TOP TEN SHORT GAME MISTAKES
Golf Illustrated Article Code 518003
September 30, 2004
Over the years of instructing I have noticed many things that people tend to do incorrectly within their short games that continues to cost these players shot after shot day after day! It pains me to see these wasted shots; furthermore, it screws up your round. The short game expert, Dave Pelz has noted for years that improving the short game is the best way to lower your scores and your subsequent handicap- so I urge you to give it a try! Below you will find the “Top Ten Short Game Mistakes” that I see day after day in my instructional academies. These mistakes below affect the beginning golfer, as well as, the single digit handicapper thus these tip will give you lifelong success around the greens…Enjoy!
Putting:
• The Hand Slap
1. If you will look at the address position of your hands in the mirror you
will notice that the forward wrist is for all intents and purposes “flat,”
while the rear wrist is bent. This allows the hands to lead and power the puttershaft
and putterhead during the putting stroke. When these alignments are maintained
into the backstroke, at impact, and into the follow-through you will have much
better control of the direction and speed of your putts. Remember that the forward
hand controls the direction that the ball leaves the blade, while the rear hand
controls the loft of the blade; thus, if you can’t control your impact
alignments you will surely fail on the greens. In the mirror practice making
strokes monitoring these alignments and you will notice that when you do your
putter blade will have a very solid stroke path driven by the shoulders. At
the finish you should see the same wrist alignments that you began with, if
you see that the rear wrist is flat and the forward wrist is bent then you will
have the dreaded “hand slap” that causes many people to putt poorly.
This is a “look, look, look” situation and all it takes to eliminate
this slap once and for all is a few daily strokes in the mirror monitoring your
hands, The Golfing Machine 5-0.
• The Illusion of the Puttershaft
1. If you address the putter in the mirror, look down, you will see that from
the player’s eyes the clubshaft looks perpendicular to the ground. However,
if you look up in the mirror you will see that the shaft is leaning backwards
slightly- this is the Illusion of the Puttershaft! Putter manufactures have
placed the shaft behind the blade for whatever reasons, but it is up to the
player to understand this illusion because it is different with all putters!
If you do not then you will always place the hands behind the putterhead at
address and if you do then you will find it impossible for the hands to lead
the club through impact. A good rule of thumb is to forward press your hands
to the first belt-loop targetward of the belt buckle…this usually puts
the puttershaft into better position. You must take the time to use your eyes
and your mirror to understand this principle, because only you know what you
see from above, so you must decipher the correct position of your hands and
clubshaft even though the eyes are receiving poor information due to the “Illusion
of the Puttershaft!”
Chipping:
• The Ball’s Position
1. What is the most deadly mistake in chipping- the dreaded chili-dip! I hate
to see anyone slap at it and move the ball about two-feet, it is almost as deadly
as the outright shank! Whenever I see the chili-dip, I usually notice one thing
right from the start, even before the backstroke has begun- the ball’s
position. In order to hit the ball effectively you must have the ball in front
of your rear foot so that you impart a descending blow to the ball while using
the proper type of swing that will be described below. Most of the time I notice
in my chipping lessons that the ball is center to forward in the stance asking-
no begging- to be mis-hit! Please take the time place the ball in the proper
position in your stance from the beginning or you will have a tougher time with
chipping than you really need to have. It is from this distance that you should
be thinking about making a few from off the green, not struggling to hit it
solid.
• Use a Putting Stroke, NOT a Hit
1. Now that you have the ball in the correct position, directly in front of
your rear toe, the next thing is to allow the club the ability to produce very
solid and controllable shots while this close to the green. The biggest mistake
I see with chipping, next to the improper ball position, is using a “hitting”
type of motion as you would use in your full swing causing the impact alignments
(mentioned in the putting section) to break down. This soft shot requires a
“putting” stroke where the hands are dead with no wrist break on
the way back or through! This is the key to chipping well and the biggest mistake
I see from day to day. The “hit” will cause your hands to become
overactive through the ball and this will cause the ball to leave the blade
in an uncontrolled fashion. Around the greens, especially in chipping, you need
all the “touch” possible because if you are this close to the green
you should at least get up and down fifty percent of the time or more…use
your putting stoke and you will see just how much easier this will become!
Pitching:
• The Role of the Ball’s Position
1. The first question I ask anyone trying to hit a pitch shot is what trajectory
are you going to use? If they can answer that question then the next question
I ask them is what ball position accommodates the trajectory you are trying
to use? Ninety percent of the time I see players trying to hit pitch shots with
the ball in the rear of their stances- this is fine if you are trying to hit
it low but if you have another trajectory in mind then you must move the ball
around or you will have to manipulate your weight and/or hands through the ball
which is an unreliable action at best! I will give you a simple way to hit the
ball varying trajectories all by moving the ball around in your stance. Yes,
there are other ways to hit the ball higher or lower, but this is the most foolproof
way I know to keep it very simple. If you are trying to hit the ball high, put
the ball in the forward portion of your stance. If you are trying to hit the
ball your normal height then place the ball under your sternum. Finally, if
you desire to hit the ball lower place the ball in the rear portion of your
stance. These three simple ball positions much match up with the shot you are
trying to hit or you are history around the greens for sure.
