Each year I have the pleasure of working with nearly 400 kids at my summer camps in Pebble Beach, Calif. One of the highlights of the camp experience is the “One Club Tournament” held at the Peter Hay Par-3 course. The premise behind the exercise is to instill the mindset and skills associated with creative shotmaking.

I always begin by sharing the story of the great Seve Ballesteros, who learned to play the game as a young boy on the beaches of Spain using only a 3 iron. With only one club to work with, Seve became a master of creative problem solving by learning how to effectively alter the functionality of his equipment to produce literally any shot.

This exercise is about imagination and stretching the boundaries of what you believe is possible. As you work through each challenge, you’ll unlock the secrets to great shotmaking and effectively increase your Golf IQ.

To get started, try to successfully complete each shot with a 6 iron as demonstrated below. If you can pull that off, you’re welcome to go for the “full” Seve and see what you get!

Roll The Rock

Great putting is “all about the roll!” That means being able to create pure contact that keeps the ball hugging the turf as it hunts down the cup. Every golf shot, putting included, is comprised of a relationship in which the swing path, club face, angle of attack, dynamic loft, speed and impact point work together to produce the result associated with each effort.

A great way to quickly simplify your putting approach is to roll a few putts with your 6 iron. You may have seen this done before with a sand wedge. This is probably a touch more effective due to the shortened length of the club, but since we’re sticking with one club for all of these shots, the 6 iron works just fine.

Grip down on the club so it feels more like a putter in length. Hover the head above the turf so the leading edge is lined up with the ball’s equator. As you make your stroke, focus on creating a level strike that catches the ball on or just above the equator. You’ll find that producing a solid hit will also occur most easily with a compact motion that has minimal arc and face rotation.

Following a few successful strikes, transfer the same feeling into your actual stroke using your putter. In only a few minutes, you’ll gain a new appreciation for the subtleties associated with developing a pure roll.

Great Scot

Nothing is more fun than playing true links golf. The best part for me is letting go of mechanical thoughts and performing purely from imagination and instinct. When faced with a shot that would normally require a lofted pitch, use your 6 iron instead to conjure a shotmaking masterpiece that bounds the ball across the turf. This is where you really learn to become an effective problem solver, as only a well thought out plan will get the ball to finish close.

Take a quick walk up to the putting surface and “read” the turf in the same way you would read the green for a putt. Like a set of falling dominos, imagine how action and reaction must work to deliver your ball to the cup. If you can effectively manage, loft, speed and contact point, you’ll enjoy watching a one-of-a-kind performance worthy of applause from our golfing friends across the pond.

As you progress back to your normal game, open your imagination to the variety of possibilities associated with each shot that you play. You’ll find that tapping into your creativity more often, will dramatically elevate your enjoyment for the game.

Sup-A-Flop

Perhaps no other shot in this repertoire screams “Seve,” more than this 6 iron flopper. From a reasonable lie, widen your stance and sink your knees way down to the turf, as you lower the handle of the club. Once you’ve claimed first prize in the limbo contest, pitch the club face wide open and draw the handle of the club back away from the target. Make a shallow, rounded swinging action that slices the club face through the grass beneath the ball. The key in this motion, is to produce ample “throw” of the club head into the hit. I like to feel as if I’m trying to line the shaft up with my right forearm very early in the down swing. You can see the shaft in this position in my post impact shot, but my mindset is to create this relationship well before the ball.

This shot is a lot of fun and one that will surely impress your friends. If you can master this bit of short game magic, you won’t believe how easy it will be to flop it with your lob or sand wedge.

Monster Mash

You’ve learned how to hit your 6 iron short and sweet, now what if you have to mash it way farther than you’ve ever hit it before? The key is to imagine what it would be like to dramatically alter the loft on your club, this time in the opposite direction.

Assuming you have a standard 6 iron distance in mind, figure out what would have to occur to make it perform like a 4 iron. Shift the ball a little back in your stance, with your weight and shaft leaning a bit towards the target. As you go in for the kill, lean the shaft even more towards the target and give it a little gusto! Ramping up your speed, while dramatically decreasing your loft, will make you wonder why you even carry all those extra clubs around.

As you go back to playing your normal game, take note of how de-lofting the club is an integral component to great iron play. On the course, you’ll find that trying to de-loft each club by “one” will help you consistently create a more powerful hit.

Bunker Blast

Can you really hit a 6 iron out of a green side bunker? Darn straight you can, as long as you understand how to properly utilize the bounce of your golf club.

The set-up and mindset for this shot is essentially the same as the supa-a-flop we learned earlier. The goal on this one, however, is to help you understand the concept of “bounce” and how it aids your ability to tackle bunkers with ease. Any club that rests on the ground with an open face has some degree of bounce. As you can see in the inset photo above, my open faced 6 iron has the leading edge of the club well higher than the trailing edge. If I maintain this relationship during contact the club will skip through the sand creating a nice shallow cut. If the club contacts the sand a reasonable degree behind the ball (1 to 2 inches) with adequate club head speed, even a 6 iron can produce a shot that’s high, soft and spinning.

A couple of points to keep in mind as you play this shot are to really feel that “throw” move discussed in the sup-a-flop above and make sure you keep your weight forward and shoulders relatively level to the turf at set-up. Any weight to the back foot or the front shoulder pitching up well higher than the back shoulder will put your club into the sand too early, leading to a less than desirable result.

As you progress back to your lob or sand wedge, play with the same set-up and attitude. With your new level of skill, sand shots will be just another day at the beach!