- 3 hours ago
In this video short game guru and Golf Monthly Top 50 coach Dan Grieve answers YOUR short game questions to hopefully help you get up and down more often from around the green.
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00:00Hi, I'm Dan Grieve and I'm very happy to be answering the questions of you, the Golf Monthly viewers,
00:05in terms of some tips around the green that are going to help your short game. Let's get into it.
00:15Hey Dave, thanks for your question on the yips.
00:16Listen, it's a serious subject. It's not something that any golfer wants and it really will curb your enjoyment in the game, I'm sure.
00:24But you need to understand that really the yips is 99% neurological, as in mental and 1% technical.
00:31I've run through some technical bits, but really it's about how you approach the shot mentally.
00:35And you need to be patient with it and rewire the brain.
00:38You're starting some better shots, your brain starts to say, maybe I can do this, and you start to get away from it.
00:43But just technically, if you're feeling a bit edgy around the greens and you've got the yips,
00:48I really would try and get as little loft in your hand as possible.
00:51That really is the first thing. You start using your wrist too much, it's very hard to manage what's happening at the bottom.
00:57And let's be honest, we get the yips because it's just a total fear of what might happen when you hit the ball.
01:03And it's a totally involuntary movement through the shot.
01:06It's not something you can control. I have people say to yips and say, my knees are driving and all that sort of thing.
01:11Well, you can't do anything about that because you're doing that without really consciously doing it.
01:15It's just happening because of the fear.
01:17So, as least amount as loft as possible, feel like you're going to really keep your wrists out of the shot.
01:23So, just really concentrate on getting the club working low to low.
01:28Like, super simple, very little, nearly went in, very little hinge and just keep the club on the ground for as long as possible.
01:37Then what happens is even if you just catch the ground a little bit before the ball, like I did there, it's not the end of the world.
01:45You've got to start trusting the ground.
01:47Once you start trusting the ground, you'll hit better shots and you'll start to relax again.
01:51But just something as well that might help in terms of moving away from internal thoughts, with the internal thoughts about what you've got to do technically.
01:58You've got to try and get a little bit more into the external thoughts.
02:01And that's worrying less about what might happen in terms of the strike and in terms of the technique.
02:07And focusing more on about perhaps a rough area where you'd like to land the ball and what sort of flight you'd like to land it.
02:13So, trying to paint a better picture of the shot, what you're trying to achieve can help you get a little bit more positive in terms of how you see the shot.
02:21And I do think a practice swing is important to try and get the noise.
02:24So, if I've got someone with the yips, I'll get them to do a practice swing.
02:28And you hear that lovely noise.
02:31And do it again.
02:32So, I've got two great noises.
02:33Now, I'm going to get over the ball.
02:35All I'm focusing now is getting the noise.
02:37Getting the noise and land it roughly where I'd like to land it.
02:41And then I get a nice result.
02:43So, really let the noise, let the external thoughts, the sense of sound, just try and help you a little bit.
02:48So, I hope that helps.
02:49A little bit less loft.
02:50Try and paint the picture a little bit more and work on that practice swing to get the noise.
02:59Hey, Phil.
03:00Thanks for your question on club selection around the greens.
03:03And although there's some merit in certainly sticking to one club, try and get used to it and becoming familiar with how the ball reacts.
03:09I think if you're super talented and playing a lot, I think that's maybe something you can look at.
03:13But for 99% of golfers, it's so much easier using different clubs to get the ball to different pins.
03:20For example, the shorter pins are a little bit more loft and the pins that are further away a little bit less loft.
03:25You're changing the spin of the ball and the speed of the ball for the pin you're playing to.
03:28It makes life a lot easier.
03:29So, we've got four pins down this green here.
03:32Just to sort of quickly show you here, I've got my sand wedge for this pin here.
03:35The pin is short in terms of the distance from the fringe and it's downhill.
03:39So, I need a bit of spin.
03:41So, I'm using my 56 and you can see how that's creating a bit of check.
03:46So, it's holding down the slope there.
03:48Any less loft than that, the ball is going to run too much.
03:52So, if I'm now going to the next pin, I don't really want to be using my sand wedge because it might spin too much and not reach the hole.
03:59So, I could go with a pitching wedge now to try and create a little bit more ball speed.
04:03In it comes.
04:05There we go.
04:05So, now, let's use the pitching wedge.
04:08You'll see it'll have a little bit less spin on it because I've changed to a stronger loft.
04:13And you can see how that ball is running out to the hole a lot easier.
04:16If I'm going to the next flag now, that's sort of another 20 feet.
04:22Let's go for a 9-iron.
04:24And the 9-iron will have even less spin and more ball speed helping its way towards that pin.
04:31And you'll see how that's going to run, run, run, run, run, run, run.
04:34Very little spin on it.
04:36Pretty good.
04:37And then if we go to the very back pin, I mean, that's getting on for 30 yards.
04:41Let's go to a 7-iron and that gives me more speed that I need to get right out to that pin there.
04:50And down it goes, running down there towards the pin.
04:54Pretty good job.
04:55So, really, make life easier.
04:57Use different lofts to help you get to different pins.
05:04Graham, thanks for your question.
