The Cock-And-Pop From The Sand

I learned this at one of Dave Pelz three-day schools that I attended and I absolutely love it.  This shot is spectacular; most people are scared to death of the lies that this shot is used for.  It works every time.  Well, almost every time.  I really think you’ll love this shot.

When you have a lie In the sand; whether it is one third buried, fried egg, or completely buried, when there is not much green between the ball in the hole, you might want to try this shot.

Just as you do when playing from a nasty lie in the grass, the cock in pop calls for violating most of the rules of a good finesse swing. You are most concerned with is supplying enough power to get the ball out, some of it must come from a hand and wrist muscle pop, and you are going to have no follow-through.

Play the ball from the normal positions for all three lies.  That would be off of the instep of your front foot. The difference is that you want to cock your wrists as much as you can early in the backswing, which shortens the radius of your swing.  This gives you the ability to make a very descending blow into the sand, popping the ball up and without too much forward power, because of your own abbreviated follow through.

The same technique works on the completely buried lie, but you have to supply even more pop, so a lot more sand comes out.  The more you follow through with this shot, the surer you are of getting the ball out and onto the green, but the father it will roll.  Don’t get to cute, or exacting, with this shot unless you have practiced in many, many times.

Try this shot the next time you have one of these terrible lies in the sand.  But before you do, make sure you get into a practice bunker and spend some time practicing this shot from the difference lies that I mentioned earlier.  When I demonstrate this shot to my students they all are in awe.  It is almost like a magic shot.  My students honestly don’t believe that I can get the ball out of the sand and that easily.  In fact, I could not believe that I could get the ball out of the sand that easily, before I’d learned the swing.  I can now get the ball out of the bunker almost every time now.  Most of the time the ball is close enough to the hole to make the putt.

Put some time in the practice bunker practicing with the terrible lies that I mentioned above, and you will have great success with the cock and pop shot.  I guarantee it!

Bunker Swing "Set Up Fundamentals"

The fundamentals of the bunker swing have been written, said and shown many different ways over the years. In fact, I have found that most people are totally confused about what to do when they get into a bunker. Most of the time what they do is not correct. There is so much anxiety that one feels when he or she gets into a sand trap. Most of the time golfers brains go blank, their muscles get tight, their breathing rate increases, they swing faster similar to swinging an ax and all they want to do is just get out of the bunker!
So when I tried to teach the bunker swing to someone, I am fighting many negative thoughts and feelings. I've found that simple is better. When people get too many thoughts in their heads, they will never get the ball out of the bunker, unless they are lucky.
Let's make this simple, shall we? Yes we shall.
First let's discuss the set-up. Remember, 95% of swing errors derive from an improper setup. So let's discuss a simple sand swing set up.
Your feet should be 14 to 18 inches apart, about shoulder width. Stand tall, with knees slightly flexed, upper body Bending forward slightly from my hips, and we centered on the balls of your feet. Let your arms hanging loosely, almost straight down from your shoulders, leaving 4 to 6 inches of space between your hands and legs.
Use a neutral too weak grip, and reasonably light grip pressure. Your upper hand should be about 1/4 of an inch from the butt end of the club. You should be able to feel the club head as you waggle and swing.
Don't crouch, is this pushes your arms away from your body and flattens your swing plane, which is determined by your size and posture. With short clubs such as your wedges, your body is fairly close to the ball, so your swing plane should be quite steep.
When you're in the sand, remember to set up and aim slightly to the left of your target, open your club face wide, in position your ball on a line with the inside all of your left heel.
Hopefully, if you follow these simple set up fundamentals, your ability to perform a simple and effective bunker swing will follow and your shots will fly out of the sand more consistently.

Learn To Be Successful With Your Sand Shots From The Sand

One of the most intimidating shots in golf is the fairway bunker shot.  Most people have a problem with bunker shots that are around the green.  When someone’s steps into a bunker that is 150 yards or more from the green the mental anxiety begins.  I would like to say that it should not be intimidating.  I think a bunker shot from around the green is much more difficult.

You must consider that a greenside bunker shot is a somewhat different swing and technique than your normal golf swing.  Were-as the fairway bunker shot is very similar to that of a fairway shot from the grass.  Considering these two factors, one must realize that the chances of success should be quite good from a fairway bunker.

Once you find yourself in a fairway bunker the first thing to do is access this situation.  How deep is it?  Many of these bunkers having raised lead and you must choose a club with enough loft on it too clear the lip of the bunker, even if it is not enough club to get you to the green.  Your number one priority is to get out of these bunkers successfully, even if the situation does not allow you to reach the green.

