- 3 minutes ago
In this video short game extraordinaire and Top 50 coach Dan Grieve offers up 9 of his best short game drills to help you play the three most important shots around the green - the chip and run, bunker shot and pitch shot.
Video shot on location at Apes Hill Resort in Barbados.
Video shot on location at Apes Hill Resort in Barbados.
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00:00Hi, I'm Dan Grieve and I'm here at the stunning Apes Hill Golf Resort in Barbados and today
00:05we're going to talk about the three key shots that we all need in the short game.
00:09A chip and run shot, a pitch shot and a bunker shot and I'm going to give you three drills
00:14that you can do within each shot to improve how you play it.
00:18Let's get started.
00:22So the first thing you've got to be aware of is how relaxed you need to be when you
00:27chip, as in most golfers are way too tight over the ball, it's very difficult to get
00:32any feel and any touch when you're gripping it as hard as most golfers do around the green.
00:38So what I tend to see a lot of amateurs doing is holding it like this, you can see how
00:42rigid
00:42my arms are, really really tight, grip pressure probably 10 out of 10 and when I chip like
00:47that I've got no feel, I'm probably going to hit a lot of thin shots like that.
00:51So if you recognise that shot, this is the drill for you.
00:54Just stand there in your golf posture here and let your arms just totally hang naturally
01:00and what you'll find is when your arms hang naturally they have a slight bend to them,
01:04like no one's arms would be like this and if I was stood here just chatting to you like this
01:08you'd probably think I looked a little bit strange but a lot of you actually have your
01:11arms on the golf club like that so just let your arms hang, that is how they just sit onto
01:17the club,
01:18then your triceps are nicely connected onto the ribcage there and then when you chip,
01:22you'll start getting a little bit more feel and a little bit more flow in the shot and
01:28that's how you start getting touch when you chip so rather than those really tight arms
01:31just let them hang naturally and I think that alone is really going to help your chipping.
01:40So one of the things I see in chipping a lot which really compromises your strike is basically the
01:46player moves too much from side to side there's too much what I call lateral shift in the motion.
01:52So a great drill to improve how you move in a chip shot remember a chip shot really should be
01:57rotational it should be about having a fixed point running through your lead side so I try and imagine
02:02a rod running through my foot through my knee hip shoulder and towards my left ear so I create this
02:07nice
02:07line here and then I'm rotating around as I say most golfers would tend to move a little bit too
02:13much
02:13again get thin shots get heavy shots because there's too much movement it's good to have a
02:18little bit of weight transfer in full swing that's a good thing but in short game it is going to
02:22hurt
02:22you so feel like your weight's going to stay here and the best exercise and drill you can do for
02:29that
02:29is where you go up onto your trail toe like this and then when you do that you see and
02:35hit some shots
02:35you have to keep the foot like this now if you start moving around it's going to be quite obvious
02:40because your foot's going to plant back down on the ground so just as an exercise just hit chip shots
02:45with that foot like that and you'll see how you'll start to get some really nice
02:49crisp strikes it will teach you this weight staying on that front side really nice exercise
02:57so I think if you do that drill it's really going to crisp your low point and get you striking
03:00better chips
03:05and the third drill which I think will really help you in terms of getting a better feel for
03:09your chipping around the green is actually to experiment using different lofts I think too
03:14many golfers stick to the same club too much around the greens sometimes it will be the right loft but
03:19really in this situation here there's quite a lot of green it's into the wind a little bit if I
03:24was to
03:24use something quite lofted there's a good chance of it spinning too much and the ball wouldn't get there so
03:29you've got to consider the slope of the green out here in Barbados we've also got the grain the
03:34grain is growing towards me that's going to slow the first bounce down and also the length how much
03:39green you've got to work with and also the firmness of the green is it firm or is it or
03:43is it soft and
03:44all those things go into the pot and that helps you then select the right club but first off you've
03:48got to get a feel for how the ball reacts so I've got three clubs here I've got a 52
03:52degree I've got a
03:53nine iron and a seven iron and I'd love to for you to go out and practice just with these
04:00three lofts
04:01pick four if you want you know your call but just a little bit gap between the lofts and just
04:05land
04:06the ball in a similar place each time and then you'll just see how much that ball reacts so I'm
04:10going to start with the 52 degree and I'm going to land this around about halfway towards the towards
04:16the pin with my chip and run release one method and we'll see how that reacts so it's landed there
04:24it's had a bit of check as you can see and it stopped fairly close to hold but I had
04:27to carry
04:28that now a little over halfway with the conditions now of the shots you can practice with a lot of
04:34the clubs there's a nine iron now the nine iron doesn't need to carry as far as that and remember
04:38this is one technique the setup and swing is exactly the same even the speed is the same but the
04:43ball is going to react a little bit differently now so a nine iron I can carry around about a
04:48third of the way just over that light patch and the ball's going to run more because it's running
04:52more it's going to break more so I'm going to weigh more to the right and you can see how
04:56that ball wants
04:57to run it has far less spin on it so it's running out a lot more okay and it's by
05:02practicing with
05:03different lofts it gives you this instinct and this feel that you don't get from using the same loft
05:08all of the time now I've got a seven iron in my hand our seven iron more or less is
