Scoring well during a round depends on two things: keeping the ball in play and playing well from 100 yards in. Playing well from short yardage is critical. About two-thirds of the shots you take during a round are from 100 yards and in, so if you don’t play well from short yardage you won’t break 90 or 80. Your short game also has a major impact on your golf handicap over the course of a season. Play well from 100 yards in during the season and you’ll lower your golf handicap a couple of strokes.

Having a great short game is also a key to being a complete player. In fact, you can’t be one without a good short game. If you’re short game isn’t what it should be, you can im-prove it by mastering these four fundamentals: learn the correct set-up position for each shot, create a clear picture of the shot in your mind, choose a specific landing area for the shot, and focus on your finish to promote feel and acceleration. Below are golf tips we recommend to players in our golf lessons to help them master key short game fundamen-tals.

Chip Shot

We cover this shot thoroughly with players in our golf instruction sessions. It’s that im-portant. The key with chip shots is to set-up in a pre-set impact position so all you have to do is let your hips turn to bring the club back to impact. Also, play the ball back in your stance, open your hips slightly, create one line with your left arm and the club, and shift more weight to your front side. And take a few practice swings to make sure you’re scuffing the grass ahead of the ball.

Pitch Shot

This is another shot you want to keep simple. So set up as if you were going to hit a chip, and then set your hands in a pre-impact position. Now just turn your hips. That’s it. Other golf tips are play the ball off your nose, open the clubface slightly, and create one line with your left arm and the club. Also, keep your wrists relaxed during the shot, focus on swinging through the ball, and accelerate through impact. You want to hit down on the ball and create spin. Taking a few practice swings with your eyes on the target is also a good practice.

Flop Shot

You need more height than spin on this shot. The key is to set up correctly and to bend your left wrist so your hands are low. This position allows you to use the club’s full bounce. Keep the hands more in line with the clubhead, aim slightly left of target, and swing the club on a more vertical plane with an open clubface. At impact, the hands should be ahead of the ball so the clubface stays open and can slide under the ball. Take a good aggressive swing. That’s something we remind players about in golf lessons all the time. The more aggressive you are, the higher the ball flies. Also, the deeper the lie, the harder you have to swing. Finish with your chest facing the target.

Bunker Shot

No one likes bunker shots. But you can master them with practice. The key is to open the clubface to create bounce first, and then set your hands and club in a pre-set impact posi-tion. Make sure your hands lead the club when you hit the sand. Turn your trunk in the backswing to keep your arms in front of your chest, which lets you hinge on plane. Other tips are play the ball forward, about 2 inches from the center, open the clubface slightly to capitalize on the club’s bounce, and aim about a club length left of your target. Bunker shots fly about one-third of normal shots, so plan accordingly.

You must master the fundamentals of the short game to become a complete player. The golf tips discussed above, gleaned from our golf lessons and group golf instruction ses-sions, will help you master the fundamentals. Keep things as simple as possible, so they’re easily repeatable, and be aggressive. Learn to trust your fundamentals once you’ve mastered them and you’ll find yourself breaking 90 or 80 and chopping strokes off your golf handicap.

To shave strokes from your golf handicap, you must learn to make adjustments to your swing and your game during a round. While making adjustments is the key to playing a good, solid round of golf, it’s more critical to adjust to some than others, such as those involving the different lies you face. Unfortunately, not all lies are equal. Some are good. Some are bad. And some are downright ugly. That means you need to adjust to some lies more than others.

Take a good lie. Most times, you’ll make only minor adjustments to your swing at most with a good lie. Since the ball sits up nicely, you can stick to the basic iron fundamentals. Just remember to hit down on the ball and to avoid the most common mistake we see in our golf lessons, swinging too hard. It throws your rhythm and tempo off. Instead, swing at about 80 percent, but gradually accelerate so you reach maximum club speed at impact.
Below we discuss three common, but “bad” lies and provide golf tips on how to play them.

Deep Rough

Deep rough is tricky. You want to get the ball out of the rough and in play. The key, as we tell students in our golf instruction sessions, is to stand a little closer to the ball than normal. This forces you to swing on a more upright plane. Also, your head and hands should be higher than normal in the backswing. You should swing almost as though the shaft was going through your neck not your right bicep.

In addition to swinging upright, hinge your wrists earlier in the swing. Hinging early helps you avoid hitting too much grass behind the ball. Also, grip the club more firmly than normal to offset the grass, use a club with more loft than normal if you have to, and shorten your swing to stay balanced. It’s hard to hit down on the ball in deep rough. So expect your ball to come out more on a line.

Flier Lies

With this lie, the ball sits up in the grass, but still has some grass behind it. This means the ball will launch higher and with little spin. It will probably fly farther than normal as well. You find flier lies in intermediate rough cuts or in thick, fluffy grass. Flier lies encourage you to hit more of a draw, so adjust your aim accordingly. You may also want to use less club, since the ball will roll when it lands.