As I said, that technique for playing out of a fairway bunker is completely different from that used for hitting a shot out of a greenside bunker.  From the greenside bunker we are splashing the sand out of the bunker and not actually hitting the ball.  From the fairway bunker we are most definitely trying to hit the ball.

Provided you can clear the look on the fairway bunker, always take at least one more club, or maybe two, then you need for the required distance.  Shuffle your feet into the sand to create a stable base contacting the sand under your shoes.  Remember, we are trying to hit the ball first.  In order to compensate for our feet now being below the ball, we need to grip down on the club.  Some people call this choking down on the club, but I prefer not to use the word to choke.

Your ball position is very important; we should play the ball a little farther back in the stance than normal.  This will steepen the angle of attack and help us to hit the ball before contacting any sand.

We are now ready to hit the shot.  It is important that you keep your lower body quiet or passive during the swing, to hit the fairway bunker shot.  Too much movement with the lower body will likely lead to inconsistent strikes, the result being either fat or thinned shots.

Provided there is little or no luck on the bunker, a thin shot can work out really well.  A fat shot, however, will not go very far at all.  This and will absorb most of the power generated and the result will be very similar to that of a greenside bunker shot

Keeping the lower body quiet, making three-quarter quarter backswing, and focusing on hitting the golf ball first will make the shots much easier.  Remember two swing with conviction through impact and swing all the way too full finish.

Find a fairway bunker where you play, make that time and throat 20 years so balls in it.  By the time you have practiced the technique outlined here, you’ll have no fear of fairway bunkers. 

Chipping from the Bunker

Many golfers make the sand trap shot more difficult than it has to be.  This is because they were taught that the only way to come out of the trap is with an explosion shot, a rather unnatural stroke for the beginner since the club head has to strike the sand behind the ball and does not strike the ball itself.

There are a number of occasions when the lie of the ball and the lay of the land make playing an explosion shot unnecessary and even unwise. Whenever the bank of the trap is low and there is enough putting surface between the trap and the hole, a golfer would be more sensible to play a variation on a chip shot—with the club head contacting the ball cleanly and lofting it onto the green. Allow for some roll. 

A chip from the sand is played the same as a chip from any other lie, with two modifications. First, you grip the club low on the shaft, as far down as the bottom of the leather if this is comfortable. Secondly, glue your eyes on the left half of the ball rather than on the right half as you do on ordinary shots. This enables you to deliver a clean, descending blow, and that is the essence of all chip shots.

Distance Control From Greenside Bunkers

When I ask the average golfer how they control their distances hitting shots out of greenside bunkers, the standard responses are: Vary where the club hits behind the ball, swing harder or softer, grip up or down on the club, or just pray!  Only one of those answers is correct, gripping up or down on the club.  Praying may help, but we have yet to prove that theory.  Gripping up or down on the club can help vary your distance control, but that’s not the whole story. Throughout my amateur and professional playing career I never really had a good understanding of proper distance control in the bunker.  For shorter shots I would try to hit four, five, even six inches behind the ball and for longer shots about one or two inches behind the ball.  But I never really became very good at the guessing game, nor did I become a very good bunker player.  I now understand why.  I didn’t have the correct knowledge that would allow me to hit the shots properly.  Most amateurs also lack that knowledge. When watching golf on television one rarely hears any mention of what club is being used out of greenside bunkers.  In the past year or so I have heard announcers mention during different broadcasts that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson use clubs other than just a sand wedge out of bunkers. Phil was hitting pitching wedge for a twenty yard bunker shot and Tiger hit an eight iron for a thirty yard shot, which also happens to be the clubs I use for those same shots.  I believe that many golfers assume that because the club has “sand” written on it, that it is the club to use for all greenside bunker shots.  But the name of the club doesn’t have anything to do with its performance in the sand or anywhere else. When asking how to control the distance of your shots, here is how NOT to do it: 1.       Don’t change the rhythm of your swing.  Keep it constant. 2.       Don’t change how close you hit behind the ball.  Usually between two and five inches behind the ball will work nicely.  Just let it happen.  Don’t force it. 3.       Don’t change how hard you swing through the sand.  Your natural swing speed will do. The easiest way to vary the distance of your sand shots is to use clubs of different lengths and lofts, while keeping your backswing the same.  The backswing length should be at 9:00 o’clock, where your leading arm is parallel to the ground at the top of the backswing.  Your wrists should be cocked fully so there is a 90 degree angle between your lead arm and your club. I recommend using four wedges, 49 degree pitching wedge, 56 sand, 60 lob and the ultimate scoring club, the 64 degree extra lob wedge.  The 64 and 60 degree wedges have more loft than the standard 56 degree sand wedge, and work incredibly well on shorter bunker shots.  Try them, you won’t believe what happens.  The pitching wedge through the six iron are also clubs of choice.  All eight clubs will work with pleasantly surprising results, providing you play the ball forward in your stance, off of your forward instep, open the clubface 45 degrees so the leading edge doesn’t dig in the sand (the bottom and back of the club should bounce and scoot through the sand) and finally, make a great follow-through! Go to the practice area and calibrate your 64 degree through 6 iron distances.  These distances should cover any distance situation from just around the green to 50 or 60 yards away.  With practice you will blast your way to shots closer to the hole and you will lower your scores.

