Most golf books cover the mechanics of hitting a ball. They teach you how to drive the ball farther or chip the ball better. These are key golf tips. But playing golf is also making decisions. Making the right ones saves you strokes. Making the wrong ones cost you strokes. Make enough bad decisions, as we've said, and you'll generate not only a higher score but also a higher golf handicap.
Among the hardest decisions in golf is what to do when between clubs, when you’re a little too far for one cub but not far enough for another club. Indecision is never a good thing in golf and not knowing what club to hit often results in costly mistakes. Unfortunately, no golf lesson or golf tip provides a hard and fast rule on what to do when between clubs. But we can provide some guidelines.
Assessing The Situation
The key, as is often the case, is carefully assessing the situation. Here's a typical situation where you might be between clubs. Your drive lands in the fairway, but the yardage is five yards further than you can comfortably hit your 8-iron and 5 yards short of what usually you get from your 7-iron. Since this is your second shot, you have a chance to make par if you hit the green or get it really close, so you need a good shot. What do you do?
Before making the decision, carefully assess the situation. A key question is, where's the pin? Is the pin up or back? Are there bunkers guarding the pin? You also need to ask yourself where's the big trouble? Occasionally, you encounter a green where there's no trouble, but most of the time, trouble lurks somewhere. So look for it. Take it into account when deciding what club to hit.
Having assessed the situation, you also must assess your capabilities. Be realistic about them. How well do you play? How well are you playing that day? How well do hit the clubs under consideration. In addition, assess the playing conditions? Are you hitting into a head wind or a tail wind? Is it raining? Is the ground soft or hard? These things are all factors when choosing the right club.
General Guidelines
Having assessed the situation and factored in your capabilities and the playing conditions, you now have to select a club. Here are two general guidelines when between clubs:
* If your golf handicap is 9 or less, or the pin is up and there's trouble long, hit the shorter club using a harder swing. Play the ball back in your stance and lean the club slightly forward. This delofts the club, turning your 8-iron into a 7.5-iron. Take a full backswing, making a good shoulder turn. Aim to pinch the ball between the clubface and the grass. If you try to pick the ball clean, you're liable to end up short.
* If your golf handicap is 10 or above, or the pin is back and there's trouble short, hit the longer club with a three-quarter swing. Here's a quick golf tip on how to do that. Choke up on the club an inch or two, making it easier to control. Play the ball off your front heel and set your hands directly above the ball. Take a three-quarter backswing and swing down on the ball, using a three-quarter finish. Don't let the club go higher than your shoulder in the finish. Make sure your body ends up facing the target, even though you've used a three quarter swing.
In general, unless you have a really low golf handicap, go with the longer club when in-between distances, unless you're an expert golfer. Of course, if your not swinging the club well or course conditions are against you, your choice of clubs and how you hit them will change as well. No golf lesson or golf tip prepares you for making changes on the fly like this. Only experience does. So play as often as you can.
Golf is about making decisions—whether your between clubs or not. Make the right decisions and you'll score well time after time after time. Make the wrong decisions and you'll cost yourself strokes more often than not. Higher scores lead to higher golf handicaps. And no one wants that.
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.
