Chipping From Off The Green: The Classic Biter Shot
By Foursome | April 22, 2009
The “Biter” is a classic chip shot that is the shot you want to play when you have “very little green to work with”, as they say on golf sporting commentaries.
What that means is that there is very little room between the edge of the green and the hole on the side where your ball rests and your typical chip shot will not be enough to get the results you are after.
Instead, you must use a little bit of strategy and imagination to get the shot cleared. From using an unlikely club to changing up your swing stance, the following set up will help you master this scenario on the course.
The Best Club Choice
Play this shot with a sand wedge or, if you carry one and the distance is appropriate, a lob wedge. The lob wedge is a weird club. If you have one, you should spend some time figuring how far you can hit it with various lengths of swing.
We say “weird” because sometimes it’s hard to believe you can make such a long swing and produce such a short shot. Another thing that makes the lob wedge somewhat awkward is that poor players often try to hit it too far.
You have to know your maximum comfortable distance with this club – the distance of shot you can play without overswinging – or you’re going to produce a lot of frustrating results. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Short Game, Tips & Practice | No Comments »
4 Most Common Chip Shot Mistakes (And How To Fix Them)
By Foursome | April 22, 2009
Poor results on the golf course don’t just happen on their own. When you skull a chip shot that goes running across the green, or stub a shot, it usually happens for one of the following reasons, and knowing them will help you avoid them:
Standing Too Far Away From the Ball
If you get your body too far away from the ball you have to stick your arms out toward the ball. Any time you feel you are extending your arms “out” toward the ball, you’re in trouble. This is going to create tension and you don’t want that.
Tension will block you from feeling the weight of the clubhead, and having a good sense of the clubhead is vital to having good touch on your chip shots.
Another reason you don’t want to stand too far away from the ball is that the second you move the clubhead it will swing immediately to the inside and off the target line. When you are chipping you want the club to move straight back and through along the target line.
When the club moves inside (or outside) the target line, you’re going to have trouble making clean contact and keeping the shot on line.
Using A Club With Too Much Loft
A chip shot is a running shot. Everything you do in your setup is designed to push the ball forward at a low trajectory. If you consistently come up short of your target, try using less-lofted clubs. Read the rest of this entry »
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How To Stop Losing Distance On Tee Shots (2)
By Foursome | April 7, 2009
When you start to lose distance on your long drives it’s time to find the problem before these quirks make their way into your short game shots. Some of the solutions you may find here are quite simple, and may seem too lame for seasoned golfers, but the issue of losing ground that you normally shoot at does not have to be complicated to fix.
Control Your Feet
Check the position of your feet. The issue of lack of distance that you would normally get on your tee-off shots may have to do with limited hip turn, which is the result of the tips of your feet being perpendicular to your target line (a big mistake).
Make changes by flaring both of your feet out just a bit. Make sure that the left foot is facing the target line and the right foot is facing away from the target line. What this does is induce a bigger turn with your body away from and through the ball.
You also want to check your footwork as the swing is in progress. You’ll notice the majority of players will pick their heels up far off the ground – with the left heel up on the backswing and the right heel up on the downswing.
The left heel movement isn’t all that bad so long as you kick the left knee in towards the right knee, thus shifting weight onto the right leg. This will help you keep balance and prevent losing distance on your drives from now on. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Tee Box, Tips & Practice | No Comments »
How To Stop Losing Distance On Tee Shots (1)
By Foursome | April 7, 2009
It is not uncommon to start losing distance on your tee shots – it happens to even the best golfers. If the problem is not corrected then the issue can carry over into other shots as well.
So anytime you are in a slump where you find your tee shots consistently falling short by ten or more yards than you normally get to, here are a couple of checkpoints to go over:
Remove The Death Grip
Probably the number one enemy of distance in golf is too much tension on the club. The reason is because everything about a good golf swing that you learn – the springing, winding up and down, the coil action, etc. is all meant to work in harmony to create the perfect swing, but only as long as your body is tension free.
For example, it is impossible to get the perfect wind-up turn if your arms and body are resisting. The only form of resistance should remain in the legs. This is a classic problem of most new golfers – severe tension in the upper body, but can also creep its way into seasoned players like yourself.
The hands are the first place this tension starts to develop in – the “death grip” so to speak. To put it into more simple terms: you are basically just squeezing the club too tight. So when your tee-off drives start to lose distance the first thing to do is check the pressure of your grip.
If you feel any tension at all in the hands or forearms, I guarantee you will get back those 10 to 15 yards in just a few swings by not using so much pressure. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Tee Box, Tips & Practice | No Comments »
How To Master The Fairway Bunker Shot
By Foursome | March 30, 2009
Don’t you despise an excellent drive that suddenly turns bad? One of the most common examples is when the ball ends up in a fairway bunker. When this happens to you, your number one priority is to get out of the bunker, and the lie has the most say in that matter.
If the ball is buried, it’s a no-brainer. Grab your sand wedge and blast it up and out onto the fairway. And if you have a decent lie (where you can match the clubface directly onto the back of the ball), then you will need to size up the lip and determine the amount of loft you will need in order to clear the lip.
Always give yourself what I like to refer to is a “1 club cushion”. In other words, let’s say that you think that the 6 iron will clear the lip, then you should choose the 7 iron. The reason for this is because you will be playing the ball back in your stance which reduces the loft of the club you will be using.
Knowing Whether Or Not To Shoot For The Green
If the lie and the lip tell you that you can have a go at the green, you should try it only if you can hit a 7 wood, 9 wood, 11 wood, or a 6 iron on through to the sand wedge. If you cannot hit those then that’s it – do not attempt to hit the green.
If you have a decent lie but the lip dictates that you cannot reach the green, then use this rule of thumb: Use a club that, if hit well, will leave you short of the next round of trouble. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Fairway, Sand Bunkers, Tips & Practice | No Comments »