In difficult courses, hitting good approach shots is often the key to scoring well. On these courses, good approach shots are as critical as driving and putting well. But conquering a difficult course doesn’t just happen. If you’ve never played the course before, studying it will tell you whether or not you need to concentrate on hitting better than average approach shots.
How can you recognize such a course? These courses often have what Jack Nicklaus calls “created challenges”� narrow fairways, hard-to-hold greens, and heavy, thick rough. Add to these things, awkward tee shot angles, uneven fairway lies, and small and elevated greens, and you have a course where hitting a good approach shots is a must. If you play the course a lot, you must learn how to hit precise approach shots to maintain your golf handicap.
On The Tee
Hitting a good approach shot starts on the tee. Rather than blasting the ball as far as possible with your drive, play target golf. You’ve probably read about playing target golf in my golf tips. The key to doing it is picking specific targets for your shots, targets with a real purpose. On courses where good approach shots are vital, playing target golf usually means finding level ground. Sacrificing some power off the tee in favor of hitting the right spot is the smart play, even if you have to tee off with a short club.
Why level ground? Hitting a 5-iron into a green from a level lie beats hitting a
7-iron from a severely angled lie every time. In other words, if you have a course with undulating fairways and you have to hit the ball high to have any hope of stopping it on the green, catching flatter spots from the tee is critical. On difficult courses you often find yourself in situations where it’s next to impossible to hit shots with the high trajectories needed to hold greens, like a steep downhill lie. So target these spots whenever you can.
Keys to Hitting Good Approach Shots
A good approach shot usually has a high trajectory. Hitting the ball with a high trajectory is well within the capabilities of most weekend golfers. It just takes a little practice and an adjustment or two in your stance and swing and you should be able to master it.
Below are five keys to a hitting a shot with a high trajectory. As usual some of the more important elements are built-in at address
* Play the ball a little farther forward in your stance
* Keep the clubface slightly open
* Hold your hands level with or slightly behind the ball.
* Swing under the ball, not around your body
* Release the club freely with your hand and wrists
As far as your swing is concerned, there’s not that much different when hitting a high trajectory. Swing the club pretty much as you normally would, although you may want to swing a little more upright, if you really want to deaden the ball when it hits. Using a fade spin on the ball also helps. Also, try keeping your hands from turning over during the release until well after impact.
Around The Greens
In addition to hit the ball high, you may want to put some backspin on the ball. Backspin works best when the greens are not too hard and there’s some moisture. When the greens are hard, dry, and slick, the ball tends to skip off the green. Also, the more elevated the green, the shallower the trajectory into the spot, so the harder it is to deaden the ball and the stronger the skip off the green’s surface. Also, the smaller the target, the less skipping room the ball has when it hits.
The problem with having the ball bounce off the green is that you never know where it will stop. Depending on the landing spot, you need to consider your options carefully. Choosing the wrong option can really cost you strokes. Depending on the lie and the situation, hit a shot you have confidence in and are proficient at, not a shot you’ve never player before. Staying conservative in this situation saves strokes more often than not, as I’ve said in my golf tips.
If you see players hitting a lot of shots with high trajectories, you know you have a course where hitting good approach shots are a must. Learning to hit approach shots with high trajectories will help you conquer many difficult courses and will keep your golf handicap from ratcheting upwards. Conquering these coursed is a challenge. But it can be done with the help of a well-conceived pre-round strategy and technically sound swing. So don’t be intimidated by them.
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.