The key with flier lies, we tell players in our golf lessons, is to move away from the ball a little. This helps you sweep the ball off the ground. Since this is somewhat of an easier lie to hit from, you can get lazy rotating through impact. Make sure you rotate fully. Also, choke down about two inches on the club. Choking down prevents you from hitting un-derneath the ball. It also quiets your hands. Finish with your belt buckle facing the target and your weight on your front leg.

Ball Above Feet

It’s easier to hit a ball above your feet than below your feet. But it’s still tricky. Flatter swings work better with balls above your feet. The key is to stand slightly taller, which lets you swing with a more rounded, flatter motion. Standing taller means you’ll also have a slightly more erect spine angle, so make sure you retain some of your knee flex. (With a ball below your feet, you want to squat lower to the ground.)

With the ball above your feet, envision swinging the clubhead around your body and fi-nishing with your turn and release in a lateral position. You also want to finish with an extended right arm, a sign that you didn’t try to hold the clubface open through the swing. Shorten your swing a bit, and focus on making solid contact. Be careful not to hit the club’s toe on the ground.

These golf tips should help you hit more solid irons. Hitting the green is not as much of a priority with bad lies as with good lies. With bad lies, it’s safer—and better— sometimes just to get it close to the green. From there, a chip and a putt will earn you a par. Make more pars with solid irons shots and you’ll cut your golf handicap.

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How To Break 80 Newsletter

January 5, 2012

"The Web's Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter"
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In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Tip: Regaining Your Form
2) Tip: Chipping With A Wood
3) Question: Sticking a Greenside Bunker Shot
4) Article: Five Must Read Instruction Books
5) Article: Five Simple Steps For Great Driving

Jack's Note: Happy 2012 everyone! Promising to be a spectacular year for golf and I hope the same holds true for you as well. Remember, it's important to keep those "golf muscles" working during your off season so even if it's just holding a club while you watch television at night, it'll keep your grip in check.

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1) Regaining Your Form
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Has this ever happened to you? You’re sailing along during a round and hitting the ball well. Plus, everything is going your way. Drives are finding the fairway. Approach shots are sticking. And your putts are all dropping. Then, you hit a bad shot…and the wheels come off. You can’t drive anymore. You can’t stick your irons anymore. And you can’t hit full wedge shots anymore. You’ve let your anger get to you, which has thrown your swing completely out of sync. How do you regain your rhythm?

Here are five steps to regaining rhythm:

1. Rehearse your takeaway
2. Take a deep breath before you swing
3. Make a slow, smooth takeaway
4. Make a fluid transition at the top
5. Let the club drop naturally into the downswing

First, compose yourself. Instead of getting angry and upset, calm yourself down and fo-cus on regaining your rhythm. One reason your swing is off is because you’re snatching the club back during the takeaway. That throws destroys your rhythm and tempo, throw-ing your swing out of whack.

Instead, address the ball as you usually do and take a deep relaxing breath. Now, start back smoothly with your arms and hands. Focus on making a slow one-piece takeaway. Making a good takeaway is the key to getting your swing back on track.

Another danger zone is at the top of your swing. A quick, jerky transition almost guaran-tees a poor swing. Instead, make an unhurried and fluid transition and gradually accele-rate during your downswing. A smooth transition inspires rhythm.

Don’t let one bad shot spoil your day. Instead, compose yourself down by taking a nice deep breath, make an unhurried one-piece takeaway, and accelerate during your down-swing. Slowing yourself down often works wonders. Before long, you’ll have regained your rhythm and tempo.

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2) Chipping With A Wood
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Occasionally, golfers find themselves with unusual lies. Sometimes these lies can be downright strange, like inside the trunk of a hollowed out tree or lodged between the branches of a tree. Unfortunately, you can’t always hit the ball with these lies. But when you can you often must get creative to advance the ball forward. That’s when its good to know some non-traditional shots, like chipping with a wood.

Below are six keys to this shot:

1. Choose the right club
2. Stand close to the ball
3. Set the wood on its toe
4. Bow your wrists
5. Use your normal swing
6. Make a descending blow

The wood chip is great in heavy rough. But it also works in light rough. A wood’s smaller head separates and slides through the grass, unlike the heads on irons, which often get caught up in the grass. Use the 5-wood or the 7-wood for long grass and the 3-wood or the 4-wood for lighter grass.

Start by taking your normal chipping stance, with the ball positioned even with or just behind your back foot. Shift your weight on your front foot and place your hands just in front of your back thigh.

Now move close to the ball. Set the wood on its toe. This move is key. It minimizes the clubface’s exposure to grass. Use a normal chipping swing and a descending blow, but bow your wrists as you deliver the blow.

If your practice swing isn’t descending sharply enough, choke down on the club more. But don’t try to scoop the all. The club’s loft will start the shot up and out. The ball comes out without backspin, so it can run like mad.

Strange lies can come out of nowhere. So practice some non-traditional shots, like chip-ping with a wood, for times when you need to get creative. You want to have the feel of the shot when you need it.

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3) Question: Sticking a Greenside Bunker Shot
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Q.

Hi Jack,

A very enjoyable issue as usual!

