- 4 minutes ago
In this video, 8-handicap index golfer Jess Ratcliffe gets a one-to-one lesson with Top 50 short game coach and YouTube sensation Dan Grieve to fix her problems when chipping from bad lies in the rough!
We teamed up with adidas golf to create this video.
Location at Woburn Golf Club.
We teamed up with adidas golf to create this video.
Location at Woburn Golf Club.
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Dan Grieve and I've teamed up with Adidas Golf to help three lucky
00:03Golf Monthly readers improve their short game. Let's get started.
00:11Jess, great to have you here at Woven. Welcome. Thank you for having me. And we're going to
00:15discuss this short pitch shot out of the rough because you say you've been having some issues
00:20with it. Tell me a bit more about it. I have. I've just found that when I find myself in
00:23a spot like
00:23this and I'm going to gravitate to playing a release two or a soft landing shot, I just
00:29find I can catch it a little bit thin. I don't feel like I get the best connection. And if
00:35I do get
00:35away with a connection, it will come out okay, but then really run. So it's not got that soft landing
00:41that I see in your shots, but also that I'd like to have in my game to think, okay, I'm
00:44in a bit of
00:45trouble here. And although I've got quite a lot of green to work with, if I then was to think,
00:49actually, I've got this one, how do I get that softness in it? Because I think I can maybe...
00:54And in terms of the lie, because that's the big thing in the rough, so is it when it starts
00:57to sit down,
00:57is this what you mean? Yeah, it's sat down a little bit. Just like that, it's just down.
01:00There's a bit of grass going in there. So you're thinking, okay, maybe this is more, I'm having to
01:05play this a little bit steeper possibly. But again, if it's one where you're trying to limit the run
01:10on it a little bit, and maybe I'm being too ambitious of trying to get it close, but it'll
01:14be something like this. And then the ones that I really can struggle with can be when it's also then
01:17on a down slope and you're trying to, again, like match the slope. But I find that if I can
01:22get a
01:22little bit too handsy, it will just come out, you know, come out running.
01:25Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. All right. So sitting down a bit, we'll go for that back
01:28pin, 25 yards. I've got my 54. You've got 54. Let's see what you've got.
01:45Okay, decent contact. Popped out pretty nicely. Probably more of a luckier one than I would
01:51normally get when you've got a card in the hand. Here we go. Same sort of line.
02:05Yeah, sort of grabs it a bit, doesn't it? Yeah, that's what I find. I can feel it slows down
02:11and I
02:11then don't feel like I've really got to throw it. Yeah, sure. So this is where the IQ sign,
02:16what I call the golfing intelligence, but it really, really comes into its own when you're
02:19reading lies in the rough. Now, what you've got there is you've got quite a big cushion behind
02:23the ball there. So quite right. I think you mentioned coming in steeper. You do need to come
02:27in a little bit steeper there, but you're not really setting up correctly for the shot you're trying
02:31to play. So you're setting up with the majority of your weight actually on your right side.
02:35Okay. Probably about 60% or so. So you're kind of tilting away from the ball. Now, you hit those
02:40okay. You're a good player. You will hit a lot of good shots, but from this position here and you
02:44start to try and release the club too much, it has got thin written all over it. That's how you
02:49hit
02:49the thin shot. And just really, you know, you don't get the control because you probably as well,
02:53if you are getting a decent strike, if you're releasing it too much and your weight's back here,
02:57you're going to start entering the rough really about sort of maybe
03:01four, five, six inches behind the ball. That's going to lose spin. So I think the big thing for
03:05you is when the ball starts sitting down a bit, see, I'd be setting up much more like this. I'd
03:09be down the grip. I'd be opening the club face a bit more. You have it dead square as well.
03:13Okay. So I'd be opening up the face and I would be, see the width of the stance is wider
03:17and I'm leaning forward. I'm really getting that left foot out and I'm leaning this way.
03:21And just by the very nature of setting up with my chest bone now much further in front of the
03:24ball
03:25from this setup with a bit of shaft lean, that's going to encourage me to set the club a bit
03:29earlier.
03:29Okay. But if I was to set up like you, I kind of want to go wider, which is a
03:34shallower in me.
