If you’ve read my golf tips, you know how vital I consider the short game. If you want to cut your scores and slash you golf handicap, you must learn how to turn three strokes into two. The secret to that is hitting a precise spot on or near the green when chipping and pitching letting the ball run to the hole. The more accurate you are at hitting the right spot, the more accurate your shots will be. The more accurate your shots, the lower your golf handicap.

In addition to accuracy, you also must develop a “feel” for chipping, which comes with practice. Keep in mind that your feel may change over the years, so you may need to change your approach over the years as well. When Tom Watson was young he played every chip shot near the green with a pitching wedge. Tom was one of the better chippers on the PGA tour. He had a great feel for chipping and pitching. As he aged and lost the great feel, he used different clubs to compensate for it. You may have to do the same.

Club Selection is Critical

Club selection is critical when chipping and pitching, as I’ve stated in my golf tips. On shots just off the green, you have an option. Some players with low golf handicaps prefer putting the ball from here. The stroke is simpler and the ball behaves more predictably. Others prefer chipping it. The preferred clubs for chipping are the sand wedge and the 5-iron. If you use the wedge, pick a spot about three-quarters to the pin and aim for it. If you use the 5-iron pick a spot a few feet from you and aim for it.

On shots about 10 feet off the green but still on the fringe, you’re better off chipping the ball than putting it. The ball must go through to much grass. The clubs of choice are the 7-iron and the 60-degree wedge, if you have one. If you use the wedge, land the ball about three-quarters to the pin and let role to the hole. If you use the 7-iron, land it just on the green and let it role to the hole. Most golfers prefer the 7-iron because there’s a higher margin for error. Practice and experience tell you how close or far away from the pin you need to hit the ball.

When in Trouble

On shots farther from the green and in the rough, it’s even more critical you hit the right spot with your chip, especially if you don’t have much green to work with. Your choices here are an 8-iron or a sand wedge. Here, the more lofted club may be your best bet. You have to carry the ball just over the fringe and run it to the hole. If you hit the ball a little heavy you could easily miss your spot, ending up in the grass or falling far short of the hole. With the sand wedge, you have a better chance of carrying the rough. Shoot for a spot three-quarters of the way to the hole and let the ball run to it, as if it were a putt.

Of course, sometimes you have no choice. For example, if you have to lob the ball out of the rough, over the bunker, downhill to a tight position, the sand wedge is the club of choice. Block out the bunker mentally and focus on the spot you want to hit, which in this case is the fringe, then hit away. No other option enables you to stop the ball near the hole. Keep the knuckles of your left hand (right hand for left-handers) pointing to the sky, which keeps the clubface open and gets the ball up quickly and down softly.

Choosing the Right Club

A good drill for learning to chip and pitch to a spot is to practice hitting the same spot with different clubs. For instance, try a sand wedge, a 9-iron, and a 5-iron from the same distance. The idea is to carry the ball in the air with different clubs but to the same spot. Study the various distances the ball rolls after it comes down. This drill provides a sense of how far the ball carries and runs with different clubs, giving you a better idea of which club to use when.

Regardless of which club you use, the key is hitting the right spot. Visualize landing on that spot before swinging. Then, it’s just a question of judging how far the ball will travel as a “putt.” Practice hitting a spot and before long you’ll be turning three shots into two and chopping off strokes on that golf handicap.

Copyright (c) 2007 Jack Moorehouse

By: Jack Moorehouse

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We get asked all of the time for quick golf tips. The question usually comes from someone who has to play in a corporate golf tournament or they are someone who does not play often and they are going on vacation and will have a chance to play a round at a prestigious golf course and are looking for quick golf tips. Here is a list of five free quick golf tips to enjoy your corporate event or vacation.

1. If you have any time before your event to practice, you do need to take advantage of this. Current golf instruction will say that you should spend twice as much time on your short game as you do your full swing. I know, I know, I know. How are you going to get the ball to the green? Without much time before the event, you will improve faster by spending time on getting the ball in the hole as opposed getting the ball just close to the green. If you do not get to play often, chances are that you hit many of your irons close to the same distance. Unless you have time for some golf instruction, this will not be fixed in a short period of time. Get the feel for and mechanics of chipping, pitching and putting.

2. When it comes time to play your round, make sure you loosen up before the round. By loosening up your muscles, you are allowing yourself to relax and prepare your body for the athletic movements you will be making during your round. Your time should also include some time on the practice putting green. You will want to become familiar with the speed of the greens.

