Pitch Shot from Greenside Rough

25 11 2011

What if I told you that you did not have to be perfect to hit a shot out of greenside rough?  You would then approach the shot with confidence.  Remember Tom Watson’s famous shot on the 71st hole of the 1982 U.S. Open?  Bruce Edwards, his caddie, said “Get it close” to which Watson responded “I’m going to hole it!”  And so he did.  Obviously Watson did it under the utmost pressure as he was battling Nicklaus for the victory and he was tied with Jack at the time.

The truth is that although these shots appear challenging, they are not that difficult.  I teach a forgiving short game technique on these shots where you slide the bounce of the club under the ball.  If you maintain constant loft on the club, the bounce will slide along the grass fro 10-12 inches providing a huge margin of error.  Take a practice swing and you will see the length of the brush mark.

Next time you get this shot, follow these steps:

1)    Take a lofted club like a lob wedge or sand wedge

2)    Play the ball forward in your stance

3)    Weaken your grip which will help keep the clubface open

4)    Firm up your wrists to keep the club from twisting in the grass

5)    Hit behind the ball

6)    Make a big swing

Distance control will come through practice.  Your confidence will grow as you increase your repetitions. Give yourself different lies and targets to simulate real golf conditions.  You have the forgiveness built in to the club and technique.  Go do it!

Josh Zander


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Categories : game improvement, golf, golf instruction, pitch shot, short game, video

How To Hit it Straight

20 09 2011

Hitting the ball straight is one of the biggest challenges facing every golfer.  There are so many variables that go into hitting it straight that it is a wonder we ever hit the ball straight at all.  In fact most tour players prefer to curve the ball in order to get it to the target.  Jack Nicklaus liked to fade the ball while Tom Watson likes to draw the ball.  Very few tour players try to hit the ball perfectly straight once they are hitting clubs longer than an eight iron.  Today’s equipment makes hitting the ball straight more feasible, nevertheless, it is a challenge.  I believe every golfer should know what it takes to hit it straight. The closer you get, the less curve you will get on your ball and your direction control will improve.

So what does it take to hit the ball straight?  Correct aim, a square clubface, and a centered hit are all part of the equation.  The last variable is club path and that may be the least understood by the average player.  The reason is that the swing is an inclined circle, like slightly tilted a hula hoop.  This means that as you hit down on a ball you will be striking the ball earlier on the circle which means your path will moving to the right at impact.  Conversely, when you hit up on the ball, the later you are hitting on the circle and the more left your path is moving at impact.  In short, the attack angle directly affects the path.  My video on how to hit it straight illustrates the adjustments necessary to neutralize your club path with different attack angles.

The one thing to remember is that every ball struck from the ground requires a downward strike to hit it solidly and straight.  Hitting up on a ball that is on the ground will result in a miss-hit.  When you tee the ball up, it is to your advantage to hit up on the ball as it will minimize the spin rate and give you more distance.  Although you can get away with hitting down on your driver I do not recommend it as it will increase your spin rate and cost you distance.

Just like it is difficult to learn the golf swing from a book, I will leave the aforementioned formula for hitting it straight to your local PGA teaching professional.  But remember that just working on aim, face and center hits will help, but understanding the concept of path as it relates to attack angle will be the final piece in the puzzle.

Josh Zander


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Categories : ball flight, full swing, game improvement, golf, golf instruction, video

Trap your Wedges

3 05 2011

Trap it! No, that doesn’t mean put it in the trap. It means that great wedge players trap the ball between the clubface and the ground. The compression they create leads to wonderful distance control.

The biggest mistake I see amateurs make is to make full swings with their wedges and hit sky balls. Their distance control is too variable. The same swing with a 56 degree wedge  might produce anywhere from a 60 to 100 yard shot. This is not acceptable. After all, you are relying on your wedge to put you in range to make a putt and make a birdie or save par.

The reason for this inconsistent distance is because of the loft on the wedge. The increased loft leads to the ball rolling up the clubface at impact. This is much like what Phil Mickelson wants when he takes a full swing with a lob wedge and hits the ball 10 feet. Well, we don’t want this when we are trying to hit an 75 yard wedge shot. Tour players de-loft the clubface 20 degrees when they hit their wedges into greens from 75 to 125 yards. That means that they are turning their 56 degree club into a 36 degree club which makes the loft more like a 7 iron. The ball comes off with a penetrating flight and stops quickly due to backspin.

