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is really show you how you can improve your short game
through some drills, understanding the technique,
and above all else, helping to give you
feel, which is what all great short game players have.
Well, after seeing what you've done for the tour players
in their short game, I'm certainly anxious to learn.
Well, Bill, I think the thing is what we've got to try to do
is really understand how we can break the short game up
into separate departments.
OK, now, firstly, I call it a family of four.
The first thing we try to do is work on the putting aspect
and then chipping.
Those two are tied in together.
And we've got pitching and then sound play.
So those four sections, we in actual fact,
will go into detail, show you how you can practice on them,
and really get better.
In addition, Bill, after I've covered each aspect,
we're going to have a section called advanced score savers.
Now, these are shots that I work with some of the low handicap
and tour players, and which, if you add to your repertoire,
will really help your short game.
So let's get to it, shall we?
Let's do it.
This part of the game, Bill, has made strong men weak at the knees.
I understand.
It's often been called a game within a game.
So I'll tell you what we're going to do.
We're going to watch you hit a few shots or a few pats
from different distances here so I can have
a good look at what's going on.
All right, so let's start off from about six feet, shall we?
All right.
Now, you just go ahead and make your normal stroke,
and I'll just observe.
Don't get nervous now, Bill.
All right, well, a little inconsistencies there.
Is that typical?
That's pretty typical.
None of them went in.
Well, let's have a look from 40 feet, shall we?
OK.
Well, let's see your action on these 40-footers here, Bill.
All right.
OK, one more, please.
Got some work to do here, Bill.
Well, how are your short pats?
Not so good.
I'm a little shaky on those.
I get nervous sometimes.
Well, let's have a look.
Well, these little three-foot pats
can sometimes prove troublesome, Bill.
So I'm going to ask you to try to knock one in here for me.
All right.
Funny thing is, you know, the older we get,
the longer these three-footers look.
You're right.
So go ahead.
Now, this is for the open in 1992,
so take your time and knock it in.
Well, you weren't short, Bill, and you're
in a playoff, unfortunately.
Well, I think I've seen enough here.
There's one more exercise I'd like you to do, Bill,
so why don't you join me up here?
All right.
We've laid a chalk line down here for you, Bill,
so we can really have a close look at your stroke.
OK.
Go ahead.
You know, one of the key ingredients in good padding
is to learn to roll the ball correctly.
You always hear players say to other players, oh, good roll.
And what that really means is learning
to roll the ball end over end, giving it some top spin, which
helps to keep the ball on line.
If you'll notice, all really good padders
tend to hit the ball at the right speed,
and the ball seems to maybe even appear to be short of the hole,
but all of a sudden it sort of rolls in.
That's because it has the right spin on it.
So we're going to check what your spin is like.
And in order to do that, I've got a two-tone ball here,
and that will really show what's happening with the ball.
So why don't you go ahead and put that down,
make sure the line is looking directly at the hole there.
OK.
Give it a go.
Well, that one certainly bubbled about a bit, didn't it?
It looked like it had a bias on one side of it.
Let me show you what should actually
happen with the roll, Bill.
You sure make it look easy.
Well, actually, I didn't see the ball roll, Bill,
because I try to keep my head down.
But in actual fact, I'm sure as you saw the roll of the ball,
it rolled very uniformly end over end.
And that is very, very crucial for good putting.
So I think what we have to do now is going to analyze your stroke
and see if we can get you to this point.
Sounds great.
OK.
In analyzing your stroke, obviously, Bill,
we see that through your poor setup,
the general tendency is for you to use too much hands and arms.
You know, you can see the wrist tends
to break down poorly through the ball.
And this just causes a lot of inconsistency.
So what I'd like to see you do, and which virtually every great putter
does these days, is a combination of arms and shoulders.
Very little wrist action.
Really, any wrist action we have is just purely
through the weight of the putter.
So in effect here, you can see as I make a practice stroke here,
I'm really, as I move it back, my left shoulder moves down slightly.
My right shoulder moves up.
And you can see I'm actually using my shoulders
to control my stroke.
You can see this very clearly how the arms and shoulders work together.
It's not sort of a rocking motion like this.
But it certainly is where my left shoulder moves down
and then my right shoulder moves through.
So let me hit a pat here or two, and you can actually see that.
You see the difference there?
Mm-hmm.
And you can see as a result, the left wrist stays nice and firm.
I don't even have to think about it.
So let's have a look at you doing that, if you wouldn't mind.
The first thing we're going to do here, Bill,
is to get you set up to the ball properly,
and also check your grip.
Because remember, as with a full swing, if you set up correctly,
you've got much more chance of making a good swing,
or in this case, a good stroke.
So let's have a look at your grip there.
Why don't you just hold it up here for me?
So what we have to do is to keep your hands and wrists under control.
In other words, keep them very passive.
And what I would suggest you do is change your grip slightly
to a more conventional putter grip.
OK?
So the putting grip, basically, Bill, if you could have a look at me here.
OK, what I'm doing is, see, I'm placing it in the palm of my left hand here
and getting my left hand around.
Can you see how my left hand is around here?
Now, by putting my right hand on, you can see here, slightly down underneath,
and then just lifting my index finger up,
my right hand is pretty much a palm grip too.
So we've got the hands opposing one another,
or the palms opposing one another here, Bill.
And it feels it's much more locked in.
OK, right.
Now, the other thing, obviously, we have to learn to set up to the ball correctly.
Now, a little test we do.
I want you to make sure that your eyes are over the ball.
We saw on your padding stroke how your eyes are actually way outside the ball.
I want you to make sure that your eyes are directly on top of the ball,
specifically your left eye.
OK, so if you just take your address there.
OK, now, let's just flex the knees just a little bit there.
There we go.
So we're going to get ourselves a little bit taller
so our arms are hanging a little bit more.
There we go.
Good.
OK.
