Every golfer wants to get better. Generally, this means paring down your golf handicap a notch or two. Fortunately, there are many ways to do this—from practicing harder to finding the one move that makes everything click. Improving your putting is the fastest way to cut strokes from golf handicap.
Improving your chipping and pitching is also a great way to shrink your golf handicap. Sticking a pitch shot from 95 yards within feet of the pin lowers your putts per round average. While chipping it close to the hole from just off the green, turns three strokes into two—as we’ve written many times in our golf tips newsletter. To make short game shots like this, follow the small set of basic principles described below.
- Hinge And Hold
Making solid contact is critical with short game shots. Hinge your wrists very early on in your backswing to make solid contact on short game shots. Keeping this hinge on the downswing forces your hands to stay ahead of the clubhead, resulting in a crisp, precise strike. You also need to avoid swinging your lead arm back too far. Your lead arm should only go back as far as it needs to go.
- Accelerate Your Hands Through Impact
Accelerate your hands on the downswing when making short game shots. It’s a basic principle we emphasize in golf lessons we give. Also, keep accelerating them toward the target until well after the ball is gone. Watch pro golfers like Phil Mickelson to see how it’s done. Slowing your hands ruins your release, killing the shot. It also leads to trouble, like hitting fat shots, and changes the shot’s impact conditions.
- Maintain The Loft On Your Wedge
A principle related to accelerating your hands through the shot is to maintain the loft on your wedges through impact and beyond. In other words, keep the face of the club aimed at the sky as long as possible—another basic principle we emphasize in our golf instruction sessions. Doing this prevents your wrists from rolling over, which eliminates the loft established at address.
- Pay Attention To Your Setup
Setting up the same way for every shot breeds consistency. Achieving consistency is the ultimate goal of every golf lessons teaching pros give. Here’s a three-step guide to a setting up we use in our golf instruction sessions: (1) Align your feet and the clubface square to the target. (2) Rotate the clubface open until you establish the right loft for the shot. (Remember to re-grip the club after opening the face. Don’t simply rotate your hands. (3) Rotate your stance and upper body after rotating your clubface at the target. Then make your normal swing. Follow this three-step guide and you’ll never go wrong.
- Accelerate On Short Putts
Weekend golfers often decelerate on short putts. We see it all the time in golf lessons. It’s probably the most common error made on short putts. Accelerate through the ball to impart a nice, smooth roll no matter what length putt you have. Try to make your backstroke shorter on short putts than your forward stroke. A good ratio is 25 percent back, 75 percent forward. This ratio may vary slightly depending on the putt’s length.
- Avoid Hitting Down On Putts
Hitting down on putts prevents you from obtaining true roll on your ball. Also, avoid hitting the putt on the upswing as well. You want the putterhead moving level at impact. Keeping the putterface level guarantees that the shaft angle at impact is the same as it was at address—a key to obtaining true roll on your putts.
Incorporating these basic principles into your short game technique will help you cut strokes off your golf handicap. What’s more, they’ll boost confidence in your short game—one of the keys to getting better as a golfer.