What Nobody Tells You About the Short Game - How it Really Works

we're going to miss most of the greens as amateur golfers which makes the short game of prime importance you need it to get up and down wherever you are when you're missing 14 greens around I'm going to show you all the secrets you need to know about the short game and a secret no one talks about that the short game is set up by all your other shots with an intention to hit the ball closer to the hole of the te but hitting a bad shot I've left myself 164 164 brings in a different kind of shot than if I were 120 yards away with a comfortable 48 degree in my hand with that club in my hand I'm going at the hole with this 164 yard Club first hole of the day I'm now looking to see where's a good miss and anything short right here is great so I'm going to take a club that will go 164 with a great strike and with a poor strike we be like 155 leaving me on the front there and allowing for error on the right side so that I can chip easily up the green and that is dictated by this distance we've missed the Green in the position we intended to just short right we've got no bunker trouble we're not over heading from below the green or a down slope we are on an UPS slope Hing with plenty of green to work with the thing about the short game is missing in the correct area when you miss in the correct area you simplify the shot and even that was an absolutely terrible shot but we're on the green and that's important we increase our odds of putting it on the green and getting it closer by missing in a better area your t-shot will now dictate whatever your next shot is going to be and the expectation of what you're going to achieve the shot selection right now is going to determine our short game shot how if I hit a 236 yard seven wood with the ball above my feet like this more than likely I'm going to hit it in the water and leave myself a drop and then a high press 70 yard chip over water with this one I want to get it closer to 100 to 120 from this particular Lie from that distance I know I'm money with a wedge in my hand and I can anticipate I'm going to stick the ball close but of course it depends on the result here so pick a shot that's going to work and then leave you the shot that you want into the green the higher percentage chance of that happening nine iron punched because the ball so far above my feet is a really high percentage play for me so that's that's a chip out with the 9 iron and it's going to finish in my estimation about 95 yards from the hole we have left ourselves 100 yards exactly to plan but we have to look at the landing area first to assess the potential short game consequences this pin is cut 5 yards from the right side with a huge Galaxy on the left hand side the whole Milky Way is on the left side meaning if you are scared of missing on the r and having to chip there then you want to go more left that's going to minimize the need to chip but if you do want to chip where do you want to chip here and that means all the way on the left side because you have all that green to run up or you want to chip from behind the green on the left side a flatter chip you don't want to chip from the right side cuz it's a short side you have minimal green between The Fringe and the hole on the right side anywhere from 100 to 110 yards yeah is perfect you hit to that range and accept that if your distance control is not Perfection you're going to chip from the back the green or try get it on the back left of the green for a long putt that's how you set up the short gam shots that are comfortable to you what's more comfortable to you a long lag putt or a short Chip Shot from the back of the green you pick and then go with it that's got to get down though that's a big dog right there if you're missing the Green Way left 30 yards 40 yards to the left from 100 yards you're probably trying to break 100 and that means you want to employ the rule of 12 toe down chipping which I'm going to show you in this video but right now I'm an advocate of hitting the ball along the ground when you get the chance around the greens I never used to be able to do this so it took a lot of practice you're going to try this the first time second time third time and you're going to leave it short of the green you're going to hit it way past but eventually you're going to develop a feel and find that this is the highest percentage play for most of us you're going to pound this like a cheap steak and that means over this bumpy stuff it's going to go pretty straight going to bounce over it then start rolling on the green pick your same line you would for any old putt uh the main thing here is distance control getting us to within 2 or 3 ft that's going to be your simplest bet the next bet is to not use your 60° 60° are specialized clubs for professionals who play at places like Augusta very tight Fairways when you hit the 60° the spin is completely different on every single shot unless you're a pure ball Striker which 0% of us are not so the best thing you can do is use lower Loft I'm going to try with a 52° you can do tow down chipping because we have quite a lot of space and an ability to land it just on the front and let it roll down the green so what you do is you put your Club down you pick the handle up you get close like a putt you hold your your grip like a putt and you try to chip the ball off the toe of the club that's going to give you the