How to Improve your Approach Shots

Pitching.

This is one very subtle technique that I found by accident. With pitching, you usually want the ball to end up as close to the hole as possible, if not in it of course. As a hobby, I like to video record golf tournaments on TV to study the swings of the pros. What I usually do is playback the swings in slow motion and frame-by-frame mode to catch the finer points of their body movement. A couple of years ago, I picked up on something while watching my favorite golfer, Tiger Woods. When he made approach shots with shorter irons with the intent of making the ball stop, he didn’t let the club head turn over through impact. He kept his right hand under the club through the divot. Be advised here, you still have to swing your upper body through the center. The trick is, to not release the club by rolling your wrists over as if swinging a driver or longer club.

Driver swing…
With the longer clubs, Tiger would whip the club head through the point-of-impact and finish his swing with a toe drag. With this technique, the ball rolls after landing and goes the farthest and straightest. This is generally the technique used with a driver, three-wood, etc. If you freeze-frame right after impact with this technique, you’ll see that he’s in a handshake position pointing his right hand directly at the target with his thumb high and his shoulders turned through the point-of-impact while facing the center of his chest directly at the target.

Wedge swing…
Getting back to the short pitch or wedge shot, I like to do this type of shot when I need as little roll as possible after the ball lands. I’ll especially do this out of the sand or next to the green when I can’t chip it and I need the ball to check up quick without rolling. You should set up with the ball slightly back of center of your stance. When you swing, all you have to do is have your right hand underhand toss the ball at the hole. Note here the thumb position. It’ll be out as if you’re hitchhiking, and your palm will be facing up.

50 yards and under…
To hit it even shorter, swing the same way with your hands, and cut your toe drag down by swinging a bit on the flat-footed side. Again, by studying the Tour Pro’s swings, I noticed that with short iron and pitch shots, I wouldn’t see a toe drag as with a driver or long iron. The right foot may come off the ground a little but it will not come all the way up on the toe. This is a very subtle aspect of the short game that took me years to come across.

The motion of this type of shot is simply an underhanded toss. Your right hand will not roll over to let the club head turn through the point-of-impact. This can be done with the shorter clubs to an extent. However, unless you’re looking for a slice, don’t do it with a long club. The reason is simple. If you sweep the clubface of a longer club through the point-of-impact without letting it roll over, it’ll remain open at impact and you’ll be guaranteed a nice banana-ball. This is where some people get confused. Here’s why…

Crossed rules…
With a shorter club, this type of underhanded swing will not produce as much sidespin as backspin. With more backspin than sidespin, any type of curve during flight will be minimized. This is why you see a lot of intermediate level golfers able to effectively control shorter irons, but slice the ball terribly with longer clubs. Its simply because they’re crossing up these very subtle swing rules. This is also one of the reasons why I used to slice.

My problem was…I would squeeze the club at impact in anticipation of feeling a “solid” hit. Here’s what would happen. When I squeezed the club, it would actually slow down and sort of freeze through the point-of-impact. With the club moving without turning over, it would scrape the ball and put a mean left-to-right sidespin on it. This of course resulted in a banana-ball that would only go about 100 yards and then take a hard right turn, driving me absolutely batty with anger and frustration. Once I learned how to release the club and let it turn over naturally, my golf slice immediately disappeared.

Let impact surprise you…
Let's back up for a second and talk about squeezing the club… this was because I was anticipating impact. A lot of people do this. Maybe you do too. The next time you’re at the range, swing through and let impact surprise you. If you anticipate impact, you’ll slow the clubhead down and will most likely slice the ball or miss it outright.

In closing, remember this:

1. To hit the ball short, swing underhanded with a minimal or no toe drag.

2. To hit it long and straight, roll your hands over and whip the club head through the point-of-impact. Let impact surprise you by throwing the clubhead through the center and at the target while finishing with a toe drag.

Pretty interesting stuff, huh? Try it and see for yourself.

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