How to shoot low numbers

Saturday, November 16, 2013

You've heard it before and you're about to hear it again: if you want to go low, you need a wicked short game. This is the area we never stop working on, and some of the lessons I have learned on tour from some of the finest exponents in the business just might help you. I hope the following ideas give you some real positives to work on - and some fun shots to try along the way.

Its not the quality of your ball-striking that wins you tournaments. All the guys on tour hit it good - some hit better than others. Some hit it further than others. But the fact remains that the short game is king. And while I consider myself to be a pretty tidy player around the greens, there's definitely room for improvement.

I am not in the Ernie Els or Tiger Woods league. For me to make the jump from the top-40 in the world to the top-10, this is where I am going to have to work on bridging the gap.

I have spent a lot of time working on my swing and it's only been in the last couple of years that I have turned up the heat around the green.

My coach, Claude Harmon, has helped enormously, and a few other players have given me a few tips that I will try to explain to you through the course of this article.

Ernie is a particularly interesting player to watch. He has a different type of technique to most players in that he plays a lot of his short shots with a fairly stiff-wristed action - even bunker shots. A lot of guys cannot pull that off the way he does. We have spent quite a lot of time together and you cannot help but pick up ideas from a player of his ability. It was Ernie who taught me the value of using a

weak left-hand grip when chipping -something you should definitely try. At the Masters this year, wedge-wizard Jose Maria Olazabal taught me a wild lob shot that I think is pretty cool, the details of which are also in here.

The main thing I have learned is that players like Ernie and Tiger allow their imagination to come out and they choose the right shot at the right time. That's the real key here. Strategy in shot selection is so important. You have to be relaxed enough to allow your imagination to come out and pick the right shot. If you are tense or tight about something, you are likely to pick the wrong shot. So, with that in mind, let's have a look at some of the ways in which I guarantee you can improve your short game and start shooting lower numbers.

Chipping

Technique & strategy

I believe the smart strategy in chipping is to get the ball on the deck and running at the hole as soon as possible. I aim to land the ball a yard or two on to the green and get it rolling just like a putt. One of the most important adjustment that I make as I get set up is to run the shaft fairly high through the palm of my left hand. This is something I picked up from Ernie. A weak left-hand grip quietens hand action, and so puts the emphasis on a simple shoulder-controlled motion (sequence below). As you can see, the hands remain passive throughout the stroke.

When I find myself on the fringe, playing to a near-cut pin (above), there's only one thought in my mind: I'm trying to hole it. I'm 10 yards away, I have a great lie, I'm on good greens, I know how the ball is going to react. So, in this case using my sand iron, I'm thinking in terms of landing the ball perhaps a yard on to the green and reading the line just like a putt. In this case I'd say it's a cup to a cup and a half left of the hole.

For precision, read every chip like a putt

Once I have this visual etched in my mind, it's all about precision - hence the reason I work on a technique that basically takes the wrist hinge out of the equation. Moving on to the set-up, over a fairly narrow and open stance, I settle my weight on the left side, just as I do to putt. And the key thing is my weight stays left while my head stays absolutely still .

One of the things I am prone to get wrong on this shot is to let my hands get too low, which causes the heel to dig into the ground. For a precise strike, it's important that you stand the club up so that the sole is nice and flush -another reason why running the grip through the palm of the left hand is a good idea.

The stroke itself is then governed by the arms and shoulders, the hands passive. As simple a stroke as you can imagine - head dead still - so that I nip the ball off the turf.

Choose the club for the situation

One of the biggest things I have worked on in the short game is something the physiologist Bob Rotella always emphasizes: when you are standing around the green, you have got to hit the shot you feel you have a good chance of holing. Technique is the least of your worries -all of these shots are played the same way. The trick lies in 'reading' the shot and choosing the right club at the right time. Take the two shots above. On the left I have a shot of around 30 feet, and having picked out my line, I'm visualising a shot that lands a couple of yards on to the green and runs to the hole - in this case, a 9-iron gives me the perfect ratio of flight and roll. With that same, simple technique, all I am thinking about is my target.