Make sure your technique is fundamentally sound with your wedges. First, make sure you keep your weight more on your front foot when you hit. As a right-handed golfer, I think about turning around my left leg. This guarantees that I will hit the golf ball before I hit the ground. This compression leads to very solid contact. Secondly, make a shallow 3/4 type swing into the ball. This shallower angle helps the ball rebound off the face as opposed to crawling up the face. Lastly, come into impact with a forward leaning shaft which de-lofts the clubface. This results in fantastic distance control. Never make full, all out, swings with your wedges. There is no need to. After all, if you need more distance, there is always a longer club you can use.


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Categories : ball flight, full swing, game improvement, golf, golf instruction

Hold your finish. It’s not just for show.

1 02 2011

Why is the finish so important? After all, isn’t the ball gone? This is a comment I get sometimes from some students. The finish is the result of having done correct fundamentals along the way. Watching the 2010 Masters, I was so impressed by runner-up Lee Westwood’s balance at the end of his powerful golf swing. Westwood’s balance is the result of an on-plane motion which allows him to deliver an efficient blow to the golf ball without having his body compensate for any loops in his swing.

The finish is also the result of trying to hit a ball with a specific flight. If you want to hit the ball low, your finish should be low, If you want to hit the ball high, your finish should be high. If you want your ball to fade as a right-handed golfer, your hands should finish more left and away from the target line.  If you want your ball to draw, your hands should finish closer to the target line.

The bottom line is that the golf swing is over in less than two seconds and you don’t have time to think about all the positions along the way. If you rehearse a swing that ends in balance and has one of the aforementioned finish positions, you have a good chance of hitting correct positions along the way. My students are so psyched when I have them do follow-through drill that improves their backswing positions. Give yourself some credit. You are a better athlete than you thought!

Make it part of your routine to rehearse the finish you want based on the ball flight you desire. Hold it for a few seconds to feel your balance and to tell your brain what ball flight you want. Feeling it will get you there more often than just thinking about it. I have my juniors always hold their finish for a count of five. Lastly, swing as fast as you can as long as you can hold your pose. After all, it’s fun to hit it far and you can’t get distance without clubhead speed.

Josh Zander


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Posture

17 12 2010

Maintaining your posture is known as an important fundamental to a good golf swing. I completely agree with that statement with one exception. It is only important to maintain your posture if you have a “one plane” swing. A one plane swing has your left arm on the same plane as your shoulders at the top of your backswing. This is more commonly known as a flat or more rounded golf swing. You can almost think of this as a baseball swing that needs to be bent over in order to hit the ground.

If you have a “two plane” swing or more upright golf swing, please do not maintain your posture! Your left arm is in a higher position at the top of your backswing which already gives you an angle to hit the ground. Bending over during the downswing will lead to deep divots. You should also stand more upright at address if you have a two plane swing.

When you watch a video, read an instruction book or receive a tip, make sure it will help you with your impact or ball flight or it is not for you. There are many fundamentals out there that apply to different types of golf swings. It is up to your PGA professional to clear up the confusion and guide you on the correct path. Next time you take a lesson, tell your instructor about your impact and ball flight. Armed with this information, your teacher can help you understand the fundamentals that apply to you.


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Releasing the Clubhead

9 10 2010

As we all know, there are many golf swings in the Hall of Fame and none of them look alike.  But what they all have in common is that they can control their ball flight. After all, all we want as golfers is predictability.  A few years ago I asked the #1 player on the Stanford Golf Team how he was hitting it.  His answer was that he was hitting it too straight and could not curve the ball.  He thought the new equipment made the ball fly too straight.  Imagine that!  We should all have that problem.  The real reason he hits it so straight is that he has a stable release that keeps the clubface square to the arc around impact.  These players tend to be very accurate but do not curve the ball much.  Players with stable releases can still curve the ball but it requires set-up adjustments.  Many great players also use the roll release.  Phil Mickelson just won the 2010 Masters using it.  Bubba Watson is another example of a player who uses it and he certainly does not have a problem curving the ball.  In this day of forgiving equipment and computerized video analysis, I think we have lost the art of shot-making.  Old schoolers like Sam Snead used to find their desired ball flight by playing “spin the ball” on the range.  If they were hooking it on the golf course, they would slice it for a while on the range until they neutralized their ball flight.  Once they found their favorite flight, they were good to go.

