We’ve arrived at day three of total game improvement week.

Each day for a week, I’ll be posting a series of tips, drills, advice, and information designed to help every aspect of your game. I want us all to make one final push to get over whatever humps are in the way before the year is out.

Don’t forget to e-mail me your favorite tips and drills from any of the different categories for inclusion in the post on day-six.

Putting

How many times have you missed a three or four foot putt? Probably too many.

One of my favorite drills to groove a confident, consistent stroke is the 100-putt drill. This is the one that Phil Mickelson was shown by Jackie Burke Jr.

Check back to my earlier post on repetition to read more on the 100-putt drill. Basically, you find a hole on the practice green and ring five or ten balls around it, three feet out. Then start sinking them until you miss. When you miss, start over again from one. The goal is to make 100 in a row.

That drill will absolutely help you groove your stroke and build confidence to help you make more short putts.

Short Game

When you set up to chip, the ideal position to be in is with your feet relatively close together and turned slightly toward the target (not perpendicular to the target line). You should have at least 65% of your weight on your forward foot. Your hands should be set up ahead of the ball at address. The ball should be opposite your left ankle.

To check your setup, David Leadbetter has a great drill in his Faults and Fixes book that you can do. Lay a club just outside your back foot so that the shaft is laying across (perpendicular to) the target line. From there, you should be able to make your chipping swing and clear the shaft on the back swing and down swing.

This will help groove a more consistent chipping swing.

Recovery

It’s no fun hitting into a water hazard. But what about if your ball is only partially submerged? Think about playing it!

The shot plays very similar to a bunker shot.

In his Short Game Bible, Dave Pelz recommends the following:

• If the ball is less than 1/3 submerged, open the face all the way and play the ball forward. Expect it to fly out like a bunker shot with less spin.
• If the ball is 2/3 submerged, open the face about 45 degrees and play it a little further back
• If the ball is completely under water, square the face, play it back even more, and swing hard.

Course Management

When architects design courses, each hole is designed to play a certain way (maybe with more than one option). When you look at a hole that isn’t straight, naturally you’ll think about trying to shape the ball to meet the demands of the hole.

However, if you can’t reliably turn the ball both ways, then consider just playing to your strong suit and going from there.

If your natural shot is a fade and you can’t draw the ball with confidence, then just go with the fade, even if the hole was designed for a draw. You might not be in an optimal position off the tee, but you’ll have less chance of getting into real trouble.

Stick with the shot that gives you confidence, even if it doesn’t seem to be suited for the hole.

Driving

Casting, or “hitting from the top” is a major power drain for some players.

At the top of the back swing, your wrists should be fully cocked. As you start down, this wrist cock should stay the same or even increase. Sometimes there is a tendency to uncock the wrists too early, causing a huge drain in power.

Maintain that wrist cock, or lag, for as long as possible in the down swing. If you watch video (or photos) of long hitters, they maintain that lag until the last possible second.

Here’s a video of Sergio Garcia’s swing with the driver. Note as he approaches impact how his hands are starting to pass the ball yet his driver shaft is still almost parallel with the ground.

As you start down from the backswing, the hips start to shift and open but the hands start to drop almost simultaneously. The hips open and the torso should follow with the shoulders unwinding right up to (and through) the hit. Your chest should stay ahead of your hands through impact. Your hands should be following behind with all that lag saved up, ready for an explosive uncocking of the wrists at impact.

Watch that video a couple of hundred times if you want to see how power is generated in the golf swing.

Sand Play

I’m not a fan of fairway bunkers. They’re much more punishing than green-side bunkers, in my opinion, mostly because the margin for error is smaller. The fact that it’s typically a much longer shot means that small errors are more magnified.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter much what we think of them. Sooner or later they’re going to be there to try and ruin the day.

Luckily, the adjustments required for a shot out of a fairway bunker are minor. The keys to remember are a stable lower body and a controlled swing. We’re not looking to drive with the legs. Play the ball a little further back than normal and take a smooth swing.

I covered the technique for hitting out of fairway bunkers in more detail back in early June. Check it out for the whole run down.

Mental Game

One of the biggest keys to good shot making is visualization of every shot.

Before stepping up the ball, you should have a plan for the shot. What club are you going to hit? How far do you want it to go? What trajectory do you want the ball to follow?

See the shot in your mind, exactly how you expect it to happen. The more detail, the better.

Not only will this help you to make more precise shots, but it will help you evaluate your misses better. If your only goal is to hit the fairway, then how can you judge whether the shot was perfect or whether it was just marginally acceptable?

Fitness

This year, I got smart about my cardio workouts. I started doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). It’s more effective for fat burning and shows better results for less time investment.

Instead of doing moderate cardio for a long period, the idea is to do short bursts of very intense activity.

I covered my introduction to HIIT back in June. With a couple of nagging injuries, I haven’t had a good workout in a while. If all goes well, by the time you read this, I should have resumed my HIIT workouts and be back on my way to proper weight loss and cardio health.

Iron Play

For crisp, consistent iron shots, it’s important to not let your weight shift to the outside of your trailing foot on the back swing (really this applies to any shot). If you have too much sway going back (if your right hip gets out past your right foot), it means that you have to have a bigger lateral shift in the opposite direction to get over to the left side (for a right hander). This creates inconsistency.

A good drill to get the feel for the correct action is to place a ball under the outside edge of your right foot at address. This will keep your from swaying too much to the right and getting your weight onto the outside edge of your foot.

Hit some practice shots like that to get the feeling of a proper weight transfer that is restricted a bit and keeps your weight on the inside of your right foot on the backswing. That should give you an easier time transitioning over to the left without so much sway and lateral shifting.

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Further Reading:

Repetition - the 100-putt drill (Life in the Rough)
David Leadbetter’s Faults and Fixes (Amazon.com)
Fairway Bunker Technique (Life in the Rough)
High Intensity Interval Training - HIIT (Life in the Rough)
Review of Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible (Life in the Rough)

Previous Installments:

Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 1 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 2 (Life in the Rough)

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