Matt is a young player at my club. He is keen, talented and desperate to improve his golf game. Like a lot of young kids he works part-time, so he can devote plenty of time to the improvement process.
But Matt hasn’t learned how to practise correctly. He is wasting time by getting what I call “mindless exercise”.
Here’s the story.
Matt is laid back. He strolls out to the practice area and starts pounding balls. He is strong but erratic. One ball sails over the back fence while the next two find the car park and the adjoining sports park respectively.
Matt wants to hit the ball with power. He is letting his ego get in the way of what should be his goal – get the ball in play.
One of my favourite sayings is “between the trees”. Instead of trying to hit the fairway (they’re too small) you need to get your ball somewhere on the course where your next shot can be progressed forwards. It usually doesn’t matter if this is the rough, sand or fairway. The “fairways hit” statistic is irrelevant. Learn to get the ball in play and you’ll do just fine. This is what I had in mind for Matt.
It is too difficult to hit the ball dead straight. Especially for someone as erratic as Matt. I wanted him to find a shot that he can rely on. In his case he is suited to a fade. I asked him to aim left and then fade the ball back towards the fairway. I gave him no instruction on how to do so. I knew a mixture of his natural swing and talent would work it out. And it did.
Shot after shot started left and then moved back to the right. I told Matt if the ball did this then it is a perfect shot. Instantly he had an objective – aim left and hit the fade.
No longer was he mindlessly blasting balls as far as he could or being distracted by other meaningless thoughts. His mindset was replaced with an objective that could help his score – get the ball in play.
- He was swinging with more confidence because the fade swing suited his natural style. I’m willing to bet he’ll pick up a few extra metres too!
- He can get more shots in play because he has the entire fairway to work with. It is unlikely he’ll hit too many hooks and if he over cooks the fade he has the entire fairway and right rough to play with.
- Best of all he is practising with purpose. He has a mission (to fade the ball from left to right). He can then take this objective from the practice tee and out onto the golf course.
This is no quick fix. Matt will take some time to adjust this strategy. He is also fighting is own ego and his playing mates who put a huge emphasis on distance. After his 8th perfect drive in a row he got bored and wanted to hit a more powerful draw. I told him to stop asking dumb questions and to keep going.
When Matt learns that good golf comes not from the odd 300 metre drive but from consistently hitting the ball into play he’ll make some huge strides. And I’m talking about doing this week after week, month after month and year after year. He needs to master this faded drive before he can move on to other shots.
And it all starts from a basic objective. Ball bashing might be fun but you’ll only get exercise not improvement.
Over the next few days I’ll show you more of what I taught Matt. We covered chipping, putting, bunker play and course strategy. Keep your eyes peeled for more.
Matt hasn’t been playing golf that long. He was an AFL champ until he got hooked on golf. Although he is strong, supple and coordinated he lacks the finesse and touch around the greens. It is a real weak link to his game. Probably costing his more shots than his powerful, but erratic, long game.
Watching him chip around the practice green I could see his big problem. He is doing what he thinks is the right thing to do – chipping with a sand iron.
Although his golfing mates and most tour professionals chip with a sand iron or lob wedge, this is not good for Matt at this stage in his development.
Why?
Because he hasn’t mastered a basic chip shot. His sand iron shots were inconsistent. One shot would come out low with spin, while another would be hit high with little spin. It is impossible for him to judge how hard to hit each shot. This causes self-doubt and fear and results in shots that blow up his score – like complete duffs or bladed shots across the green.
The solution is simple. Start chipping with a six iron. The technique is basic. Choke down on the club, get close to the ball and play it from way back in the stance. It’s a bit like a putt and the ball flight should be really consistent – a low running shot.
With a little discipline I know Matt will get really good at this shot. It’s not a difficult technique and he is more than skillful enough to master it.
Like with his driver swing, he will be tempted to hit his sand iron on the course. The low spinning shot with a lofted club looks pretty and gets the boys in the group talking. But it is pure ego. He needs to learn to walk before he can run.
His objective is to chip all shots with his six iron – hit the low running shot and get the ball onto the green. It’s not the most exciting shot and it is unlikely to win him any accolades for being flamboyant. But it will improve his score. Which he has told me is his main goal.
The question you’re probably asking is, “what happens if he has to hit over a bunker or a tree. Surely he can’t use a 6 iron then?”. Good question. I’ll cover this in a later post.
For the moment Matt is chipping with his 6 iron. When he improves he can move onto the 8 iron and eventually to the sand iron. This steady progression will see him develop a sound chipping game and help him be the best player he can be.
More to come.
This is a series of posts where I help golfer Matt improve his golf game. For the first post in the series please check out a lesson on driving the golf ball
Matt is a simple mind. He will never get too technical or concerns himself with golf theory. This is a good thing and a personality trait that should fast track his performance. Mindful of keeping things simple here’s the putting strategy that I gave him…
Practice only two types of putts – 30 footers and 3 footers.
The objective is to get the longer putts to around 3 feet from the hole. Then get good at making most of those short putts. Here’s the full story.
Matt’s normal practice routine is to mindlessly putt from hole to hole. He has no strategy or objective for his practice time. Like the full swing, this purposeless practice is a waste of time and is holding him back. He usually stands over each putt and tries to get it into the hole – if it goes in all well and good and if it misses he doesn’t care. Not good.
The new strategy is to use one ball. Start with a longish putt (about 30 feet but it doesn’t exactly matter) and attempt to get it within 3 feet of the hole. If the putt finishes close to the hole then it is a perfect putt. The objective is not to make these putts (some will find the hole through statistical probability) or hit them past the hole (again, not possible and this mindest likely to send the ball way past the hole), he needs to get them within a three foot circle of the hole.
