This is another bit of wisdom from the Dave Pelz school of thought that I got to try first hand recently. According to Pelz, the best way to control wedge distances within 100 yards is to groove a set of three pre-defined swing lengths: 7:30, 9:00, and 10:30, where you imagine swinging within the face of a giant imaginary clock and where the player’s left shoulder is at the center of the dial, and the position of the left arm at the end of the back swing gives the “time” reading (left arm parallel to the ground is 9:00). Couple those three swings with four different wedges and you have 12 different shot lengths that are easily repeatable from around 100 yards down to about 30. This is the basis of his 3×4 system. But what happens when you’re between wedges or within 30 yards? One option is to “take a little off” of one of your standard distances by varying the back back swing length slightly. While this is doable, it’s a little more
The Flop Shot
Since I mentioned the flop shot yesterday, this seems like a good time for a how-to. The purpose of the flop shot is to get the ball in the air very quickly, have it carry a minimum distance, and stop very close to where it lands. This is a perfect shot when you’re close to the green hitting to a pin that’s close to the edge and you have to fly the ball over a bunker or keep it from running away. It’s not a tough shot to learn, but it requires practice, so you won’t want to unveil this on the course for the first time without getting the hang of it on the range. I like to follow Tiger Woods’ basic flop shot technique. At address, the stance is relatively wide, promoting a quiet lower body and is aligned well left of the target. The ball is played somewhat forward, off the left heel. You definitely want to use a high-lofted club, 60 degrees or more. the face is laid open at address.
Splash It Out Of The Rough
I saw a great tip on an recent episode of Playing Lessons With the Pros on the Golf Channel. I want to say it was the Craig Stadler episode, but don’t hold me to that. It was a great technique for getting out of thick green-side rough. Often, if you try to make a normal pitch or chip shot in that situation, the club head can get hung up and any number of things can happen, including the possibility of hitting it fat or thin, skulling it, or flubbing it a few yards. The rough will tend to grab the hosel and turn the face closed causing problems with shot trajectory, direction, and distance. What you can do in that situation is use a sand wedge and open the face and play it sort of like a little splash shot out of the sand. When you lay the face open a bit, the bounce of the club gets the leading edge moving through the grass better with less chance of the rough grabbing the hosel
Keep Those Chips Crisp
Even tour pros miss greens every round. Check the latest stats and you’ll see that they miss greens roughly between 30% and 50% of the time. That means that they need a solid short game to have a chance at getting up and down for par. That also means that most of us may miss even more greens each round. Depending on how much we miss greens by, we’re likely to find ourselves in chipping situations a few times every round. Those few strokes can mean the difference between an up and down for par and a bogey or worse. My chipping has improved a lot this year after I made two improvements that were causing me trouble. First, I was standing too far from the ball. This kept me from being able to just let my arms move freely back and through. I was having to guide the club head at the ball which caused inconsistency. The second thing I did was narrow my stance considerably. I now play chips with my feet almost
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