Rule The Short Game!
Golf Digest|June 2018

4 Steps To Developing Consistency And Touch Around The Greens

Michael Breed
Rule The Short Game!

MY FIRST YEAR AS A HEAD PRO, I gave a clinic one afternoon on chipping. After we finished, a student came up to me and said, “I didn’t like that. You never told us what club to hit on those shots.” Even though I was a novice teacher, I got it right that day. I could’ve told her what I would do in those spots, but she would’ve tried to memorize that and not discover it for herself. The right way depends on the golfer—the shots you like, your comfort level in different situations, the clubs you have confidence in. It’s not one-sizefits-all. â–¶ In this article, I’m going to give you a few mechanical keys for playing around the greens, but then encourage you to try different variables that affect the shots you hit—variables that alter trajectory, distance, spin and roll. So it’s part mechanics and part feel. If I gave you only mechanics, you’d be a robot and not very good at reacting to situations on the course. If I said it’s all feel, you’d have no starting point—no structure. My goal is to get you started, then set you on a path to self-discovery. A great short game is not given; it’s learned. Learned by practicing a few musts, yes, but mostly through experimentation. â–¶ Let me put a bow on my story. Months later, the woman came back and said she understood what I was doing. She had developed a system for picking clubs and playing shots. She owned her short game—and so will you.

1 SWING THE HANDLE TO THE HIP

This story is from the June 2018 edition of Golf Digest.

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This story is from the June 2018 edition of Golf Digest.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.