05:13a 25 carry so
05:14I can land that just onto the green and it's going to have even less spin than a nine and
05:19it's going to
05:19run a little bit more so you can see how that ball's really running on really really quick and then
05:26you
05:26start to learn which which loft is most appropriate for that pin now really for seven iron because I'm
05:31landing it on a down slope and there's not too much green and it's really the wrong club so that's
05:38how you start to learn now if I'm going right out to the very back of the green now so
05:41forget the pin
05:42for a second so this green's what about 30 yards long I can land this about 10 on and you
05:49can see
05:49how that ball's running out running out running out running out all the way to the back of the
05:53green so if the pin was right at the back it would be the seven the pins a little bit
05:57closer
05:58more than 52 pin in the middle of nine iron and this this is just a great exercise to take
06:03the
06:03technique that you've got and put some feel into it by using different lofts to start getting that
06:08feel for how the ball runs out differently so you can get to all the pin positions on the green
06:16okay so we've done the chipping now we're in the bunker key shot I know it's a shot that
06:21intimidates a lot of club golfers and it shouldn't do once you get the hang of the basics it's not
06:24a
06:24difficult shot at all the biggest fault I see in the sand is the golfer has too much movement side
06:31to side you need a little bit more speed of course and having the ball in the sand intimidates the
06:36golfer and they start trying to hit the ball too hard as a result there's too much movement side to
06:40side very difficult to control where you're entering the sand then you either take too much sand or you
06:45get the ball first and we know that's a disastrous shot that isn't when you get that thin one that
06:50flies too
06:50far so the first drill is really making sure you get a really solid platform at address before you
06:57even take the club away so really I want you to feel like your driver width the trail foot is
07:03slightly
07:03turned out and your front foot wants to be 45 degrees so as a drill just mark a line in
07:09the sand
07:09at the 45 degree angle and make sure your foot is really pointing down that line from there the knee
07:15goes forward and your pelvis is forward this way and with the width I can really feel that I've got
07:21a lot of rooting downwards which means it's very difficult for me to move too much side to side it's
07:27very much a rotational movement so it all begins with that stance once you have that rooting there
07:33it's so much easier just to rotate around and hit nice splash shots like that
07:39rather than that side to side so it begins with a solid platform
07:46okay in the second drill I want you to practice it's just it's a great exercise my favorite one
07:51really and you just get the toe of your sand wedge turn it down and draw a line coming towards
07:56you this
07:57way draw a nice line and then just work down the line don't need a ball for this because two
08:02things
08:02that golfers struggle with one is the impact point as in trying to hit that right sort of one to
08:07two
08:07inches behind the ball and the second is getting the right noise and the noise is everything obviously
08:12no noise at all you're going to thin it too much noise too much sand okay you're going to leave
08:17the
08:17ball in you're trying to get that nice smack of the sand where it just clips it so work your
08:22way down
08:22the line start at this end give yourself that platform i just mentioned and see if you can hit that
08:27line so that would have been a really nice shot you can see the entry point was just behind it
08:32and it splashed through and most importantly i got that great noise so can you get another great noise
08:37there we go and you keep working down that line and keep trying to hit that and it'll give you
08:44a
08:44read so look at my shots there every single one of them has just entered exactly the same point so
08:50i
08:50know my entry point is really consistent if your entry point was way back or way forward it wouldn't
08:55take long doing this drill to really get some consistency and you can start instinctively making
09:00the changes you need to get that strike point more on the line you could then have a ball at
09:06the end of
09:06the line so you're working down it getting that smack of the sand hitting that line and then you
09:12just walk into your next one with the ball there and then you hit a nice bunker shot so really
09:18simple
09:18exercise to improve your low point control and get the right noise which is critical for that splash shot
09:24out of the bunker right so the final drill i want you to practice when you're working on your bunker
09:32play
09:33is to keep your chest moving through it this is the most common fault i would tend to see
09:37out of the green side bunker where the player just basically quits on it like this so they're coming
09:41down quite nicely and then this happens body stops club decelerates and then you're playing a second
09:47bunker shot which is definitely what you don't want so when i play bunker shots i feel like my chest
09:54is
09:54turning even as i'm watching the ball go through the air i am still turning so what i don't want
09:59to do here
09:59is just face the flag i want to face left of it so there's some palm trees up there i'm
10:06going to keep
10:06turning to and my job is to make sure i rotate past the flag so we're not going to quit
10:12on it this time
10:13you're going to hit the shot and as an exercise and don't mind where the ball goes when you're working
10:16on these drills by the way you're working on your technique try and get away from outcome
10:20it's more about the process here so as it's going through the air i'm still going to be turning
10:27still rotating as it's going through and that is what allows the ball to have the momentum
10:34that it requires because the sand is working the ball out let's do that one more time keep the chest
10:38moving see how the chest has gone so but my right side is still down my chest is pointing over
10:46in that
10:46direction instead of the flag because i'm turning past it and if you do that you get more commitment
10:53through the sand and you get more out first time and hopefully nice and close to still get that up
