Dust the Clubs and Pay Attention to Your Finesse
Dust the Clubs and Pay Attention to Your Finesse
Here it is again, daylight savings time has passed, the Masters has passed and everyone is dusting off their golf clubs. When you take time off from your golf game, the finesse shots are usually the last part of your game to return to the sharpness of last summer because of one reason – lack of attention. Everyone goes to the driving range to practice the full swing because it is fun to watch the ball fly a long ways knowing you made that happen, but a great short game can save a very mediocre ball striking round.
Practicing pitching and chipping the golf ball is just as important, if not more, than all that time we spend on the range. The biggest problem with practicing less than full swings is that people do it incorrectly. I have observed that most stand over the ball and practice the same shot, to the same target, over and over again. That becomes very monotonous and boring and we lose focus and attention and quickly move onto other parts of the game. Try practicing finesse shots with just three balls and move around the practice green. Hopefully that can keep you focused and in tune with the ultimate goal, which is to turn what used to take four shots into three shots, and what took three into two.
Let’s first define the difference between chipping and pitching the golf ball. The easiest way to define the shots is that a pitch flies further in the air than rolls along the ground and a chip rolls further than flies. In this article, I will be describing the proper technique to chip the golf ball, the simplest and smallest of the finesse shots in golf. I also use the term “off green putt” when I teach this shot. What you are trying to accomplish when you hit this shot is landing the ball in the first 15 feet of putting surface and then letting the ball roll along the green to the hole like a putt.
How far the ball needs to roll along the ground will dictate what club you choose; how far the ball needs to fly to get to the green will dictate how big of swing. If the hole is closest to the edge of the green where your ball is, use a lot of loft like a pitching or sand wedge. If the hole is in the middle of the green, use an eight or nine iron. If the hole is located completely across the green use a seven, six or even a five iron; just land the ball 10 to 15 feet onto the green and let the ball roll all the way across the green and settle next to the hole.
When you set up to hit this shot it is very important to get as comfortable and relaxed as possible. I think that the “off green putt” is hit with mostly an arm swing, like what happens when we putt the golf ball, and tension destroys a good arm swing. Soft hands and arms are essential with all finesse shots because we are talking about “feel.” You have no “feel” if you cannot feel the weight in the head of the golf club.
Now that your hands and arms are very soft, you address the ball with your feet close together, not shoulder width, but standing width apart. Ball placement is off your trailing or back foot with most of your weight on the opposite or leading foot. The golf club is now placed behind the ball with the shaft leaning toward the target enough so that the handle of the club is over your leading or front foot. The leading wrist is flat or bowed toward the target and the trailing wrist is bent. The arms now take the golf club back and with a pendulum or putting motion, strike the golf ball with a descending blow. The club continues to follow through as far as it went back. Remember to use only your arms, not your wrists. You can check for use of wrists at the end of the motion by holding your finish position and making sure your leading wrist is still flat or bowed and your trailing wrist still is bent. The ball should jump off the clubface, land just onto the green and roll toward your target.
This shot is simple to execute and easy to learn. With practice you will be getting the ball up and in a lot more often. Remember, when close to the green, the simpler you keep the shot you are trying to hit, the lower your scores will become.
Mike White is currently PGA Director of Instruction at Caplan Golf, a practice facility and driving range in Beaverton, Oregon. He was elected to PGA membership in 1992 and has been a full-time golf instructor since 1999. White has worked at Columbia Edgewater Country Club and Forest Hills Golf Course as an Assistant Golf Professional, and as a Staff Instructor for the Nicklaus/Flick Faults and Cures Golf School. While progressing in his professional career, he has enjoyed the benefits of being influenced by some of the best Pacific Northwest teachers. White is the father of three ‘wonderful’ children: Andrew, 14, and 12-year-old twins, Alexander and Morghaine. To contact White, call 503-626-2244.
