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Ever wanted to hit a perfect stinger or a massive drive that leaves your friends speechless? Golf Monthly's Joe Ferguson shows you how to master six of golf's most impressive shots with simple, easy-to-follow tips.
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00:00Right, thanks for joining me.
00:01I want to show you some of the coolest shots in golf.
00:04And I'll come here to the beautiful
00:05Santa de Sera Golf Club in Madeira,
00:08one of the coolest spots in golf,
00:10to show you some of the coolest shots.
00:16Okay, so one of the coolest shots always has been
00:19and always will be the bombed driver.
00:22Those players, you can just turn it up a notch
00:24and find another 20 to 30 yards like a Rory,
00:27I think that's really, really cool.
00:29And here's how they do it.
00:31So what you have to do is create optimal launch conditions
00:34of high launch and low spin.
00:37And there's a couple of ways we can go about doing that.
00:39Firstly, tee height seems like a really simple change,
00:43but just getting that ball pegged up nice and high
00:46will allow us to sweep up on the ball
00:48in that kind of tennis forehand motion,
00:51creating a high launch and a low spin,
00:53which can help penetrate with the shot.
00:56Another method of keeping that launch high
00:58is making sure we keep the ball forward in our stance.
01:01So right off the front toe,
01:03might ordinarily be just inside the left heel,
01:05but just nudging it up a scooch
01:07so we can just keep sweeping it on the up
01:09to help with that launch.
01:11Now we're going to try and create a lot more speed as well.
01:14So we're going to need a more solid base
01:15so we don't lose our balance.
01:16So create a bit more width of stance
01:18really helps to create that stability.
01:21Then from there, it's all about speed.
01:24So how do we generate more speed?
01:26One of my favorite methods is just reaching a little bit
01:29in the back swing, creating maximum width.
01:31We're not swaying to do it.
01:32You can only create as much width as your arms are long,
01:36but just making sure I'm getting my arms
01:38as far away from my body,
01:40my hands as high as I can at the top,
01:42to create that centrifugal force,
01:44which is going to produce maximum ball speed.
01:47And then from there, when I've reached as high as I can,
01:49I'm just going to spin my body as hard as I can
01:52and launch it.
01:53It's going to look a little something like this.
02:00And that's launched nice and high.
02:02Let's bomb straight down there,
02:04right out the center as well to be fair,
02:06so that'll be a big long carry.
02:07So that's all you need to do to be able to bomb driver.
02:10So one of the coolest and most Instagrammable shots
02:13in golf seems to be the Stinger.
02:16A lot of people use it as a safety shot on tighter holes,
02:18and this is quite a tight tee shot,
02:20so it's probably not a bad place to learn it.
02:22So what do we do?
02:23What impact conditions do we need to be able to create
02:26to hit a Stinger?
02:27Well, first of all, dynamic loft needs to be low.
02:30So you want to be taking your longest iron to hit this,
02:33and I've got my three iron here.
02:35So creating less dynamic loft
02:36means creating a little bit of shaft lean
02:39and closing that club base down a little bit.
02:41There's a load of different ways to do this.
02:44So some people like to play the ball a long way back.
02:46To me, that tends to create a steeper attack angle
02:49and can actually impart a little bit more spin
02:51and get it rising.
02:52So I like to play Stinger from kind of my normal ball position,
02:55but what I like to feel
02:58is I try and feel like the back of my glove hand here,
03:00the logo on my glove,
03:02is pointing down at the ground for as long as possible,
03:05which is closing that club base.
03:07If it starts pointing up at the sky,
03:09club base is open,
03:10you're going to have to release it to get it square,
03:12whereas if it's closed here,
03:14we can just turn hard, hold the club base off,
03:17create that forward shaft lean,
03:19which is going to knock down that dynamic loft
03:21and give us that penetrating ball flight.
03:23So that's one way of feeling it.
03:25Some other people just like to feel like
03:27they cover the ball with their chest
03:29and keep that handle ahead of the club base.
