Short irons

Short irons and wedges are your shortest clubs (other than putter) with the most loft. These clubs are meant to go high in the air and not very far. Anything between 50 and 100 yards with a pitching wedge or 9 iron is acceptable. These clubs are meant to be consistent and easy to hit.

Here are the steps to hitting these better:

  1. Hit the ground - the best golfers can swing the club and have it hit the ground in the exact spot they want (right under or after the golf ball) and the exact depth (just shaving the grass or taking out a bit of dirt).

  2. Stay centered - the best golfers do not slide or sway their head and hips in the backswing. They stay centered over the golf ball and rotate. NOTE: they will definitely slide toward the target in the downswing; and quite a bit.

  3. Stay in your posture - great golfers do not rise up in their backswing, the stay in their original posture and rotate.

  4. Tall and balanced finish - a good golfer has a huge, fully rotated, balanced, and tall finish position every time. A great finish position makes your swing more repeatable.

  5. Straight lead arm - great golfers maintain a straight lead arm (for a right handed golfer this is your left arm) throughout their backswing and downswing. This makes a predictable swing arc that leads to better consistency, it also forces you to use your whole body to make your swing rather than just your arms.

Chip shots

Chip shots are tiny shots around the green. These shots are done with a sand wedge or pitching wedge and are performed when your are 5 to 30 paces away from the edge of the green. The shot is meant to go pretty high in the air, land on the putting surface, and stay on the putting green (it shouldn’t roll off the back). To hit these shots, you need a consistent strike location on the ground (your club should strike the ground right where the ball is) and more importantly, a very precise depth into the ground: you can’t just sweep the top of the grass and you can’t dig into the dirt. Also remember - this is a small shot, so it’s not a full swing, it’s about waist-high-to-waist-high with a soft speed - you can pretty much let gravity do most of the work and then add just a tiny bit of energy right before you hit the grass.

Here are the steps to hitting these better:

  1. Narrow stance - great chippers have their feet pretty close together with their toes flared out a bit. This keeps them from shifting their weight in the backswing, allowing them to lean toward the green and stay their.

  2. Stand close to the ball - great chippers stand close to the ball, you should almost feel like you’re on top of it. This get’s the club more vertical which gives you a bit more control.

  3. Straight arms - great chippers do not bend their elbows very much; especially in the finish position. Most bad chippers have a lot of elbow bend.

  4. Perfect finish position - great chippers all finish their shot full stacked on their lead side. The head, sternum, pelvis, and lead ankle are all stacked on top of each other in the finish. Bad chippers are always leaning away from the target especially with their head and shoulders.

  5. Hold the club face open - to get more height, great chippers will ensure they do not rotate the clubface closed through the shot. In the finish position the club face should point more toward the sky rather than over to the left.

Driver shots