- 4 hours ago
In this video short game guru and Top 50 coach Dan Grieve talks through the seven biggest short game mistakes golfers make and explains how to fix them!
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00:00Hi, I'm Dan Grieve and I'm at the stunning Apes Hill Golf Resort in Barbados and today
00:05I'm going to bring you the seven classic mistakes that I see amateur golfers make around the
00:11greens.
00:11So let's get started.
00:15So classic mistake number one is dealing with up slopes.
00:19So we're on a slope here, it's quite severe and the golfer tends to use their favourite
00:24club, it might be say a 58 or a 60, I've got a 60 in my hand here just to
00:27show the fault
00:29and a couple of things can happen here.
00:31You might still get an okay contact but the ball goes so high because we've got using
00:36a lot of loft on the club face and we've got the up slope which sends it up, it doesn't
00:41send it forward.
00:42That's one mistake and the second mistake is that the golfer will still lean very much on
00:47the left side like they might do for a normal chip and then the club basically enters into
00:52the slope and it digs in.
00:53So the key on the up slope is get rid of that loft in your hand.
00:57So rather than a 60 I would use something like a 52 so maybe a 50 or a 54, if
01:04you carry
01:04a 52 I think that's ideal but something in that area and because of the up slope it's
01:09going to get the height we need but because we've got a little bit less loft in our hand
01:13the ball's going to be a sensible ball flight so it's still going to run out rather than
01:16that 60 which stopped really quickly.
01:19So I'm going to play the ball a little bit further forward rather than back because I want
01:23the club to follow the slope and I'm going to add in a bit more release to the club.
01:28I use my release 2 on up slopes to encourage the club to follow the slope and not dig in.
01:34So ball forward a little bit of release hopefully we'll see a better ball flight this time.
01:40You can see that's gone more of a mid flight and it's just running out.
01:46Oh it's gone in the hole, there we go.
01:48So that definitely is the right club isn't it?
01:50Using the 52, ball forward, lots of release, club selection is vital off these up slopes.
01:59Okay so playing off a down slope is a second mistake that you see quite a lot.
02:04It's a tough shot, it is a tough shot but the key is getting the club face, the club loft
02:09correct.
02:10So we've got to make sure using more lofts.
02:12So I would now be using a 60 because it's got the most loft I carry because I'm on a
02:17down slope
02:18I want to match that with more loft.
02:20So number one is try and use the most lofty club you've got but the key mistake I see is
02:25the golfer doesn't set themselves to the slope.
02:27So they're still set up kind of normally with shoulders this way and then what will happen is
02:31as the club comes down the club hits way back and we get the heavy shot and then we're chipping
02:36again.
02:37So it's all about trying to match the angle of attack to the slope that we've got.
02:42So to get myself sufficiently on my left hand side I need to stand wider.
02:48Now the width of stance you've got to feel because basically you've got to get yourself in a balanced position.
02:54So not only am I going to place that ball further back, I mean that is important you do that,
02:58it's going to help you play down the slope.
03:00I'm going to stand wider so I need to get around about this sort of width
03:04for me to feel like I've got enough weight on my left side to get myself level with the slope.
03:09If it wasn't as severe as this I wouldn't need to be as wide as this.
03:12So the width of stance will help you get balanced to the slope.
03:15So I've got my 60, I'm going to play the ball back, shaft forward for this one
03:20and what you don't want to do here is release it because you're going to kick it too early.
03:23Feel like it's going to be a release one with a short finish,
03:26keeping your weight very much on this front leg at all times.
03:31Okay, so 60, release one and then we get a nice result like that somewhere near the hole.
03:39Okay, so it's all about adjusting your setup and not having that narrow stance
03:44which you'd normally have from a flat lie.
03:49So mistake three would just be simply using the wrong club, so use the wrong loft in your hand.
03:55Too many golfers have their favourite club and use it everywhere.
03:59And in this circumstance we're going uphill, we're going into the wind a little bit
04:04and the slope on the green is tilted at us this way.