Secret of Feedback; Rule # 5: Hold Your Finish While You Learn

If you want your short game to be the best it can be, you must be able to see and feel the swing you need, to produce the shot you want, before you need it. This mind's eye and visualization must happen before you swing so it can help you make the perfect motion. 
The only way to achieve this ability is with experience, seeing and feeling how different swings cause different golf ball behaviors. You can't learn this by watching someone else hit, from videotapes, or from books. Those can teach you why and what to do and how it is done. But you must make the swings yourself show so you can add feel to the swings you observed, giving your mind's eye the complete correlation between actions and results. Once the feelings in images are internalize and accurate in your mind's eye, make enough practice swings until you see and feel the one that will produce the results you want. 
What do I mean by "holding your finish"? Remain in the completed follow-through position of the swing, without moving, so you have the feel of that swing as the ball lands. This simultaneous experience of shot result and swing feel is what enables a golfer to learn and internalize the swing mechanics/ball flight correlations for future use in the short game. If you hold your finishes until your shots land, you learn these correlations. With continued practice you will develop great touch. If you don't hold your finish, as soon as you stand up, step back, look away, or turn your back, you lose the feel of the swing and with it the chance to learn another swing/result correlation. Unfortunately, this is exactly what most golfers do and why their practice doesn't help them when they get to the course. 

The secret of feedback can be summed up this way: if you are raking and beating balls; if you or not set up with good aim; if you're not getting good distance feedback from your shots; if you're not aware of the trajectories of your shots; and if you're not forming a habit of holding your finishes, then you would be better off lying on your back, looking at the sky, and dreaming about a good short game.  

Secret of Feedback; Rule # 4: Watch the Trajectory of Each Shot

Watch most golfers hitting wedge shots on the practice range and what you see are people beating balls. They think they're working on their wedge games, but all they're really doing is making a wedge swing, striking the ball, taking a quick glance to see whether or not it's airborne, then looking back at the pile of balls and raking another into place for the next swing. They don't watch how far the ball flies, they don't notice how high it goes, and they sometimes don't even have a target in mind. They have no idea what they, or their shots, are doing. 
Whenever I see a "rake and beater,"  I wait until he's hit a ball in begun looking for the next one to hit, then I say, "look at me, please." Once I have his attention, I ask, without looking back, what did that shot just do? Where did that ball go? Most of the time they can't tell me. They have learned absolutely nothing, so they have wasted the time it took to get ball and body into position and make the swing. This isn't practice, because they aren't learning anything. It's just exercise. 
Not that I'm against exercise. I just prefer exercise with good feedback, which is just as much fun, just as healthy, and has the added benefit that it helps you become a better golfer. So I want you to learn to notice and care about the height and character of each shots trajectory, and make it a habit to watch your shots and flight. If you are making a true finesse swing, with no hand-muscle control and no hitting action, you will create consistent trajectories and a consistent, repeatable amount of backspin on the shots as the land. (To evaluate backspin, you occasionally must hit to a well maintained greens service for feedback on your shots bounce and roll behavior, particularly on shots inside 30 yards.)

These are the questions you should be answering after every shot you hit: did it land the distance you wanted? Or was it too long or too short? Instinctively you already know if it was right or left of the target. Did it have the trajectory you wanted? Did it have the same trajectory as the previous shots you been hitting, and if not, why not? Finally, would it have behaved as desired on the golf course, to a real green with a real pin?   

Secret of Feedback; Rule # 3: Know Your Precise Yardage

What matters with your distance wedges is the flight distance of your shots, hence their name. Yet when most golfers hit wedges on the practice tee they know only the shots' direction. And they usually hit to targets off in the distance, farther away than the club they are hitting can handle. So most golfers have no idea how far each wedge shot travels, which means they aren't learning or gaining in their ability to control yardages.


If you're hitting a wedge toward a distant target and you don't know how far it's flying, then all you are doing is warming up your muscles. You're not practicing your wedge game or finesse swing at all.  