The situation on the right is a little more complicated, and a much tougher shot. I now have to roll the ball up the slope and then judge the pace as it runs away from me, downhill to the hole. That's asking a lot, but one thing I do know is that I will have a much easier putt back up the hill than I will if I try to get too cute and leave it short. On longer chip shots like this I think in terms of using less loft - this is a 7-iron -and again read the shot like a long putt. Now I might be thinking in terms of landing the ball about a third of the way to the hole and let¬ting it roll out from there. Again, the technique is exactly as demonstrated earlier: I keep my weight on my left side, create a gentle knee flex towards the target, take one last look at the hole, and go.

Make use of the Hamilton

Like I said earlier, good players know when to choose a certain shot. Think about what Todd Hamilton did on that final playoff hole at Troon. You know what, he was as nervous as hell, but he knew the turf was tight and that it was running as true as a green. So all he had to do was somehow judge the pace and he would hit it inside ten feet. He could have hit a career chip shot and

finished five feet away. Todd chose to chip the ball with his fairway wood - the percentage shot for the situation he was in. For its simplicity, this is a shot more amateurs should use more often. As long as the ground between you and the green is relatively smooth, it can be the ideal solution -particularly off a delicate lie or from fluffy rough like this. The loft on your 3- or 5- wood is sufficient to get the ball to pop up and get over that grass before rolling on like a putt (with barely three or 4 degrees of loft, a putter just doesn't give you that initial flight). Technique is easy, and mostly boils down to comfort. I get my stance quite narrow, a little open. Some players grip right down to the shaft, which is fine. Find out what feels best for you.

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The Spectacular Lob Shot

At Augusta this year, I watched Jose Maria Olazabal hitting these lob shots off tightly cut grass. He was taking a full swing, and the ball was just popping up so beautifully.

Eventually I just plucked up the guts and said: 'How the hell do you do that?'Ollie gave away bits of information slowly but surely. I went to try and do what he told me, and after about 10 minutes I was hitting the shot pretty good. It's tough, but you can do it. What struck me most was just how open both he and the clubface were at the set-up, as I am demonstrating here. Ollie opened up the clubface until it was lying pretty much flat on the ground. He had the ball way forward in his stance, and I noticed that he played it right out of the heel of the wedge.

Once he was comfortable, he then made this wonderful full swing on the line of his toes and the ball popped up like it was in slow motion...

Clearly, you need a few things to be in your favour before you even think about playing this type of shot. First of all, you've got to feel confident. Second, a little bit of an upslope would help - if it's on a downslope forget it. Third, you need a pretty decent lie. If the ball is on hardpan or sitting in a slight depression you have to adjust your thinking; I'd be playing a regular chip shot and take my chances on holing the 10- or 15- footer left.

Minimize bounce, maximize loft...

The back of the sole of my sand iron has been ground down a little to remove some of the bounce, so when I open it up the leading edge is not that far raised up from the ground. Its sits quite flush. That helps. I don't want to be trying this shot with a club that has a high degree of bounce, and neither do you!

Before I go ahead and play this (see over), let me stress that while this is is a shot you might play once in a blue moon during a tournament, practicing it does wonders for your confidence and also for your general wedge and bunker play.

To get this spot on, you have to have total control of the delivery of the clubhead. And the better you get that, the better your short game generally.

As I watched Ollie at Augusta, I noticed that he didn't employ much wrist break - in that regard he played this shot with the same 'scything' sort of action that Nick Faldo once showed me out of thick rough. Ollie really keeps his wrists passive, and that's the key to playing this successfully. With relatively stiff wrists you get the same 'low point' on every swing. I sense that I hinge my wrists a fraction (but only a natural flexing as I reach the top of the backswing) and then I release it all through impact. You really do have to get aggressive. With that much loft in play, you need to swing the clubhead fast to get the ball going forward.

Key Points

- Set your body line way left of the target line 

- Play the ball way forward - that helps the elevation 

- Make sure you have room for your arms to swing. A sense that you are 'reaching' fractionally for the ball helps 

- Trust in the club as you swing back and through along your body line 

- Because the clubface is wide open, you really have to rip it!

Just like playing a sand shot. 

Its vital that you open the clubface before you complete your grip.