03:33So all they're doing is having a race
03:34between their hands and their club head
03:36and trying to make sure their hands
03:37win that race to impact,
03:39because if your club head wins the race,
03:41you're adding loft and it's going to pop up.
03:43So here's how to play it.
03:46In over the ball, take your normal grip.
03:48Like I said, I don't like to change
03:49ball position that much,
03:51and I'm just going to go with my feeling
03:52of keeping that glove hand down to the ground
03:55and covering the ball in my chest
03:56and forcing it forward nice and low.
04:04Well, that's a pretty good example.
04:05That's about 10 to 12 feet off the ground,
04:08I would say, drilling up through there
04:11and a really nice result on a very, very tight hole.
04:13Not only does it look cool,
04:15it's also pretty functional.
04:17Speaking of cool, what would be really cool
04:19is if you're enjoying this video,
04:20please hit the like button, comment down below.
04:23Tell me about some of the cool shots you've played.
04:25And if you're not subscribed to the channel, do it now.
04:27It's free and you can see all of our upcoming videos.
04:30Okay, so one of the coolest shots in golf,
04:33for me, will always be the flop shot.
04:36This is probably made most famous by Phil Mickelson
04:38when he first came out in the early 90s.
04:40And what is a flop shot?
04:41It's a shot where you've got an open face,
04:44the ball's going to go sky high,
04:45come down like a butterfly with sore feet,
04:48land softly on the ground and not go very far.
04:50You've got to use it in the right situation.
04:52I think I might be in that situation here
04:53at the beautiful Paliero Golf Club in Madeira.
04:56I've got a chip, I've missed the green left,
04:59and I'm coming down here onto a super severe down slope.
05:04You can see how this is.
05:05And if I play a normal chip shot here,
05:07which I'll show you now,
05:08I don't think I've got any chance of stopping this ball
05:12quick enough by the hole.
05:14So just hit that down slope and off it goes.
05:17So one of the first things you need to do is open the club face
05:20before you take your grip.
05:22I see so many people taking their normal grip
05:24with a square club face
05:25and trying to squeeze the club open like that.
05:28But all that's going to happen is
05:29your hands are going to return
05:31to a more comfortable position at impact.
05:32The club face will be too square
05:34and the ball will go miles.
05:36So open that club face first.
05:37Get that in behind the ball.
05:38That gives you a good sense of how much ground
05:40you've got to work with under there as well.
05:42So place it in behind the ball, then take your grip.
05:45You want the ball slightly forward in your stance
05:47and we want a pretty level impact through the ball here.
05:51So we don't want to be chopping down on it.
05:52We don't want to be certainly scooping up on it.
05:55I want you to feel like the club face is dead level
05:57with the ground and you're just going to cut the legs
05:59from under the ball.
06:01But we've opened the face a lot, right?
06:03So we're going to need to give it a bit more momentum.
06:05And that's where the big swing comes in
06:07so we can send the ball a good way up in the air
06:10and it's not going to go too far forward.
06:12So we've got the club face open
06:15and we're just going to take a big old swing,
06:18slide the club under the ball, up in the air,
06:21pop it down, and that's beautiful.
06:23I managed to stop that just short of the hole
06:25on a really, really tricky, tricky shot.
06:28I've got a really good chance to save my par.
06:30Okay, so sometimes you can find yourself on a golf course
06:33in a particularly troublesome spot, but believe it or not,
06:35you can use some cool shots to get out of it.
06:37I'm going to show you one here.
06:38So the situation I'm in, I've missed this fairway to the right
06:42and I'm stuffed behind these trees.
06:44I could be pragmatic and I could nudge it out
06:47and chip it just into the fairway and play from there.
06:49That's no fun.
06:50So I'm going to play a cool shot and get out of it.
06:52So I'm going to move this ball around the trees.
06:55So how do I do that?
06:56Well, it's simple geometry.
06:57I've just got to make sure my club face is pointing left
07:00of the path of my club.
07:02So the path being the direction the club's traveling in,
07:05and the club face being where it points at impact.
07:08If I make sure that club face is left of the path,
07:10that spin axis is going to tilt
07:12and the ball is going to move right to left.