most even the most even flight plus roll out and that's what we have to remember in short game we are trying to plan for roll out because the ball will roll like a putt off the landing see so I hit a 52° there and not too bad about as good as my putt if I had a 48 or a pitching wedge I bet that's in the hole those are two ways you can get up and down after your shots you planned on the hole to set up these shots these shots don't just come they come from the previous shots now on a par three you're going to use your short game to become a par three King this is really an opportunity for everyone to start scoring some passs if you have the correct distance and if you don't you can set the ball up into places that stop you making those silly double Bogies every time you play that same hole at your local course on a hole like this from 175 180 some people may not have the distance to reach that hole yet they still keep going at the hole leaving themselves dumping it in the bunker and then taking forever to get up and down making a five every time they come here what you can do is find the place that's going to give you the best odds of an easy chip if you don't have the distan to hit the ball at the hole you don't want the Sahara desert on the right here it's absolute pandemonium over there look at the left side huge amount of space even left long in line with a pin all the way to about 60 yard short of the screen if you can get the ball to there chip it on two putt you got a four if you can get it around The Fringe chip it hit long putts whatever it is you like to do you can really get up and down for threes more often but taking things on that you can't do creates bad short game shots I'll repeat that taking on things you can't do creates the difficult short game shots that you then blame your bad short game on when it's not it's your aiming it's your planning that's creating a shot that are almost impossible even for professionals to get up and down from Edge of the green and an absolute money shot right there right on the left Edge just like a bizos I do understand you the dispersion may be out of control for you but that's okay as long as you learn the shots that are going to get you out of your problems quicker and that means just working on the short game especially to find ways of escaping this hole that we get ourselves into when we're not that great at the long game now this was not intentional I actually wanted to finish on the left Edge very flat over there now I'm above the green chipping onto the down slope this is going to depend on your skill level can you pull the shot off most of us cannot I might not pull the shot off and that's okay and I'm a one or two handicapper remember remember G get it on the green whatever shitty situation you find yourself in if you don't have high confidentiality get it on the green when you get high confidentiality that's when you start trying to make them now for me this is not a high confidentiality shot see so that's what's going to happen a lot of time I don't like this shot this is a bad miss this is a Miss I don't want to be in I want to be there flat which I'm going to show you right now this is actually where I was aiming for nice flat area here and even a B shorter it's going to give you a nice flat run up the green so first one we're going to do is keep that keep that ball low okay always remember this from Gary Player short game go high you're going to cry go low get the dirty hose so we like to get the dirty hose here and we hit a seven iron now we can do this toe down like I just showed you about a yard onto the green now this can be whatever Club suits you when you look at it see where it lands imagine the roll out what's going to get to the hole the best that takes practice watch my rule of 12 video that's just on the front actually that's a pretty good club distance control the next thing you can do is the a time and this we're going to pitch a bit further yep just a little bit further absolute manisi now we take what a lot of people want to do and that's a 56° which is very inconsistent look how consistent those kind of shots off for distance control you're going to be money but use a high lofted wedge and it's going to take a lot of consistency to do that and get the same spin each time unless you're a very skilled golfer like I am we got a 350 yard hole up the hill here into the breeze there we go a bit too far left but you know what it's a great approach angle like a big bousy I left myself 143 yard into the breeze into the breeze you can start to accentuate your shot shape a little bit if you fade it it's going to probably fade a little more and maybe lose quite a bit of distance so you want to make sure you hit enough club and then allow it to just drift to the area that's going to be safest so if I were a fader and I hit a biggish fade or a small fade I'd aim this left of the hole hitting more than enough Club maybe an extra Club let that wind hold it up push it toward the hole and hopefully finish just right of the hole or in line with a cup you can also go dead at the pin and it will fade to the right side for an easy chip on the flat front part of the green the worst place to possibly be on here is long anything long Beyond this hole is either chipping from a UPS slope onto the green or chipping below the green onto the green with a pin cut tight on the edge so I'm going to take an extra Club because I've been having