3. Grip pressure and arm tension is something that all golfers should monitor during every single swing. Your shoulders and your forearms should not feel like they have any tension in them at all. To give you an example, if you take your grip and hold the club out in front of you with the shaft parallel to the ground. If your shoulders and forearms are relaxed enough then the golf club should drop to the ground. This is the feeling of how relaxed your shoulders and forearms should be during your golf swing.

4. Balance is an underestimated part of the golf swing by most amateurs. In your setup, you will need to check your balance from side to side (left to right) as well as from front to back. You can do this by simply swaying side to side until you feel balanced and do the same from front to back. This will allow you to find your perfect balance. Now the key is once this is found you may need to move closer to the ball or farther away from the ball to stay in balance.

5. Once you start playing your round of golf, leave your ego at home and make and aggressive swing at a conservative target. What does this mean? Do not always go flag hunting on every hole. With not playing very often you are not going to hit every shot where you are looking. Increase your chances of playing better by aiming at the largest part of the green or the part of the green you are most comfortable with trying to hit a golf shot.

Assuming you do not have much time until your event, use these five quick golf tips to have a successful day. To conclude the five quick golf tips, let me give you the best of all of the quick golf tips of them all. Make sure that you HAVE FUN! It is just a game.

By: Brad Myers

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PfehnbeYmkjdwe asked:

purepoint-golf.blogspot.com Now, I dont have to tell you why distance and consistency are key if you want to go beyond being just another average golfer and start playing the kind of golf you can feel good about.

How do you know which clubs are best for you? Your budget and skill level will be part of your decision as to which clubs to choose. However, here are some guidelines. These are only guidelines. If you have a favorite club that is not listed, keep it.

The High-Handicapper’s bag:

3-wood

5-wood, 7-wood

5-iron through 9-iron

pitching wedge

putter

If you are a High-Handicapper, you would be better off not spending your money on a Driver. A Driver for a High-Handicapper puts them farther off the fairway, not farther down the fairway, so stay away from a Driver at this time.

The Mid-Handicapper’s bag:

driver

3-wood, 5-wood, 7-wood

4-iron through 9-iron

pitching wedge

sand wedge

putter

You might want to add a lob wedge or gap wedge to this assortment. You may also consider adding a fairway wood.

The Low-Handicapper’s bag:

driver

3-wood

2-iron (or substituting a gap wedge for the 2 iron) through the 9-iron

pitching wedge

lob wedge

sand wedge

putter

Remember, the “Rules of Golf” allow you to carry a maximum of 14 clubs in your bag. After all is said and done, use the clubs you feel comfortable with

Now that you have a guide as to which clubs are best for you, let us talk about how to solve some problems which you might encounter in your golf game. Here are some suggestions for solving those problems. Suppose you hit a nice drive but it drifts right and off the fairway into the trees. How do you recover from this shot? A rule of thumb is that when you are in trouble, take the shortest, safest shot back onto the fairway. However, there are some choices to recover your shot. One suggestion is to take a wedge and loft the ball back onto the fairway and on the next shot hit safely to the green

By: Jeanne MacDonald

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jacobsgolf asked:

John Jacobs’ Golf Schools present Quick Tips: Pitching. Director of Instruction Tom Perkins explains how to get over an obstacle when close to the green. For more information or to make a reservation at one of our schools visit www.jacobsgolf.com

When you are obsessed with the idea of making a golf backspin, then be prepared to accept the truth that it is fairly difficult to accomplish (not to mention that it can be hard to control).

There are very few situations when this difficult shot is actually needed in any given golf game. If you are looking at golf as a recreational sport, there is no need to learn the backspin (except if you want to show off!). Just to be realistic, there are certain elements that must first be met before a backspin may even be practiced:

o A perfectly dry set of golf equipment (inclusive of the club face and the ball). If you can manage to have a new set of golf balls, then they are the best balls to practice on.

o The player must be on the fairway

o The grass has to be cut very short

These conditions have to be present even before the shot is practiced. Now, down to the backspin:

1. Imagine that you are playing billiards and you are trying to create a spin on the cue ball. This is far from simple and only the best pool players are able to deliver this perfect spin.

2. Try taking that same action down to the ground (the physics involved are practically the same). It is believed that excellent golf players are also good putters. For those who would want to concentrate on their putting skills, billiards would be a good arena to begin with.

3. Create a backspin by making a downward hit on the golf ball and with a considerable force. Velocity plays a great part on the final blow so make sure you put in all your controlled force. This is the reason why the ball has to be really dry-a wet ball could skid.

4. Before hitting, make sure that you are hitting at a steep angle. Make sure to hit the lowermost portion of the golf ball.

