Dave Pelz: “Studying the game”

Do you have difficulty hitting crisp pitch shots that stop close enough for a realistic one-putt? If not, and you routinely take a divot behind the ball, or you try to pick them clean, I can help you. Hitting behind the ball puts too much grass between it and the clubface, while picking it cleanly produces a lower trajectory off the bottom edge of your wedge with little or no backspin.

Position the ball like normal, brush the ground, and leave a scuff, not a divot

The next time you practice try my “brush the grass” drill. Before you hit your first shot, make at least 20 pitch swings without a ball and look at your divot after every one. Make sure your wedge smacks the ground on each attempt, but doesn’t dig into it. If you think about “brushing” the grass, you’ll feel your wedge kiss off the ground at the bottom of each swing. In 20 tries you should be able to make your divot look like the bottom photo at right, where the grass is brushed (scuffed) but no dirt is taken from the ground. After you complete the drill, continue to practice your pitches, making a good “brush” practice swing before you hit each shot, until the real shot leaves only the same kind of brushed-grass divot. When you do this correctly, you’ll see crisp ball contact on or about the third or fourth groove up the face of your wedge, a nice amount of backspin and makeable putts.

Take it to the course: When you’re in a pitch situation on the course, call up the brushed-grass image and lay your wedge clubface slightly open so the sole bounce can brush the ground. Then, make three practice “brush” swings. Make sure your grip is light and relaxed (but not floppy loose). If the leading edge of your wedge keeps taking dirt divots, open the face a little more. When you’ve successfully “brushed” the grass two consecutive times without a divot, move in and immediately pitch the ball onto the green with the same swing. Read the rest of this entry »

Most players don’t pay enough attention to their ball position. And okay, I’ll admit the topic is not necessarily glamorous. But if you want to see just how important ball position is to your short game, try this little experiment in your back yard:

1. Address a ball as you normally would for a 20-yard pitch shot, in the middle of your stance.
2. Without moving your feet, push the ball 12 inches toward your target.
3. Still, without moving your feet, try to hit the ball at your target.
4. Setup again as normal, then press the ball 12 inches away from your target along your target line and try to hit it.

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Whenever you feel pressure, your heart rate naturally increases, your breathing quickens and adrenaline starts to flow. But that’s not a good thing when you are about to hit a shot that requires as much precision as you can muster. The last thing any player wants on a pitch, chip or bunker shot are quick, jerky movements.

The best solution to develop a short game that will stand-up under pressure is to not use your muscles to power your short game. Instead, let the power you need to get the ball to the hole come from the energy provided by a free-flowing swing. Read the rest of this entry »

Students in my short game schools ask all the time about how to hit high, soft shots. I tell them the first thing they should do is invest in a lob wedge. Let’s say you have 40 yards to a pin, and you have to carry a bunker with only a few yards of green to work with. You need the right tool — a lob wedge — to hit the ball high and land it softly enough to stop by the hole. The following is a collection of answers to the questions I hear most about lob wedges. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you have trouble pitching from mounds around the green? The problem may not be your swing, but your face. The face of your wedge, that is.

On wedge shots, most golfers set up with the clubface grooves perpendicular to the target line. They assume that by aligning the grooves that way, they are aiming the clubface at the target. But that’s not always so, as one of my favorite training aids proves. Aligning with the grooves perpendicular to the target line works great from level lies. The same alignment works when you crouch to hit a shot below your feet. But face-groove alignment and aim are not always the same, particularly if the ball is above your feet. Read the rest of this entry »