Now, I'm just going to drop the ball from your left eye here.
Oh, that was pretty good.
Pretty good.
Instinctively, you sort of move the ball a little further away from you,
and you also put the ball further forward.
That's great.
So now, you can see where you are in this position here.
What this also does allows us now to have a little bit more weight on your left foot.
I would advise that.
Get your weight forward onto your left leg.
Get your hands ahead slightly.
Can you feel that?
And now, your eyes are directly on top of the ball there,
and you look much more comfortable.
Much more comfortable.
Now, all I'm trying to do at this point is set yourself up in a position
where your shoulders, your forearms are all parallel to your target line.
In other words, we line the patter face up,
which we'll talk about in a little while.
Line the patter face up and just get, say, your shoulders and your forearm,
and certainly your knees and your feet pretty much all in line here.
It's just like a regular golf swing.
You find maybe some players might stand a little bit open,
but I would say for the most part that you want to stand pretty square.
As we saw, you were very, very open here,
and it's very difficult there to make a good arm and shoulder stroke
where the patter moves on a much straighter line.
MUSIC
Well, now you have the nuts and bolts of the putting stroke.
There really are only two aspects you have to concern yourself with.
One is direction and one is distance.
Those are the only two things that can be right or can be wrong, Bill.
So that's nice to know, isn't it?
I sure is.
Right. Now, let's talk about the direction first,
which means we have to understand what the face of the putter is doing
and also the path of the putter head.
Right. Now, an interesting little drill here that I would like you to try is this,
because this will really show you what actually happens sort of through impact and beyond.
So what we're going to do, we're going to hit a few putts from about two feet.
All right? So...
There we go. Now, you set up to it there.
OK. Take your new set up here.
Regular grip and everything.
That's it. Your new grip there. Finger down the back there.
Nice and relaxed. A little more weight left, remember?
Good. There we go.
The left eye directly on top of the ball.
OK. Now, I don't want you to make a backswing at all.
I want you just to simply swing the putter through, so I'll help you here.
So let's go.
Right. That was easy enough.
You can see there, the face of the putter is now square to the hole.
So what we're really trying to do through here is to make sure that through impact,
that the putter face is nice and square and keep it travelling.
So it's pretty much square through impact, straight through towards the hole.
Right. Do that again on your own. This is a very good drill, this one.
OK. Well, let's step back here and hit a six-foot putt.
All right.
OK. Let's come about a six-foot distance here, Bill.
Now, just take your dress position there and address an imaginary ball.
OK. Now, you watch what I'm going to do from here.
As I move the shoulders, now remember, which we're going to get into
just in a little while as far as the length of your stroke,
remember, this is not a very long putt.
That's a fairly short stroke in actual fact.
But see, as I move the shoulders, the putter appears to move pretty straight back and through,
doesn't it, on this length putt?
Right on the line. That's right.
So the shorter the putt, the straighter back and through that your putter will swing.
You see? So we don't want to think in terms of trying to take it inside or outside
or anything of that nature, but the shorter the putt,
the more straight back and through we tend to swing it.
There you go. Good. Now, let me just put a ball there.
All right. Let's see how we do.
So what we're going to do, I'm going to work your shoulders for you once again.
There we go. Boy, that was an excellent stroke.
Now, you can feel as you do that that your right hand really finishes towards a hole,
as does the putter face.
Obviously, the putter face has travelled down the line, square to the target line.
But a good thought, a good feeling is to actually think in terms of your palm of your right hand, Bill,
being your putter face.
And that way, you know, when you're stroking the putt there,
you're taking all your thoughts away from the putter head, which is actually pretty good.
So you can sense where your right hand is,
and that means you're releasing the putter down the line.
OK, so, well, let's wander back here now and show you what a 10-footer looks like, shall we?
All right.
OK, once again, let me move the shoulders here.
And we'll see, as the stroke gets longer, as I make a little bigger movement with your shoulders,
the putter starts to go more inside, doesn't it?
Mm-hmm.
See? There we go. Inside, but still pretty much straight down the line.
Now, at home, you're not going to have a chalk line under normal circumstances.
So what you can do, you can just get another club.
I'll use my putter here. We'll lay it down on the line.
Now, all you do is simply putt on top of that line.
You see a lot of pros do this.
In fact, you know, while they're waiting to putt,
they're actually using the flagpole to actually... as an indicator, you see?
So there we go. And that's it.
So depending on the length of the stroke, that determines how much it goes inside.
So you get the idea of what the actual putter face is doing and the path should be doing.
So we want the putter face, obviously, squared impact.
And certainly, we want to make sure that the putter moves fairly straight back and through
on the short pass and more inside on the longer pass.
You position the ball correctly, make the correct stroke,
and you'll actually find that the putter face will actually hit the ball
with a very slight ascending blow. So always remember that.
So if somebody asks you where you're trying to hit the ball,
you're trying to hit it slightly on the upswing.
That's the best result for a good roll.
What I'd like to talk about now, Bill, is really how we control the actual distance.
In other words, the speed of the putt, which is so important.
So let's show you here.
OK, now we've got a five-footer right here.
And so you'll establish how far you have to take the putter back through practice.
And what you need to do is learn to hit the putts from different distances.
OK, so let's have a look at this five-footer here, first of all,
and see if we can get the right pace on it.
And the right pace, just one more thing, is...
The important thing is, remember, is that on most putts,
you want to try to finish a few inches past the hole,
somewhere between, oh, shall we say, 12 and 18 inches past the hole,
means that the ball is rolling at a good speed to go in.
If you hit it any softer than that, the tendency is it might hit a spike mark
or a heel print, which you might not see, but it doesn't hold its line as well.
So we want to hit it fairly firm.
I don't like to see the ball just dribble into the cup.
OK, so let's have a look here.
So a very short, compact stroke.