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Making a Splash-2

A sharp play There isn't a player in the world who can put backspin on a ball that is plugged in the sand. It's just not possible. So first and foremost you have to be realistic in this situation: the ball is going to pop out with over-spin and will want to run on the green, so take a good look at the shot and identify the safest landing area. If there's trouble beyond the flag, that may be to a wider, safe area of the green. Once you have the shot in your mind, take a fairly 'square' set-up, your weight favouring your left side, and visualise a fairly steep up-and-down swing that enables you to dig the leading edge into the sand behind the ball. Only with practice will you learn how to regulate your effort to have the ball fly a certain distance. But as long as you strike down into the sand, the ball will come out.

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Making a Splash

Joining the pro ranks has taught me the real value of short-game skills. Ball-striking is obviously important, but when you analyse the way that tournaments are won and lost, it all comes down to getting the ball into the hole: getting up and down. That's why we spend so much time working on pitching, chipping, putting and sand play. And if you want to see any improvement in your own scoring, that's what you must do.

Let me share with you some of my thoughts on bunker play, an area of the short game that you absolutely have to get to grips with. As ever, the key is to practise - and I hope this helps.

A storm in a sand trap?

A theme you need to pick up on right away is the sense of acceleration right through the shot. Good players are quite aggressive. Don't let the fact that you may only want the ball to travel 10 or 15 yards cause you to 'dolly' the shot, decelerating the clubhead weakly into the sand. For a real sense of splashing the ball up and out of the trap, you need to commit yourself to releasing the club all the way to a finish.

You are no doubt familiar with the usual rules of engagement: to utilise the 'bounce', you open the clubface before you make your grip and then compensate with your body alignment (something like 30 degrees open in relation to the target-line is the norm). The open clubface will bounce through the sand as long as you trust it and swing normally to a finish.

Always work with the slope

Your chief concern when you find your ball on a slope like this is getting yourself set up to it in such a way that you are able to establish and maintain good balance throughout the swing. And the key to doing that is to let your weight fall naturally on to the lower foot - in this case, the right foot. The rules allow you to wriggle your feet in the sand to create a stable footing, and this is what you have to do in order to create some sort of stability in the lower body.

At the same time, I suggest that you draw the left foot back from the target line a few inches (i.e. adopt a slightly open stance) as this gives you a better view of the shot your are about to play and gives you a headstart in clearing your body out of the way for impact to make way for the strike.

Once you are set-up, executing the shot is all about the hands and arms. There is no weight shift at all in the course of the swing - on this delicate footing you don't want any. The more anchored your base the greater your balance and the more chance you have of striking the sand precisely at your chosen spot behind the ball.

How far behind the ball should that be? The answer is not far at all. Because the ball is sitting on an upslope, you are naturally going to swing the clubhead into a wall of sand. Aiming about an inch behind the ball is usually about right. And you need to hit this hard - at least as hard as you can without losing your balance. An early wrist hinge creates clubhead speed and momentum, which you use to bury the head.

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How to Par on a Links Course

The only certainty when playing a links course is this. With the wind that's certain to blow and the wild bounces that are so common to links golf, we're going to miss greens. That means the winner will have to show some creativity and touch to save par - or even make a good bogey when double or triple could be in play.

Classic links courses like Troon have a wide variety of slopes, valleys and run-up areas around their greens. On these courses, a straightforward chip shot is not always going to work.

When I won at Muirfield in 2002, it was because I felt comfortable playing three shots I don't hit as often at a regular PGA Tour stop - a lob shot to a tight pin, a bump-and-run chip into a hill and a putt from well off the green.

Even if you don't play many true links courses, you'll have more confidence in your short game if you have more options available to you.

I've used these shots everywhere from Dubai to Augusta. It's great to have them when you need them.

1) Fly it to the hole

If there's not much room between the edge of the green and the flag, you've got to hit a high shot to get it close. Set up with your shoulders more level with the slope and your hands forward, ahead of the ball. The upslope will help you hit a high, soft-landing shot with your sand-wedge, so you don't need to help the ball get up. Make a firm, downward strike.

2) Bump it into the hill

3) Roll it with the putter

If you have flat, reasonably good turf between you and the green - fairway or fringe grass, and no sprinkler heads or other hazards - a long putt is never a bad choice instead of a chip. Wind is less of a factor when you keep the ball on the ground, and this shot is certainly easier on the nerves when you're in a pressure situation.