• The Shank
1. Oops….I shanked it! Damn the SHANK, nothing in the world can ruin your
day faster than the shank for sure, but in order to get out of this dilemma
you must first understand WHY you are shanking it. Article after article have
been written about techniques that get you out of shanking it but few I have
read address the real problem- the swing’s path. When you shank the ball
you are either moving severely in to out or severely out to in, whatever the
reason, the bottom line is that if you don’t know which swing path you
are using to shank the ball then you will be trying to find a needle in a haystack!
Two simple drills for the shanker…first for the in to out shank- place
a headcover or board just outside your target line and you will be forced to
make a better pivot motion through the ball curing the in to out path. This
drill is very effective because unless you have instant feedback as to when
you move too much from the inside by hitting the headcover. Drill number two
for the out to in shanker…place a headcover just outside the ball but
angling into right field (for the right handed golfer). Try and make swings
from the inside, trying to hit the extreme inside of the ball but not hitting
the headcover. This will force your swing path to be from the inside not over
the top as you have in the past. These two drills work best if you start with
small pitch shots and work op from there SLOWLY. You must gain your confidence
first, and then you can add speed!
Bunkers:
• Improper Side Bending at Address
1. It seems that most people tend to hit the ball fat or thin out of the bunkers,
if you seem to always hit it fat then this is the tip for you. In the regular
shot set-up you will always have your spine leaning rearward, but in bunkers
you want just the opposite. Your spine in the bunker should lean slightly to
the forward of center this causes the low point of your swing to occur later
than normal eliminating the fat shots. When you lean your spine too much to
the rear at address then you will find that your weight will tend to “hang
back” through impact increasing the probability that the low point of
the swing arc will occur too early- fat shots. This hang back will also cause
many other things to happen but if you want to avoid all these poor shots then
just simply lean your spine to the left. Using the “line” drill
and this new spine tilt you will be better able to track when the club bottoms
out and this will help you to have renewed consistency out of the bunkers like
never before.
• The “U” versus the “V”
1. When you hit the ball thin and over the green head high at Mach 1 then you
will be like the millions of golfer who don’t understand the “angle
of attack” and what it will do to the ball’s flight out of a bunker.
Most golf shots are struck with a “U” type of action, where the
club gently rises and falls, like the letter “U.” But, in a bunker
when you are trying to hit a softer shot to a tight pin, you must hit the sand
first. To do this you must re-arrange your swing’s path to look like a
“V.” This quick setting of the wrists and steeper angle of attack
will cause you to hit the sand behind the ball, your job is to keep moving and
not cut the forward swing off! If you are successful in changing your angle
of attack then you will notice that for shorter shots the “V” is
best and for very long bunker shots, where a lower shot is more acceptable,
the “U” will work as long as you set your wrists enough to hit the
sand. Experiment and you will love the results!
Mental:
• Where to Leave the Ball
1. During schools I see people hitting shots around the green with absolutely
no regard for where they are leaving the ball. I would rather have a day of
ten-foot uphill right to left putts (as a right handed player) than five-foot
downhill left to right sliding putts on fast greens. If you doubt this fact
come to Cordillera or La Quinta and hit the ball above the hole! Remember this
in darts you aim at a very small target on the board, not at the total board,
and thus, your dispersion pattern is very tight to your target. Golf is the
same way, if you just aim at the hole you will have a wide array of shot and
putts to make but if you aim at a certain quadrant of the hole then you will
find a much tighter dispersion of shot not to mention easier putts in general!
• Dial-a-Shot
1. When people in come up to the green and have a simple pitch shot I usually
see them grab the lob wedge and head off to the other side of the green to hit
their shot. This is the last thing I try and have my students do! I want you
to have options-“dial-a-shot” the pros call it- where you have one
shot with several ideas on how to play it. There are times where the shot calls
for one type of execution but your nerves call for another or vice-versa. If
you only have one way to play shots around the greens then you are severely
limiting yourself on the golf course. Take the time to experiment with different
clubs under different circumstances and you will see that sometimes a putter
is a better choice over the seven-iron, or the lob wedge is better than the
pitching wedge. Whatever the choice take your time to think and identify what
you are trying to do and you will be much happier with the results.
I hope by now you have seen that these mistakes plague many players from good to bad…take your time and eliminate the Top Ten mistakes and your scores will lower. I guarantee it!