As the putt gets longer, so our backswing extends and gets longer,
and conversely, you'll find that the speed will be created
through the length of the arc of the stroke,
not by trying to actually hit hard as such.
Now, we also have to take into account, remember,
if we're going uphill or downhill, the speed of the green,
the, in other words, the way the texture of the turf,
if it's a very slick grass or it's a slow grass,
that will also determine the length of our stroke.
So remember, a five-foot putt on one green
might be a 20-foot putt on another green, depending on the speed.
So we have to take that into account as well.
But you really get that through practice.
And if you play at your home course, normally you know the speed of your greens.
So let's go through that again.
Set up over it.
Boom. Keep my head nice and still, too.
Easy.
Now, there's one other element I want you to be aware of.
You know, it's all well and good knowing the actual length of your stroke,
but we also have to tie in a bit of rhythm with it.
OK, it's no good going back so slowly and then going slowly through.
We must make sure that we have a nice, even pace about the stroke.
So in order to get the tempo of our stroke right,
in other words, in order to have a good rhythm
where the putter goes back and through, back and through,
I actually like to think in terms of saying to myself,
one, two, one, two.
Even on a long putt, I'll go one, two.
So if you can just have a good routine, which we will talk about,
it's a case now of, right, trust your stroke, one, two.
And knock it in.
It's a simple thought, I like that.
Let's have a go and see if we can get our one, two action going here, shall we?
So we set up over it.
One look there.
One, two.
Easy.
Ready to try? Sure. OK.
100% record here, Bill. Much better.
Looking good. Well, now we're going to go back to the 20-footer
and see how your stroke relates to that distance.
Now you'll see how your stroke will get a little bit longer on the 20-footer
as opposed to the 5-footer, certainly.
All right, so have a couple of practice strokes.
Always a good idea to get the feel of the distance there.
Remember, the follow through and the backswing are pretty much the same length.
OK, that looks good. All right.
Now I just visualise the putt.
Pretty straight, this putt, so no real problem.
How about that? How about that one? OK.
Now come on, prove it wasn't a fluke.
One, two.
Pretty good. Could have been a little bit firmer there,
so maybe a little bit longer stroke there.
One, two.
Much better, though. You see the ball's rolling so much better.
Doesn't it feel better coming off the putter face?
Much so, it's easier to control the speed, hitting it in the same place every time.
Right, and you see you're getting a uniform roll, which is crucial.
All right, let's get back to the 40-footer. All right.
Now we're going to check out the long putts here, Bill,
and see if we can get a little more consistency in this area, shall we?
OK, now, let me just show you a couple of things here.
I'm going to imagine I've got about a 90-footer,
and you just watch the length of my stroke here.
You see, so it's not important to try to actually hit it hard.
The important thing is to have a nice long stroke
where you can create the speed through the actual stroke.
OK, right, now, let's have a look here at this 40-footer.
And what I always like to do on these strokes, on these putts here,
any longish putt, is try to imagine that we've got, say, a 2-foot ring around the hole there,
trying to get it within that area. I mean, that's a good mental image to have.
OK, so here we go. I'm trying to picture the stroke here,
picture the length of my stroke for the particular distance,
and let's see how we do.
Whoops, close.
You pulled it.
All right, have a go, Bill.
Amazing different feel that you have off the putter face.
The other thing is, too, you can see you look so much more relaxed.
There's no tension there now. It's like the weight of the putter is actually swinging there.
So remember, a little tip I always feel, which is a good one, is never to strangle the putter.
Always grip it fairly lightly. I should be able to almost pull the putter out of your hand here.
OK, so in that way, you'll find that the putter head will swing freely.
OK, so that's looking a lot better.
Much better.
Much better. So now, I think what we'll do now, we've got two little drills for you to try,
which can really improve your putter and everybody else's as well.
Great, let's get to them.
OK.
Now, this is the first drill, Bill, which is really good.
Remember, you mentioned to me you were a little bit nervous on those three footers.
Now, I believe the major reason that people miss those three footers is because they peek.
They actually are trying to steer and guide the ball in.
So right, now, let's show you how this one works.
We'll get from about three feet away.
I'm going to put this coin down here, OK, and just bury it in, submerge it just a little bit.
I'm going to put the ball on top of it.
Now, the idea is that I want you to make sure that you stroke the putt
and keep your eyes focused on the coin underneath the ball.
OK, so I don't want your eyes to follow the ball.
In other words, you'll be listening for the ball to go in the hole and actually watching the coin.
OK.
So go ahead.
Right, keep your one-two thought going there in your mind.
There you go.
Now, you can still see yourself focusing on the coin, right?
Mm-hmm.
Good.
Should the ball go in the center of the hole?
The ball went right in the middle, Bill.
I wouldn't lie to you.
OK, so make sure your weight's on your left side there, OK?
That's it, just check.
Right, good, now focus on the coin.
Very good.
So that's an excellent drill for you to work on.
OK, I've got one further drill.
Now, this is a little interesting exercise here, Bill, and let me demonstrate first.
And it's simply a case of learning to use our right hand, right arm, and right shoulder to release the putter.
You know, we get so much feel from our right hand.
Most of us who play right handed in actual fact are right handed.
So we get a lot of feel here.
And if you remember earlier, I told you as far as the direction was concerned,
you actually focus on your right hand almost being the face of your putter,
or the palm of your right hand being the face of your putter.
So a good exercise is to really learn to putt with your right hand and right arm.
And what this will do will give you the sensation of releasing the putter.
Although we want an arm and shoulder stroke, we do want to sense that the weight of the putter does move.
So there will be, as I've said to you, a little bit of lag in the stroke, OK?
So remember that.
So we want to feel that the right shoulder moves back and forward.
We keep it moving.
And you'll get a great sensation of rolling the ball.
Let's have a go, shall we?
All right.
Right, give it a go, Bill.
All right.
Good.
Well, pretty good there, Bill.