What kind of release do you have?  Once you know this, you can use use the correct fundamentals to make it successful.  As I explain in the video, the fundamentals of each release are significantly different.  Impact is the moment of truth and if you want predictability to your ball flight, you need to know how to use your release to achieve your desired ball flight.

Josh Zander


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Categories : ball flight, full swing, game improvement, golf, golf instruction, video

A Simple Lesson Learned from Stats

29 07 2010

The coach from a top women’s golf program was talking the other day about how the detailed statistics from MySmartGolf helped one of her players in a very simple but important way.  This particular player was not getting up and down from off the green as often as a player of her ability should.  That could have been seen using any stat program but only a unique feature of MySmartGolf pinpointed the problem.  The shot tracking showed very clearly that virtually all of the player’s chip shots finished short of the hole.  This was a simple problem with a simple solution which the player quickly addressed.  As a result, her up and down percentage increased accordingly.  Sometimes we just need someone or something to help point out the important information and MySmartGolf can do that.

Most golf statistics programs tell you only what percentage of the time you get up and down successfully.  MySmartGolf gives you much more information such as where your short game shots finish and why.  This is the information you need in order to improve your short game.


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Categories : chip shot, game improvement, golf, golf instruction, mental game, short game

Balance

20 07 2010

“Balance Daniel son, must learn the balance!” For those of you old enough to remember the movie “The Karate Kid” you remember those infamous words of Mr. Miagi teaching his student the importance of balance. I feel like Mr. Miagi on the lesson tee sometimes as I stress balance to all my students. Balance is a fundamental you will find in all great golf swings. The swings make look different, but they all seem to finish like they are posing for the camera.

Your vestibular system and your nervous system equip you with tools for balance. Solid swing fundamentals also lead to better balance. Try this next time you go to the driving range. Don’t make a backswing and simply swing from your set up into a perfect, balanced finish position. Hold it there for ten seconds to allow your brain to understand the feeling of a balanced finish. Now set up and try to swing into that finish. It’s amazing how your swing plane and body motion starts to come around. Often times, as players, we get caught up in the minutia of the different parts of the swing. There is not enough time during the swing to think about all those details! Make it your goal to finish in balance and a lot of the swing faults will start to melt away.

As I mentioned in the video, slowing down your swing is not the solution to your balance problem. Slowing down may help your balance but now you are hitting it shorter. I have taught golf for 16 years and I have never had a student who wants to hit it shorter. Lets fix your golf swing and then speed it up! The average PGA Tour Player swings his driver at 112 mph. Have you noticed, they all pose at the finish while in perfect balance. Mr. Miagi would be proud!

Josh Zander


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Clubfitting and MySmartGolf

22 06 2010

The importance of clubfitting is becoming more and more apparent to players of all abilities.  We learned of an experience of a golfer that showed how MySmartGolf led to the identification of a clubfitting issue.  Although MySmartGolf requires input of a bit more information than traditional stat programs, it results in a very large amount of useful information to the player.  With just a few mouse clicks, this player scanned his ball flight for all the clubs in his bag and noticed that the ball flight of his six iron was different (with more miss hits) from what he saw for all his other irons.  He also admitted that he did not have a lot of confidence when hitting that club and tended to avoid using it.  Sure enough, his six iron did not match his other clubs in that the lie was different.  A clubfitter fixed the problem and the player noticed the difference right away.  He now has more confidence in that club.

Players interested in detailed statistics are amazed at how much information MySmartGolf gives them based on their round input.  As an example, for each approach shot club a player can see ball flight, how often the green is hit, how close to the pin they hit it, and where shots that miss the green finish.  This is valuable information for players who want to analyze their games.


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Categories : ball flight, game improvement, golf

Shot Shaping

17 05 2010


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