For valuable distance wedge practice, you need a known-yardage target or targets, that you have either accurately walked off or measured with a laser rangefinder. You also need good enough visibility of the landing area to accurately evaluate, at the moment the ball hits the ground, whether you need a long, short, or the perfect distance. I try to have my students hit to nets that are sloped toward them so it is easy to see within inches of where the ball hits: on the net, short, or over it. To clearly see a shots' landing spot, it helps to be hitting to a slight uphill slope. If you don't have nets, lay down a towel as a target on a slight slope, shoot the distance, and you are prepared to practice distance wedges with accurate, reliable feedback for the distance each shot carries.   

Whenever you practice distance wedges, don't be distracted by worrying about their flight direction; you'll note that instinctively. Focus on how far the shots fly. In practice, distance should be your sole criterion of a good wedge shot. The more you think that way in practice, the better your shots will fly on the course. 

Secret of Feedback; Rule # 2: Never Hit a Practice Shot with Bad Alignment

Nothing is more ridiculous than standing at address in a poor position, with your shoulders, feet, or hips aligned in the wrong direction, trying to hit a good shot. Because with poor aim even a good swing will make the ball go to the wrong place. Your subconscious will always fight against that and will prohibit you from learning a good swing. 
Your natural instincts, guided by your desire to hit the ball to your target, will force you to make a compensating swing, to try to make the ball go were it is supposed to. It is the subconscious compensations that make the swing so difficult for so many golfers. On the other hand, from a perfectly aligned position, a good swing results in a good shot. 
It is very easy to practice with good alignment.
First, before hitting even one shot, take the club you are going to be hitting and place it on the ground, aiming exactly at your target. The butt end of the club should just touched the first ball from behind, and make sure it is and exactly at the target. 
Then put your two iron, which isn't good for much else, in the aim-club position of parallel left alignment. 
And finally, pick up your hitting club, set your feet and body parallel left, and without lifting your left, or front, heal, turn the toe towards the target 30 to 45°. Now you are ready to practice. Be sure to hit all your practice shots this way. If you change your target, reset your hitting and aim clubs on the ground. 
While setting up with an aim club is simple and takes no time, it is still ignored by almost all amateurs. PGA and LPGA Tour pros, however, are much better about this and work with aim clubs all the time. They know what an advantage it is to make perfect aim a habit. The more practice shots you hit with perfect alignment, the better perfect setup and alignment will feel to you on the course. 

Secret of Feedback; Rule # 1: Never “Rake and Beat” Balls

Practicing with feedback means that you must be careful, you must be patient, you must work at a somewhat slower rate then what you otherwise might do.  You can’t beat balls, simply rushing from one shot, club to club.  You must never rake over a second ball and hit that shot until the first one has landed--- and you’ve watched the land.  You must take the time to back away after each shot, then approach the new one and get into your setup the same way every time, just as you intend to do on real shots that count on the course.  Getting into your address position is as important as, and can be more important than, the swing itself.  Because if you are set up incorrectly or differently on each shot, there is no way to make or learn to groove a good, repeatable swing.   So practice carefully, taking enough time to make proper set up a habit.

Secrets of the Short Game

I have never taught a golfer who isn’t looking for the secret that will insure 100% success in his golf, that elusive something that’s going to make him or her a better, or even great, player.  We all know that it is out there, and we have been searching for it as long as the game has been played.  No matter what we do or say, the search goes on.  No matter how well he plays, in the back of his mind every golfer still wants to know that little extra “secret” that will unlock his ability to play even better.  “Please tell me, what is the secret for me?” 

I’ve never had a student ever ask me if there truly was a secret to the Short Game.  However, I believe that whether they come to a 3-day University for a Complete Education or just take a single lesson, they are hoping deep down inside that something educationally will be mentioned that will change their game for the good, overnight!  Most golfers will tell you that they know that it takes a lot of hard work to become a better player.  And, that there is no simple fix to improve their golf games.  Yet without saying anything, they hold out that there is something that will solve all of their problems right now.  I see it in their eyes.  They would never admit to it because of the embarrassment factor.  But, they are convinced that there is a secret to the Short Game.

The good news is that they are correct; there is a secret.  In post # 2, I spoke about how having a positive attitude was “the Secret.”  We learned about the Law of Attraction, how one can attract to them what one wants in life and in golf.   Without question, having a positive attitude will help you reach your goals much faster than not having one.  Besides the mental thoughts, there are some Physical Secrets to the Short Game.  One we talked about in the last post was Feedback.  Again, by far, this is the number one Secret.  If you don’t receive, internalize, and benefit from the Feedback provided by your shots----if you don’t both consciously and subconsciously correlate your shot results with your actions and learn from your experiences----then you will never improve. 