Just a matter of practicing it.
And you'll start to feel a great sensation of releasing the putter.
And it will really help your rhythm as well.
A large part of putting is routine.
Once you can trust your stroke, you have to have a good routine.
So what we've done here, we've chosen a fairly tough putt here.
And it's a big breaking putt, you can see.
It's not a nice one at all.
And what I'm trying to visualize here is how the putt will actually swerve to the hole.
And you want to try to picture your apex.
In other words, the apex of the curve.
And we've got a T down here to mark that apex.
And try to sense that I'm actually putting to the apex.
And then really it's just a question of speed and distance.
Right, so let me just go through a little routine here.
And this is something which, if you haven't got a routine...
Now, do you have one?
No, not at all.
Most players don't.
And most players, they do things differently behind the ball.
So you want to try to do the same thing each time.
So what I'm doing from back here is really I'm getting a feel for the putt.
And also visualizing the line that the ball's going to roll on.
So I'm going to walk around it now.
And one or two more practice strokes.
Right, walk up to it.
Got my point in mind.
Just relax, visualize it, and hit the putt.
Good putt.
Well, that was a good putt.
Now, remember, everybody's routine can vary.
What I suggest you do is just simply get on the putt and green
and work one out for yourself.
It's a lot of fun.
Well, back to our famous chalk line here, Bill.
We're going to see how you roll it.
All right.
Now, just before you do this, let's just summarize very briefly.
So we've gone through getting you set up to the ball properly,
including a good grip.
Okay, we want you to make sure you practice that posture
and that set-up position in order that you can get the feeling of that naturally.
We then spoke in terms of the actual shoulder and arm movement
that we are trying to accomplish.
We spoke about the direction, didn't we?
The putter face moves fairly straight back and through on a short putt,
and then inside as the putt gets longer.
And then we really spoke about the actual distance,
how the length of your stroke controls the distance of the putt.
A little bit of feel.
Talked about your routine.
Gave you a couple of drills.
So you've really got some good things to practice on,
and really, if you can practice it,
many people just don't spend enough time on the putt and green.
If you can do that, my goodness, you'll chop so many shots off your score.
So, right, well, let's see how you accomplish this little task here
and see how you roll the ball, shall we?
Alright.
Well, the biggest compliment I can give you, Bill, is great roll.
Thank you, David.
When I'm working with the tour players with their putting,
the thing I'm constantly referring to is feel.
Certainly technique is important, but feel is even of greater importance.
Now, a drill that I really like to work with them on is this one,
where I'm actually putting to a tee from about 20 feet.
Now, that's not so unusual in itself,
but the drill here is that it requires you to actually hit putts,
first of all, looking at the hole, or the tee in this case,
and secondly, making the putt with your eyes closed.
The third putt you hit, you actually make your regular stroke.
So you see, by looking at the hole and putting with your eyes closed,
you recreate the sensation in your mind that you actually need
when you get over the putt itself.
So let me show you how it works.
So the first one here, all I'm going to do is set up to it,
look at the hole, and make my stroke.
Second one, I'm going to look at the tee here again,
which represents my hole, keep my eyes closed, and make the stroke.
That was a good one.
And the third one, I'm going to make my regular stroke here,
and try to recreate the same feel that I got from the previous two putts.
Now, if you practice this drill, you'll be amazed at how your feel will improve.
So go to it.
We're approaching the green here, Bill,
so we're going to talk a little bit about chipping now.
Okay?
Now, I think the thing that we really have to discuss is what a chip is.
So, let's go.
I think the thing that we really have to discuss is what a chip is.
So I think many people probably maybe mis-define a chip.
There is a difference between a chip and a pitch in my terminology anyway.
A chip, I feel, is one that has less carry and more roll,
and a pitch is generally one which is lofted.
So having defined what a chip is, and most chips are certainly close to the green,
why don't you go ahead and hit three shots of these three flags?
Now, we've got one here at 25 feet, one at 70 feet,
and we've got one all the way out the back tier there at 100 feet.
So we've got a few selections for you, so we're going to see what you can do with them.
Okay?
Can I take a wedge for the first one here?
Well, you tell me. I'm not going to tell you.
Well, probably. It's short.
All right. I'll hold onto your club for you.
Quite good. All right.
Let's go for the long one now, please.
Bill, well, I actually wanted you to go to the second flag.
I was trying to.
Oh, all right. Sorry about that.
Well, now we'll go to the third one, okay? So we've got the 100 foot.
How about my 8 iron? I think that might be a better club to roll it.
A little shallow divot on this next one, too, Bill.
Okay.
All right. Well, not quite there, but the idea was right.
You know, Bill, with chipping, there's a lot of versatility involved
and a lot of individuality as well.
A lot of great short game players have slightly different techniques.
But really the thing is to find some way that you can get the ball
close to the hole on a regular basis.
Now, generally speaking, certainly what we want to try to do with any chip shot
is have maximum roll.
You know, as much as we can roll the ball,
probably it's a lot easier to judge it that way.
We don't want to try to loft it unless we really have to.
It's a lot easier simply to roll it than it is to actually throw it up in the air.
So what I'm going to do here, I'm going to show you how I can actually play,
say, four different shots to one hole.
But we'll talk about judgment and why I would choose a particular shot.
Okay?
All right.
You want to watch me here?
Now, you know, chipping is, as I say, it's an art.
And probably these days many golf courses really take away the art of chipping.
But I think it's so important to understand exactly what happens
and how you can make the ball react in the way that you want it to react.
Remember, visualization is the big key here.
All right, now the first one I'm going to hit,
I'm going to hit a sandwich and I'm going to loft the ball up to the hole.
Okay? So let's see how we do on that one.
Pretty good.
Now I'm going to take the wedge.
Okay, now the eight iron.
And finally the putter.
Well, they all work pretty well, Bill, so how am I going to choose out of that lot?
