How to Hit a 40- to 50-Yard Golf Shot (Video) - by Pete Styles
How to Hit a 40- to 50-Yard Golf Shot (Video) - by Pete Styles

There is nothing more frustrating for a golfer than to get into a shot par 4, maybe a 300 yard, 320 yard hole. Boom in the tee shot, straight down the middle, splitting the fairway, 40-50 yards then, over a little ditch or over a little stream of lake. And then you have got this 40-yard shot and you now should land this one on the green home put for a birdie. And you decelerate, you duff it – straight in the water in front of you, nothing more frustrating that you wasted a good shot, wasted a good tee shot, you have wasted a good opportunity to make birdie or par.

One of the issues with this, is it comes down to deceleration, the golfer is so nervous of the water, no nervous of the shot, they slow the club down as they are about to hit the ball, dig the ground and the ball pops in the water hazard. The key to this is make sure you don’t decelerate, but you go the opposite way and accelerate. So take quite a lofted golf club, I have got my lob wedge here for this 50-yard shot. I am going to play the ball nicely in the center of my feet, but rather than taking my big wide stance or my big wide grip, this has too much power that involve decelerating. What I am going to do is narrow my stance, that takes away a little bit of power. I am also going to drop my hands down the grip and hold quite near the bottom. That removes a bit of power, now I need to actually hit this ball quite firmly, quite aggressively with acceleration. I would also just lean my bodyweight towards my front leg, so for a right-handed golfer, I mean leaning into my left-hand side, that means my lowest point, my divot would come from after the ball. Anybody that gets caught leaning back here trying to scoop the ball in the eye is really going to have problems with taking turf first and again putting it in the water. So I am down on the grip, I am leaning into my left-hand side on my head. I am going to make a 1/3rd backswing, I am going to make a 2/3rds follow through to really get that club accelerating. Again, if I have a massive backswing and then slow down, I decelerate, I knock it in the front water hazard. So a 40-50 yard lob wedge shot here on my left side, sure backswing, accelerate through and hold my finish. And I watch the ball clear the water, land nicely on the green and I think that’s the best way to capitalize on those short, should be relatively easy 40-50 yard shots, to strike the fairing golfers. If they have too much power, they have too much of a backswing, they need to decelerate, if they hit the ball badly. Play with less power and play it more aggressively and that should help you improve on those 40-50 yard chip shots. 2013-09-16

There is nothing more frustrating for a golfer than to get into a shot par 4, maybe a 300 yard, 320 yard hole. Boom in the tee shot, straight down the middle, splitting the fairway, 40-50 yards then, over a little ditch or over a little stream of lake. And then you have got this 40-yard shot and you now should land this one on the green home put for a birdie. And you decelerate, you duff it – straight in the water in front of you, nothing more frustrating that you wasted a good shot, wasted a good tee shot, you have wasted a good opportunity to make birdie or par.

One of the issues with this, is it comes down to deceleration, the golfer is so nervous of the water, no nervous of the shot, they slow the club down as they are about to hit the ball, dig the ground and the ball pops in the water hazard. The key to this is make sure you don’t decelerate, but you go the opposite way and accelerate. So take quite a lofted golf club, I have got my lob wedge here for this 50-yard shot. I am going to play the ball nicely in the center of my feet, but rather than taking my big wide stance or my big wide grip, this has too much power that involve decelerating.

What I am going to do is narrow my stance, that takes away a little bit of power. I am also going to drop my hands down the grip and hold quite near the bottom. That removes a bit of power, now I need to actually hit this ball quite firmly, quite aggressively with acceleration. I would also just lean my bodyweight towards my front leg, so for a right-handed golfer, I mean leaning into my left-hand side, that means my lowest point, my divot would come from after the ball. Anybody that gets caught leaning back here trying to scoop the ball in the eye is really going to have problems with taking turf first and again putting it in the water. So I am down on the grip, I am leaning into my left-hand side on my head. I am going to make a 1/3rd backswing, I am going to make a 2/3rds follow through to really get that club accelerating. Again, if I have a massive backswing and then slow down, I decelerate, I knock it in the front water hazard. So a 40-50 yard lob wedge shot here on my left side, sure backswing, accelerate through and hold my finish.

And I watch the ball clear the water, land nicely on the green and I think that’s the best way to capitalize on those short, should be relatively easy 40-50 yard shots, to strike the fairing golfers. If they have too much power, they have too much of a backswing, they need to decelerate, if they hit the ball badly. Play with less power and play it more aggressively and that should help you improve on those 40-50 yard chip shots.