04:07Which means if I use, for example, my 60 here and I play, you know, I can strike it quite
04:14nicely,
04:14play a nice shot like that, but you can see how that ball's stuck.
04:19Okay, it's stuck on the upslope and it's left me about a 20 foot putt.
04:22So that's an example of my technique being good, but my IQ not really good enough,
04:27not really high enough in terms of visualising what will happen when that ball lands.
04:31It's all about predicting in short game what the ball will do when it lands.
04:35Now, because I'm into the green, into the wind and the green is sloped towards me,
04:40I need to make sure I'm going to hit this lower with a bit less spin.
04:44Now, rather than using the 60, if I went to a 52 and kept the same sort of action,
04:50a chip and run action here, the ball would have less spin and it would run up,
04:54up the hill a little bit.
04:55Now, I could go to something like a 99 here, but the problem there is
04:58I would have to land it into the slope short of the green and then we're in no man's land.
05:03And then we can get any type of bounce. So the 52 allows me to fly it onto the green
05:07with a little bit less spin, so it still runs out.
05:10Okay, so I'm visualising the shot first and hopefully we'll see this one run out a bit more
05:16rather than digging its teeth in too much. So chip and run with the 52.
05:21You can see that's landing, but this time it's running out, running out,
05:24nearly went in. So it had less spin and more release up the slope.
05:30And that's simply by me visualising it and then allowing me then to use the right club.
05:36So don't fall into a trap of using too much loft when you're playing into these up slopes
05:41because it just stops. It doesn't run out.
05:46So classic mistake number four is when you're in the bunker, particularly when you're under the lip
05:50here, I see the golfer leaning back to try and help the ball out. And that basically is going to
05:55make
05:55you take too much sand and the ball kind of dribbles up and stays somewhere up the lip there.
06:00So very important to get that wide stance, really push the weight forward and keep it in this lead
06:06leg throughout the entire action. And then from there, you're going to be able to be more stable
06:10and rotate around rather than leaning back. It's a little bit of a mental issue as well. You've got to
06:15try not to think that leaning it back is going to help. You've got to stay forward and the loft
06:20of the
06:20club can splash under the ball and that will get the height to get over the lip and towards the
06:25flag.
06:26And just a secondary note on this, when you do get these longer bunker shots,
06:30try not to use your most lofty club. This is about a 25 yard bunker shot. So I'm using a
06:3556 and not the
06:3660 here. If the pin was a little bit further on, I might go to a 52, for example. So
06:42make sure you
06:43change the loft on the longer bunker shots. But the main thing here is keep your weight forward,
06:48forward and don't lean back. Then you get nice bunker shots like that. So keep the weight forward
06:56in bunkers and don't lean back to try and help it out.
07:02Right, classic mistake number five is when you have this 60 yard pitch shot or thereabouts and you're
07:10playing uphill and the most important factor here is you're playing into the wind that the golf uses
07:16too much loft and then it just stalls up in the wind, comes up short and a long way from
07:22the hole,
07:23if not even maybe short of the green. So this is a 60. This is the wrong club, but I
07:27see a lot of
07:28players hitting full wedge shots with lots of speed and lots of spin. Firstly, when you hit a full shot,
07:35your inclination with a lofty club is going to want to go quite hard at it with quite a lot
07:39of transfer
07:39and you can easily get miss hits, as in heavy shots and thin shots. So that's the first issue.
07:46But assuming you strike it good, it's just going to go too high and
07:51and the spin, I mean, that's just no control. That will land and it'll spin back. Watch it come back.
07:56Like it just about made the front of the green there, but it's a very difficult shot from there.
08:01I would never hit that shot. And the famous Ben Hogan quote is,
08:05show me the player who hits full wedge shots because I want to play them for money. He'd never
08:09do it either. So you have to use less loft. So what I'm going to do instead is I would
08:14use a 52
08:15degree club here. It's only 60 yards, but I would play a controlled one, a connected one to flight it
08:22down and make sure that the first bounce doesn't come back and it doesn't get stuck in the wind.
