Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
Learning to hit a golf punch shot will really help you to become a much better golfer, and it’s a great shot to have in your armory for when you are on the course. If it’s windy conditions the punch shot is the ideal, it’s going to give you a very low ball flight and you’ll be able to hit the ball under the winds and therefore be able to really retain directional control rather than only having the option of throwing the ball up into the air and it being blown about all over the place. The other time it’s really handy to use a golf punch shot is if you got out of position and you are in the trees, rather than just playing a safe sideways chip at times you’ll be able to play a punch shot that flies low under the branches of the trees, hits the fairway but really keeps running and can work its way down and get you right back into the hole again.
So a very handy shot to have for those different reasons there. So let’s look at how to hit the punch shot. First of all for right handed golfers, you want to set up as you normally would to hit your shot but play the ball slightly further back in the stance. So for right handed golfers, you are going to see the ball between the center of the stance and the right foot, that will be playing it into the back of the stance. The reason we want to do that, is that will encourage you that as you swing the club back down into the ball, the club won’t have reached its lowest point yet and you won’t present all of the loft on the club face to the ball.
So again the loft the club for you and help you with a lower ball flight. The other thing you want to do set up as well is really make sure you lean, you have this forward lean look in the shaft. So make sure the handle of the club is closer to the target than the club head is and work on creating this really straight line from the left shoulder into the left hand in the club head. So that will set the club so that the shaft is leaning forward and the hands are leading through the shot. Again this will take loft off the club face and allow the ball to fly out initially lower than it usually would. I would hold slightly lower down on the handle just to give you a little bit more added control.
And then just leaning slightly more onto the left foot again that will encourage you to make a downward move into the ball and again see a lower ball flight coming out with a slightly less lofted face as you present it to the club. So as we swing back the weight is going to stay very, very still, the head is going to stay very static, and we are going to take that straight line only up to about waist high. We have to be very restricted here with the backswing. If you start to cup the wrist you are going to generate height into the shot. So there is no wrist cup on the backswing action. The straight line between the left shoulder, the left hand and the club head remain all the way up to waist high and then we are going to drive that straight line back into the side of the ball and present the club into this position as you hit, so really leaning the shaft forward.
As you swing through, you have a very stunted follow through position. So the arms will swing out to waist high but the club head is going to remain quite low to the floor, again not using the wrists to allow the club to release upwards really working on keeping that straight line into the follow through position. That’s going to allow you to hit a very, very low shot which once it lands will run forward. So looking at a full punch shot, set up position, hit through, really stunted follow-through and that will give you a very low trajectory which is going to be great for playing under the wind or it’ll give you a really good escape shot from playing from trees. Try that on the golf course and you’ll really see that you get back into the hole and you reduce the score once you go into trouble.
2013-08-09 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
Learning to hit a golf punch shot will really help you to become a much better golfer, and it’s a great shot to have in your armory for when you are on the course. If it’s windy conditions the punch shot is the ideal, it’s going to give you a very low ball flight and you’ll be able to hit the ball under the winds and therefore be able to really retain directional control rather than only having the option of throwing the ball up into the air and it being blown about all over the place. The other time it’s really handy to use a golf punch shot is if you got out of position and you are in the trees, rather than just playing a safe sideways chip at times you’ll be able to play a punch shot that flies low under the branches of the trees, hits the fairway but really keeps running and can work its way down and get you right back into the hole again.
So a very handy shot to have for those different reasons there. So let’s look at how to hit the punch shot. First of all for right handed golfers, you want to set up as you normally would to hit your shot but play the ball slightly further back in the stance. So for right handed golfers, you are going to see the ball between the center of the stance and the right foot, that will be playing it into the back of the stance. The reason we want to do that, is that will encourage you that as you swing the club back down into the ball, the club won’t have reached its lowest point yet and you won’t present all of the loft on the club face to the ball.
So again the loft the club for you and help you with a lower ball flight. The other thing you want to do set up as well is really make sure you lean, you have this forward lean look in the shaft. So make sure the handle of the club is closer to the target than the club head is and work on creating this really straight line from the left shoulder into the left hand in the club head. So that will set the club so that the shaft is leaning forward and the hands are leading through the shot. Again this will take loft off the club face and allow the ball to fly out initially lower than it usually would. I would hold slightly lower down on the handle just to give you a little bit more added control.
And then just leaning slightly more onto the left foot again that will encourage you to make a downward move into the ball and again see a lower ball flight coming out with a slightly less lofted face as you present it to the club. So as we swing back the weight is going to stay very, very still, the head is going to stay very static, and we are going to take that straight line only up to about waist high. We have to be very restricted here with the backswing. If you start to cup the wrist you are going to generate height into the shot. So there is no wrist cup on the backswing action. The straight line between the left shoulder, the left hand and the club head remain all the way up to waist high and then we are going to drive that straight line back into the side of the ball and present the club into this position as you hit, so really leaning the shaft forward.
As you swing through, you have a very stunted follow through position. So the arms will swing out to waist high but the club head is going to remain quite low to the floor, again not using the wrists to allow the club to release upwards really working on keeping that straight line into the follow through position. That’s going to allow you to hit a very, very low shot which once it lands will run forward. So looking at a full punch shot, set up position, hit through, really stunted follow-through and that will give you a very low trajectory which is going to be great for playing under the wind or it’ll give you a really good escape shot from playing from trees. Try that on the golf course and you’ll really see that you get back into the hole and you reduce the score once you go into trouble.
