How to Take Five Strokes Off Your Short Game Scott Hazledine, Chief Golf Professional Parmasters Golf Training Centers © 2006 Parmasters Golf Training Centers, Inc. How to Take Five Strokes Off Your Short Game Scott Hazledine, Chief Golf Professional Parmasters Golf Training Centers We’ve heard it all before, drive for show, putt for dough. But how do you get close enough to have simple one-putts? For most of us, that will happen only if we have a great short game. The good news is that mastery of the short game is built upon simple and easy steps. These combine for a complete motion. If you will learn these motions by doing the exercises in this report, you will develop a great short game. There are four components to a great short game: 1. Having a feedback mechanism to measure your progress; 2. Training your short game swing with four exercises; 3. Following three simple rules of pitching and chipping; and 4. Using all four parts of the shot itself. 1. Have a feedback mechanism to measure your progress As you work on improving your short game you will want a way to tell if you are making progress, besides how close to the pin you end up. The best way I have found is to measure the ease of your swing, or your effortlessness. Effortlessness is the absence of torque or muscular feedback during the golf swing motion. Effortless motion occurs when the muscles are required for primary movement, secondary movement, and stabilizing movement. On the other hand, effort in the golf swing occurs because one or more muscles are being used outside of their most productive role. This leads to muscles working against each other. Through imprinting, training, practicing, and practicing to play, all motions of the golf swing can become effortless. Repetition is the mother of all skill, and time on task assures that effortless motion will occur. So check in from time to time to see just how effortless your swing is, and you will know how close you are getting to mastering the short game. 2. Train your short game swing with four exercises Each of the four exercises are an exact precise motion, and can be used regardless of the lie, uphill, downhill, side hill, or bunker shots. Exercise 1: Training Your Grip for Stability Find yourself some heavy grass and with your leading arm only holding the club, swing your hand back to waist high and into the long grass. You will find that with a loose grip, the long grass will catch around the hosel of the golf club and close the clubface down or twist in your hand. Now begin to strengthen your hand grip until the long grass no longer can twist over the clubface. This will produce stability of the clubface through impact in all surfaces. This will also minimize all unwanted wrist action. Exercise 2: Training the Stance (part one of the "Counter-balance" Position) Your weight is evenly distributed between the balls and the heels of both feet, which will create a feeling that you are directly over your instep. Your heels should be the width of your hips apart, your left knee will bend forward over your left big toe. Two-thirds of your weight will be on your forward foot simulating an impact position with your lower body. This will give you clearance to swing your arms back and around and up-and-down on plane. Exercise 3: Training the Upper Body (part two of the "Counter-balance" Position) The upper body provides a counter balance to the lower body. Your spine angle will be tilted to the right from the base of the spine up to the Atlas (top of the spine just below the head), so that your nose, but not your entire head, is directly over your right knee. As a practice drill, while hitting chip shots and pitch shots rest your putter against your left pant pocket. You will need to be stable otherwise the putter will fall. Exercise 4: Training the Ball Position Move your left shoulder up and around to position the left arm and shoulder forward in the socket so that your triceps rest on the pectoralis major (chest muscle). Place your upper and lower body into a counter balance position (as explained in Exercise 2 and 3 above). Lower the club by bending from your hip socket until the club reaches the ground, maintaining the left arm on the chest. Place the golf ball directly in that location, thus assuring that your hands are slightly ahead of the ball and that you are making a downward outward arc motion to the golf ball. Your left arm acts like a rod, and the bottom of the arc is defined by the radius arm from the left shoulder to a straight line down your arm and shaft, to the sole of the golf club. Then reaching down and under, without compromising the straight line from the left shoulder down the arm, grab the grip with the right hand. When you are playing from the bunker, place the bottom of the arc four inches behind the ball. In the bunker remember to throw the sand out, and have the ball travel with the sand. 3. Follow three simple rules of pitching and chipping Rule 1: Whenever possible land the ball on the smoothest surface. This will typically be the green but will not necessarily be so. You are simply