. Accurate pitching is almost as important as accurate chipping. Most of your shots will be from 100 yards in. So accurate pitching can also knock strokes off your golf handicap. But it's a trickier because you're adding wrist cock to your swing. In addition, after you've ingrained the basics, get yourself a 60-degree or lob wedge and learn to use it. It makes getting the ball over mounds and bunkers easier and enhances your ability to get up and down.
Three Shots To Practice
In addition to hitting short game shots with different clubs, you should practice the following three shots: (1) the uphill/downhill shot, (2) the dead lob, and (3) the check-up shot. They seem to come up a lot for weekend golfers.
The check-up shot is a little pitch shot that hits, hops, and checks up. It usually flies low, but has a lot of backspin on it. It's ideal for middle and back pin placements. Use a sand wedge on the shot, set up with your hands ahead of the ball, and your weight forward. Hit down on the ball sharply. Hit the ball, not the turf, first. The sharper your angle of descent, the more spin you'll put on it.
The dead lob shot is made with either a sand wedge or lob wedge when you have to pitch over a bunker or deep rough. It's a cut shot that stops the ball almost immediately. Set-up with an open stance, and open the club face. Lay the blade almost flat against the ground. Then move your hands forward just a bit. The swing is steep. Swing along your body line which is left of the target line if your right-handed and right of the target line if you're left-handed.
The uphill/downhill shot is more common that the other two. The tendency is to lean into the hill to keep your balance. Instead, set up so that your spine is at a right angle to the slop. Your weight is always on the bottom leg. On a downhill lie you have room to swing the club back, so you don't have to pick up the club abruptly. Your weight will be more forward. On sidehill lies stay perpendicular to the slope. That means more erect when the ball is above your feet, less when it is below it.
If you master these last three shots and incorporate the general golf tips mentioned above into your practice sessions and swing, you'll hone your basic short game to become strove-saving machine. Then you can start working on some more sophisticated shots. Taking golf lessons on your shot game helps also. But the real key to chopping strokes off your golf handicap quickly and dramatically is practicing and perfecting your short game.
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.
