Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro

Learning to play into the wind is really going to help you when you’re out on the golf course because you are going to get into situations where conditions are often windy and if you throw up into the air in those conditions you’re going to really struggle with your accuracy and start to miss the targets because it’s very, very difficult to control the ball when it has gone up into the air if it’s really windy and dusty conditions. So here we’re going to look at how to play in the wind and basically to do that, we’ve got to be able to control the trajectory that you hit the ball out. We got to keep that trajectory low to keep the ball under the wind and then you’ll be able to really attack the pin when you are on the course and in those conditions.

So looking at how to keep the trajectory low and play this lower shot into the wind, we are going to set the ball slightly further back than we normally would to play the shot so just to the right of center and we are going to have the weight on the left more on the left than usual. So again about 70% of your weight on your left side. Keep your nose on the left side of the ball and that will just push you over to get the weight onto the left side. We’re going to have the shaft of the club leaning forward so the handle is closer to the target than the club head is and we really want to maintain this forward lean in the club all the way throughout the shot. We’re going to put our hands on so that we create this straight line from the left shoulder down the left arm and into the club and we’re going to restrict the back swing because we must keep that straight line position. If you start to engage your wrist and start to cock the wrist, that’s going to get height into the club head, you’re going to attack down a steeper angle and then you’re going to pop the ball up higher into the air. So really work on keeping that straight line and keeping the back swing restricted. Depending on the distance you want, you might only swing back to this position but I would say just over waist high is the maximum height for your backswing with this type of punt shot. This low shot into the wind.

As you swing back in, we’re keeping the weight on the left and really returning the club back to the ball in this position with the forward lean. The forward lean de-lofts the club so even though you are playing a seven iron, you’re de-lofting your club face so the ball will fly out much lower than it usually would. And again, as you swing through, you’re going to finish in this laid off position which just means that you’ve maintained that straight line down the left arm and into the shaft of the club so the club head is lower than the hands. You’re not going to allow the club head to release like it would on a usual shot for power so we want to move into this position. You’ll turn to the target but the club head remains very low relative to the hands. So to hit the effective punch low shot into the wind, weights on the left, ball’s just back in the stance. Hands are forward, just work on keeping that straight line throughout the swing and into the follow through and you’ll see you get a much lower trajectory and much more control when you’re playing into the wind.