looking to reduce the risk of a bad bounce. Rule 2: Play the shot that fits your eyes. This will typically be a shot that lands so safely on the green that it can roll easily to the hole without going too far past. Rule 3: Around the green, take the club that fits the shot. If you are on the fringe you may choose to use a putter or even a three wood. For a fast downhill slope strike the ball softly, so use a pitching wedge. To get over a greenside bunker you would need a high soft shot, so a sand wedge or a lob wedge is going to be the best bet. Near the front of the green with 40 plus feet to the hole you may use anywhere between a seven iron or a four iron. With less green, you may choose to use a eight iron or nine iron. 4. The four parts to shot itself #1 - Balancing the club This is when you position the leading edge of the golf club relative to the swing plane to ensure a fluid motion, square to the intended flight path. You will want to balance the club before each and every shot. The simplest way to do this is by holding your left arm out on plane down towards the golf ball in front of you, with your thumb pointing at a 90-degree angle parallel up the shaft (opposite the intended target line). With the golf club in your hand, the leading edge of the clubface should be pointing toe up, anywhere from being vertical to the ground to parallel to the back of your hand and forearm. Rotate the clubface so it is in fact parallel to the back of your hand and forearm. Now you have balanced the club, allowing the swing to happen without hand manipulation – essential to a consistent short game. By the way, if you are planning a high, soft shot, turn the clubface above slightly to the right, to open the club face up. Conversely, if you are planning a low shot, turn the clubface slightly to the left, to close the club face. #2 - Land the shot before you've selected the club If you can visualize the shot then do so. If you can't visualize then fantasize. Using your imagination, your past experiences, or other peoples past experiences - visualization is possible. When you imagine or fantasize the shot, begin with the ball rolling into the hole from a very short distance. Then imagine the ball coming back out of the hole and rolling back down the line towards you. Continue imagining until the ball leaves the ground and moves through the air on the correct trajectory and lands in the very spot where your ball currently lies. Do this in real-time, so that you see the actual speed of the ball and the trajectory of the shot leaving at a spot from the green. See where the ball must land, in order to compensate for the break to the hole. #3 – Approaching your golf shot As you approach your golf shot, now that you have seen the shot, align your body position so that your stance and posture match the shot to play. If you don't feel comfortable over the shot, then you are not aligned properly, or you have not created, or imagined the proper shot for you to play. #4 – Allowing the shot to happen From this position simply allow yourself to react to the shot that you've created. You don't need practice strokes, but if you want to use them then relate the distance of the stroke to your body part. For a very short shot only move your hands from your right thigh to your left thigh. Or you may go from the height of your right pant pocket to the height of your left pocket, or you may go from your right hip to your left hip. As you get farther away the green you may need to take the stroke that goes from chest high on the right, to chest high on the left. Make your partial swings equal distance back and forth, relating them to a horizontal position on your body. The reason for relating to a horizontal position on your body is the following. Close your eyes and touch your shoulder with your thumb or touch your hip with your thumb, or touch the bottom of the rib cage with your thumb. You do this instinctively. The motion that we want in the swing should be instinctive and effortless. This also allows you to match the length of the stroke to the shot that you've created in your mind and visualized. 5. In conclusion So, in summary, use "effortlessness" as a measurement of how well the exercises and the short game swing itself is working for you. Train and practice weekly, visualize that flight of the ball, and your short game will be predictable and repeatable without effort or nervousness. And you will easily take five strokes off your short game. Best Regards, Scott Hazledine, Chief Golf Professional Parmasters Golf Training Centers Scott Hazledine, Co-founder and Chief Golf Professional for Parmasters Golf Training Centers, is recognized as the leading expert on the study and teaching of single axis golf, in general, and Straight-Line Golf, in particular. He is a Class A PGA member, a Master Teacher and a Master Player with over 20 years of experience and study of specific golf techniques unknown to many in the golfing world today. Learn more about Scott’s methods and how he guarantees a twenty-five percent reduction in handicap at www.parmastersgolf.com.