August 2007

I’ve written about lots of topics here over the past few months, but this is “TheWedgeGuy”, right ?  So, I’ve been encouraged to outline what I believe are the most common mistakes golfers make around the greens that prevents them from optimizing their scoring.  So here goes, not in any particular order:

1. Tempo - Maybe the most common error I see is a tempo that is too quick and “jabby”.  In my upcoming book, “The Secrets of Scoring”, I talk about “gravity” being the key to developing a solid tempo for your chips and pitches. I also wrote about this in this month’s EIDOLON NEWS. Comparing golf to painting a room, your short shots are your “trim brushes” – a slower stroke delivers more precision.

2. Set Up/Posture - To hit good chips and pitches, you need to get down more to the ball. Get closer to your work for better precision. Too many golfers I see stand tall and grip the club to the end.

3. Grip Pressure - A very light grip on the club is essential to good touch and proper release through the impact zone. Trust me, you cannot hold a golf club too lightly – your body won’t let you. Concentrate on your forearms; if you can feel any tenseness in the muscles in your forearms, you’re holding on too tightly.

4. Hand position - Another topic I delve into deeply in “The Secrets of Scoring”. Watch the tour players hit short shots on TV. Their arms are hanging naturally so that their hands are very close to their upper thighs at address and through impact. Copy that and your short game will improve dramatically.

5. Lack of Body Core Rotation - When you’re hitting short shots, the hands and arms have to begin and stay in front of the torso throughout the swing. If you don’t rotate your chest and shoulders back and through, you won’t develop good consistency in distance or contact.

6. Club selection - Every pitch or chip is different, so don’t try to hit them all with the same club. I see two major errors here. Some golfers always grab the sand wedge when they miss a green. If you have lots of green to work with and don’t need that loft, a PW or 9-iron will give you much better results. The other error is that golfers are afraid of their wedge and are trying to hit tough recoveries with 8- and 9-irons. That doesn’t work either. Go to your practice green and see what happens with different clubs, then take that knowledge to the course.

7. Clubhead/grip relationship - This error falls into two categories. The first is those golfers who forward press so much that they dramatically change the loft of the club. At address and impact the grip should be slightly ahead of the clubhead.  I like to focus on the hands, rather than the club, and just think of my left hand leading my right through impact. Which brings me to the other error – allowing the clubhead to pass the hands through impact.  If you let the clubhead do that, good shots just cannot happen. And that is caused by you trying to “hit” the ball with the clubface, rather than swinging the entire club through impact.

So, there are my Top 7. Obviously there are others, but if you eliminate those, your short game will get better in a hurry.

OK, golf fans, I want to sound off and get your opinion on this one.

We’ve set up a new feature at TheWedgeGuy.com, and now have a survey tool so that you can share your feelings and thoughts about the golf industry with all our other thousands of readers.

Today’s topic is the Wyndham Championship, which I think should be accurately re-named, “ The Massacre at Forest Oaks ”.

Here’s my reason why.

Not to slight the talent pool on the PGA Tour at all – like the ads say, “ These guys are good ” – but come on. Is this really golf ? This field that was totally lacking most of the top names in the professional game made a mockery of what I have to believe is not that bad a golf course. It’s this kind of pussycat setup that is causing the USGA to consider changing the equipment for the rest of us.

Mr. Snedeker and his buddies ran roughshod over the golf course. The top five players totaled 101 under par ! The top ten players were 187 under par ! And the entire field that made the cut was 929 under par !

Can you relate to this ? I sure can’t. I played this weekend on my home course, which is a little 6,950 yard track in a town of 60,000 people. But we have deep Bermuda rough, fairways that average 25-30 yards wide (with many narrower), very firm greens that average about 10-11 in speed.

Based on the scores the Tight Lies Tour players shoot here each spring, I don’t think there’s any way Snedeker and Company can shoot these kinds of scores on my course. So, here I am watching the best players in the world beat up on a golf course that’s easier than the one I play every week. Where’s the fun of that ?

I much prefer to see these guys have to work for their pars and birdies, like they do at the majors and some of the more elite tournaments. How about you ?

Please visit this link to our survey site and let your feelings be known. And if you have something more to say on the subject . . . well, that’s what this site is all about. We’d all love to hear from you. I promise I’ll send our feedback to the PGA Tour, OK ?

Click here to take the survey

Using the Ask Terry button, Andy sends this in:

I’ve been playing about 2 years, with a cheap set of clubs and scoring around 90-100. I’m looking at getting fitted properly. I understand the difference between blades and cavity backs and am thinking of going the blade route. I have seen the Mizuno MP-32’s and see that they are recommended. Can you give me any feedback or other options to consider.

Hi Andy,

I’m flattered that I’m having that much influence on your selection of clubs, but before you select blades, I suggest that you see a qualified clubfitter and try various head designs and shafts to see what is yielding the best results. You might want to play a simple cavity back iron for a while longer, or you might find a blade like the MP-32 is just what the doctor ordered. There is no substitute for trying various clubhead designs and shafts under the skilled eye of a professional clubfitter.