I don't know, but any choice you make it's going to be right next to the hole.
So what I'm trying to show you right here, that there are options,
and these options are important.
Judgment is such a big factor in knowing what club to use in order to get the ball close.
Now, there are two basic chipping actions that I talk about, and they are both wristless.
In other words, we have very little wrist action,
very little conscious wrist action in the stroke,
because the more wrist action that you have,
you know, your tendency to sort of scoop it like this,
tends to create loft, the face gets up in the air and sends the ball up.
So we want to try to keep the hands and arms very firm when we play this stroke.
It's almost like an extension of your putting stroke to a large extent.
And that's the first one we're going to talk about.
We're going to talk about what I call the chip putt,
which is very, very close to your putting stroke.
Now for this chip putt, I'm going to take an eight iron.
I've selected the club.
It worked for me last time, so hopefully it'll do so again, Bill.
Now, I think the thing is, what I'm really trying to do is create this image in my mind.
I'm visualizing what's going to happen to the ball in order to get it close.
Now let me show you the technique here with this chip putt.
It is very, very close to your putting method.
That's really why we work with putting first and work backwards, you see.
So now, I'm going to sit up to it here.
I want you to note, I'm going to take my putting grip.
I'm going to get pretty close to the ball here.
I'm going to get my eyes very much on top of the ball,
but the only difference really being that I'm going to position the ball further back in my stance.
Now, in sitting up to it, I want my hands forward, and I also want to be ahead of the ball.
You can see my weight is ahead.
If I hang this club down from my chest, you see it actually appears on the left side of the ball.
So we want to make sure that you're actually ahead of it slightly.
It almost feels like my right eye is on top of the ball,
whereas I'm putting my left eye on top.
So a little bit more weight on your left side there.
Your hands are ahead.
Also, you get your hands fairly high, and if the heel of the club sits slightly off the ground, well, that's fine.
Okay, because in actual fact, if you strike the ball off the toe here, it'll deaden the roll.
See, the key is with any chip shot to be able to control the speed of your roll.
All great chippers are able to control the speed of the roll.
You don't want to either hit hard or soft.
You want to be able to hit the right club that's going to roll the ball the correct distance.
Music
Now, so here we are.
I've got my eyes over the ball.
My hands are ahead, and I'm going to get my shoulder swing just as I was in my putting stroke there.
And the other thing probably which is slightly different,
remember I'm hitting down it slightly because the ball's back in my stance,
and I want a fairly short follow through.
I don't want this left wrist breaking down.
Note how my elbows are set.
You see, my elbows are spread out in order to keep my arms swinging and to get my arms and shoulders working together.
I don't want any hand or wrist action in this stroke.
Very important to keep the wrists out of it.
Let's go ahead and hit one here.
Ball further back here than normal as opposed to a putting stroke.
Right eye over the ball.
And then try to stay very still on it.
Now you can see the ball reacts very well.
In other words, it rolls slowly.
It doesn't really get away from me.
That's what I like about this shot.
I like it especially if I'm on a little downhill shot and the ball's likely to roll pretty fast.
I really like this shot.
So why don't you go ahead and hit one for me there, and we'll just show you the technique.
Take your eight iron if you would.
Now just have a couple of practice strokes here first.
Take my putting grip.
Yeah, your putting grip.
Hands ahead a little bit more.
That's it.
Right, so I'm just going to push you this way.
Remember, so if I hang my club from your chest there, it's hanging down forward of the ball, to the left of the ball.
Now just use your shoulders.
Short follow through.
That's it.
Keep very still.
Okay, now picture the shot.
Important with all your short shots to do this.
And off you go.
Okay, not bad.
Now, you just fell into a little trap that many players do.
I'm sure you felt you snagged the club going back, didn't you?
I caught it on the grass.
That's right.
The important thing as you swing it back, Bill, is that the club actually moves off the ground fairly quickly, so it makes a descending blow.
So what I'm going to do, I'm going to show you a little drill which will really help you.
Let me just move these clubs out of the way.
There you go.
Right, now just set up to a ball, please.
Now I'm just going to lie that club opposite your right foot there.
Okay, so we're about three to four inches behind the ball.
Now what that will make you do as you set up to it is actually swing it back.
You'll see you'll have to avoid the club behind you.
You have to move the shoulder up in the air.
Can you feel that?
Yes.
That's it.
Now that's very important.
That's a good little drill to work on.
Many players, I see many amateurs, take the club away too low and scoop it there.
So you need to have a slightly rising stroke as it goes back there and then swing down into it.
Okay, so there we go.
That's a good look.
Pretty good.
You're getting the feel for this.
Now remember, certainly the speed of the green we have to take into account and also the distance.
Now if we were going to go to that next flag, let's try the same club and see what happens, shall we?
All right.
Remove that one.
So that's a good little drill to work on sometimes, Bill, just to make sure that you're doing it right.
You don't have to have the club down there all the time, but it's a good checkpoint.
I like that message.
Well, what do you think about that one?
It felt like I had to hit it pretty hard to get it back to that flag.
That's right.
So you have a choice here.
You can use one club and make a bigger swing and hit it, or otherwise you could make a more sensible choice probably and say take a six sign.
Why don't we try that?
All right.
So it might be a six sign, it might be a five.
Let's have a look.
This is where experimentation comes in.
You have to practice these different shots, Bill, and the thing is you get to know your distances through practice.
You know, you've got to stand around a practice green there and put balls in different places to get the feel.
See? Okay.
Now you see because it had less loft on the club, the ball rolled better.
A little offline, but much better speed.
See? So you can see how being versatile and by using the correct selection and using the proper judgment, you can actually start to get the ball close.
That's great.
All right.
Now look, here's a teaser.
I'm going to put that one 100 feet away, up that tier.
Now that's a particularly difficult shot there.
Okay.
Now watch what I'm going to do.
