Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

I'm going to have a second shot now it’s going to be a slightly different technique, but aiming for the same target. Not too bad. The two different shots there have both finished around about three yards apart, but they went in a very, very different way and the technique and the swing that I used was very, very different for both as well. The first shot I hit was much more of a standard traditional kind of chip shot, but using a lob wedge, so I played the ball from the centre of my feet, grip down, lean left a little bit back and through relatively short technique and that ball has probably gone 25 paces out in front of me.

The second shot was a completely different type and style of shot, but it still went roughly the same distance, maybe 28 yards. And the way I played that one was a much more open face, much more open stance and a much fuller swing and that was much more inclined to the sort of Phil Mickelson style of flop shots. And probably the flop shot is the shot that most people are more familiar with the lob wedge, but the difference between the two shots was quite vast in terms of how the balls flew, how high they flew and how useful they would have been in terms of stopping on the green. The high one generally would have stopped quicker as it landed the trajectory and the spin would have been greater, the low one, still relatively high in general terms but it would have rolled out a little bit more. The question is, which one is most useful on the golf course and when would you use them?

Well, there isn’t really a right or wrong answer for chipping. Now some people might play that same shot with an 8 or a 9-Iron, there’d be nothing wrong with that if the golf course allowed. But there's going to be certain situations where you can't land the ball short and roll it. Now if it’s flat and there's nothing in the way, a little 8-Iron bump and run might have been lovely. A small bunker in the way, the standard chip technique with the lob wedge might have worked. But a big banker in the way with a small green and another big bunker, the flop shot might have been a bit more useful. But I think the key to this is having variety. So using the golf clubs in your bag and certainly using the lob wedge in those two different fashions to create variety, because the golf course is not always asking us the same questions. Sometimes it says, “Okay you can hit a low bump and run.” Other times it’s just going to warn that high, soft floaty one to get over the bunker to a tight pin position and if you can practice with a bit of variety in your game then you can actually play with variety.

The key is don’t go around the golf course and try and play a shot you're not comfortable with just because you may – can play the lob wedge and flip the ball up in the air, don’t think you can go out there and do exactly the same thing unless you've practiced it. So make sure you're practicing with variety then when the golf course asks you a question next time you're playing, hopefully you'll have an answer by playing the chipped lob wedge or the flopped lob wedge.