07:14The more I can create that differentiation
07:16between face and path, the more the ball is going to move.
07:20So how do I do it?
07:21Well, first with setup.
07:23So I can preset a path that's right
07:25by simply aiming my body to the right.
07:27So that's going to influence my club traveling over there.
07:30And then from there, all I want to do is tow the club face in.
07:32So when it comes to impact, the club head's
07:34going to be traveling that way,
07:36but the club face is going to be pointing that way.
07:38So you're going to see a sweeping hook.
07:40The more you can do it, the more curvature you're going to get.
07:42And you're going to have to practice this
07:44because it's more about experience
07:46and knowing how much you can push it.
07:47So here, I'm going to aim my body that feels like
07:50at that tree in the distance there.
07:52I'm going to tow the club in.
07:53And then it's just about commitment.
07:54It's about swinging up that line and understanding.
07:58It's going to hook around those trees.
08:00And that's a beautiful example.
08:03And I've got that about 190 yards up the fairway, I think.
08:06So I've just gained myself nearly 200 yards
08:08from being boring and chipping out
08:10by using a really cool shot.
08:13Okay, so I'm in a really difficult situation here.
08:15And this could be classed as one of the most difficult shots
08:17in golf, the 40 to 50 yard bunker shot.
08:19But if you get it right and you play it in the right way,
08:21it can turn into one of the coolest shots in golf.
08:24I've done another video about trying to be a bit more
08:26pragmatic and playing it with a nine iron
08:28and a pitching wedge and just playing it
08:30as a normal splash shot.
08:31And that's a really functional way to play it,
08:33but sometimes you just can't.
08:34Sometimes you've got to carry a lot of stuff.
08:36And if you can get it really precise on strike,
08:39you can carry it all the way, zip it up straight away
08:41or even spin it back.
08:42And that looks really, really cool.
08:44So the way to do that, you need to take your most lofted wedge
08:47and it's really about precision of strike.
08:49Instead of a normal splash shot where you might be
08:51trying to impact about an inch or two
08:53behind the ball,
08:54we're going to actually get pretty close to ball first here.
08:57It's not actually going to be ball first,
08:59but it's going to be very close to.
09:00And that's where the sort of precision element comes in.
09:03Because if you do get ball first with the momentum
09:05I'm going to put into it,
09:06it's going to go a long, long way.
09:08And if I don't quite get it as precise as I want,
09:11it's just going to flub out.
09:12So you've got to be super, super precise here.
09:15It's all about commitment
09:16and just nipping as close to the ball as you can.
09:19So I'm going to play it pretty similar to a normal bunker shot,
09:21but I'm just aiming for a point in the sand about a centimeter behind the ball,
09:25and I'm going to go full commitment with full speed to get plenty of carry.
09:32And that's pretty much perfect.
09:34That's got all the way to the pin and zoom.
09:36And that is a cool shot.
09:39One of the coolest shots in golf,
09:41and also one of the most difficult,
09:42is the driver off the deck.
09:45And you need a very specific set of circumstances to use this shot,
09:49and it really is a bit of a last throw of the dice.
09:51And it's handy, I've got a slight upslip to help with the elevation.
09:54Now this shot used to be a lot more difficult with the older, smaller style drivers,
09:58but the MOI and the launch conditions of these new modern drivers make it a little bit easier.
10:04So you need a decent lie, which I've got here.
10:07And then I actually don't change that much.
10:09I'm just really focusing on the quality of strike.
10:12Obviously, when you're hitting off a tee peg,
10:14your angle of attack will be a little more up.
10:16This ball is now obviously at ground level.
10:19So I'm probably going to move it back maybe half a ball in my stance,
10:22just to make sure I'm not quite catching it on the up.
10:24I want this sort of dead level.
10:26But aside from that, it's just a case of getting set, committing,
10:30making a really good swing.
10:34And then all I'm doing is really focusing on strike,
10:37and making sure I pick it clean, and get it going.
10:43That's just about spot on.
10:46Cutting onto the pin.
10:48Yep.
10:49That is exactly the result I wanted, and that's a cool shot.
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