By Jack Moorehouse

When you’re within 20 yards of the goal in American football—the Red Zone—you must score. If you don’t, your team’s offense failed. When you’re within 40 yards of the green—8-iron, 9-iron, and wedge distance—the Scoring Zone—you also must “score.”  Put another way, you must drop the shot as close to the hole as possible, leaving you an easy putt. If you don’t, you’ve cost yourself a birdie.

Obviously, the more birdies you make, the better your score and your golf handicap. But before hitting from this distance, you must answer six critical questions. Answering them improves your chances of dropping it close significantly. In this article we’ll discuss these six critical questions and provide golf tips on how to hit them better, improving your chances of collecting more birdies.

1. How Far Do You Hit Each Club?
Dialing in your short irons is mostly about distance control. In other words, you must know exactly how far you carry each club on the course, if you want to hit it close. Distance control is what teachers focus on in golf instruction sessions. If you don’t know how far you hit each short iron, go to the range. Practice making normal and hard swings. Get a feel for just how far you hit each club using each swing.

2. How Do You Hit Each Club?
Direction control is also vital when hitting short irons. So in addition to getting a feel for distance when practicing at the range, track your tendencies with each club. Do you draw or fade the shot? When you swing harder, do you pull or push the ball? Find the answers to these questions on the range first, so you’re not educating yourself on the course. Keep them in mind when playing a shot within the scoring zone.

3. What Kind Of Swing Do I Make?
Some weekend golfers shorten their swings when hitting short irons. Or, they ease up. This leads to bad shots. Take your normal swing and hit through the ball in the scoring zone. Hit them just like they teach in golf lessons. If you need more distance, don’t swing harder. Take an extra club. And don’t try to hit the ball really high. You may lose control of the shot. If you don’t hit these clubs well, take some golf lessons and practice at the range. Also consult golf tips on hitting them.

4. Where Do I Want To Hit This Shot?
Directional accuracy demands that you aim correctly. When you’re practicing with these clubs on the range, work on alignment, too. Begin every shot by standing behind the ball. Then follow your routine. In addition, picture an imaginary line from your long distance target to an immediate one a few feet in front of the ball to the ball. Align your club to the target line and the ball. Then, align your body parallel to the imaginary line.

5. What Are Your Conditions?
The best short iron players monitor their conditions—their sate of mind and their physical condition—on every hole. Your conditions really matter. If you’re angry or pumped up, you’ll hit the ball longer than you normal. If you’re tense or tight, you may hit it shorter.  compensate for your condition. Also, track how you hit the ball under the various conditions.

6. What Are the Playing Conditions?
Like your personal conditions, playing conditions matter as well. What type of lie do you have on the course? How firm is the green? What is the wind doing? Is the green above or below you? The answers to these questions have a major bearing on the shot. Run through them before you hit any shot.

The last thing you must do before hitting a shot in the scoring zone is remind yourself to never short-side yourself. Never miss a shot to a spot that gives you no green to work with coming back. You want to be aggressive in the scoring zone, but be smart about it. Follow this cardinal rule and you’ll be glad you did.

Answer the questions listed above before hitting a short iron and you’ll make more birdies. Make more birdies and you’ll not only trim your scores, you’ll also cut your golf handicap by several strokes. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

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.

Even players who thrive on crushing the ball know that hitting it long isn’t always the best strategy. Sometimes, they need to hang back and save that muscle for another time. We call it playing smart. Tiger Woods is a great example of a player who plays smart. He knows when take what the situation gives him. That’s one reason why he’s one of the world’s best golfers. For weekend golfers, playing smart can save strokes and keep your golf handicap from ballooning.

But playing smart isn’t always the first thing on your mind when in trouble. Many golfers try “miracle shots” to salvage the situation when in trouble. Often, it’s a shot they’ve never hit before. Save miracle shots for when you must try one. The rest of the time, play smart. It may not seem like the best strategy, but it can save you strokes later on. In my golf lessons I emphasize three situations when playing smart works well. Below I describe these situations and provide golf tips on how to play them.

