- 5 minutes ago
In this video, Joe 'The Pro' Ferguson talks you through how to play some of the toughest short game shots in golf. Getting out of trouble around the greens is crucial to keeping the momentum of your round going and so it's important you have the skills at your disposal to be able to hit the ball close and tap it in for an easy par rather than racking up a score-killing double bogey. Check out the shots featured in the video listed below.
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SportsTranscript
00:00I'm Joe Ferguson and I'm going to show you how to get up and down from anywhere!
00:07Okay so you might have noticed that golf is rarely straightforward. We often
00:11find ourselves in tricky situations around the green so I'm going to show
00:14you a few scenarios here that you might commonly find yourself in on the golf
00:17course and the skills I'm going to show you are going to help you turn three
00:20shots into two, keep the momentum going in your round and improve your scores so
00:24let's get to it. So I found myself in a particularly smelly spot here, I've missed
00:36the green left, I'm on a severe downslope coming over a bunker with not much green
00:40to work with. One of the first things people do here is they tend to panic and
00:43try and help the ball up in the air and that might be the worst thing you can do.
00:47In these scenarios you can't fight the slope, you have to use the slope. If you
00:52start leaning back to try and help the ball up in the air you'll bottom out
00:55early, hit the hit the shot fat and it won't go the required distance. So one
01:00of the first things you need to do is move your body with the slope, get your
01:03shoulders more level, move your sternum in front of the ball to make sure you're
01:08using the slope. Inevitably the ball is going to come out lower here because we've
01:12got this downslope so you need to take your most lofted wedge and even open it up
01:16a little bit more to make sure you get the required height. So again move with the
01:20slope, move the sternum in front of the ball, try and get your shoulders more
01:23level to the slope and then just swing down the slope.
01:29Got quite a nice result there and that's how to cope with a downslope. Right I've
01:34missed another green and I found myself in a particularly horrible lie in the
01:37bunker, it's plugged. So this is a real problem for me, I've not got a lot of green
01:41to work with and I've got to get this ball out and as close as possible. So what do I
01:45do? So first things first, I need to get underneath this golf ball, it's sitting
01:49below the surface of the ground so I need to do everything in my power to be
01:54able to get steep on the ball, increase my angle of attack and drive this leading
01:57edge of the golf club under the ball. If you don't do that and you try and help it
02:01up, you're going to scull it across the green. So the way I do that, I get a little
02:04bit wider, I try and move more of my weight forward so I'm steepening my angle,
02:09steepening my angle of descent and I'm just going to drive this club in as hard as I can
02:13behind the ball and stick it in the ground. You can open and close the face
02:17as much as you want, some people prefer to play this square, I prefer to add a
02:21bit of loft because I feel comfortable enough that I'm going to get the blade
02:23under the ball so I open it up a little bit. Wider stance, leaning forward, drive
02:29that club as hard as you can, as vertical as you can behind the ball and stick it in
02:33the ground. And it pops out nicely, it's released up pretty close, six or seven
02:39feet from there, I'm really happy with that. Right I'm stuffed again, I'm behind
02:43this bunker, I've got a tight pin, not much green to work with and I'm really
02:48struggling. The first thing you need to do in this scenario and this is absolutely
02:52crucial, is you have to assess the lie. I play a lot of pro-ams, I play with a lot
02:57of amateurs who when they miss a green have already decided what shot they're
03:01going to play and if you come up to the ball and it's lying sitting down on a
03:06bare patch of turf for example and your plan is an open-faced flop shot, well no one
03:11in the world can execute that, you've already ruined the shot before you've
03:14even started. So a really key part of short game is learning how to read the
03:18lies and knowing what's possible. Unfortunately there's no real shortcuts
03:22for that, that's experience, that's going around the chipping green, throw some
03:25balls down in different lies and work out what's possible. Fortunately in the lie
03:29that I've missed the green with here it's perked up a little bit so I've got an
03:33opportunity to throw this ball up in the air and get it stopping relatively
03:36quickly. First thing I need to do is add loft. One of the key ways of doing this is
03:41make sure you open the face before you take your grip. See a lot of people taking
03:45their grip, manipulating the face open and all that's going to do is return back
03:49closed. So open the face then take your grip. So I'm going to have a relatively
03:55wide stance to support what's going to be a relatively aggressive swim. Because
04:00we've opened the face here, loft's pointing up so I need to give it some more
04:04momentum. Another good tip here is to keep a really light grip pressure. We
04:08don't want any tension in the hands and we also want the club to feel impossibly
04:12like it's passing the hands a little bit and we don't want any shaft lean or
04:15dry that's going to take loft off that because we're already putting quite an
04:18aggressive swing on it. So light grip pressure, open the face, allow the club
04:22head to pass the hands and just slip under the ball and play it with confidence.
04:29Just let it pop up, land soft and we're in a good position to save par again.
