Aiming Properly On Your Golf Approach Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles
Aiming Properly On Your Golf Approach Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if we now establish the importance of aiming but this time with a short approach shots; so I’ve got a wedge in my hands, picking out a flag down here on the range and just looking to make sure that I’m aiming everything correctly to that and the course management decisions that go with that when I play for real on the golf course as well. So when you’re aiming for an approach into a green, generally the course designer will have put certain features in certain positions to make it more attractive to the eye but also make you question where and how you should aim your shot.

Now, it’s a golden rule if you’re approaching the green and you’re just trying to hit on to the green to two par, the middle of the green is never going to be a bad place to aim. But if you want to be a bit more specific about trying to get the ball closer to the flag or certainly trying to avoid some danger, we can look at some other areas. And the first thing is exactly that, trying to avoid danger. So when you stand back behind your golf ball, look down at your target, work out where the danger is and how severe it is and really sort of rank the danger in terms of potential score issues. So out of bounds and lost golf ball is probably going to be our biggest priority to avoid because that’s a stroke and the distance penalty. After that, we’ll be looking for water hazards. That’s just a stroke penalty. Generally, it’s a drop zone or you drop it to the side of the water, behind the water, whatever, but you don’t necessarily have to come all the way back to your original shots. Then you might look at bunkers. Now, they don’t actually give you a penalty shot but they are more penal to be actually play out of them. So rank the out of bounds, the water, the bunkers, that’s your three biggest priorities to avoid. And the next consideration might be trying to hit the ball to the low side of the hole. Now, this is again thinking ahead a shot to the putt. If you’re on the low side of the hole, you probably got an easier putt or even an easier chip but getting to the high side of the hole and putting chip and back down could be considered to be a little bit more difficult. Now, once you picked your alignment, you want to pick the right club to hit on that line so you want to commit to the correct distance. So understanding how far you hit your wedges, where the danger is, in which direction and also the distance of that shot is quite important. And the last thing particularly once you’ve thought about all of these things is actually committing to the swing you’re making. So aligning everything is great but it’s not going to help you hit the ball well unless you actually make a good committed swing. And sometimes when you’ve thought about all the dangers, you then forget to hit the damn golf ball really. So once you’ve established all of these different dangers, you’ve worked out your alignment, that’s loaded into the computer, you got the right club line up, pull the trigger and be really committed when you actually hit that shot or all that prior work and knowledge kind of goes to waste. So when you’re hitting wedge shots onto a green, consider danger, low side, club selection, and then commit; and that should help you get the ball closer to improve your chance of holding your next shot. 2016-04-20

So if we now establish the importance of aiming but this time with a short approach shots; so I’ve got a wedge in my hands, picking out a flag down here on the range and just looking to make sure that I’m aiming everything correctly to that and the course management decisions that go with that when I play for real on the golf course as well. So when you’re aiming for an approach into a green, generally the course designer will have put certain features in certain positions to make it more attractive to the eye but also make you question where and how you should aim your shot.

Now, it’s a golden rule if you’re approaching the green and you’re just trying to hit on to the green to two par, the middle of the green is never going to be a bad place to aim. But if you want to be a bit more specific about trying to get the ball closer to the flag or certainly trying to avoid some danger, we can look at some other areas. And the first thing is exactly that, trying to avoid danger. So when you stand back behind your golf ball, look down at your target, work out where the danger is and how severe it is and really sort of rank the danger in terms of potential score issues. So out of bounds and lost golf ball is probably going to be our biggest priority to avoid because that’s a stroke and the distance penalty.

After that, we’ll be looking for water hazards. That’s just a stroke penalty. Generally, it’s a drop zone or you drop it to the side of the water, behind the water, whatever, but you don’t necessarily have to come all the way back to your original shots. Then you might look at bunkers. Now, they don’t actually give you a penalty shot but they are more penal to be actually play out of them. So rank the out of bounds, the water, the bunkers, that’s your three biggest priorities to avoid.

And the next consideration might be trying to hit the ball to the low side of the hole. Now, this is again thinking ahead a shot to the putt. If you’re on the low side of the hole, you probably got an easier putt or even an easier chip but getting to the high side of the hole and putting chip and back down could be considered to be a little bit more difficult.

Now, once you picked your alignment, you want to pick the right club to hit on that line so you want to commit to the correct distance. So understanding how far you hit your wedges, where the danger is, in which direction and also the distance of that shot is quite important.

And the last thing particularly once you’ve thought about all of these things is actually committing to the swing you’re making. So aligning everything is great but it’s not going to help you hit the ball well unless you actually make a good committed swing. And sometimes when you’ve thought about all the dangers, you then forget to hit the damn golf ball really. So once you’ve established all of these different dangers, you’ve worked out your alignment, that’s loaded into the computer, you got the right club line up, pull the trigger and be really committed when you actually hit that shot or all that prior work and knowledge kind of goes to waste.

So when you’re hitting wedge shots onto a green, consider danger, low side, club selection, and then commit; and that should help you get the ball closer to improve your chance of holding your next shot.