Short Game

Hogan Pitch Wedge shot

Golf: Pitch Shot

Snead Chipping

How to Hit a Low Pitch Shot

Short Chip

Golf Pro Lesson Downhill pitch shot over bunker

Golf Pro Lesson Pitch shot 40 to 60 yards

Golf Tip – Aaron Baddeley – Short Game & Putting

Short Simple Wedge

Long Chip

Golf Chipping Instruction

Golf Tips – The Chip Shot – Short Game

Distance on Pitching, Chipping & Putting

Phil Mickelson’s flop shot over Dave Pelz

Video Dave Pelz Short Game Bible

Angel Cabrera 2009 Masters

Ian Poulter chips

Courtesy of Neil Wilkins; used with permission

I’m not sure why, but many students spend their short game practice time working on things they are already good at. Instead, golfers need to challenge themselves by practicing out of bad lies, from uneven lies, or other short game situations where they are weakest.

The “11 Ball Drill” is a wonderful evaluation tool for your short game, and can help you identify your weak spots.

Take 11 balls to the short game practice area and use them to determine your strengths and weaknesses around the green. First, find one type of shot that you’re good with; say, the pitch from a fluffy lie from five steps off the green.

Hit all 11 balls from that situation toward the practice green cup.

Once you’ve hit all 11 balls, remove the five shots that are closest to the hole. Six balls will remain

Finally, remove the five shots that are farthest from the hole. One ball will remain, as in the photo.

The remaining ball is your average (actually the mathematical median, but let’s not digress – golf should be fun). Now go back and try the same pitch shot from a tight lie and see if your “average” is the same.

Hit chip shots, pitch shots, lob shots, and bunker shots, all using the 11-Ball Drill to determine which shots are your strongest, and which are your weakest. In this way, you can identify the shots you need to work on, and thus determine where your time will be best spent in your short game practice.

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Bump and Run

By Brent Kelley

Definition: The “bump and run” is an approach shot to the green usually played from roughly the same distance you might play a pitch shot. A pitch shot, however, is struck with a high-lofted club such as a pitching wedge, producing a high trajectory and a ball that typically hits the green and quickly stops.

A bump and run, on the other hand, is played with a lower-lofted club relative to a wedge (an 8-, 7- or 6-iron, for example), and with very little airtime for the ball. With a bump and run shot, the ball is typically played from the back of the stance, producing a very shallow trajectory, with the ball mostly scooting along the ground and running up to the green.

The bump and run is played more along the ground; the pitch shot is played in the air.

Why would a golfer prefer a bump and run to a pitch? The front of the green might be open, with a hard fairway and hard green, making an approach that lands on the green tough to stop. Or the wind might be howling, with the bump and run making it possible to keep the ball from getting up into – and blown around by – that wind.

Bump and run shots are very common on links courses and on golf courses in dry and/or windy locations, where greens and fairways may be be harder.

pitching