One of the quickest ways to shoot lower scores is to sharpen up around the greens. However, time and time again we make the same mistakes – most of which are technical, but we can be often be a lot smarter, too.
1. Upslopes, wrong club
Fault
A lot of club golfers take out their favourite club in this scenario – 58° or 60° wedge. If you do that, the loft of the club combined with the upslope will send the ball straight up in the air. You might get a good strike, but often it’ll land short because it has very little roll.
Another fault I see is leaning onto the lead side, which you should do for a standard chip shot. As a result, the club enters the slope and just digs in.
Fix
Get rid of the loft. I’ll play this shot using a 52° or 54° wedge. It’s plenty of loft to get the height you need, but it’s going to come out on a much more ‘sensible’ flight, one that rolls out more.
I also recommend placing the ball a little further forward in your stance, which will help you to ‘follow’ the slope.
2. Downslopes, wrong club
Fault
The biggest mistake I see with this type of shot is where golfers don’t set-up correctly, which will frequently lead to fat chip shots. When chipping off a downslope, you want to match the angle of attack with the slope.
Fix
I will play this shot with the maximum loft I have in my bag, which is a 60° wedge. So that I get myself sufficiently onto my left side, I need to adopt a wider stance than the one I’d get into for a standard chip shot.
Place the ball further back in your stance, which will help you to play down the slope, and get the shaft forward. Make sure you keep your weight on your front leg at all times.
3. Poor visualization
Fault
Too many golfers use their favourite club for every type of shot around the greens. A lot of the time this is a 60° wedge, which can sometimes be too much loft. The short game is all about predicting what the ball will do when it lands.
Fix
A bit of visualization helps. Let’s say you’re playing into the green, into the wind, and the green is sloping towards you. You want to try and hit the ball lower with a bit less spin.
The play here would be something like a 52° wedge with a chip and run action. This will give you less spin and more release up the slope.
4. Bunkers, leaning back
Fault
Leaning back to try and get the ball out of the bunker is probably the most common bunker fault I see. We’ve all done it. The ball hardly moves, either staying in the bunker or just on the lip.
Fix
Take a wide stance and push your weight forward. Keep this weight forward for the entire action. From there, you’ll find that you’re able to stay a lot more stable and rotate around, rather than leaning back.
With longer greenside bunker shots, try not to use your most lofted club. I recommend experimenting with a 52° and 56° wedge.
5. 60-yard pitch, wrong club
Fault
Again, recreational golfers tend to use too much loft. The ball will often stall in the wind and come up way short. A full 60° wedge is not the sensible play. It tends to encourage players to go hard at the ball with a lot of transfer, which often results in fat and thin strikes.
There’s a famous Ben Hogan quote, which goes something like this: “Show me the player who hits full wedge shots, because I want to play them for money.”
Fix
From about 60 yards, I’d play a 52° wedge. It gives me much more control. The aim would be to flight it down and make sure that the first bounce doesn’t come back. It’s a much better way of playing the shot.
Narrow the stance and get your weight onto your lead side. Really feel like your arms and body are connected. It should produce a much ‘quieter’ shot with less spin.
6. Tight grip
Fault
When you grip the club too tightly, the ball wants to jump off the clubface, which usually means it runs way past the hole; the ball doesn’t nestle into the grooves and get that friction.
Fix
By softening the grip pressure, the club will release and the ball will tend to stay on the clubface for longer. When you set-up, let your arms hang naturally, which encourages the club to almost swing itself a bit more.
7. Playing over hazards
Fault
This can be a mental thing as much as anything technical. When playing a shot over water, high handicap players have a real worry about the result, so there’s this tendency to decelerate and stop turning the chest.
Fix
It’s probably unrealistic to say forget about the water and/or big bunker in front of you. However, what you might find helpful is to concentrate on where you want to finish, as opposed to what might happen. So, I might say to myself that I want to finish with my chest pointing towards the pin. This will keep the momentum going and stop that deceleration that will so often lead to a heavy contact.
