Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
If you are looking to improve your short game touch around the green and this is a fantastic drill to help you with that. What we are going to do once you are around the green is set yourself up where you are going to play from and then take the club that you are going to play you could use this with any of your clubs. So you could try with a chip and run with your 7-iron or you could play your wedge so can get a slightly higher shot. The club really doesn’t matter its learning the touch and the distance control that we are after here. So in this drill we are going to take a couple of extra clubs, stand where you are going to take your shots from just take a pace forward and put one of your golf clubs onto the floor. Step over it, pace forward again another golf club on the floor and you'll keep doing that until you’ve got about six of your golf clubs out and what you are doing is creating an area to chip the ball into. And it will look like a ladder stretched out on the floor. Between each of the rooms on the ladder each of the golf clubs you’ve just got a zone. So here first will be zone one if we then step over we have then got zone two then into zone three then into zone four. And I do that until you’ve got five zone set out. We are now going to play our golf shots and all we are going to work on doing is we are going to hit a nice chip. So to start with work on setting up correctly, the ball wants to be in the center of your feet and you feet wants to be slightly narrower than usual to wedge your balance. Just pull your left foot directly back by about 4 inches that will just set your stance slightly open but it will help you retain your alignment. Aim your golf club so the face is aiming where you want the ball to go and hold slightly lower down on the handle for added control.
Work on creating a straight line from the left shoulder down to the left hand and into the club head and then we are just going to swing that straight line back and through. So what we'll do initially as we are swinging that straight line back and through we are just working on brushing the grass underneath the ball and really keeping the body nice and still as we do that. So we are going to swing out as far as we want and through and we are going to hit a nice chip shot. Hold the finish the body will have rotated slightly if you’ve played well and you’ve still got that straight line look in the left arm and the golf club. So once you’ve started chipping nicely this skill game we are going to play is to hit the numbers on the ladder, so just notice how far out your comfortable shot goes and whereabouts it's lands on the ladder and then work on doing that slightly shorter. So now we are going to try and work I'm going hit in to number one don’t hit in to number two then hit into number three and so on until we’ve completed the ladder. So the same set up this time I'm working on hitting into zone one between the two clubs which I do, when I’ve hit my shot into that zone I can move on to zone two to land the ball. And we are only looking for the first bouncer we are not looking for the finish. If I don’t get the first bounce in zone one I’ll just keep playing the shot thinking oh I need to do it a bit smaller or I need to do it a bit bigger depending on what happened to the shot. I just completed zone one so I can move to zone two. So now I’ve hit the ball into zone two and I’ll just continue down and I'm going to record each of my attempt by the time I have finished all the zones I’ll just total up how many shots it took me. And then I can monitor how my touch is improving. So work on that ladder drill play it one to five see how many attempts it takes you to complete it, play it five to one again see how many attempts to complete it. And then ultimately work on doing it randomly. So you just do the numbers in any order but you can hit each number on your first attempt that will really improve your short game touch. 2014-01-13 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
If you are looking to improve your short game touch around the green and this is a fantastic drill to help you with that. What we are going to do once you are around the green is set yourself up where you are going to play from and then take the club that you are going to play you could use this with any of your clubs. So you could try with a chip and run with your 7-iron or you could play your wedge so can get a slightly higher shot. The club really doesn’t matter its learning the touch and the distance control that we are after here. So in this drill we are going to take a couple of extra clubs, stand where you are going to take your shots from just take a pace forward and put one of your golf clubs onto the floor. Step over it, pace forward again another golf club on the floor and you'll keep doing that until you’ve got about six of your golf clubs out and what you are doing is creating an area to chip the ball into. And it will look like a ladder stretched out on the floor. Between each of the rooms on the ladder each of the golf clubs you’ve just got a zone. So here first will be zone one if we then step over we have then got zone two then into zone three then into zone four. And I do that until you’ve got five zone set out. We are now going to play our golf shots and all we are going to work on doing is we are going to hit a nice chip. So to start with work on setting up correctly, the ball wants to be in the center of your feet and you feet wants to be slightly narrower than usual to wedge your balance. Just pull your left foot directly back by about 4 inches that will just set your stance slightly open but it will help you retain your alignment. Aim your golf club so the face is aiming where you want the ball to go and hold slightly lower down on the handle for added control.
Work on creating a straight line from the left shoulder down to the left hand and into the club head and then we are just going to swing that straight line back and through. So what we'll do initially as we are swinging that straight line back and through we are just working on brushing the grass underneath the ball and really keeping the body nice and still as we do that. So we are going to swing out as far as we want and through and we are going to hit a nice chip shot. Hold the finish the body will have rotated slightly if you’ve played well and you’ve still got that straight line look in the left arm and the golf club. So once you’ve started chipping nicely this skill game we are going to play is to hit the numbers on the ladder, so just notice how far out your comfortable shot goes and whereabouts it's lands on the ladder and then work on doing that slightly shorter. So now we are going to try and work I'm going hit in to number one don’t hit in to number two then hit into number three and so on until we’ve completed the ladder. So the same set up this time I'm working on hitting into zone one between the two clubs which I do, when I’ve hit my shot into that zone I can move on to zone two to land the ball. And we are only looking for the first bouncer we are not looking for the finish. If I don’t get the first bounce in zone one I’ll just keep playing the shot thinking oh I need to do it a bit smaller or I need to do it a bit bigger depending on what happened to the shot. I just completed zone one so I can move to zone two. So now I’ve hit the ball into zone two and I’ll just continue down and I'm going to record each of my attempt by the time I have finished all the zones I’ll just total up how many shots it took me. And then I can monitor how my touch is improving. So work on that ladder drill play it one to five see how many attempts it takes you to complete it, play it five to one again see how many attempts to complete it. And then ultimately work on doing it randomly. So you just do the numbers in any order but you can hit each number on your first attempt that will really improve your short game touch.