Matt then needs to get really good at making these 3 footers. By really good he needs to make 99% of them. The only way to get good is to practice them.
But what about the 6 footers and the 50 footers?
They don’t really matter. By getting good at holing the short putts he will instinctively improve putting from 4 – 20 feet. And the super long putts don’t matter. We don’t have many of them and when we do the goal is to get them somewhere near the hole. A 50 foot putt is not overly different from a 30 footer – just hit it a bit harder.
Most importantly, this putting practice strategy will get Matt thinking correctly. He will learn to mimic the mindset he needs under pressure. In time he will learn to lag the longer putts and make the majority of the short ones. This is all he (or you) need to be a great putter.
So why does this work?
It’s simple. It’s not possible to make those long putts with any certainty. Sure, you’ll make the odd one but the goal really should be not to three-putt. But it is possible to make a lot of those three-footers (Tiger hasn’t missed one in years!). If you can confidently strike these into the hole you can virtually eliminate those dreaded three-putts.
Bunker play requires a sound understanding of the technique involved. From here the standard green-side bunker shot becomes straight forward.
The key concepts are:
1. Ball forward in stance – because you are not striking the ball but rather the sand first. (the opposite of the chip shot)
2. Open club face – the sand iron is designed to skid along the sand and push the ball out. When the club face is open the sole of the club glides perfectly, when it is closed it digs in too deeply making the shots erratic.
With these ideas in mind here’s what our 5 minute entailed:
Step 1: Draw a long line in the sand perpendicular to the target line. This line is to represent the ball position (i.e. have your front heel positioned on the line). Now draw a parallel line behind the first line (towards your mid line). This line represents the contact point in the sand. This line is usually about 2 – 3 inches behind the original line.
Step 2: Open the club face. It helps if you open the club face first and then re-grip the club. A good guide is to make sure the groove lines on the club face point outside of your left foot. You’ll need to play around with this a little – adjust the club face to suit the length of shot.
Step 3: Make some swings in the sand with the objective of hitting the line (the one closest to your mid line) and keeping the club face open throughout. You should take a shallow divot (because of the open club face stops the club digging deeply into the sand). When you get comfortable you can place a ball on the front foot line and repeat.
The ball should pop out every time. If you hit a poor shot you will be able to see where the club struck the sand. It’s then easy to make adjustments and move on.
You don’t need to worry about swinging in a certain way (like out to in) or doing anything that weird. By having the ball forward with an open club face is enough to get the ball out of the sand each time.
Matt’s technique was pretty good. Like a lot of golfers he had the ball too far back. His first three shots were perfect, but he then bladed the fourth shot across the green into big trouble. By moving the ball forward he will be able to eradicate that shot and start playing bunker shots more consistently and with confidence.
The simple objective of ball forward and open club face is all that is needed. One reason why my bunker lesson never needs to go for more than 5 minutes.
Give it a go and let me know what you think.
And one more thing. Once you master the basic shot you can experiment with different clubs, swing speeds and power. But make sure you understand the basic concept first.
Matt and I spent 90 minutes on the practice fairway hitting shots, chipping balls, playing bunker shots and putting. We finished the session by playing 9 holes. This is where it all comes together and is the only true way to measure your game. If you can’t take your game onto the golf course then you need to have a look at the way you practise or your course strategy. This post looks at course strategy.
If you simulate play when you practise you’ll find the transition far easier. The mistake golfers make (like Matt) is they randomly beat balls and lack an objective. “Practise like you play” don’t “play like you practise”.
The first step to a better course strategy is choosing the shot you know you can hit. You need a really good excuse NOT to hit your favourite shot. In Matt’s case this is now going to be a fade from the tee and a controlled draw to the green. It doesn’t matter if the course designer is screaming at you to play a different shot – you should almost always play your shot.
Extra info: What I mean here is that don’t change your strategy to suit what the course designer wants you to do. Even if the hole doglegs to the left – play your fade. If the pin is back right and you like hitting the draw – keep hitting it. Sticking to your strategy is hard. Learn to trust your shot and you’ll do just fine.
I also spoke to Matt about avoiding bunkers and difficult chip shots (because he struggles with them). This essentially requires a conservative mindset. Instead of playing for every pin (or green) aim for an area that gives you a greater margin for error. Matt had it in his mind that he could go for every pin – this is OK if he managed to hit a good shot but this is not going to happen. You have to plan for when small errors are made.
I’m a firm believer that a long putt is better than a short chip or bunker shot. Learn to locate where all the trouble is and then play away from it.
Example: The pin is located on the back right of the green. There is a deep bunker to the right and a swale at the rear. The spot you should be aiming is front right. A conservative strategy, but it allows you to swing freely and avoid all the trouble.
In Matt’s case he’ll be aiming where a miss will leave him a simple 6 iron chip and run. This is playing to his strength.
The good news is for every difficult shot or location that doesn’t suit, you’ll find one that does. These are your green lights when you can go all out. If you can avoid the trouble on hard holes you’ll learn to save yourself many strokes.
I know this isn’t the most exciting way to play. Playing conservatively and hitting away from the pin is a tad boring. But unless you’re super talented you need to play within your limitations. It’s the only way you’ll maximise your potential for low scores.
I gave Matt the goal of playing the next five rounds with this strategy. It’s good advice and gives him a good way to compare his current way of play.
I recommend you do the same and see how your scores compare. As always let me know how you go and if you have any thoughts.