05:06The one thing not to do with short game, obviously quite a broad question,
05:09but if I was going to pick one aspect, I would say don't grip it too tightly because most players do.
05:15Now, the problem when you're gripping the club tightly, you don't get the ability to release the club head.
05:21Release the club means as you move through the ball, the club head flows through the shot,
05:24creating finesse, feel and touch, which is so important for short game.
05:29If you're gripping that super, super tight, the club isn't going to want to swing.
05:33You're not going to be able to get the control on the ball.
05:35You're probably going to get a lot of thin shots as well.
05:37So, just really make sure that you're letting your arms hang naturally.
05:41In fact, if you let your arms hang naturally, if you're just chilling, standing there,
05:46your arms have a natural fold to them.
05:47And that's really how they should sit on the grip, whereas a lot of golfers look like this,
05:51very rigid, not able to get any finesse in the action.
05:54So, just be really relaxed.
05:56Another drill you can do, if you hold the club up in the air and let it slide through your fingers,
06:00do it again and hold it just at the point where it's not sliding.
06:03Slowly, slowly bring the club down and the weight of the club will slightly strengthen your grip pressure.
06:09And then that gets you to that sort of more or less four out of ten position.
06:13And then once you get that nice soft grip pressure, the club, the rhythm of the swing,
06:19everything gets so much better and you can hit nice little spinny shots like that.
06:22Hopefully that helps.
06:23Hey Tom, thanks for your question on pitching.
06:32You say you're getting steep into it, big deep divot, struggling to get a strike.
06:35So, basically steep means the club is travelling down for too long this way
06:39and it's getting caught in the ground here.
06:41So, the best pitch and drill, if you want to shallow it,
06:44is to try and get away from the feeling of hitting down on it.
06:47We need to get the club releasing and feeling a bit more of a draw feel is the best way to do this.
06:53Most people that get steep are sort of trying to play more of a cut shot,
06:57which is a bit of a steepening ingredient.
06:58So, if you do this, if you tee the ball up as if you're hitting a driver,
07:01wouldn't tee, drive a height and then just get the feeling of hovering the club at the bottom of the ball.
07:08Even maybe drop your trail foot back a little bit
07:10and just feel like you're going to clip the ball off the tee peg
07:13and what you should find is your instinct will take over
07:16and just clip it much shallower through the ball.
07:20So, if we give that a go, we're going to just clip that off the tee peg
07:24and you can see there's that little bit of draw on it and a ton of spin
07:30and that will help you shallow it out and just pick the ball a little bit more
07:35rather than those big deep divots.
07:36Hopefully that helps.
07:40Hey, Joanne, thanks for your question about how to practice.
07:45You may be struggling a bit with confidence and do you practice off good lies
07:49or should you practice off poor lies?
07:51Well, I think you should definitely practice off good lies
07:53because if you're struggling with confidence, you need to be giving yourself
07:55a little bit of a help with how the ball's lying to try and get some good results
07:59and then you can start believing you can do it a little bit more.
08:02So, this is a really nice fairway lie here.
08:04I can then play some shots, get some nice strikes and start building my confidence.
08:09But when you start doing that a little bit more often, hopefully doing that ability to strike a ladder
08:14seven, eight times out of ten, then just move it into a slightly more challenging lie
08:19and then learn how to adapt.
08:21Well, if that ball's sitting down in a little bit of sand, which that is,
08:24I can't play that same technique I just played from the good lie.
08:27I need to make an adaption.
08:28So, I need to play the ball further back, a little bit more sharp lean,
08:32lean a little bit more left, and then from there I can start to get a bit more of a pinch down into it
08:38and still get a good strike.
08:40So, I would definitely focus on the next period of time off good lies,
08:45but then gently start incorporating the odd bad one and learning how to adapt a little bit.
08:50And then, you know, once you really start getting it, yeah, just throw them over your shoulder
08:53and just play them as they lie.
08:55But definitely start with good lies and then make it more challenging as you get your confidence up.
08:58Alexander, thanks for your question on distance control out of the sand.
09:08Now, obviously there's a feel element to this.
09:10You've got to be able to feel the speed and you need to be able to make sure you're really getting
09:15that consistent point into the sand.
09:17Too much sand, you're going to struggle.
09:18But assuming you've got some feel and you're hitting the sand in the right spot,
09:22something I see golfers not doing enough of is actually changing the loft enough.
09:26So, I've got a pin here which is on a really quick, firm downslope,
09:30which really needs a shot that's only going to carry around about five yards.
09:35So, I would use my most lofty club, my 60,
09:38and that alone is going to help me hit this shorter shot.
09:41I might get a little bit further away from the ball,
09:43drop the hands down a little bit as well on these short ones,
09:46and I can just pop it out and that's about as good as I can do to that pin,
09:50but I've used the right club.
09:52Now, if I'm playing to a pin that is a little bit further away,
09:56I don't really want to struggle with trying to use more lofts such as a 60.
10:01I'll go to my second most lofted, my 56.
10:04It helps propel the ball out a little bit further with a little bit more speed
10:08without having to hit it harder.
10:10So, a 56 more to the back pin,
10:13and that helps then get it out towards that pin at the back.
10:17So, really getting the right club in your hand is the key to controlling your distances
10:23when playing for these greenside bunkers.
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