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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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”:
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:
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:
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!