a lot of soy milk in my coffee and I ate too much tofu last night feeling a bit low energy 143 a beautiful minor and it's not going to always go to plan so I've put it up on the slope there and we're going to have to adapt from there with the putt the short game is about adaptability the higher number of shots you have in your arsenal of short game the easier this game becomes we've put this ball on the crest of a little Plateau which goes downhill toward the hole the number one thing to think about when putting is the distance control or the speed of the putt don't worry if you're not sure of the line just fake your confidence commit to the line you picked first don't go look for a second time go with your instinct it's normally right very few people change their minds and actually find the correct line after changing their mind speed and line are the two variables for great putting once you decide the line it's out the way that means you have freed up your brain to focus only on the speed when you can focus only on the speed you can stop the ball within a reasonable distance left right or long of the hole leaving a tap in on downhill putts you're going to expect a little bit more break to happen toward the end of the putt as the putt dies it's going to take that break and that's because you're giving it more time because you're hitting a little softer it's it's going to take with gravity down to the hole more contact with the ground longer period of time to take the break an uphill putt you hit it firmer so it takes less time on the green and it skims over a lot of the brake and actually breaks less than the same put if it were just downhill so we want to go left here and for most people left ter Raiders little sliders they don't take enough break so you want to take a little bit more break on your left right sliders and then just focus on the pace don't worry if you miss the brake if you miss the brake by a foot left a foot right it doesn't matter if your pace control is good you're going to be able to just go in there and tap it in Sky just like that and you can see it taking some break and my distance control is perfect leaving a beautiful tap in and we have to remember no matter how much you try putt these putts from let's say 20 to 25 ft as a PGA to a professional they are only going to make one out of 10 1 out of 10 so if you play an entire round of 18 holes a pro may make two if they have 25t putts the whole day they may make two of them the other 16 they will miss and the point of knowing about the PGA T Pros is that it just lowers your expectations less pressure less negativity about your putting when you miss them as long as you're two putting anything outside of 10 ft you are golden you know if you're expecting yourself to make more 10 Footers to play better golf you're shooting for the wrong fish you need to make sure you're not three putting and then make all your three Footers 80% of your 5-footers this is a 440 yard hole we're going to determine our game from the te to understand that we're probably going to have to scramble our little asses off to be able to make a par or even a bogy here if you think you can't score using your short game like this you have a black belt in no can do I graduated from bonamy University as a South African not a South africant I'm going to determine I'm going to make a par and at worst a bogey because I'm going to trust my short game and I'm going to show you how I'm going to set that shot up because after this t- shot we're not going to be able to reach this green never in a million years so that means we have to be prepared for a pitch or a chip with an absolutely terrible six iron pulled left but it's in play 210 yard over water what would destroy my score slicing a four iron into that tree over there topping it because I can't hit the four iron not me particularly let's say you don't have the swing speed maybe you're taking a chance at the top range of your bag that's going to destroy your score what's not going to destroy your score what's my favorite shot into the green well I like to have a little pit shot so from 210 to the hole we're going to take the 150 160 yard club and just hit it real comfortable cuz we're not going to hit it on the green so there's no need to hit it hard and we have plenty distance to carry that water and leave ourselves in the Fairway wow what a stressfree shot let's just aim it just a bit to the left where that nice patch of Fairway is is and give it a nice committed swing and know that we're going to have our favorite pit shot into the hole there we go absolutely stinky we've left ourself in the Fairway we're going a little bit further because we were downhill down breeze so we've only got about 35 yards to the hole which we like this shot because we know it's just a very little swing with our 56° that we practiced at the chipping area or on the golf course you take a half swing with both your sand wedge and your gap wedge or your pitching wedge maybe three clubs and you take the same swing with all three clubs the exact same swing changing the loft of the club gives you three separate pit shots that you can use at different distance ranges I know from here just a tiny little Sand Wedge 56° may leave me right next to the hole but remember when you're not highly confidential you want to make sure you hit the green by being assertive when you have an assertive pitch you land it on the green when you