I was wondering if you had any tips for very short bunker shots—the ones where you have to pop the ball up to a pin that’s only a few meters away. I played the other day, and although I was hitting nearly everything very well, I got hurt three times with these shots, which ruined my round. Would you change your technique for this shot if the sand is wet/dry/soft/hard?

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,
Nick McKimm

A.

Yes, Nick. You do have to change technique depending on the lie. Failing to do so is gets weekend golfers in trouble. Below are some keys to a greenside bunker shot:

Make sure you hold the clubface open through impact. This enables the club to slide under the ball, throwing it up and out of the sand. If you don’t open the clubface, you'll probably mis-hit the shot, costing you strokes.

Also make sure you swing the club on an outside-to-in path along your stance line. That’s critical. And don't stop when you hit the sand. Keep accelerating through the swing to a full finish. Deceleration is among the most common errors in greenside bunkers. To pop the ball up, play the ball forward a couple of inches from the middle.

With a buried lie, use a more descending blow. Gripping down on the club helps you make more of a descending blow. With a partially buried lie, open your clubface a little more. With wet sand, set up as a normal sand shot, but make a shorter and shallower back swing. Play hardpan bunker shots like a normal bunker shot, but enter the sand a little closer to the ball than normally. Use your SW or LW, but make sure you open the face wide.

Dave Peltz, the short game guru, explains of how to escape a bunker in his book, Dave Peltz’s Short Game Bible. It’s a great read.

If you've got a golf question you'd like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com
and we'll review it. I can't guarantee that we'll use it but if we do,
we'll make sure to include your name and where you're from.

If you’re serious about improving, you must assess your game periodically to determine your strengths and weakness. December is a great time to do it. It’s also a great time to plan how to strengthen your weaknesses. Ideally, you should work on these with help from a local golf pro or an experienced golf instructor. He or she can see what you’re doing wrong and suggest changes. Unfortunately, not everyone has the means or time to take golf lessons.

If you can’t take lessons or you don’t want to, don’t despair. You can still improve your game with help from the game’s greatest players and teachers through golf instruction books. Dozens of well-written instruction books crafted by professional teachers and Tour players are available. Packed with golf tips, these books will help you master the game and cut your golf handicap. Below are five you might want to add to your reading list in 2012.

1. The Mental Art of Putting by Patrick Cohn and Robert Winters

Fifth on Amazon’s list of the 10 best selling books on golf in 2011, this book is an excel-lent aid for “the putting impaired.” It teaches golfers to use their most important asset in putting—their minds. Using self-evaluation, step-by-step instruction, and practice exer-cises, the book offers tons of golf tips on putting. If you can master the golf lessons con-tained in this book, you’ll not only become a great putter, you’ll also shrink your golf handicap.

2. Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals On Golf by Ben Hogan

This book is a classic. It’s also among the most popular instruction books on golf ever. Hogan believed that even people with average athletic ability can learn to break 80, if they apply themselves. Thus, Five Lessons is designed to help the average person master the full golf swing quickly and correctly. Each chapter contains a tested "fundamental" explained and demonstrated with amazing detail and clarity. It’s a must read for every golfer.

3. Golf My Way: The Instruction Classic by Jack Nicklaus

This is another classic golf book written by one of the game’s greatest players. Newly revised and updated, it covers the whole game, presenting an all-inclusive A-to-Z expla-nation of how Nicklaus thinks about and plays the game. Packed with golf tips and golf lessons, the new edition contains:

• A new introduction and endpiece, plus additional illustrations
• Brand-new chapters discussing the changes in Nicklaus's outlook and techniques
• Reflections on the differences in tournament golf today compared with when Nicklaus joined the PGA tour in 1962
• Advice on the mental elements of improved playing not directly related to ball-striking or shotmaking

Golf My Way will help reduce your golf handicap whether you’re new to the game or a veteran of 20 years.

4. The Natural Golf Swing by George Knudson and Lorne Rubenstein

If your game is plagued by inconsistency and poor performance, you could be going against your “natural” swing. The book’s authors believe that the golf swing is governed by laws of nature and is subject to logical, physical fundamentals that golfers all too often ignore. With help from the book’s written golf instruction sessions, you’ll learn to gen-erate a more powerful, accurate swing that can help you cut strokes from you scores and gain control of your swing. Extensive illustrations and golf drills make this book’s golf lessons memorable.

5. Dave Peltz’s Short Game Bible by Dave Peltz

This book is among the game’s best books on the short game. Peltz explains the golf les-sons in this book in great detail. His lessons are backed by years of research and teaching. A scientist by profession, Pelz provides photos, illustrations, charts, and plenty of sage advice on pitching, chipping, sand play, putting, equipment, execution, mechanics, tech-nique, practice, and attitude. While he mainly addresses better players and serious golfers, his basics are appropriate for players at any skill level of the game.

These five instruction books will help you improve in 2012. Each provides dozens of fruitful golf instruction sessions. Each is designed to slice strokes from your scores and golf handicap. And each is well written, so you’ll not only learn a lot, you’ll also enjoy reading them. Have fun.