You can miss-hit it a little bit and still get decent results. I've used this shot from as far away as 20 yards off the green. The key is to make a full, firm, downswing and follow-through.

Feel the weight of the putter in your practice stroke, make your decision about speed, then forget about the consequences and let the shot go. If you decelerate and hit it tentatively, you might not even get the ball to the putting surface.

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The Nipper

What is the nipper?

I call this short pitch 'the nipper' because you nip the ball from the grass with a clean, firm, downward blow. You don't take much of a divot, if any.

The shot flies with a lower trajectory, takes one hop, then skids to a stop. It helps to use a soft-cover, high-spin ball.

Big tee shots and long birdie putts are popular with the fans, but I get more questions from my pro-am partners about my nipper than any other shot.

The nipper looks like a tour player's shot. It stays low, takes one hop and stops. I use it any¬where from 20 to 40 yards off the green. With some practice, you can use it, too.

Here's what you have to work on.

First, play the ball slightly back in your stance. Staying very stable over your legs, turn your shoulders until your arms get to waist height. Keep your left wrist firm and hit the ball first, with a fairly aggressive, descending blow.

You're turning sand-wedge loft into 9-iron loft, which makes the shot fly low and spin a lot.

The biggest mistakes average players make are using too much hand action to try to create spin and taking a big divot in an effort to hit down on the ball.

Hit the ball first and you'll create plenty of spin. I might take a little bit of grass - after I hit the ball - but nothing like the divot I would take on a full-wedge swing.

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On balance, this is better...

Try this simple drill to improve your chipping technique: with your weight on your left side, you can develop a repeating chipping stroke and enjoy a consistent ball-turf strike...

Having the ability to consistently control the bottom of the swing arc is perhaps the biggest single key to developing your chipping skills around the green. Good technique revolves around creating a balance and body position at the set up that enables you to control the movement with the upper body so that the arms swing freely and return the clubhead on a consistent path.

The majority of faults in this arena of the short game stem from a tendency to want to help (scoop) the ball up into the air (as illustrated in the sequence below). As a result, there are a lot of golfers out there who tend to reverse their weight onto the back foot as they swing the clubhead through impact – a fault that automatically causes the low point in the arc to fall behind the ball. So the shot is either hit fat, or the clubhead skids and catches the top of the ball, causing it to be skulled across the green. Either way, the result ain’t pretty and you waste an awful lot of shots around the green.

Draw right foot back and balance it on the toe of the right shoe. At the same time, flex your left leg as you gently lean your weight to the target. Weight remains on that left side throughout as you work on cultivating a silky-smooth swing, the upper body controlling the swinging motion of the arms

Controlling the motion with the shoulders/upper body, let your arms swing freely to create the chipping stroke. Your weight remains on that left side throughout

The beauty of this exercise is that as soon as you adjust your set up position as I have above – i.e. you draw your right foot back from the left and balance on the toe of the right shoe – your weight distribution is automatically taken care of. Try it right now in front of a mirror. As soon as you draw that right foot back and balance your posture on the toe of the right shoe, you will feel the sensation of your upper body leaning gently towards the target as you flex the left leg to stabilise your position. The majority of your weight will now be supported on the left side – where you want it to remain as you go to work on your basic chipping technique.

Play the ball just back of your left heel, and let your hands find a natural position, leaning the shaft gently to the target. There’s noting to stop you hitting shots like this out on the course.

THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO AVOID:

This is what I mean by wanting to 'scoop' at the ball and help it up into the air. The tendency among many amateur players is to lean back as the club is returned to impact – i.e. the player's weight is moving in the opposite direction to the swing. As a result, the bottom of the swing arc falls some way before the ball, and in this instance the club has literally bounced over the top of the ball, imparting only a glancing blow, skulling the shot.

By simply adjusting your stance – as per the exercise above – you can clearly see the way in which good posture putts you in a good position to deliver a crisp downward strike on the back of the ball. With the upper body leaning gently towards the target, weight on the left side, your hands and arms automatically swing the club down to bruise the turf after the ball.

