Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro
When you’re around on the course should you play the three quarter shot? If you have spent I would say 10 minutes watching the open championship, you will soon discover that most players are constantly swinging at a three quarter swing length. Now what does that tell you, it should tell you that in windy conditions having a three quarter swing will allow you to have a greater amount of control over the ball flight. So when people are playing in the open or when the wind is blowing by having the three quarter swing length they have a lot more control over the ball flight that is because they are not putting as much club at speed into it and also with the three quarter swing. If you pop a little bit more weight over to your left side you can increase angle of attack with a little bit more control.
As you increase angle of attack you lower dynamic loft and you get a lower ball flight which obviously within windy conditions is very, very important. So if you are looking for areas on when you can play that three quarter shot windy conditions is your first step. The second reason why you may want to play three quarter shot is a better control over distance, sometimes when you are on the course and anyone who’s been on the course and play golf any amount of time will know this, they will be in between clubs at some point. So if you hit your 7-Iron 160 yards and your 8-Iron 150 yards for example, every now and again you’re going to get that shot which is about 155 yards, so what do you do? Do you force your 8-Iron or do you go soft on your seven. Generally speaking, you can grade down your 7-Iron a little bit more and then use that three quarter swing. It will give you more control over the ball flight, but because the swing isn’t quite as far it will limit the amount of distance that the all can go. And that’s a very rough example. If you really want to control your distances better, you can have a session down the range and you can do your club gapping, trying to get a sense of how far you are hitting your 7-Iron with those three quarter shots and then building from that. If you are looking at reasons why you need to introduce it on the course, windy conditions and control of distance are just two examples of how that will be useful. 2016-10-06When you’re around on the course should you play the three quarter shot? If you have spent I would say 10 minutes watching the open championship, you will soon discover that most players are constantly swinging at a three quarter swing length. Now what does that tell you, it should tell you that in windy conditions having a three quarter swing will allow you to have a greater amount of control over the ball flight. So when people are playing in the open or when the wind is blowing by having the three quarter swing length they have a lot more control over the ball flight that is because they are not putting as much club at speed into it and also with the three quarter swing. If you pop a little bit more weight over to your left side you can increase angle of attack with a little bit more control.
As you increase angle of attack you lower dynamic loft and you get a lower ball flight which obviously within windy conditions is very, very important. So if you are looking for areas on when you can play that three quarter shot windy conditions is your first step. The second reason why you may want to play three quarter shot is a better control over distance, sometimes when you are on the course and anyone who’s been on the course and play golf any amount of time will know this, they will be in between clubs at some point. So if you hit your 7-Iron 160 yards and your 8-Iron 150 yards for example, every now and again you’re going to get that shot which is about 155 yards, so what do you do?
Do you force your 8-Iron or do you go soft on your seven. Generally speaking, you can grade down your 7-Iron a little bit more and then use that three quarter swing. It will give you more control over the ball flight, but because the swing isn’t quite as far it will limit the amount of distance that the all can go. And that’s a very rough example. If you really want to control your distances better, you can have a session down the range and you can do your club gapping, trying to get a sense of how far you are hitting your 7-Iron with those three quarter shots and then building from that. If you are looking at reasons why you need to introduce it on the course, windy conditions and control of distance are just two examples of how that will be useful.