I'm going to select a four iron.
What do you think about that?
I never would have thought of choosing a four iron.
Well, you know, there's many ways to get the ball close, and this is what I said at the beginning, versatility.
Now the reason I'm selecting a four iron is because I want maximum roll here.
I'm going to aim it fairly straight there and hopefully the breaks will counteract one another and just make a good stroke.
Let's see how close we can get the ball.
Same technique that we've just worked on.
We're going to go back about five paces, say 15 feet here, and originally we were 10.
We're now, say, 25 feet off the edge of the green.
So what are we going to do here, Bill?
Well, before using this method, I chipped with an eight iron up there, and we have a little more grass to carry this time.
Perhaps I ought to use a wedge.
That's absolutely right, because if you used an eight iron, by the time it bounced on the green,
it would be moving at such a speed it would go way by, wouldn't it?
And the golden rule really is when you're chipping is to make sure that your first bounce is on the green.
It's much easier to judge it.
Okay, well, use a wedge and go ahead.
Thank you.
That always makes your practice strokes.
Now, when we're this far from the green, it's still the same technique, isn't it?
Same technique, obviously a little bigger swing, okay?
And the ball will certainly get up in the air a little bit more, but that's fine.
Well done. That's good.
Now, how about the second flag, which is 70 feet on the green?
Well, before we were using a club that got it to roll, and we have more green to carry,
so I probably ought to use eight iron from here rather than wedge.
That's right. Exactly.
Now, certainly you used a six iron from up there, didn't you?
But if you used a six iron, the same principle would apply that when it bounced on the green,
it would be rolling too hard.
So you always want to use a club that you feel is going to roll the ball slowly
once it actually hits the green.
Okay, so try the eight iron there.
Now, you've got to make a slightly bigger swing here, certainly for these longer shots,
but the general rule, Bill, is the further you get away from the green when you're chipping,
the more loft of the club you're going to use.
Okay.
Ooh, good one.
I really think I'm starting to get the hang of this.
All right, so let's go back to where we were originally,
and I'm going to talk to you about what I call the regular chip shot.
Now, you know how we've spoken about in the full swing how the body controls the club,
or the dog wags the tail?
Now, the same principle applies here.
Really, the less wrist we can have in this shot, the better, as we've spoken about before.
Now, as with the chip putt method, we went pretty much straight back and through.
Obviously, it would work inside a little bit on the longer stroke,
but this one here, it is a case of moving the club around the body.
Let me show you what I mean by that.
If I hold the club with my right hand here, what I'm going to do,
I'm going to set myself open, and we'll talk about that just in a second,
but all I'm going to do as I move my body back and forward,
you can see, look at the arc that my hand scribes here.
Can you see that? Watch what happens. I'm going to release the ball now.
So you see the movement of my body controls the way that I release the ball there.
And it's going to be the same thing when I put the golf club in my hand.
I'm going to set up to it in a way that as I turn my body back and through,
the club really responds to the way that my body is turning.
So certainly it's not as big a turn as we normally would have in a full swing.
It's just a little short turn back and through.
But nevertheless, we are using the body to control the release.
So let's talk about the exact technique here and show you what happens.
First of all, we want to set ourselves in a position where our feet are looking somewhere.
If the flag was on, say, a 12 o'clock, 6 o'clock line, my feet are aiming somewhere about 11.
Okay? Now, I also want you to think in terms of pointing the club face towards 1 o'clock.
Okay? So we've got basically our body and the club face opposing one another.
All right? Now, I want you to grip the club strongly.
And this is important. Watch how many knuckles I have on my left hand here.
You find many great chippers of the ball place their left hand strongly on the club.
It just helps to give your left hand control through the shot.
Remember, we're not trying to use the wrist.
We're not likely to turn the club over, so there's no problem with hooking it or anything.
So you can see here my left hand is strong, my feet are open, the club face is aimed to the right,
and I put the ball off my right foot just inside my right heel here.
And I have my hands well ahead of the ball.
You can see if I let the club go, it would just lie on my thigh like so.
Now, it looks strange because initially when you look at it, you'll think,
my goodness, I'm going to hit the ball way to the right.
But this isn't the case because you see as you swing the club back through the turning of your body,
you can see my hands by being forward here, I've already preset any sort of wrist cock.
I don't have to use my wrist because look at the angle right here at the back of my wrist.
This is a key angle right here. We don't want to lose that angle.
But you can see from here as I move my body back, all I'm going to do is turn the club back.
You can see it moves inside slightly, and as I turn through,
the turning of my body will square the face off.
Music
Now, you just watch the pace here.
I'm going to show you a little technique here to test if you've done it correctly.
Like so.
Right, now if I bring the club back, I should be in the same position as I was at address.
Now, I'm going to hit a shot to that 70 foot flag, Bill.
I'm going to take my 8 iron, and what I'm going to attempt to do is to make the same swing that I just did with the wedge.
So my wedge was a good distance for that particular pin here, this first one.
Now, let's make the same swing here with the 8 iron, and we'll see what happens.
Oh, that was close. I thought that was going in.
Now, if there was a flag in the middle here, I would probably select a 9 iron.
Now, if I took my 9 iron, I can actually judge through practice how far I hit each shot.
Alright, so let's just take the 9 iron out, make the same technique.
I always feel a good sensation as my right hand never breaks down, so I feel it when I finish the stroke.
And stay nice and still on it, too. You don't want to move your head.
So that's somewhere in the middle of the two flags.
So you can see very simply, one swing with different clubs produces different results.
That's why I'm a big fan of varying your club.
Once again, we're going to go back to our 25 foot range, in other words, 25 foot off the edge of the green,
and we're going to that terrible one right up top there, that 100 footer.
You know, when we're talking in terms of hitting a more aggressive shot, there's some feel involved here.
