Instruction
Two must-have shots to play in Open Championship-like conditions
The Open Championship is one of my favorite tournaments of the year for many reasons, but I particularly enjoy it because of the creativity and shotmaking it requires. With high winds, firm surfaces and bumpy terrains, you need to have a variety of shots at your disposal, and have a wonderful imagination to contend.
So in this article I wanted to show you two most common shots the pros will need, and how you can add these to your game at home when the wind blows!
Your “Stock Shot”
Before you can hit a variety of shots, you must know what your average shot is with a given club, as this will be your base. For me, the above numbers show my stock shot with a 6-iron down here in Puerto Vallarta at sea-level.
Some facts to note for later comparison
- 88.2 mph clubhead speed
- 19.8 degree dynamic loft
- 95.7 foot apex height
- 168.9 yard carry
Now for the two shots you MUST have at the Open Championship, or when playing in links-style conditions.
A “High Shot”
Some facts to note for comparison:
- 88.2 mph clubhead speed vs. 91.1 mph on the high shot. The reason why it’s faster when hitting it high is that we need a touch more speed to carry the ball the same distance due to the added loft.
- 19.8 degree dynamic loft vs. 26.7 degrees of dynamic loft. To hit the ball higher we need more loft, obviously.
- 95.7 foot apex height vs. 121.2 foot apex height. The higher the ball flight, the more the wind will carry the ball, which is great for the long and downwind holes.
- 168.9 yard carry vs. 169.1 yard carry. It’s nice to alter trajectory and carry the ball the same distance, if possible.
Your “Low Shot”
Some facts to note for comparison:
- 88.2 mph clubhead speed vs. 89.1 mph of clubhead speed. The lower the trajectory, the less the ball will carry with basically the same clubhead speed, all things being equal.
- 19.8 degree dynamic loft vs. 11.2. To reduce height, we need to reduce loft.
- 95.7 foot apex height vs. 40.4 foot apex height. The lower height will keep the ball under the wind and make it easier to control.
- 168.9 yard carry vs. 163.3 yard carry. A ball that comes out flatter will carry shorter, but due to its reduced landing angle will “chase” out upon landing.
Now that you understand the dynamics of the stock, high, and low trajectory shots, how do you alter your swing to make these shots happen on command?
Easy… just alter your setup!
Stock Setup
High Shot Setup
Here, the ball is more forward and the weight is a touch more on the rear foot. This will help move your low point backwards and you will add loft to the club during impact.
Low Shot Setup
To hit the ball lower, I’ve placed the ball back in the stance and the weight is leaning a touch more toward the target. This will encourage you to deloft the club on the way through impact, helping the ball will come out lower and flatter.
All too often we make golf more difficult when it doesn’t have to be. As I’ve shown in this article, simply alter your set up and make your “normal” swing; when you do, you will find the ball flight will react accordingly!
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Bob Pegram
Jul 15, 2016 at 2:54 pm
Because the average golfer has trouble just swinging the same way every time, Philip’s method is easier to accomplish. To hit low use one more club and choke down a half inch. To hit higher take no divot. Somebody who usually takes no divot can only go lower, not higher unless their skill level is higher than average.
Bob Pegram
Jul 15, 2016 at 2:57 pm
When I played a lot, to hit it low I would use one more club and purposely hit it thin. I don’t practice enough to do that now. My swing isn’t consistent enough.
Rock
Jul 21, 2016 at 12:52 pm
That is still horrible advice. The easiest is move the ball. A ball more forward will be hit higher than a ball more back with the same club. Nothing special to it. It all has to do with the loft of the club at impact, and that is easily manipulated by moving the ball, especially for a beginner.
Teaching the choke down method and club up is too much to think about. The ball moving is easy. You can also fix a thin or fat tendency doing the same thing. If you always hit a certain iron fat, try adjusting the ball further back and change nothing else. Same for hitting it thin, move it forward.
steve
Jul 14, 2016 at 6:06 pm
I would think high and low shots are needed just about everywhere. Hard to be a good golfer if you cant control your trajectory. Tiger Woods nine shots of golf. High, low and medium. Draw, fade and straight. The way I learned was to hit make the ball curve changing height.
WB
Jul 14, 2016 at 12:47 pm
Tom,
Why not just use one more club or one less club? How would that compare to changing your setup?
andy c
Jul 14, 2016 at 7:15 pm
wind. thats why.
Philip
Jul 14, 2016 at 9:36 pm
Taking extra club and choking up on it will create a similar low shot. The high shot cannot so easily be created by taking more loft as the shaft will be shorter. However, if one’s stock shot is a 1/2 or 3/4 shot, then taking the next higher lofted club with more backswing will create a higher flight. More than one way to control ball flight.