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Out in a Splash-2

Turn, hinge and release for a successful escape

Looking at the sequence from face on, I want to make a couple of observations that can further help you to avoid making some common errors. First of all, look at how 'centred' I am at the set-up (at left above).

If anything, I actually feel that my weight is leaning a little left towards the target. That's very different to leaning back off the shot, with too much weight falling on the back foot (left) - a position we see a lot of at our golf schools.

This fault stems from a player's desire to want to get behind and under the ball, but one that actually results in a player hitting the sand too far behind the ball. The further you lean your upper body behind the ball, the harder it is to deliver the club precisely into the sand on your chosen spot.

No! Too much weight on the right side - for this shot, you actually want to feel that you lean towards the target.	No! Turning off the ball hurts your consistency; try to remain 'centred' as you make your swing, as I have above

Work the line - Improve your consistency

Good bunker players have pin-point control when it comes to delivering the sole of the sand-iron into the sand. This is something you have to work on improving when you practise, and this easy exercise will help you.

All you have to do is score a line in the sand and then try to remove a consistent cut from either side of that line, about two inches ahead of the line as you make initial con¬tact and perhaps three inches beyond as the clubhead makes its exit.

Not too deep. Make it a nice shallow divot of sand.

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Out in a Splash

Let me show you the do's and don't that lie behind a successful bunker technique.

Good sand play involves utilising the 'bounce' provided by the flange on your sand-iron, and to do that you have to open up the face a little (also adding loft) before you complete your set-up.

Here's an easy way to get used to a good position when you practise (you cannot touch the sand out on the course, remember).

Start by aiming the leading edge at the target, then simply lay back the shaft to add loft.

The key now is to shuffle your body around until the butt-end is pointing at your belly-button - i.e. your body and the club are in the same relationship as normal (below).

The leading edge is square to the target, your hands, arms and body now in a regular position, albeit aligned slightly to the left of the target.

When you now take your normal grip, the clubface is open to your alignment, but aiming nicely at the pin.

A common mistake is opening your body too severely in relation to the target line. For a regular greenside shot such as this, standing with your feet, hips and shoulders something like 30 degrees open to the target is ideal.

That gives you a good 'look' at the shot, while at the same time allowing you to swing the club back and through on a fairly orthodox line.

You will note also that I have gripped down the shaft a little and that the hands fall comfortably beneath my chin.

A sense of addressing the ball with low hands at the set-up encourages the full wrist hinge that enables you to maintain (if not increase) that open clubface position on the way to the top.

Swing along body line

Hands swing left (along body line) while the open clubface is seen to be outside the hands as it skims through the sand.

That maintains the open club face.

The left wrist is cupping up towards the sky - another key to keeping that face open.

The backswing follows the line of the toes - that's your best thought from a good set-up.

Don't make the mistake of picking the club up excessively outside the line of your toes or pulling it too far to the inside. This is probably the worst fault of all; inside and shut really is a killer move.

So trust your set-up and go with the flow of your body line. A three-quarter swing with a full hinge of the wrists gets you in a good position at the top.

The legs and knees support the motion but there's little weight shift to speak of.

Good players remain 'centred' over the ball -their weight, if anything, favouring the left side.

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How to Hit the Pro Wedge

Growing up in Shreveport, Louisianna, I learned to stay out of the hot sun whenever possible. I used to practise in the shade of a big oak tree just off the driving range at my old home course, Palmetto Country Club, but the tree didn't have any grass growing around it.

If you tried to scoop the ball off the packed dirt, you'd most likely hit a chunk shot. To hit it solidly, you had to keep your hands ahead of the clubhead and your body moving through impact - in other words, you had to 'pinch' the ball off the turf.

That's how I developed a punch-style wedge shot that I call the 'skipper'. It's a low-flying shot that usually bounces a couple of times on the green and stops dead. Now, on the PGA Tour, I rarely get a dirt lie, but I still look for opportunities to hit my skipper. It's the easiest way I know to make solid contact and control distance with my wedges.

If you're like most amateurs, you try to pitch the ball high, hoping you guess right on the distance. Instead, try my skipper from 30 to 100 yards. It stays under the wind, bores at the flag, takes two hops and pulls up next to the hole...

Birdie time.

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