Now, certainly, as I spoke about, trying to make one swing for all clubs is great,
but when we start to get a little further away, now is the time when we're going to start to be
a little bit more aggressive. So in order to be more aggressive, probably here I would use maybe a 7 or an 8 iron,
or probably a 7 iron. I think a 7 iron is going to be a good club.
But in order for me to hit the ball a little firmer, in order to carry a little further,
remember, most chip shots are probably going to be within 10 feet, 3 or 4 paces off the green.
But this one, this chip and run from this distance, I've got to carry quite a bit more turf here to get onto the green.
So the way we go about this, Bill, is to make sure that we keep the same motion going,
but what I'm going to feel now is I'm going to really increase my rotational speed.
In other words, if this was my normal speed with a 7 iron, or with any swing for that matter,
this is now going to be my speed.
You can see, you can hear the actual increase in the club head speed, but I'm doing it with my body.
Okay, right, now let me hit one here.
Focusing on my rotational speed.
Great shot.
Bill, I'm telling you, if you do what I tell you, you can do the same thing.
You want to do it again?
No, thank you.
Anyway, let's just summarize here what we've been through.
So this one we've just played here is obviously the regular chip shot.
We're using a little more aggression, a little more rotation, have a little more increase of speed,
but simply we want to set up to it in a way that we're setting open with our body,
club face is aimed to the right, and above all else, the body is controlling the shot there.
As I say, this angle is very important as far as I'm concerned.
Don't lose that angle.
The other system we spoke about was the chip putt method, which is very similar to your putting action.
Simply you put the ball a little further back in the stance, but use your normal putting technique,
arms and shoulders, and once again understand how the club reacts.
I've got 18 feet to carry to the green and about 60 feet of green.
So I want the ball to roll.
Now for this longer shot I've taken a wedge because the sharper leading edge will actually help it to dig into the grass.
Remember we want to use the grass as a cushion.
I make contact with the grass, the ball then shoots out with a lot of overspin, so it will roll pretty well.
Now the thing is when I play this shot, I want to choke down almost to the metal here, to the end of the grip,
and pick the club up very steeply with a sharp wrist break, and then simply just let the club fall onto the turf.
I don't want any follow through. I almost feel like I'm going to actually let go of the club.
I almost loosen my grip very slightly as the club makes contact with the turf.
So I sit up to it, weight on the front foot, hands ahead, pick the club up and just let the club fall onto the turf.
And you'll see how the ball just simply rolls up to the flag.
Grip it very lightly, just let the club fall and you'll see the ball will just shoot on up to the flag.
We're in the pitching area here Bill, so an important area certainly for the tour players because on par 5,
this is an area they usually land up in, say a few yards short of the green, anywhere up to maybe 60 yards at times,
and certainly they expect to get it down in two, in other words a pitch and a putt.
And for amateurs it's also important because on a lot of the long par 4s,
they need to be able to pitch it up close in order to make their par. So an extremely important part of the game.
The first pin I'd like you to aim for Bill is the one at the back of the green.
We have about 50 yards here and certainly this is a pitch shot in as much that we've got to loft it up to get it over this bunker.
We can't run it up can we, certainly, so why don't you have a go at the 50 yarder there.
Now I'll tell you what Bill, why don't you go for the short one here, we have about 35 yards to the pin,
and the greens are reasonably soft, I'll give you that little hint.
Not too bad, I think if we can give you a little better understanding of the pitching technique, you can really improve your pitching.
Now certainly Bill, from this area here I would recommend a sand wedge.
Now there's some players, maybe some ladies that don't have quite the strength, might have to use a pitching wedge,
but a sand wedge for most people from this distance is perfect, and if you get used to a sand wedge and practice with it, you can really get good at it.
Now what I'm going to do here is just demonstrate a little bit of what I see in your pitching action,
and first thing I'd like to do is let you know that the pitching swing is really a mini golf swing.
Now as you know with the full swing we've described how the body actually controls it.
See your pitching swing tends to be a little bit like your old swing where you used to just take it back with your arms and really your body wasn't involved.
So we're going to show you how your body can actually control how far you hit it and how consistently you hit it.
Now the first thing I saw was that when you set up to the ball you were very square,
which is okay with a full swing certainly, but remember although it's close to a full swing there are some slight variations.
So the first thing we need to do is get you set more open.
Say we're going to get the set up position correct.
Now don't worry I'm not going to aim at any particular target at this point in time, I'm just aiming for the green, that gives me a big enough target to aim at.
I feel comfortable setting myself open here.
You can see I've got the ball positioned just forward of middle.
I set my knees in a little bit towards the target, I want to be balanced here.
You're very square here with your knees. I want you to get your hands a little bit more forward too.
You can see as I set my hands here I'm really looking like I'm in a ready position.
In actual fact I feel like I'm setting up to the ball like I would like to be almost at impact.
That's the feeling I have anyway.
If you're too square like this you've got to do a lot of things in order to get into that impact position.
Right now, in your case we saw just the arms swinging here, the arms going back and the arms going through, very little body motion.
So as we've described all along with the full swing we want the body to move, we want it to control the way the club moves.
Certainly we have to feel the club cocking up here.
We don't want to just take it back here and be stiff-wristed, but we need to feel as we swing the club back and through the weight of the club actually sets our risk.
Alright, so are you with me up to this point?
So far.
Okay. So this turning motion I say is very important.
We just don't want to swing the arms because to me it looks like if you want to hit it harder you just try to hit the ball harder.
We have to make sure that what happens back here happens through here.
Very symmetrical in the looks, backswing and follow through.
So you can see with these two different distances we will be able to control the distance by the length of our swing, which means how much turn we actually have.
Okay, the turning of the body controls the length of the arm swing in both directions.
So let me show you here and you can have a good look at this.
So once again I'm setting myself up here, feel I have maybe 60% of my weight on my left side.