get timid you better change your Club you better change the shot cuz that timidity is going to leave you chunking it blading it so it would be nice and aggressive little half shot titties to the Target I always like to remember titties to the Target and then you hit a beautiful little shot like that and that's something that you can do at the practice area you don't you need to have a beautiful swing you don't need to have Aesthetics you don't need to hit the ball perfectly if you can hit two shots like this somehow to a position that you like to pitch from because you've been practicing that little distance wow you're going to really improve your score a lot and that comes down to practice and when you practice the thing you're finding is that you get imagination imagination is created on the practice facility and then it increases Your Arsenal of shots that you can hit from any given situation within 60 yards 80 yards 100 yards of the PIN as you get a better short game you're going to start putting the ball to like 5 or 6 feet more often and that's a tough range cuz even Pros only make 80% of their five Footers they're probably looking at 70 to 75% of their six-footers so what you want to do is not do all that hard work and then Rush these shots as if like oh don't worry you know they'll give it to me and then you miss it and then they don't give it to you or you have to count that shot in a tournament and then you get angry because you did all that hard work and you blew it on something 60 cm 2 ft 2 ft long I mean take your time right cuz if you're going to take the time to come up here and waste a shot then have to do it again all that time you use on the second shot you could be using to just line yourself up on the short one come on think about it it's not going to increase the amount of time you take to play a hole that much you take one second to get aligned just to reset yourself and just make sure it goes in the hole you're going to feel so much better hearing that sound terminating the hole case closed get to the next hole when you pitch it more to like 5 ft or 6t what I like to do and I may not make this P I'm not really that serious about it but what I like to do is keep my putter low to the ground and give it a little stabber I like to just stab it a little bit stab it just a little bit I don't know why but keep my pter low to the ground and stab it just helps to keep this ball online beautiful now another thing you want to do is if you have trouble with these you can putt either looking at where you want the ball to go let's say right Edge like that looking at the hole it stops you from moving your head stops the anxiety and your your body will hit the ball where you look this is the opposite this is why people Miss putts you're so anxious that you're looking where the ball's going that's why as a right-hander you miss it on the right hand side so often cuz you're anxious you want to see where did the ball go on this hole we want to clear the water at 149 and the back Edge is like 170 yard so anywhere between 155 to 170 is going to be good and each layer of distance is going to give us a different shot to leave yourself a nice flat chip you want to have perfect distance control on the left side if you know your shot was going to be exactly 160 165 if you're trying to Target just getting it over the water you're going to have to try go long here because it's a flatter chip or on an up slope onto the green beyond the pin if you come long left here this is your worst possible chip if you're heading it towards water on a Downs slope or in a dome or in a concave area onto the green toward the water come on boy CH I'm going to take a pitching wedge toe down and just make sure that this thing stays on the green and may even give a good result we're always with toe down we want to land the ball about a yard or so onto the green let it roll out so there's many options around green it just depends on what you're comfortable with and you have to use your shots don't go use the pro shots that is low percentage even for them okay let's give it a bit of Bob retell looking at my spot I'm going to look at my spot I want to roll over just before the hole just keep looking at that spot look my head's up I'm looking at that spot in the cup I'm going to show you something that's going to make me lose more subscribers than a female golf influencer showing us that she's got a boyfriend I'm going to hit my seven wood and my six iron office tea on a path five to show you there's almost no difference as long as you're getting that ball in play you can always set up your free throw distance with your short game to increase your odds of making a par On a par five by using your comfortable clubs job Beauty Wow money here we go with a six iron only like 190 yard 200 yard shot oh oh no you know what that's gone terribly left but I'm still going to show you it's the same thing we've hit completely opposing shots a beautiful S Wood down there and a terrible 200 yard shot to here oh 180 yard shot to here so from 333 Y what I have from here is the ability to hit something to what I want to hit into the green which is then then set up either a chip or a putt but if we do find ourselves having to sacrifice for our third shot having a 200 yard shot or 210 yard shot in all we have to do is what I did on that long Par Four and set up our favorite pit shot to get the ball close and try save the par or the