But you can’t just practice. You must commit to what I call “Intelligent Practice.”


The Five Rules for Intelligent Short Game Practice with Feedback are:

 

1.       Never Rake and Beat Balls

2.       Never Hit a Practice Shot With Bad Alignment

3.       Know your precise yardage

4.       Watch the Trajectory of Each Shot

5.       Hold Your Finish While You Learn

We will discuss each of these rules in the following posts.

What Should the Proper Grip Pressure Be?

How many of you just hold the golf club and never think about your Grip Pressure?   That used to be me.  I have no idea how tight I may have held the club in my past golf life.  It is entirely possible that I gripped the club at a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. That is way too tight to hold a golf club.  Maybe that is why I didn’t make it to the Big Tour.  Your Grip Pressure is one of the most important parts of your golf swing.  In general, for the power swing, your Grip Pressure should be between 3 and 5 on the scale of 1 to 10.

 For your Short Game Finesse Wedge Swings and Bunker Swings, it should be a constant 1 to 2 on the scale of 10.  Why that light?  Well, first of all, you want to feel the weight of the club head in your hands.  If you can’t feel the club head, lighten up!  That’s one of the reasons that I dislike graphite shafts in wedges.  I can’t feel the club heads.  Second, a light Grip Pressure will allow your hands and wrists to do what they are naturally supposed to do during the swing.  First they hinge to a position that makes the angle between the lead arm and shaft of the club a 90 degree angle.  That’s called cocking or hinging your wrists to 90 degrees.  As you start the downswing, the club head starts to develop centrifugal force and accelerates through impact.  At this point, your hands and wrists should naturally rotate or Release through Impact causing your wrists to re-cock to that 90 degree position that you had on the backswing and further accelerate up to the follow-through.  

This feeling is what you might call not manipulating the club during the swing.  Most golfers feel that they need to create the shot with their hands and arms.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Let’s face it, golf clubs are designed to hit golf shots perfectly, and if we just let the club hit the ball without human interference, all shots would be almost perfect.  Refer to the swing robot Iron Byron.  Every shot is close to perfect.  Unfortunately, we feel the need to help the shot.  The trick is to get you out the shot.  You are just the delivery system, the taxi cab, the holder of the club; the less you do, the better the shot.  Try it!  You will not believe how straight and long you will hit your Long Game Shots. 

Now, back to the Short Game.  The same theory applies.  Less is more.  Hold the club lightly, feel the club head, swing with a smooth rhythm, release your hands, make a great finish as discussed in the Hold Your Finish Post, and watch in amazement as your shot goes where you want it to go. 

Should You Make Practice Swings?

In the past when I played golf, whether as an amateur or professional, I rarely made a practice swing when hitting Long Game shots.  However I always made at least one Practice Swing when Putting, Chipping or Pitching.  Most of the time it was multiple Practice Swings when Chipping or Pitching.  I guess I felt that I really wanted to rehearse those two swings over and over since they are such sensitive shots.  I never really thought about it, it just felt good to me to do it.  It made me feel more confident about the upcoming shot.  My instincts were correct on the Short Game Shots and not correct on the Full Swing Shots.

In practice, when you are working on grooving your swing or learning something new, a Practice Swing can be invaluable.  A Practice Swing is really what I call a Rehearsal Swing.  You are hopefully making the same motion as you will in the real swing.  Would you make a speech in front of your peers without rehearsing it first?  The answer is no.  You would have to be crazy or suicidal to do that.  The same principle applies to Practice Swings.  Especially, on the practice tee. 

Practice or Rehearsal Swings are what I referred to in the last lesson as Short Term Muscle Memory.  What that means is, you are letting your muscles and body feel what it feels like to make the swing motion the way that you want to make the swing.  You be the Boss!  You do not want your muscles and body to do what they want to do, if they have not been fully trained and conditioned to swing correctly.  You will most likely hit a poor shot.   When you create Short Term Muscle Memory by making a Practice Swing, your muscles and body now know what to do on the real swing.  Unfortunately, Short Term Muscle Memory is just what it says, Short Term.  You don’t have to remember the details of the following statement, just remember the point.  According to experts in the field movement and motor learning, humans lose 30% of their Short Term Muscle Memory every 30 seconds.  Therefore, after you make your Practice Swing, you should address the ball and start your backswing within 5 to 8 seconds.  That is plenty of time, try it.  That way you will only lose 30% of you STMM and you will still have 70% of your Practice Swing feel leftover. 

The good news is that when a movement is repeated over time, a Long-Term Muscle Memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort.  So, work hard now making your Rehearsal Swings in practice.  And someday you may not have to worry about them so much.