5. The eventual goal for each golfer is to put the ball between the fairway and the club.

6. As the ball is squeezed into the golf club’s grooves, it should create a backspin.

If you have strictly followed all the steps, you should be able to master this tricky move. But remember the rule of thumb on this shot: you will create backspin if you have a longer pitch shot.

The force needed to make a wedge shot that is more than a hundred yards should produce better spin than the action needed in pitching the ball at a few yards. This is the reason why professional golfers often do a lay up to make a longer approach shot.

There is nothing simple in creating a backspin so you’ll have to persevere in your goal to finally perfect this complicated shot.

By: Patrick L. Jensen

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SwingManGolf asked:

How To Gauge Distance On Short Game swingmangolf.com Golf Swing Lessons, Tips Instruction – How to Gauge Distance on Pitching, Chipping Putting Learn how to gauge distance putting and also how to gauge distance on your short game around greens. If you have trouble on the golf course gauging distance around the greens then you’re losing many strokes. In this video Golf Instructor, Jaacob Bowden will give you golf tips on how to better gauge your distance on and off the green to get closer to the pin and shoot lower scores. Leave a COMMENT if this video was of help to your golf game. Get Your Free Article “The 3 Keys To Distance” at http

I am sure you can find tons of tips to improve your pitching golf game. That’s not the hard part. The hard part for most people is when it comes to finding the “quality” tips that truly work. It’s easy to find generic techniques that don’t really do the job, but it’s difficult to find the tried and true ones. Well, here is a simple way to find the good pitching golf tips you are searching for.

It’s not going to be some new revolutionary way of looking for golfing techniques. It is just going to be an alternative to the huge amount of information that search engines bring to you. If you have ever used them to find pitching golf techniques (like 95% do), you have no doubt realized that there is way to much info to sift through. On top of that, you don’t even know which sites have the good information and which ones will be wasting your time.

What you need is a way to find the actual golfers who have already improved their pitching golf game. Where can you find them? Inside of most of the golfing forums across the web. It just makes sense. Remember, for every one person (which I assume is you) looking for pitching golf tips, there are a dozen who have already figured out the “exact” ways that do the trick. You can find their stories, opinions and thoughts inside of the various forums out there.

If anything, it sure beats blindly trying the different techniques and ways that you find through ha random search engine result. Here’s to hoping you can shave a few strokes off of your game by seeing exactly what other golfer are dong to better their game.

By: Adam Woodham

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expertvillage asked:

Learn free golf pitching tips for women and beginners in this free instructional video series on swing, pitching, chipping, and golf. Expert: Jay Golden Bio: Jay Golden has been a PGA Member since 1982 and was selected for the PGA National Teaching Committee in 1988. Filmmaker: Suzie Vigoin

There are many golf magazines, golf professionals, and even TV shows offering golf chipping tips. This short-game advice can be as diverse as the clubs that are recommended to carry it out, anything from a putter to a 3-wood have been offered as solutions to green-side predicaments.

Why would you use a 3-wood around the green? If you are relatively new to golf, you may not have heard of this technique. It is used when the ball lies a foot or two off the green in the second cut – using your putter could be problematic with grass getting between club head and ball, it is also difficult to judge the speed needed to get past the initial piece of rough. Use your 3-wood with your putting stance – the loft of the club face will send the ball off just above ground level and clear the first couple of feet of longer grass, allowing the ball to land on the green and release to the hole.

Putting from off of the green – this is advocated by many teaching pros, usually for higher handicappers who may have difficulties stopping the ball on the green with a pitching type shot. The theory behind it is that a bad putt is always going to be better than a bad chip. This type of shot can be played from quite a distance if the conditions are good – dry ground, close-cut fairway, maybe slightly downhill and, obviously, you would need a clear path to the green.

Pitching and chipping – many instructors will recommend, in their golf chipping tips, that you use
different clubs for the various situations you find yourself in when you are close to the green. This could be anything from a pitching wedge to a 6-iron. The theory is that you use the loft of the club to get the desired ball-flight – to get the ball in the air and land softly, use a lofted club, for chip and run shots, use a less lofted club.

My personal opinion is that you have enough to think about during your round without worrying about which one of half a dozen clubs to use for a simple pitch or chip shot, but you should do whatever works for you.

I use my pitching wedge for every shot from 80 yards in. I can de-loft the club face simply by playing the ball back in my stance a little. To get more height I would play the ball slightly forward of centre, or open the club face, or both.

Enjoy your golf.

By: Jim P Martin

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