10:57and down okay so now into pitching now pitching is the third area of the short game which people
11:06really struggle with and they struggle because they don't really know if it's long game or short what
11:10what exactly is this awkward 30 to 60 yard shot well for me it's definitely in the short game family
11:16that means we're still creating that firm point down that left side that pivot line there in which we
11:22rotate around so it's still very much a rotational movement we don't want that side to side movement
11:27which you would associate a little bit more with full swing so that's the first thing to understand
11:31and it's important to build connection and you want to build connection with the ground
11:35to really make sure that you have that nice strong base it's a narrower stance for pitching
11:40but you want to really feel like your lead side is pushing down you want the difference between
11:44sort of standing on the ground and really rooting yourself on the ground so first thing
11:48get connection with the ground that's going to stop a lot of that tendency to want to to sway too
11:53much and the second point the second drill i want you to work on is really just getting your sleeves
11:56and just sort of tucking them a little bit here because we want the triceps to be connected to the
12:02rib cage and then from there you're going to feel like not only you've got the connection with the
12:06ground you've got the connection with your arms on your chest and all of these factors here are going
12:11to lead you to get better control when you pitch so let's give that a go so pressure down through
12:15the
12:15feet triceps connected and rotate the chest around the feet and then we get a nice pitch shot like
12:23that if you notice how my right foot is quite quiet it hasn't driven through we get a nice controlled
12:28shot in there and hopefully still make the pass so pitching it's all about connection with the ground
12:34and the arms on the body
12:39and the second drill i'd really like to work on with your pitching is actually start to
12:43vary your trajectory a little bit don't feel that's that's above you anyone can do this
12:47and you can do it very simply by just changing loft so if you're into the wind a little bit
12:52it's
12:52probably not a good idea to use a lofty club like a 56 or 58 or 60 and the ball
12:56would go too high the
12:57wind would stall it and it would come up short i'm sure you've done that quite a few times there
13:01so
13:02if it's that if it's into the wind let's hit the let's get the flight down a little bit let's
13:06put it in
13:06lower and the easiest way to do that is change loft so i used a 56 there for the previous
13:12pitch shot it was a
13:13nice flight had lots of spin but that spin into the wind would hurt you and also if the pin
13:18is at the
13:18back of the green you'd really want to be going a little bit lower as well so i've now got
13:23the
13:23pitching wedge so it's a 40 47 degree pitching wedge here and i'm going to play the same technique
13:30still connected still got the pressure down but the flight's going to go in lower imagine it going through
13:35the wind or to a back pin just a simple loft change you can see so much lower ball flight
13:42stance is the same it's got to the back of the green there much easier doing that than really
13:47trying to hit it really high the wind is actually quite a bit into here today at apes hill so
13:52we've
13:52got to make sure we control that ball flight so if you were just to practice hitting kind of the
13:56same
13:57carry number you choose a carry number it might be 60 for example can you use your 56 or 58
14:02whatever you
14:02carry and can you hit a 60 yard shot flight it up obviously when you're hitting it high there's going
14:07to be a little bit of a longer follow through but then can you also flight it down go to
14:12a pitching
14:12wedge and hit the lower shot by finishing a bit shorter but primarily it's a loft which is going to
14:18change your trajectory and then you can start accessing different pin positions and getting through
14:23the wind or downwind better by changing the loft okay it's all part of building the iq improving
14:28that and linking it with your technique to pitch the ball better right now the final drill i want
14:36you to work on in your pitching is a t-peg drill it's my favorite drill it's the one that
14:39i've used
14:39the most with um players of all levels to really pitch the ball better because i think a lot of
14:44golfers
14:44don't understand how you hit that sort of flighted shot which gets a lot of spin and really it's where
14:50you hit the ball on the face you wouldn't be hitting it really on that third and fourth groove
14:54which hits that lower flighted shot with lots of spin the best way to practice it is the t-peg
14:59so
15:00you tee it up like a driver high as a driver use your 54 56 and hover it just at
15:08the bottom of the ball
15:09and don't think too much about it let your instinct do it but your whole the whole idea of this
15:14drill is
15:14clipping the ball more rather than driving it so if you're hitting down big divots really kind of
15:19down onto the ball and getting a high face contact this will be superb for you to learn how you
15:25can
15:25clip it more which will then hit it in with a little bit more spin so the goal here is
15:31very simply
15:31can you hit it off the t-peg without moving the t-peg if it just disturbs a bit that's
15:37not a problem
15:37what you don't want to do is break it basically so we're going to clip it off the top and
15:42see we can
15:43hit one in there it's loaded of spin it's got about a yard of draw and if you can see
15:47that land
15:47it's actually spinning backwards and coming back towards the hole so and the t-peg is still there
15:52which is the main goal so great exercise to get you hitting out the correct part of the club face
15:57and hitting that low flight of really high spinning pitch shot the t-peg drill so hopefully that's
16:04giving you some key drills that you can work on to improve the shots that we all need when we
16:08play
16:09chip shot around the green the pitch shot and the bunker shot you've got some key points there you can
16:14work on to improve your short game and enjoy this great game of golf even more all the best
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