Ball In High Grass
When we say high grass, we mean high grass—the no man’s land of rough. You know the kind—where you could be standing over the ball and not know it. The problem with this rough is that it’s much thicker than regular rough. It’s so thick it can catch your club and turn the hosel before the clubface is even close to the ball. Thus, it may take multiple shots to get out. It’s that thick.

The only remedy for this lie is to take your wedge and attack the ball with a hard descending blow. But first you need to adjust your set up using these golf tips: Use an open stance but close the clubface a bit. Next, take a firm grip, aim just behind the ball, and swing down hard. These adjustments make it easier for the clubface to cut through the grass. Make sure, you also swing through—because if your club gets stuck, the ball will, too.

Ball In Bunker
While a ball buried deep in the sand requires a shot like the one described above, a regular lie in the sand—one where the ball is sitting on top of the sand—needs just the opposite approach. The goal here is to “shave” the ball out, not shovel it. Here, you need to take a smooth controlled swing with an open stance and clubface. Aim to make contact two inches behind the ball. It will fly out softly with minimal sand, saving you strokes and landing the ball close to the pin.

Playing The Punch Shot
The punch shot is a third play smart situation. The object of the punch shot is to keep the ball low, straight, and precise. It makes for a great approach shot in the wind. But it also makes for a great shot to salvage par from the trees. Many players use a longer iron to make this shot, but a hybrid works just as well, as I’ve mentioned in my golf tips newsletter. Here’s how to make a punch shot work for you:

Play the ball just back of the middle of your stance, which takes some loft off your club and enables the ball to fly lower with backspin. Take a three-quarter swing, mostly with your arms, and keep your wrists firm and hands quiet on the downswing. Make a smooth controlled swing, with out decelerating or hurrying through the shot, and keep your follow through short and low. The punch shot is a great weapon to have when in trouble or when playing in a stiff wind.

These three common “play smart” situations are often discussed in golf instruction session and golf articles. There are more not so common play smart shots. Look for them and then store them in your mind so you’ll remember them. In these situations, forget the “miracle shot” you’ve never hit before unless you’ve no other choice. Playing smart helps keep a lid on scores and stops golf handicaps from ballooning.

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.

Golf is a funny game. Some rounds you have it. Your putting is dead on, your approach shots are right at the pin, and your drives hit the fairway. You play so well your score belies your golf handicap. Other rounds, you don’t have it. Your putting is off, your approach shots miss the green, and your drives miss the fairway, sometimes by wide margins. On those days, you don’t play anywhere near your golf handicap.

When you find yourself playing poorly, you should make every effort to salvage the day. It can be frustrating but you can turn a bad round into a good if you try. A good way to do that is to get back to the basics. Start by working on your driving, it sets you up for good approach shots and creates the right “tone” for the hole. It can also help turn around your game that day. The key is driving it straight and that, as I’ve said in many times in my golf tips, is correct alignment.

Align Yourself Properly At Address
If you’re not aligned at address, bad things happen. You’ll have to make swing difficult adjustments mid-stream to compensate. For example, if you’re right-handed and you’re aimed too far left, you’ll have to swing across the ball at the bottom to correct for the mis-alignment. That’s not an easy adjustment to make. It takes a highly skilled player to make adjustments and still hit the fairway consistently. There may also be clubface issues to address as well.

If you align yourself at address, you’ll dramatically increase your fairways hit per round. That in turn will impact your scores and your golf handicap. Good drives leave you in position for easy second shots and eliminate wasted shots designed to get you out of trouble. But there’s more to hitting straight drives than just aligning yourself correctly. You also have to swing along the target line while the clubhead is in the hitting zone. The longer you can keep the clubhead on the target line the straighter your shot. Below is a drill that teaches you to do that.

Target Line Drill Helps
This drill trains you to keep your swing along the target line. Tee up a ball. Place two dowels in the ground spaced a foot apart three yards in front of your ball. Your goal is to practice hitting your drives through the window formed by the dowels. With a narrow yet close target like the dowels, you’ll be less likely to come over the top with your swing. On the course, use imaginary dowels to remind you to swing down the line through the hitting zone.

As for aligning yourself correctly, below is a six-step alignment routine that can serve as a model for yours:

1. Stand behind the ball. Pick out a target.

2. Take your stance where you’re standing. Draw an imaginary line from your target back through the ball. Square your clubface to this line.

