Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro
How can I hit a golf ball over the trees? Now it’s a situation you will find every golfer will find when they get out to the course, you don’t quite hit the perfect drive and they’re faced with a shot where they’ve got to hit it over some trees to actually get it to their target. Now the first thing you have to do is obviously asses how high the trees are and what club will actually hit the ball over those trees. There’s no point trying to hit a 5-iron over some 80 foot trees if you’re only 20 yards away from them. That’s not going to work out very well for you. So you need to pick a club which will get the ball up quickly and over the trees as quickly as possible. Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew with this shot. But there are a couple of things you can do in your technique to try and help you hit the ball a little bit higher.
Now normally I have got a 7-iron here, I would be playing the ball just forward of centering my stance, swinging down and through, striking just normal. To get the ball a little bit higher, I can actually move the ball slightly further forwarding in my stance, get my weight nice and even, but set my hands so they’re level with the ball. Now if you swing kind of naturally through from this point, the ball will take off a little bit higher but it does take a little bit of practice to get this shot correct. So when you are faced with this shot, you can make those slight adoptions to lift the ball higher. No matter what club you hit from -- from a sandwich up to about a 6-iron anything lower than that in loft you will struggle to get up over the majority of trees. So with the stance, pop it a little bit further forward in the stance and usual, keep your weight nice and even and then set the hands level with the ball. From there try and swing as normal as possible and the ball will take off a little bit higher and actually manage to get over the majority of the trees as long as your club selection is correct. One thing you don’t want to be doing when faced with a short over the trees is take a club with too little loft and you don’t want to be striking down on the ball. If you strike down on the ball to try and generate back spin, the ball will come off quite low and you won’t get over any trees you face. So pick the right club, make the adaptions in your setup and then commit to the shot. Don’t kind of stand over that ball, unsure and unconfident, fully commit to it and hopefully the ball will come sailing over those trees and hopefully land in your target as well. 2014-05-23How can I hit a golf ball over the trees? Now it’s a situation you will find every golfer will find when they get out to the course, you don’t quite hit the perfect drive and they’re faced with a shot where they’ve got to hit it over some trees to actually get it to their target. Now the first thing you have to do is obviously asses how high the trees are and what club will actually hit the ball over those trees. There’s no point trying to hit a 5-iron over some 80 foot trees if you’re only 20 yards away from them. That’s not going to work out very well for you. So you need to pick a club which will get the ball up quickly and over the trees as quickly as possible. Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew with this shot. But there are a couple of things you can do in your technique to try and help you hit the ball a little bit higher.
Now normally I have got a 7-iron here, I would be playing the ball just forward of centering my stance, swinging down and through, striking just normal. To get the ball a little bit higher, I can actually move the ball slightly further forwarding in my stance, get my weight nice and even, but set my hands so they’re level with the ball. Now if you swing kind of naturally through from this point, the ball will take off a little bit higher but it does take a little bit of practice to get this shot correct. So when you are faced with this shot, you can make those slight adoptions to lift the ball higher. No matter what club you hit from — from a sandwich up to about a 6-iron anything lower than that in loft you will struggle to get up over the majority of trees. So with the stance, pop it a little bit further forward in the stance and usual, keep your weight nice and even and then set the hands level with the ball. From there try and swing as normal as possible and the ball will take off a little bit higher and actually manage to get over the majority of the trees as long as your club selection is correct.
One thing you don’t want to be doing when faced with a short over the trees is take a club with too little loft and you don’t want to be striking down on the ball. If you strike down on the ball to try and generate back spin, the ball will come off quite low and you won’t get over any trees you face. So pick the right club, make the adaptions in your setup and then commit to the shot. Don’t kind of stand over that ball, unsure and unconfident, fully commit to it and hopefully the ball will come sailing over those trees and hopefully land in your target as well.
