Feel Is In Your Fingertips
If you don't worry about anything else in your putting stroke, lock down these two fundamentals, and you'll improve right away. First, make sure the putter grip is in line with your right forearm, not hanging below it (inset). This helps the putter swing easily on the right swing plane. Second, set your hands so the grip runs through the lifelines of your palms and you're holding the handle mostly with your fingertips (left). If you were tossing a penny, you wouldn't set it in your open palm; you'd hold it in your fingertips, for feel. That's what you want when you're putting.
Keep Your Read Fresh
You want to preserve the instinctive connection between your brain's ability to judge spatial relationships and the putting stroke. I recently played a round with a 10-handicapper who had a good short game, but he went through a PGA Tour-caliber green-reading routine, then froze over the putt in his address position for almost a full minute before he pulled the club back. His stroke was actually pretty good, but he wasn't getting the kind of results he should have.
An unfocused, drawn-out routine like that robs you of some fantastic built-in skill you already have. Once you make your read and get a feel for the distance, the moment you look away from your target and get into your putting setup that visualization starts to deteriorate. After 30 seconds, you've essentially "forgotten" all of the read information you acquired. Your goal should be to spend no more than 20 seconds between your final read and starting your stroke.
ERASE THE TENSION ON PITCHES
If you get into a rigid, locked position, you're never going to have a good short game. To hit good pitch shots, set up so your arms hang loosely from your shoulders and your feet are close together, to make it easier to rotate (left). To hit the shot, pivot through instead of swinging your arms independently at the ball. The butt of the club should stay pointed at your belt buckle the whole time, which keeps the bounce on the bottom of the club exposed to the ground (inset, top photo). If you flip your hands over (inset, bottom), the club will dig into the turf instead of skid the way you want.
PICKING THE RIGHT TRAJECTORY
Some situations call for a specific kind of shot. Others present choices. When you're close to the hole but with some fringe between you and the green, you have to diagnose the conditions. If you have a sketchy lie in the fringe (or you're really feeling pressure), your best bet is to keep the ball on the ground. Putting is a good option, or you can make a putting stroke with a hybrid club, which helps shoot the ball out if it's sitting down. If you use a lofted club, pick a specific landing spot on the green (above), then read the rest of the shot as you would a putt. I like to play low shots that run out like a putt, but lofted pitches are useful if the flag is on a different tier.
MATCHING AIM WITH READ
You can do everything right with your read and still make a basic mistake that will cause you to miss a lot of putts. The common fault is to focus on the hole, not the apex of the break, during the setup and alignment process (inset, bottom photo). That forces you to steer your stroke to start the ball on line instead of letting the putter swing naturally on a good path. Once you've picked the apex of the break, go through your pre-putt routine from behind the ball—facing the apex point (inset)—then align yourself square to that point, not the hole. Now trust your read and make the stroke.
SIMPLIFY THE LOB SHOT
Instead of contorting yourself into an open stance with a low right shoulder to try to scoop a shot high into the air, use your basic bunker setup for a nearly foolproof lob shot. Set your feet shoulder-width apart, your spine tilted left and your hands slightly behind the ball—which adds loft to the club (far left). Then, using very little arm swing, hinge your wrists aggressively (middle), keeping the end of the grip directly in front of you. Unhinge your wrists fast through impact to produce the speed to shoot the ball up in the air (right), letting your left wrist cup and your left elbow slide along your side. See how the face is pointed straight up in the air? That's how to get loft.
Teaching feel to tour players
I helped four top pros improve their touch. The short-game lessons I gave them apply to you, too
All of us are trying to get better. Tour players aren't any different from you, the average player, in that way. But working with a tour player is a little different than giving a two-hour short-game clinic, because the stakes are pretty high. These guys are trying to make a living with their games. And I don't want to make anything worse.
The players who come to see me usually fall into two groups. Some of them are in a crisis--they feel like they can't make a putt, or their short game is in shambles. Other players have great technique and are looking for a second set of eyes for confirmation--a tuneup, so to speak. My job is to figure out what they're really asking me. Do they want a lesson, or are they just curious to see what I teach? Do they need to make big changes to get better, or is it a matter of making a small adjustment? What do they think they're doing with their stroke? I'm watching and coming up with some of my own ideas, but what I'm really trying to figure out is if they have a realistic view of their situation and are open to finding some answers.
In this article I'll show you how I've helped tour players improve their feel on and around the greens. I'm sure you'll recognize your own short-game problems in these stories. The stakes might be higher for tour players, but the fundamentals are the same for everyone. Good mechanics let you forget about your stroke and concentrate on feel--the key to scoring.
Jay Haas
Body rotation and pivot add precision to short pitches
The short-game shot Jay struggled with the most was the pitch from a tight lie. He was set up with his weight too much to the right, and he started his swing with a sway and with the grip end of the club moving first.
We first got his weight on his left side at address, and then worked on getting the clubhead to start back first with forearm rotation and the folding of his right arm immediately. He coordinated this with a slight lower-body pivot.
Jay began to shallow out his swing and use the bounce on his wedge more effectively--so the club skipped through the grass instead of bouncing or digging--and his confidence on these shots improved immediately and dramatically.
