🎯 Dial in your Short Game + Practice Plan

It’s Thursday and that means you’ve got 3 things coming,

⛳️ One Golf Tip on Short Game Distances

🧠 One Quote on your Golfing Mindset

🔥 Something extra (it’s a full short game practice plan)

We’re next up on the tee, let’s go!

One Tip, Distance control with your wedges!

A lot of golfers will say that their short game is “okay”, but usually after asking a few questions I find out that it’s not where it needs to be. A lot of this comes from the fact that most golfers do not know how far their short-game shots carry and how much they roll out. I have a system that can help with both, let’s get into it!

Click here, if you want to watch me break this down on video.

• Keep this in mind before we start

  The short game has all types of shots. High, low, spinners, bump and run etc. A lot of this can be confusing and many don’t know where to start. What I am going to talk about in this email is based on what I will call “Standard” short-game shots.

• Know the length of your swing, and control it!

  This is where you need to start. Many of you make a short game swing way longer than you think (you can check with a camera) and as a result, we subconsciously decelerate on our shots. So the first thing you need is some lengths of swing you can use as your reference point. Here are two options

  • ¼, ½, ¾ length of swing, or based on body parts, knee to knee, hip to hip, and shoulder to shoulder

• But how far did that shot actually go?

  The second thing we need to know is how far the ball actually went. This can be done by pacing out as an example, 10,15,20,25, and 30 yards to start. Now when you hit a shot you can say “My 54* wedge hip to hip carried 14 yards and rolled to 21 yards. As you start to do this with different clubs and different lengths, you will start to develop “Known numbers”. Below is a breakdown of my known numbers.

• The more you do it, the better the number will become

  In the matrix below I have 12 numbers, that can look intimidating. But look at it this way, each week spend 20 minutes at the chipping green. Pick two clubs or one club and two swing lengths. By the end of that 20 minutes, you will have your first two numbers. Do that for 4 weeks, that’s 8 numbers! As you continue to do this in practice and on the course, you will out what yardages you have a lot and which ones need more practice!

• Now let’s take it to the Golf Course

  Armed with this new information, it’s time to take it to the Golf Course! Let’s use my chart (those numbers are carry numbers for reference) If I miss a green (which I do!) and I have 20 yards to the pin and 12 yards to get on the green, I am hitting my 54* knee to knee. If I am short on a par 5 and 43 yards to the pin, I hit my 50* club to club.

So let’s summarize:

1) You need to know the length of your swing, and you must check it! You can record yourself (or have someone record you), and you can also check at home in front of a mirror. Because I know all of you will make short game shots in your home 😉 

2) You need to track how far the ball carried and rolled out

3) The more you do it, the better you become at it

4) Take it to the Golf Course and see how it works!

One Quote, on handling bad days on the course

This week's something extra……

Since we are talking short game today I am giving you a short game practice plan! This is something I give out to all of my players, it is a step-by-step guide to developing your known short-game numbers. I hope it helps you!

Get it here!