Is Short games Important to My Golf Scores? (Video) - by Dean Butler
Is Short games Important to My Golf Scores? (Video) - by Dean Butler

Okay. The question here, is the short game important to my scores? Well, I hope you all say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes” because of course it is. Imagine you’ve stood on that teeing ground, you’ve just hit that driver 230 yards, your best drive ever for a senior golfer that’s some feat 230 yards. And you’ve worked your way down that fairway and you’ve got to the green, you would been five, ten yards and maybe you need to just play a chip and run or maybe you got a pitch the ball over the bunker or maybe actually just on the edge of the fringe and you’re going to put these all short game shots, anything really from say around 60, 70 yards and in. How important is it? Well, having done that hard work and avoided the bunkers, the water, the wind swirling, isn’t it more important as we get closer and closer to the hole to take more time, more care about what we’re going to do? Absolutely right, because this is where we score. We don’t score off the tee. We score as we get closer and closer to the green.

So, short game shots, I’ve got a lob wedge here as an example. I’ve got a seven iron wedge chip and run and I’ve got pitching wedge. So, they are three clubs. And you can play short game shots with many more, but let’s stick to these. So, first of all, short game we’ve just come off short. We’ve got a bunker. The flag’s on the other side. I’d be crazy to play a seven iron and so I won’t get the high. I need to get the ball up in the air. The pinchers on the other side, I’m going to go for my most lofted trusted club, my 60 degree lob wedge, the maximum loft I could possibly get in my bag. You might have a 64, even better. That’s going straight up and straight down. How do you play the shot? Let’s put that club behind the ball. Let’s set up the feet slightly open with the ball forward and the stance with the weight on the left hand side, keep your hands forward. And what we want to do is let the club do the work. Don’t come in and think, “Oh my, I’ve got to lift that ball up in the air.” Let the club do the work. So, from here, my hands are forward, keep that weight on the left hand side because that corrects the angle of attack, keep my weight here. I’m just going to swing that club but slight little wrist hence a little break and that ball has gone nice and high. It lands very, very soft, very quickly because I’m hitting the ball very late. By hitting it very late, I’m hitting underneath it to rotating that ball backwards and that’s a simple way of playing that shot. But what about if that ball is say ten yards short of the green, which is a few little undulations? And this time the flag is half way back. So there’s no real need to pull out that lob wedge. You could if you wanted to but it’s no need. Don’t try and stick with one club. So I’ve got an eight iron in my hand, one of my favorite clubs when playing the short game shot, the chipping and running. The chip and run is a low shot, the pitch is a higher shot. What’s the setup? If I want the ball to land softly, I’m going to put the ball forward all day long because as I hit the ball later, it gives me a little bit of rotation on the ball. I want the ball to land to run. I’m going to put the ball back in my stance and it gives me the opposite. The technique slightly different to the other swing, we want to setup. I’m going land this ball softly, put the ball slightly further forward than what I would have done which was in the middle, keep my hands forward, but this time I’m not going to do any wrist break. I’m going to swing everything, keeping the weight on the left hand side and then swing with my arm. So, this letter Y from the shoulders my arms in the club, I’m going to maintain. So, from here, back, forward and the weight stays on my left hand side and the letter Y is maintained throughout the swing. So, when you play short game shots are they important? You bet because that’s where we score short game on the green and so on. So next time you go out and you practice, remember, it’s a case of hitting say 75 balls out of the bucket of a hundred with a driver. I would reverse it. 75% of your golf shots are from a hundred yards and into the green. Think about it. The tee shot travel so far and then your fairway would. So, most of your shots from a hundred yards, so when you go to driving range, the driver should come out right to the air. When my driver comes out, I hit six balls. That’s it, six balls. I work on short game, lob wedge, chipping, pitching, bunkers, putting and then I move to my mid-irons. So, how important is that short game? Well, if you don’t get the message now, you never will do. 2014-05-13

Okay. The question here, is the short game important to my scores? Well, I hope you all say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes” because of course it is. Imagine you’ve stood on that teeing ground, you’ve just hit that driver 230 yards, your best drive ever for a senior golfer that’s some feat 230 yards. And you’ve worked your way down that fairway and you’ve got to the green, you would been five, ten yards and maybe you need to just play a chip and run or maybe you got a pitch the ball over the bunker or maybe actually just on the edge of the fringe and you’re going to put these all short game shots, anything really from say around 60, 70 yards and in. How important is it? Well, having done that hard work and avoided the bunkers, the water, the wind swirling, isn’t it more important as we get closer and closer to the hole to take more time, more care about what we’re going to do? Absolutely right, because this is where we score. We don’t score off the tee. We score as we get closer and closer to the green.

So, short game shots, I’ve got a lob wedge here as an example. I’ve got a seven iron wedge chip and run and I’ve got pitching wedge. So, they are three clubs. And you can play short game shots with many more, but let’s stick to these.

So, first of all, short game we’ve just come off short. We’ve got a bunker. The flag’s on the other side. I’d be crazy to play a seven iron and so I won’t get the high. I need to get the ball up in the air. The pinchers on the other side, I’m going to go for my most lofted trusted club, my 60 degree lob wedge, the maximum loft I could possibly get in my bag. You might have a 64, even better. That’s going straight up and straight down. How do you play the shot? Let’s put that club behind the ball. Let’s set up the feet slightly open with the ball forward and the stance with the weight on the left hand side, keep your hands forward. And what we want to do is let the club do the work. Don’t come in and think, “Oh my, I’ve got to lift that ball up in the air.” Let the club do the work.

So, from here, my hands are forward, keep that weight on the left hand side because that corrects the angle of attack, keep my weight here. I’m just going to swing that club but slight little wrist hence a little break and that ball has gone nice and high. It lands very, very soft, very quickly because I’m hitting the ball very late. By hitting it very late, I’m hitting underneath it to rotating that ball backwards and that’s a simple way of playing that shot. But what about if that ball is say ten yards short of the green, which is a few little undulations? And this time the flag is half way back. So there’s no real need to pull out that lob wedge. You could if you wanted to but it’s no need. Don’t try and stick with one club.

So I’ve got an eight iron in my hand, one of my favorite clubs when playing the short game shot, the chipping and running. The chip and run is a low shot, the pitch is a higher shot. What’s the setup? If I want the ball to land softly, I’m going to put the ball forward all day long because as I hit the ball later, it gives me a little bit of rotation on the ball. I want the ball to land to run. I’m going to put the ball back in my stance and it gives me the opposite. The technique slightly different to the other swing, we want to setup. I’m going land this ball softly, put the ball slightly further forward than what I would have done which was in the middle, keep my hands forward, but this time I’m not going to do any wrist break. I’m going to swing everything, keeping the weight on the left hand side and then swing with my arm. So, this letter Y from the shoulders my arms in the club, I’m going to maintain.
So, from here, back, forward and the weight stays on my left hand side and the letter Y is maintained throughout the swing. So, when you play short game shots are they important? You bet because that’s where we score short game on the green and so on.

So next time you go out and you practice, remember, it’s a case of hitting say 75 balls out of the bucket of a hundred with a driver. I would reverse it. 75% of your golf shots are from a hundred yards and into the green. Think about it. The tee shot travel so far and then your fairway would. So, most of your shots from a hundred yards, so when you go to driving range, the driver should come out right to the air. When my driver comes out, I hit six balls. That’s it, six balls. I work on short game, lob wedge, chipping, pitching, bunkers, putting and then I move to my mid-irons. So, how important is that short game? Well, if you don’t get the message now, you never will do.