10 Essential Short Game Lessons

Teaching the graduates of the Challenge Tour at San Roque during MacGregor Week earlier this year highlighted to me once again the importance of the short game and the drills and checkpoints you need to stay sharp around the green. Let me take you through 10 key scoring lessons I believe every player must learn.

1. Sand school - work on the depth and accuracy of the strike

The reason professionals make sand play look easy is that they have such incredible control over the delivery of the clubhead and the depth of sand they remove from beneath the ball. Here's a useful drill to work on improving these skills.

Once you understand the basics of greenside bunker play, find yourself a practice bunker and spread out a few balls, as I have done here.

Draw a line in the sand approximately two inches behind the row of balls and work on thumping that line as you splash them out one by one. As you will quickly discover, the less sand you take (i.e. the closer you hit to the ball) the farther the shot will carry; the more sand you remove the less height and distance you achieve.

Don't be afraid to experiment with the degree to which you open the clubface (that determines the amount of 'bounce' you get from the sand-iron) and the amount of sand you take. Pretty soon you will find that you are able to produce a range of different shots - all based on basic principles.

2. Sand school - learn from the depth & direction of divots

In the last issue I talked about the basic bunker technique - i.e. the need to open both your stance and the clubface, and to swing along the line of the toes. Later on in this feature I will explain how to cope with some of the toughest sand shots, but first let me explain how your divots can help you to monitor the quality of your technique.

Clearly, the way you set-up to play a regular bunker shot encourages you to swing across the ball-to-target line. When this is accomplished correctly the divot of sand that you remove should be seen to point to the left of the target -i.e. it agrees with the line of your swing. If the divot you have taken is not going in the same direction as your feet, then either your shoulders have got out of position, or your wrists are not working correctly during the swing.

Use this visual feedback when you practise and keep an eye on both the alignment of your body and the general line of your swing.

Monitor both the depth and the direction of your divots when you practise.

3. Plugged ball - bury the clubhead in the sand.

One shot that does not require you to take a shallow cut of sand with a lofted clubface is the plugged ball. Quite the opposite, in fact. The challenge here is to get the leading edge of the club beneath the ball in order to get it out. You have to dig, and often the pitching-wedge - with its sharper leading edge - is a better option that the sand-iron. Either way, shove the handle forward until the leading edge is aimed at the sand behind the ball, and play the ball fairly well back in your (still open) stance.

Then make a full and fairly aggressive swing, and thump the sand behind the ball. This is a dig, not a splash, so don't worry about a stylish follow-through. The ball will come out low and run - but it will come out.

4. Pitching - set up revolves around the clubface

The basic rule of short-game work is this: the loft you require on the clubface must be pre¬set before you complete your stance, whereupon the butt-end of the club should be seen to point to the left of your belly-button.

Naturally, to play a low shot you would push the handle of the wedge forward to de-loft trie clubface. Bearing in mind what I've just said about the position of the butt-end, if I complete 

my set-up you can see that the ball is played back in the stance, opposite the inside of the right foot.

If you follow the same procedure to play a higher shot - in this case with the clubface open - you will see that the ball is played forward in the stance, opposite the inside of the left foot. So, the golden rule in all aspects of the short-game is to set the loft on the clubface before you complete your set-up, making sure that the butt-end points to the left of your belly-button. Then you're ready to play.

5. Low hands better than high hands

The way you position your hands at address is very important in terms of your ability to hinge your wrists correctly and make a good swing.

If your hands are too high the wrists are effectively locked, and, as a result, you often see the club guided inside the line too quickly. There is no setting of the wrists, real feel for the shot.

Far better to hold your hands relatively low at address, so that you create a nice angle at the back of the left wrist. This enables the wrists to hinge correctly in the backswing and thus set the club on plane.

One more thing. As I start to swing, you will notice that as the wrist hinges, the initial loft I set on the clubface is retained.

This is very important: skilful players retain the loft they have created by setting the wrists and maintaining that angle through the shot. They don't uncock their wrists to the extent they do for the most powerful shots.

Retaining that angle in the wrist guarantees loft on the clubface. Work on this.