08:26It's just a much better way of playing this shot. So go down the grip a little bit, narrow stance,
08:31weight on the left, really feel like your arms and body connected and just play it in quieter,
08:37just with less spin, just to get through the wind better.
08:41You can see that's a much quieter flight.
08:44It's gone in there and it's just stopped on that, on that second bounce.
08:48Okay, so let's try that again. Much lower ball flight, no real speed at it, no drive at it.
08:54Just a little bit more on the pin.
08:59See, look at that flight in there, nice and close.
09:03And it's moving forward up the green, it's not spinning too much. So into the wind, avoid using
09:08your most lofty club. Just come down, play a little quiet half swings. It needs a bit of practice on
09:13the range just to feel that, but when you get the hang of that, it's just going to be so
09:17important
09:17to controlling your wedge shots and getting that ball closer to the pin.
09:23Right, so classic mistake number six is simply just holding it too tight, just being too
09:27too tense and too anxious with it. And when you grip it really tightly, the ball wants to jump
09:32off the club face. So it lands and it wants to run way past the hole. The ball doesn't nestle
09:38into
09:38the grooves and get that control and that friction that we're looking for around the green. So very
09:43simply, if you just relax the grip pressure, just soften it up, the club will tend to release and it
09:50will tend to then, the ball will stay on the club face a lot longer. So make sure when you're
09:54setting
09:55up, just let your arms hang naturally. If you let your arms hang naturally, that's how they should
09:59sit onto the grip. And then when you swing the club, the club almost wants to swing itself then
10:03a little bit more rather than that ball jumping off the club face. And then you'll see the ball
10:08react with a little bit more spin. So nice and soft. Now I've got some awareness of my grip pressure
10:13and we just let the club swing itself and you can see the difference in that spin on that first
10:19bounce. Okay. So it just very slowly makes it way to the hole rather than coming off
10:25like a rocket, which you saw on that first one with the lighter grip pressure. You need a bit of
10:30spin
10:31and then it just slowly trickles the hole. And all I've really changed there is the grip pressure.
10:36So the firmer you hold it, the more it wants to jump, the lighter you hold it, the more you
10:40can start
10:41to get that control. And here at Apes Hill, you need control. These greens are quick. So if I was
10:45gripping
10:46it very quickly around here, I had a very difficult job controlling my short game shots and getting
10:50more close enough of tappings like that one was. So here we've got the classic shot where we're going
10:57over the water, whether it's over the water or over a bunker, it's the same sort of situation that
11:03mentally the golfer struggles with in terms of you're trying to play over a hazard and it gets in the
11:08mind. It's as much mental as it is technical here. But yeah, what I tend to see when the players
11:13playing over water in particular, that they go back and they have this sort of real worry about
11:18the shot and then they decelerate, they stop turning the chest through it. So if they look a bit like
11:21this, they slow down and then plop, there it goes into the water. Okay. That's the classic that I see.
11:28Now, obviously you can't take it away out of your mind. You're always going to have the water in
11:33your mind. I'm not going to say try and take it out of your mind. That's probably not realistic, but
11:37what I would be doing in a situation like this is really focusing on where I want to finish.
11:41So where does my swing want to finish? Well, I want to get my chest pointing towards the pin.
11:46That keeps the momentum in my chest. That keeps the speed of the strike and as we move through the
11:52ball
11:52and we're less likely to get that deceleration and into the water. So just keep your chest moving.
11:59Focus on where you want to finish instead of what might happen. Okay. Keep the chest moving and then we
12:11worry about the water. So just keep your chest moving when you have water in front of you.
12:17So there we have it. The seven classic mistakes that I see in golfers around the green. So hopefully
12:22that's helped you. Hopefully that's given you some bits to work on, some of the faults you recognize
12:27in your own game and it's going to help you shoot lower scores. Enjoy your golf.
12:30Let's do it.
12:30Let's do it.
12:31Let's do it.
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