bogey wow good job now of course everybody wants my distance and my direction and aim even me we've left ourselves 27 yards to the middle of the hole here we have a open field we can hit anything we want and that's the difference between hitting a good shot and crap shot but at the end of the day we're still going for three shots on this par five trying to set up what we want into the hole I'm going to hit a 7 on on here to try set up a 100 yard shot I don't want 80 yards I don't want to have 90 I don't want 75 for me that's not a comfortable shot it's either inside 50 or 100 plus now of course you can say well if I had his distance I'd be able to shoot that score as well well you know what if I were Brad Pit I'd be allowed to get bard of Angelina Jolie and leave her well that's never going to happen is it so use your game the the way you got it you can get around the golf course without being envious of my humongous distance and superb physique they don't call me the South African gr Horvat for nothing yep little fader into a slide Bree Sky we take the breeze into consideration and it's into us so we take a 52 degree instead of a 56 now with a wedge in my hand I'm the man so I believe I'm going to have a great dispersion here probably keep perfect distance control maybe 15 ft right 15 ft left at the worst and that's what I hope you get out of this it's about your aim your shot shape your tendency left and right and using that to Advantage to find better aiming spots and better Landing positions to get better up and downs I've made a video which you can see in the description or at at the end of this video where I missed every green and I still scored like a boss because I am a boss that looks really good come on sit down oh I think I nearly hold that bad Bary out over there now we've got to get this to land on a slope and let it scoot forward and break from right to left we can fly the slope but I'm not going to I'm going to use the slope to my advantage landed on the Sandy spot like that and hopefully that brings it down to the hole maybe could have gone a little further onto the green but that's the imagination you need to use the slope that you have to be able to get the ball closer to the hole now with these kind of seven Footers you're going to probably make you know if at your best five six out of 10 so don't get too disheartened if you don't make them just know that everyone you miss brings you closer to making the next one just because of the odds that's gambler's fallacy and you know what it works in your favor you see you make one you miss one my tips are for everybody I want everybody to play this game better I'm not a professional coming on you trying to breake 50 first it was breake 70 then break 60 now it's breake 50 what the hell is next breake 40 come on that's a six hybrid ladies this used to be this used to be a young ladies club that I stole we've left ourselves 180 yard to the hole about 190 to the back of the green that's a long shot into the wind for a lot of people so what we can do we can see there's an opening on the right hand side and there's a bunk on the right if we can hit a club that won't reach that bunk on the right it gives us a simple chip from 30 40 yards from the right through the Gap beautiful let's just avoid that bunker left hit a club that won't get there and hit a club that won't get into that bunker right leaving ourselves a beautiful pitch up the green increase the odds of an easy shot decrease the odds of a bad shot and just like that we can place the ball in a position that we like to pitch onto the green I hope you see that this is all part of my recruitment into getting you into the religion of confidentialised it there cuz you know the shot it's a completely different experience to just hitting and hoping and then working it out as you go without knowing any of the shots but sometimes the plan doesn't always go 100% the next best thing we can do is use what we have which I like a 60 yard shot so I might have to shoot this 10 yards past the hole luckily the breeze is into me so it should hold it up a little bit so when we step up to a ball that we have high confidentiality with in that shot we hit a better shot that's confidentialised this video let's remember that we always take two little break and the quicker the green downhill the quicker the green on the side slope the more break you're going to want to take cuz it's really going to die toward the hole as the ball loses speed it's going to really move like a wave hitting the shore it starts off real fast and you just skim over it and then as you lie in the wave it starts dying toward the shore pushing you obnoxiously toward the sand and that's like a putt it's going to get obnoxious at the end the last three fet and it's just going to die into the hole now on a downhill putt you can either putt off the toe with the same putting stroke or imagine a hole short of the hole you're on and hit to that position I like to P off the toe watch how it snaps across the hole now cuz I didn't take enough break and that's purely because of the slope easy game what a life and that's how we do it that's how you plan the short game that's how you play the short game he has more videos on how to use the short game to score better

Channel: Golf Sidekick

Views: 128,525

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Id: d6CeLdHn1Q8

Length: 27min 21sec (1641 seconds)

Published: Sun May 19 2024