Darren Clarke
A better setup can transform your chipping game
When I'm too close to the ball, the tendency is to pick the clubhead up and to the outside of the target line with my wrists.
When I met with Darren at the PGA Championship last year, he was struggling with his chipping game. It turns out that he had a problem in his setup that is common for golfers at every level. Darren stood too close to the ball. It's natural to want to do this, because you feel like you have more control. But from that cramped position, the only way he could take the club back was up and outside the target line. On the downswing, he was really steep--which will make you hit shots fat and thin if your timing isn't perfect.
Once he moved away from the ball, he started swinging more around his body, with more forearm rotation and lower-body pivot. When you do it right, the sensation is like hitting a topspin Ping-Pong shot with your left hand. After two hours of work on chipping, putting and bunker play, Darren felt a lot better. The next day he shot a 65 to lead the tournament.
No
When I'm too close to the ball (see photo above), the tendency is to pick the clubhead up and to the outside of the target line with my wrists. I'll have to compensate for that later in the swing by flipping my hands at the ball. Remember, a great pitching swing blends forearm rotation, wrist action and pivot to swing the face from open to closed through impact--not closed to open.
Create Space
On pitches and chips, you want your upper arms (above the elbow) to stay relaxed and close to your sides. The swing comes from pivoting your lower body and rotating your forearms, and allowing your right elbow to fold early.
Notice how my left arm is still hanging straight down, and the top of the grip has hardly moved.
Peter Jacobsen
Integrate your short game with your long game
Peter and I started working together in 2003, and I noticed right away that he had a lot of shoulder tilt -- his right shoulder dramatically lower than his left--in his swing while putting and chipping. That tilt makes the club work up and down instead of the more around-and-shallow path I like to see. When the club works up and down, you've got to have perfect timing to hit the ball solidly. I wanted Peter to hit these shots with his beltline and shoulder a little more level. Your shoulders do get more tilted on a full swing, but for shots as small as these, they need to stay more level.
Once we started working on this, he commented about how similar it was to what he was doing with Jim Hardy on his full swing -- one plane instead of two, as seen in the May issue of Golf Digest. Once he felt the club work around his body and stay connected to his pivot, he improved very quickly. He hit a perfect pitch from the rough to get up and down for par on the 15th hole at the 2003 Greater Hartford Open--a shot he said won the tournament for him. It would have been much harder for him to hit that shot with his old technique.
Square your stance
I like a player to set up square to the target line for most shots. With the feet square to that line and the ball centered or ahead of middle, it's much easier for the club to swing back on plane. If you set up open to the target line and the ball is back, you'll tend to take the club back outside and close the face. Golf is action-reaction--I never want to be manipulating the face from closed to open on the way to impact.
Craig Stadler
Putting on a better path equals birdies
Craig and I met after the West Coast swing in 2003, and he told me he was literally four-putting--and he was worried it might be mental. I watched him putt and had great news for him: His stroke was terrible. His putterhead moved on an arc, but it was on an arc opposite to the one I teach. His putterhead moved outside the target line on the backswing, then back outside on the follow-through.
Even though he needed to make a dramatic change, he was relieved because he understood his problem and knew he could make the mechanical adjustment. Now, his clubhead swings on a slight arc inside to inside, and it's the only lesson he's ever taken. I don't know how many millions in prize money he has won since then, but it looks like it's working OK.
Recently, Craig added the claw grip, and I have no problem with that. It helps his right arm work around him, which makes it easier for him to swing the putter on the proper arc. I don't care how a player holds on to it. I just think it's going to work best if you swing on plane.
How to find your touch on three short-game shots
In the lessons I give to tour players, I talk a lot about the importance of reconnecting to the natural, athletic feel those guys certainly have. But what if you're a 15- or 20-handicapper, and you don't have a firm grasp of what "feel" really means? Don't worry. You're not going to be left in the short-game wilderness forever. You just need to equate the feel in those short-game shots to moves you already know from everyday life. Here's how to use them.
How to find your touch on three short-game shots
Putting feel
Push a broom
Good fundamentals are important to putting, but a basic understanding of how the arms and body should move is even more important. Many players get stiff, freezing the joints in their arms, which causes the body to move excessively during the stroke. The feel you want is actually more like pushing a broom: Your right elbow pistons back along your side as you draw the broom back, then your right arm extends downward as you push the broom away. The same is true to a smaller degree as you swing your putter. This allows your body to stay quiet while your arms swing freely.
TIP+VIDEO: See a video of this lesson
Pitching feel
Skip a rock
On a high pitch shot, the goal is to keep the bounce on the bottom of the club exposed to the ground throughout the swing. Players get into trouble when they turn the right arm over in an aggressive release. The feel you want is the same as the one you'd get skipping a rock across water. Your right arm throws from the side, fully releasing your wrist and elbow while keeping the palm of your hand facing the sky, or underneath the grip, as you turn through the shot.
Chipping feel
Hit a backhand
It's hard for the average player to resist the urge to try to lift the ball on a chip, or to hold the face open to create loft. Imagine a Ping-Pong paddle in your left hand. The face of the paddle represents the face of the club. Instead of scooping or holding the face open, picture the face of the paddle turning to the ball, like a topspin backhand -- the secret to crisp contact on chip shots.
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