Hold Your Finish When Practicing

One more thing about practicing properly, before we move along into the Set-Up.  Have you ever noticed professional golfers on television or live at a tournament, posing and hold their position or finish, after they hit their shots, watching intently as the ball flies to the target?  Why do they do that?  Are they really just posing to look good, just in case the TV camera is on them?  Or is there a method to their madness?  I believe most golfers have learned from TV announcers that the players are doing what we call; “Holding your Finish.”  What I don’t believe the average golfer understands is why the players are Holding Their Finish.

Simply put, Holding Their Finish is a product of what they do when they practice either the Long Game or the Short Game.  When they play a round of golf, naturally they will continue doing what they ingrained during their practice sessions.  That is the beauty of practicing correctly vs. incorrectly.  What you learn and ingrain in practice will go to the course with you, whether you like it or not.  They have learned that there is an incredible amount to learn from a follow-through.  We call it Feedback.  We can learn so much from a swing finish.  For instance, a well balanced finish will tell you that you must have done some very positive things during the swing.  It says that all of the components of the swing worked In-Sync and correctly.  Most likely you probably also hit a decent golf shot.  You can also observe your body position at the end of the swing.  In a Short Game wedge shot, are you well balanced with most of your weight over your left leg and up on the toe of your back foot , standing tall and proud of the shot that you just hit, with your hips and chest pointing at the target, and your hands nice and high above your shoulders?  Or are you leaning over slumped, with your head cocked to the side, your hips and chest pointing to right of the target, your weight still on your back foot and heal, your hands about hip high, watching the ball rocket low and to the right of your target?  Hopefully it’s the former.  But, if it is the latter, hope is not lost. 

The value of the Feedback gained by Holding Your Finish, allows you analyze the finish, realize what you did wrong and make the correction right then and there.  It’s called; Hold, Check and Correct.  By doing this, you are telling you body that; “this is where I want you to be on the next follow-through.”  You will then have a much better chance of accomplishing the finish that you want on the next swing.  It’s also called; Short Term Muscle Memory.  Tell your muscles and body what you want them to do by letting them feel it.  It would be wise to make a habit of Holding Your Finish on every shot on the practice range.  The bad shots are the hardest to Hold, but a poor shot’s finish will give you incredible Feedback.  Remember; Hold Your Finish on the practice tee and you will automatically Hold it on the golf course. 

Pre-Shot Set-Up Position

Tommy Armour, one of golf’s greatest teachers, is quoted as saying; “Golf is not a simple game, but it should be taught in a simple fashion.”  This is exactly what we are trying to accomplish and will accomplish in this forum. 

One can argue, over 95% of all In-Swing Flaws can be traced to a Pre-Shot Set-Up Position that is incorrect.  Some golfers might find that hard to believe.  However, from my experience teaching golf for so many years, I must totally agree with that statement.  It actually makes my job so much easier.  Usually, I will spot at least one Set-Up Flaw in most students.  It is a rare day that a student will Set-Up perfectly and have good ball position at the same time.  Working on the Set-Up is usually how 99.99% of my lessons begin.  We call it GASP, which stands for Grip, Alignment, Stance and Posture.  I also include Ball Position as part of the Set-Up.  If your Ball Position is wrong in the Short Game, you can”Forget about it”, as they say in the mafia movies.  Everything else goes out the window.  Ball Position is everything in the Short Game.  It is important in the Long Game as well, but not as critical.  GASP is the cornerstone to a successful Set-Up and in turn, a well balanced and athletic golf swing.  This is the essence of what I teach, and the foundation to all other components of the golf swing and my Short Game School.

During the following posts, we will discuss each individual component of the Set-Up for each shot in the Short Game. 

Are you a Practice Range Golfer?

What I mean by this is that there are two distinct games being played by golfers.  One, Practice Range Golf.  Two, Golf Course Golf.  What is the difference? 