03:35Right. Okay. You want to stand a shallower in and steeper in the ingredients and when you need to
03:37add some in, it takes them out. So basically you've got to get a little bit steeper. And then you
03:41can
03:41start to play around with different releases. I mean, the safer release from the rough really is
03:46what I call a release one, which is where basically it finishes here where the butterscript's
03:50pointing at the hip. But if you want to release the club a little bit more, you could do,
03:54but you've got to do it from this position, not from this position. That makes sense. So yeah,
03:58so this would be me here, a little bit of hinge. I can pop down and get the height, you
04:02see,
04:03and I can throw it right up there towards the pin. Now, if I want it to come out a
04:06bit softer than
04:07that, I could do the same thing. And then I can just put a little bit more release into it.
04:13And you
04:13can see that then comes out softer. Yeah. See, they're the ones that I struggle with. Yeah.
04:17The softer landing out of a tricky spot like this. Yeah. So to get it out, because this is a
04:22bit
04:22more advanced. Obviously, if the lie was perfect, we'd just set up for a normal soft landing shot,
04:26okay, in terms of how you're setting up to it, quite shallow releasing it. The lie is dictating
04:30how you play this shot. The lie is the most important thing. So we read the lie, we get steeper
04:35address, and then from there we can add a bit of releasing. But I think if you do it from
04:38this
04:38position, I think you're going to find it a lot easier. Okay. And 54 is fine. I don't mind a
04:4254,
04:43particularly when you've got a bit of green, but just open the club face a bit. Okay.
04:46But when you're playing in the rough here, if you have it square, the rough is quite thick,
04:50it's going to tend to want to grab it. Yeah. And that's that feeling at the bottom.
04:53I would open it just to give you a little bit of margin. So if it does slip, it's still
04:56going
04:56to be square. But also what I would do here just to protect against the rough grabbing it is grip
05:01it a little bit tighter, really in this area here. Okay. You know, in the pad here, the little
05:05finger going into the hand. So as you're coming through, I really am, I always advocate a light
05:10grip in short game, as you probably know. But in the rough, I really want to, with the left hand
05:14here, get tighter, helps me hold the loft on the club. Okay. Yeah.
05:18You set up as well, a bit more on your left.
05:24So a bit open. Yeah, that's it. A bit more this way.
05:28Right on the left. Does that feel different?
05:29It does. Yeah. Okay. More that way with the face.
05:31You got to be brave. There we go. Okay. Down the grip a little bit more. Tight here.
05:37Right. That's great. That is great. Right. That is fantastic. And then to feel the release,
05:43am I going finish, like release one for this one or? Well, I think, I think, I think we'll
05:48try and get it softer. So we'll do a two, but you can do it from this setup. Okay. You
05:51can't
05:51do it from the old setup. No. Okay. Perfect. Go to the top, go to the top of the swing.
05:57Okay. Hang on. Just try and get your left wrist a little bit more cupped. Okay. Okay.
06:02Now, as you come down, you can come down because of the backswing, you're coming down steeper.
06:05You put a little bit of a late release in there. Okay. Okay. But you've got to stay left
06:09the whole time. And cupped. You must cupped. You do tend to get a bit that way. I do.
06:13Yeah. Which then, again, off the fairway light, it's not the end of the world. You can play
06:17a low running shot. In the rough, if you do that, if you flex the wrist and the loft goes
06:22down,
06:22it's going to tend to grab a lot. Okay. So that cupping. Yeah. I guess it feels,
06:28yeah. Like the, that's not even it, is it? That's it. That's it. That's it. So to get to there.
06:33Yeah. That's it. And then just hit, I want you to, the golden rule, when you're in or off like
06:36this,
06:36you just don't hit the ball first. Okay. Okay. You've got to hit about an inch behind it. Okay.
06:40Right. That's great. That's really good. There we go. Right. Hinge it. Pop it just behind the ball.
06:46Right. That came off really soft. Okay. Too soft. No running it. But that's the type of,
06:51that's the one if I've got a tight pin. You don't run near for this shot. Yeah.
06:53You don't run if you try and play this high shot. If you wouldn't run,
06:56we'd do more of that front hit release. Okay. Okay. Great there. Don't open it too much.
07:00Don't go crazy. Right. There we go. A little bit of hinge.
07:04Get some release at the bottom. Oh, I've done it again.
07:07They're coming out lovely. I mean, I, I will take those because most of the time I'm in a tighter
07:12spot than having lots of green. But don't really, so, so look, if you were just trying to hit that
07:16shot
07:1710, 12 yards, you've just played a world-class shot. Okay. The rest of it, you've got to feel it.
07:21Yeah. It's coming off softer now. So you've got to increase your speed. Okay. Wow. Okay.
07:26Over here. A bit of forward lean of the shaft.