3. Make a full practice swing from there. Sense the clubhead moving down the target line through impact. Visualize the ball flight you want to use.

4. Focus on the target line in front of the ball. Walk into your stance from the left (if you’re right-handed), keeping your eye on the target line.

5. Set your clubhead behind the ball. Point the face down the line. Maintain your focus on the line in front of the ball.

6. Set your feet perpendicular to the line. Look at the target one last time. Turn your eyes to the ball and pull your trigger.

Once you set your feet set, take a slight step back with your back foot. It’s a trick Tiger Woods uses. It keeps you behind the ball when swinging, increases stability, and provides a firm foundation for a powerful drive.

Making sure you’re correctly aligned and staying on the swing path are two keys to hitting straight drives. Use an alignment routine on every driver swing, as I tell students in my golf lessons. It helps you find the target line and align your body and clubface to it. Practicing the target line drill improves your ability to keep your clubhead on the right swing path. Going back to basics starts in the tee box. It’s a great way to salvage a bad round and keep your golf handicap from increasing.

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.

Personal records drive golfers to succeed. Setting a goal of breaking 90 for the first time or chopping two strokes from your golf handicap compels us to work hard, practice smart, and stay focused. It also compels use to think differently when facing difficult shots. We continually find ourselves asking the question: What’s the best shot in this situation? When it’s all over, you want to know if you’re playing the right shot at critical times in the round.

One way to do that is to develop “go-to” shots for difficult situations, like hitting from behind a tree. We’ve talked about how go-to shots can help golfers in my golf tips newsletter. Using them in key situations harnesses your ability and takes advantage of your on the course strengths. More important, it lets you control the situation rather than letting the situation control you. To capitalize on this approach, you must develop an arsenal of shots you can use in the clutch. Below we discuss go-to shots in three key situations.

On A Tight Fairway
Hitting a good drive to a tight fairway, as I’ve said in my golf tips newsletter, is a great way to a comeback. A good drive here is at least 200 yards in the fairway. Candidates for a go-to shot are the full swing driver, the 3-wood, and the hybrid fade. You must be able to hit the fairway with this shot about 80 percent of the time. Pulling off the full swing driver leaves a short iron to the green, but the average golfer misses this shot 50 percent of the time. The 3-wood offers less distance but finds the fairway 15 percent more often than the driver. The hybrid fade finds the fairway more than the 3-wood, but requires a longer second shot to the green. Choose wisely.

Short Shots To The Green
Another critical situation where you need a go-to shot is about 100 yards out. Having a go-to shot is here key if “disaster” areas guard the green. You need a go-to shot that avoids all the trouble around the green. Candidates are the one-third 5-iron swing, otherwise known as the bump-and-run, and the full swing wedge. The full wedge shot puts your close to the hole, but if you miss it, you’re toast. The bump-and run won’t get your as close as the wedge, but, it’s easier to hit than the full wedge, With good contact, this shot will give you 60 yards of carry and 30 yards of roll.

Pitches To The Green Over Water
You need this shot when you’re about 30 yards to the green and there’s water (or another obstacle) between you and the pin. You need to be ale to hit the shot successfully 90 percent of the time for it to be considered a go-to shot. The idea is to land the shot on the green and leave it within 2-putt range nine out of 10 times you hit the shot, as I tell students in golf instruction sessions. Candidates are the lob wedge pitch, the standard pitch, and the chip with a putter. A well-executed lob wedge pitch leaves you with a tap-in, but mis-hitting it lands you in the water. The standard pitch to either side takes the water out of play. It’s easier to hit, but probably won’t leave you close to the hole. The chip with a putter is just what the name says: a chip shot using your putter. This shot isn’t taught in golf lessons much, but it’s safe and can put you within two-putt range.

Continue this approach for all the critical areas of your game. Then, work on developing go-to shots for the areas. Determine the shot candidates, see which one you hit best, and work on perfecting it. Once you’ve done that for the critical areas of your game, you can attack courses with aggressiveness and confidence. Remember, your go-to shot is always your safest. It’s the shot you hit best in a given situation, so it could be the riskiest. You’ll be surprised at the impact on your golf handicap.

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.