Practice Range Golfers spend most of their time hitting golf balls and less time playing the game on the course.  These golfers believe that with most of their time spent on the practice tee, they will conquer the game.  We all get pretty good at hitting these shots on the practice tee.  If you hit enough shots back to back to back on the practice range, you will develop a wonderful rhythm and feel, and it doesn’t matter what your swing looks like.  The feeling is that you finally have it.  Your next round will be your best.  Unfortunately, as soon as you hit your first shot, you realize that you don’t have it after all. That wonderful driving range feel and rhythm has disappeared.  Where did it go you ask?  Well, it didn’t go anywhere.  You never had it to begin with.  Golf is not played by hitting a second ball, a third, a fourth etc, if the first shot was poor; at least according to the Rules of Golf.  Back when I was playing tournament golf, I had three months off in the winter.  I decided to spend the time practicing on the driving range with the goal of really grooving my golf swing.  I truly thought that this experiment would finally put me over the top and give me the scoring game that I deserved.  For the next three months I did nothing but hit long shots every day.  Drivers, irons, full wedges, hooks, fades, slices, high shots, low shots, trick shots, every shot that I could think of I worked on.  I became quite good at all of these shots, and after three months I thought that I was ready to go out and set some records.  As you probably guessed, it didn’t quite work out as I thought it would.  My first round was disaster.  My drives were terrible, as well as every other shot.  I felt like I had never played the game of golf before.  I could not believe it.  I was truly astonished and terribly disappointed.  What happened?

In golf, as well as in every other sport, to play it well, one must practice and play it all of the time.  One or the other doesn’t not cut it.  You must bring the practice range shots to the golf course.  The two entities must be blended together over time.  You must practice on the range and go out and play.  If some of your shots are still poor, go back to the range and work it out.  Go play again and monitor what happens.  Eventually the poor shots become better; your confidence improves as well as your scoring.

I will say that eventually, all of that practice that I did for three months on the range did pay off.  It just took a long time to blend the range game into my golf course game.

Try to stay consistent with your practicing.  Practice, play, practice, play and most important, practice your Short Game 2/3’s of the time.  

Short Game vs. Long Game & The 1/3 Rule

It is said that full shots constitute less than 45% of the scoring in golf for almost all levels of players.  In fact, it is considerably less than 45%.  Based on data collected by noted Short Game Teacher Dave Pelz, the Short Game accounts for approximately 63% of scoring while the power game only accounts for 37% of scoring.  More important, about 80% of the shots golfers lose to par occur inside of 100 yards!  That is quite powerful.  Yet whenever golfers gather, the full swing monopolizes the practice time, the effort and the conversation.  The fact that you are reading this blog means you are one of the aware golfers.  What is interesting though, if you ask any golfer if the Short Game is the key to scoring, without question, they will tell you that it is and they will correctly tell you why.  However, if you documented those same golfers practice time, you would most likely find that they spend most of their time practicing the long game.  Why would they do that if they understand the reality of it?  Well, hitting the golf ball a long way is fun.  There is nothing like hitting those perfect drives on the practice range.  I love hitting that boring 5 iron into the wind.  So, what do we do?  Instead of walking over to the bunker and spending 10 to 15 short minutes working on sand shots, we stay on the range and pound away balls until we are too tired to practice anything else.  We figure that those great long game shots will make up for any deficiencies on or around the greens.  It all feels good; better in fact than it ever has.  You feel like your swing is finally grooved.  Things will be different next time out on the course.  That low score is right around the corner.  Watch out course record, I’m coming!    

Now, you may very well hit some long shots better the next time you go out to play.  The drive on the first hole goes straight down the middle.  Your second shot flies perfectly straight, right at the pin.  Unfortunately, you caught it too perfectly and it flies over the green into some thick gnarly rough.  You take out your trusty sand wedge and chunk it about three feet and it stays in the rough.  It is now time to put a little more muscle into this one.  You swing as hard as you can, catch the ball clean and the ball travels into the deep bunker on the other side of the green.  You blade the ball out of the bunker, back over the green, to where you were in the first place.  You get the idea.  This stuff happens all the time.  

Remember this; your goal in the long game is to keep the ball in play, between the trees, if you will. The distance the ball travels is not the key.  No out of bounds.  No penalty drops.  No hitting the ball back out into the fairway from behind a tree.  No just getting the ball out of the fairway bunker so you can attempt to hit the next shot onto the green.  Just get the ball somewhere around the green and use your Short Game skills to get that ball up and down into the hole. 

Try practicing this way in the future.  Use the 1/3 Rule.  Spend 1/3 of your time practicing the Short Game, 1/3 of your time practicing Putting and 1/3 of your time practicing the Long Game.  This way you will definitely improve that short game while just maintaining the Long Game enough to keep the ball in play.  Practice the Long Game last.  When you do practice the Long Game, start with the wedges and work your way up to the driver.  Save the driver for last always.  When you finish hitting drives, you’ll be so tired; you won’t want to practice anything else.

Thoughts Become Things

Just one more thing on the mental side of the game before we get into technique.  I titled this post, "Thoughts Become Things."  Have you ever started to think about something you are not happy about, and the more you thought about it the worse it seemed?  That's because as you think one sustained thought, the law of attraction immediately brings more like thoughts to you.  In a matter of minutes, you have gotten so many like unhappy thoughts coming to you that the situation seems to be getting worse.  The more you think about it, the more upset you get.