07:32Like that. Okay. It's almost like feeling like it's on that front leg.
07:35Because of the light. Right. Set it early. Release at the bottom. Have a bit more chest speed
07:40through it this time. Very good. Now that's what you want. So it's carried. It's landed soft.
07:48Yeah. That's nice. And it's not running very far. No, I like that. Yeah. That's very good.
07:52You played that really well. Thank you. I think that's one thing throughout. It's getting confident
07:58with the chest as well. Releasing the chest through it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
08:00Because I think that sometimes I can go slower with that so the hands take over.
08:05Okay. So we do a front hit release like a motor of a running shot out of the rough now.
08:10Okay.
08:10So you set up exactly the same. Exactly the same. A little bit open. A little bit open.
08:13Just a touch open. Shaft lean. Shaft lean. Absolutely. And now same thing from this setup.
08:19You're going to hinge the club a little bit earlier to get the steeper attack through the rough.
08:23But this time you're going to finish more like this. You still turn the chest but you're finishing
08:26more this way. Okay. So it's a front hit release and this ball is now going to come out a
08:30little
08:30bit lower but hopefully run to the back pin. Okay. Right. So when you've got green to work with out
08:34the rough it's more of that finish. If you've got the shorter one you've got to go over something.
08:37Yeah. You put more of that. Okay. That second release in. Okay.
08:40So wait on this side. A bit of shaft lean. That's really good there. Hinge but front hip
08:44release this time. When it's slightly lower more running shot. Good. Now watch this all land and
08:49watch it run out. So you just want to run out a little bit more. So yes great shot. You
08:56play that
08:56brilliantly. Take these for the course. You play it brilliant. Yeah. But what you're
08:58understanding is it's one setup. Yes. And you just change your swing a little bit depending on
09:02the slope and how much green you've got to work with. Yeah. I think that's been
09:06the challenge from the get-go is I feel if you if you don't know this setup. Yeah. In your
09:10mind
09:11you think well I'm trying to play this shot but you're going against the tide almost. You can't
09:14you know if you've already scuppered yourself. Yeah. Now if we're going for this front pin okay so
09:19there's hardly any green. We can still stick to a 54. It might be easier to a 58. But we'll
09:24have you got a 58.
09:25I have. Yeah. Just let's use a 58. Let's use the right club. Now here you're going to play it
09:31exactly
09:31the same way. We do need some release into this to soften it. Okay. But get super wide now. Go
09:36even
09:36wider. So I want your hands to get lower. Point the loft more up. So would this feel like I'm
09:41more
09:41playing a bunker shot almost? More bunker shot. 100%. Keep the right leg in. Again yeah. That's it. Good. Now
09:48set the
09:48club nicely with the wrists. And you're coming down and it's there. Okay. You feel that? Yeah. There's not
09:55much rotation of the of the upper body here. It's more of a hand and arm shot. Okay. So set
09:59it.
10:00Release it. Okay. Okay. Nice and narrow and follow through.
10:08Sharf lean or no? Yeah. No you're good there. Okay. Just feel it now.
10:14There you go. Oh the great shot. Go in. Oh wow. What a great shot. So there's no such thing
10:19is a bad
10:19lie. No. It's IQ. Yes. And think about how you need to change that angle of attack and release. So
10:24you've got
10:24some solutions there for different lines and it's just so easy to practice. And when you do practice
10:28that I would just throw the balls over your shoulder in the rough. Yeah. And just look at each one
10:31and
10:32react to it. And then you just learn how to do the subtle differences in your in how you set
10:36your weight
10:36and how you put the angle of attack into it. Well that's good and lots of work on it. It's
10:40a great
10:40part of the game. There's no such thing's a bad lie. Okay. Nope. Nope. I know that now. Thank you.
10:44All right. Pleasure.
10:46So before coming to today I would say the main struggle for me was getting out the rough
10:50okay and having that soft landing shot. I'd always try and bring a bit of softness to it but either
10:56thin it massively especially if I'm on a down slope or get it out okay but just not be able
11:00to control
11:01the run out. So I really wanted to focus on those tricky shots which I like to try and practice
11:05and
11:05can often find myself in on the course as well. And so for me really working with Dan on that
11:10in the
11:11session means now that I'm leaving with confidence that if I do find myself in those not quite position
11:17Zed I think he calls it. But those really tough ask lies where you can't quite get to the back
11:23of the
11:23ball there's that tuft of grass there. I'm going to feel a lot more confident walking into that shot
11:27and hopefully get a good result as well.
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