For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Short Game Practice – use focus to your advantage
Although I do love full swing practice, I’m making it a priority to practice short game, especially if I can’t fit in a 2 hour full swing practice. I think even practicing short game for 20-30 minutes can make a huge difference.
Today although I didn’t get to use the driving range, I did get to use a really nice short game practice area. I worked on chips from about 15-20 yards, and my focus was to get them within the magic 3 foot circle. Because I knew that I wasn’t going to get the full swing practice I really focused on the chips. And I think that focus made all the difference. I made short little practice swings that felt right, then did my best to execute the practice swing. The practice green was really fast (much faster than I’m used to), I was chipping on a downslope, and the fairway around it was tight. I’d say that I got about 60% of my chips into the 3 foot circle, another 20% within 6 feet, and the last 20% between 6 and 10.
My 60 degree swiss army club
I was practicing with Tim yesterday and he was a little surprised that I do everything around the green with my 60 degree wedge. My initial reasons for using the 60 degree wedge exclusively was that I wanted to master one club before I added the others. I wanted to know that I could take one club to hit low running chips, low checking chips, high lobs, little cut lobs etc.
I have also found that using one club, that I don’t have to guess as much when it comes to short game. I know I’m using that club. I figure out what kind of shot I need to hit, where I have to land it, take a couple of practice swings until it feels right, then match my swing to what I rehearsed. Is it optimal? Probably not.
I should learn to use a variety of clubs but I feel that I should do that after I have sufficiently mastered one club. I don’t know if I’m leaving shots on the table. But I feel that being able to pull off all those different type of shots, and just picking a landing target, clear through enough clutter that I believe it saves me more shots than it costs me. I think there is also a practical issue. Do any of us non-professionals really have the time to learn all those shots with multiple clubs, to the point where we can pull them off 8 out of 10 ten times? I would say, sadly, no. Most of us don’t practice short game enough as it is, how can we be expected to master all those shots with all those clubs?