Your life right now is a reflection of your past thoughts.  That includes all of the great things, and all of the things you consider not so great.  Since you attract to you what you think about the most, it is easy to see what your dominant thoughts have been on every subject of your life, because that is what you have experienced.  Until Now!  Now you are learning The Secret, and with this knowledge, you can change everything.  If you see it in your mind, you’re going to hold it in your hand.  Through this most powerful law, your thoughts become the things in your life. Your thoughts become things!  Say this over and over to yourself and let it seep into your consciousness and your awareness.  Your thoughts become things!

What most people don’t understand is that a thought has a frequency.  We can measure a thought.  And so if you’re thinking that thought over and over and over again, if you’re imagining in your mind having that brand new car, having the money that you need, building that company, finding your soul mate, hitting that wedge shot close to the hole, sinking that 11 foot putt…. if you’re imagining what that looks like, you’re emitting that frequency on a consistent basis.  Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency.  As you think, those thoughts are sent out into the universe, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency.  Everything sent out returns to the source.  And that source is you!

Make yourself the antennae  that sends out and draws in the positive vibrations that will make you the better golfer that you want to be.

Step One to a Great Short Game

Before we talk about technique, we must realize that golf is a difficult game to play.  It requires a certain amount of athleticism, a feel for timing and concentration.  However, having a positive attitude is my top of the list of things that you must be successful at to play this game well.  I’m sure you have heard people say, “If you think you will miss a putt, you will.”  Now, you may very well make the putt thinking negatively and you may miss the putt thinking positively.  That’s golf!  We will discuss all of the physical reasons we make or miss putts in future posts.  But for now, we want to concern ourselves with how our attitude effects how we play and score. 
How do we develop the positive attitude that we need to be successful?  You cannot just say to yourself; “I’m going to make this putt” and expect that it will go in the hole right then and there.  The same thing applies if you’re trying to hit a 40 yard finesse wedge shot to a tightly tucked pin.  If you don’t have the skill that will allow you to hit the shot you need, to place the ball close enough to the hole to make the putt, or even hit it on the green, it is hard to think in a positive way about the shot you are about to hit.  You might get lucky and hit it close, but the chances are slim.  With each poor shot comes more negative thinking.  That’s when poor shots become the norm and good shots are rare.  What I’m saying is; positive thinking alone will not make you a better golfer.  You must have technique.  With technique, you experience more successes.  With more successes, you will start to feel better about how you are playing.

It’s like the snowball getting bigger as it rolls down the mountain.  You will progressively start thinking in a more positive manner.  Then, as you become more aware of what positive thinking can do for you and your golf game, that positive attitude will grow and grow.  The shots get better and your mind gets better.  Just let the positive vibrations take over.  You may even call it the law of attraction.  As you become more positive about your shot making abilities, you will start to attract better and better shots.  You will start making more and more good shots happen because you believe you can.  The law of attraction is precise, and it never slips up.  If you start sending those positive vibrations out into the universe, you will attract what you want.  If you think you can, you will!  As Winston Churchill once said; “you create your own universe as you go along.”  It's your choice, you can make your universe positive or negative.  The law of attraction is not something new, it has been known to some of the most successful people in the history of the world.  Successful people know that they can attract what they want and desire by thinking positively and constantly about it.  We all have to start somewhere however.  It’s hard in the beginning.  Start small and build on it.  It doesn’t happen overnight in the beginning.  Later on, it may very well hit you in the face overnight.  That’s how it works.   

I hope this will help you a little with your mental side of the game.  I will refer to your goal of positive thinking as we go along with our lessons.  Remember though, it all starts with proper technique.   We will start talking about proper technique in the next post. 

Welcome

Welcome to the University of the Short Game. Have you ever heard of the books for Dummies?  Well, this is The Short Game University for Dummies.  I'm going to help you develop your Short Game, by keeping the lessons very simple and your practice time very short, but effective.  You will become a better golfer through this education and shoot better scores.  If you follow the lessons as written, put some Perfect Practice Time in, you will develop the confidence needed to execute the Short Game Shots that will lower your scores!  Short, Simple, Effective Practice Works.  I am available to answers any questions or respond to comments that you may have, in the "Post a Comment" area.  Don't be shy.  Take advantage of this opportunity to have your questions on the Short Game, expertly answered. I will respond to your questions in my upcoming posts.  Keep the questions coming!  I'm incredibly excited to help those of you that really want to improve your short game.  This stuff really works!  Remember; "Keep it Simple Dummy".


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