04:34Right, this is particularly horrible. I found myself in a bunker here and this
04:37must be the best part of 50 yards, 40 to 50 yards. Really awkward range, a load of
04:42bunker to carry and this is where panic can really set in. One of the most common
04:47mistakes I see is people automatically reach for their most lofted club and just
04:51go and try and get really close to the ball, pick it off and get a little bit of a
04:54cleaner strike. Now that's really high tariff. Looks great if you can execute it
04:58but as a percentage play I'd like you to consider something else. Have a little go
05:03reach for your pitching wedge, even your 9-iron and just try and play it like a
05:07basic splash shot that you would around the green and trust the extra length and
05:10the shaft the less loft will propel the ball the correct distance. I find it
05:15easier not to change too many variables by moving about where I'm trying to get in
05:19the sand if I just play the normal splash shot with my pitching wedge that I
05:23would around the green. Hopefully it will come out a little bit stronger and make
05:27the required distance and that's a great result that's pitched spun up lovely the
05:35compact sands help there a lot but that's a really good way of coping with a
05:39very very awkward shot. Right it's happened again I've missed another green and
05:45here at the Oxfordshire around the greens there's some particularly juicy thick
05:48rough and that's okay if your ball sat on top of it but the two lies I've got here
05:52it's right down in it so I need a method of coping and getting these balls out of
05:57there. Primarily the number one thing I need to do because these balls are kind
06:01of below the surface of where I want them to be I've got to get this club head
06:05under the ball. The first method I use is probably a more traditional method and
06:10it's about just steepening my attack angle to make sure this club instead of
06:14coming in nice and shallow and and impacting the grass here and getting
06:17tangled up I need to do what I can to steepen this attack angle and just pop
06:22the ball out so I'm just gonna essentially feel like I'm dropping the
06:25club onto the back of the ball with a bit of a stabbing motion and just get the
06:29ball moving forward. Wait a little bit further forward a little bit of shaft lean
06:33to help that leading edge get through the turf and I'm just gonna drop the club on
06:37the back of the ball and it's gonna pop out with a bit of release and roll out
06:41and I've got the green to be able to play that shot. Sometimes however you don't
06:45have as much green and this is a bit more of an American style shot you might
06:48see this a bit more on the PGA Tour where they tend to play almost like a
06:52bunker shot with grass so you're deliberately impacting behind the ball
06:56you're accepting that you're not going to pick the ball first you're opening the
06:59blade and you're trying to slip the club through the grass as you would the sand
07:03it'll come out a bit higher a little bit softer it's a little bit more high tariff
07:07this one so it doesn't need some practice in but essentially it is just a
07:11bunker shot with grass so I'm moving the ball a little bit further forward a wider
07:15stance I'm opening that club face and I'm literally just going to try and play
07:19almost as a deliberate fat shot and pop it up it's come out a little bit high
07:24it's come out a little bit strong that one but it stopped nice and quick and
07:27it's got me out of what is some particularly thick and juicy rough so
07:31practice both of those methods and work out what's going to be the best scenario to
07:35use them in well I'm getting a bit grumpy now I might be the unluckiest golfer in
07:39the world I've hit three glorious shots in here they've just rolled off the green
07:43by a foot and I'm presented with this they're all up against the collar from
07:47the fringe to the rough and I've got to deal with it I can't just cry about it
07:50I've got to figure out a way of getting these up and down the eagle-eyed amongst
07:54you might have noticed I've got three golf clubs in my hand and I'm going to show
07:57you three different methods to cope with that so I'm going to start with a good
08:01old-fashioned belly wedge now belly wedge is essentially a deliberate fin I can't
08:07get to the bottom of that golf ball so I'm going to use the leading edge and try
08:11and get that into the equator of the golf ball directly halfway up the ball so it
08:15comes out just rolling like a putt so the best way to do it is the the fringe
08:20will probably dictate where the club sits anyway I can't get this any lower
08:23than that I'm going to use my putting grip and pretty much a putting stance and
08:29I'm just going to rock my shoulders and try and get the ball moving forward it's
08:33a little bit quick down that slope so it's four or five feet past but that's a
08:37pretty acceptable result I'm okay with that so that's one method of coping with
08:42it the next method is three wood believe it or not the way the sole of a
08:47three wood is designed obviously we've got a bit more width here that helps it
08:50stop snagging in this sort of tangly rough behind the ball so it's a pretty
08:54safe option to help ensure you get some reasonable contact and get it going
08:58somewhere close you do have to be wary there's generally a little bit more
09:02energy on the face of a three wood than there would be on a putter or wedge so
09:05it can pop out a little bit quick so factor that in and do a bit of practice
09:08with this before you use it but again a similar method putting grip you can't
09:13get to the bottom of the ball so you're just sort of giving it a little pop
09:16forward let the slope do the rest and that's tracking on a really good line and
09:21just missed so really safe method I'm happy with both of those I've got a good
09:25chance of saving my par on both the last one's a little bit more elaborate and I
09:29first saw Vijay Singh do this at Sawgrass on the 17th hole up against the really
09:34really thick collar of rough and he just manipulated the putter instead of having
09:39in its normal orientation using the face turning in and using the toe end and you
09:44can see what that does to this angle here all of a sudden the toe is very very
09:48steep and low to the ground and I've got no friction from back here so I've
09:52already preset a descending blow into the ball now there's certain putters you
09:57wouldn't want to try this with so ensure yours is compatible got a relatively flat
10:01toe end and again it's just a similar method so use your putting strike your
10:05putting grip and just bump your shoulders and allow the toe end of that putter to
10:10just nudge the ball out gently and get it rolling towards the hole that one's got a
10:14little less pace on it so that one's stone dead really happy with all three of
10:18those I've turned what could have been a really difficult and annoying scenario from a
10:21good approach shot there to a really pretty simple par right well I like those
10:28tapping for pars so hopefully what I've shown you there has armed you with a
10:32skill set that's going to leave you with a lot more of those keep your momentum in
10:35the rounds and improve your scoring so from me here at the Oxfordshire that's
10:39Debra Thin I'll see you next time
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