My hands are ahead and as I swing it back I focus on trying to turn my navel just as I would in the full swing and keep my arms and my body together.
Now I'm just going to hit a smooth shot here, not really focusing on the distance initially, making the turn.
Now you can see pretty much my backswing and my follow through are the same length.
Rhythm is very important here Bill, we don't want to get jerky or tight on it.
One little exercise that I like to show people to do so they don't get too handsy, so they do get the club up what I call on its end, is to actually just split your grip.
You don't have to hit balls doing it, but you just split your grip, swing it back, you can see the club points down here, the butt of the club points down.
As I swing through it points down in this direction, you see.
So that avoids this tendency that many players have to get the club going too far around them and around them this way.
Remember the angle and the arc that the club swings on with the wedge is very much more up and down.
Because the shaft is more upright than any other club in our bag it's going to be steeper up and down.
So we don't want to try to swing it too far around otherwise we get a poor angle onto the ball.
Get the idea?
I think I've got it.
Alright now what I want you to do, I want you to come over here and I want you to just hit some shots to the green.
Not at the target in particular, we'll just aim sort of at the middle of the green.
Alright?
Alright.
Alright you go ahead.
Well let's see.
I want to have the ball a little bit forward.
A little forward.
And I'm going to stand open.
Open.
Now because we're not really aiming at anything particular, let me just lie this club down on the ground.
That's going about at the middle of the green.
So you just stand a little bit open to the club.
Your feet are going to be certainly open to the target line here.
And your shoulders are almost square.
Maybe just a touch open but almost square.
Alright.
My weight a little left.
Little left.
60% left.
60% left.
Your hands are now a little forward of the ball.
And stance is a little narrower.
Okay.
Good.
Now you look a lot more athletic there.
Now what are we going to do from here?
I'm going to take it back.
Straight along the line.
That's it.
And we're going to do it with the turn of the body.
Right.
Not the arms.
Let's emphasize that.
Right.
The body turns.
There we go.
Good.
Now if we can imagine all we're trying to do is get maybe the left arm parallel to the ground.
Relax the arms so the weight of the club cocks the wrists.
From here we turn the body through.
And through here, pretty much a mirror image of your backswing.
So you can see your body is actually turned through.
Your arms and your body work together, Bill.
Why don't you just swing it back and forward a few times with that feeling.
Good.
That's it.
It seems like the swing, the plane is a little bit more upright in both directions, which is good.
Very important.
Take your address again, please.
Very important as you take the club back here, as you move it away, that you keep your hands inside the club head.
You just don't want ever to let the club go behind you.
Not that that's too bad.
It used to be, but you've improved that a lot, but you find many amateurs take the club too far around them with this little pitch shot.
All right.
There we go.
The club's in balance now.
You see it's on its end as I turn it.
Okay.
Now from there turn through.
Very good.
And again.
Good.
All right.
Now let's see you hit towards the middle of the green, if you would.
This is just to get the feel of the contact.
Now remember, rhythm is important.
Nice, smooth swing in both directions.
Hands forward.
Turn everything away and back through together.
Very good.
Very good.
Once again.
It takes much less effort to turn with the body instead of using my arms.
It really does.
I'm sure you feel it a little bit more like your full swing.
Very similar.
Good.
Getting the idea?
Much better.
Good.
Now we've got to talk about the distance.
So what I'd like to do now, I'd like to talk to you about how to hit the ball a certain distance with this technique.
All right.
Okay.
Now if I can just get my sand wedge here.
Now let's go to the first one here, the 35 yarder.
Now the thing I try to do with this is just set myself in a position, as we've just described,
and then make my practice swings and feel like I control the distance through the length of my turn and the length of my swing.
All right.
Now let's see how we do doing this.
So once again, I feel my turn controlling the length of my swing.
I keep it nice and smooth, and I really try to stay down this shot.
I don't want to peek too soon.
Not too bad there.
Not too bad at all.
Right.
Now let's go for the longer one, shall we?
I pitched that one maybe just a little too far up for green.
And I'm going to go now for the 50 yarder, trying to pitch it probably about 47.
We have to remember what the surface of the green is like.
Let's say the green is fairly soft here.
If it was firm or we were downwind, we then have to pitch the ball a little bit shorter.
So remember, you always have to assess the situation before you actually hit the shot.
Now in order for me to hit this one a little longer, all I'm going to do is widen my stance a little bit.
It just gives me a firmer base around which to work.
And now, making my practice swing, I increase the amount of my turn here,
and as a result, my backswing will get a little bit longer.
And I really sense the same rhythm that I had with the 35 yarder.
So I set up to it.
Slightly open.
Nice and relaxed.
Oh, good shot.
So you can see by controlling it with my body, Bill,
I'm going to be much more consistent than I would be if I just tended to use my hands and arms
and either accelerate it or decelerate it.
Let's have a go here.
All right.
You'll find it'll take a little time to get used to the exact distance,
but practice is the all-important thing here.
Very good.
Very good.
Much better for me.
Well, you can see here that with some practice,
I'm sure you feel you could get pretty good at this,
and it's really all, you know, it's just a case of practice.
Many people just don't hit enough shots from different distances.
They might stand and practice pitching,
but they'll hit one shot, say, to the 35 yard flag for about 30 minutes or so.
So remember, always vary the distance that you're trying to hit your shots,
and that way you start to instinctively feel how much turn
and how long your swing should be for the particular shot.
Well, let's get out of the rough here, Bill, shall we?
Put this down here.
We have about 35 yards to the pin, and to carry the bunker is about 18 yards.
So I put the ball down, fairly thick rough,
but the key here really is to keep the blade moving through.
We don't want to stop on the ball.
In order to do that, what we're really trying to do
is slide the leading edge of the club under the ball.
See, remember, there's a little bit of cushion underneath that ball,
so we can actually slide the club under the ball,
but we must keep the club moving.
And in order to do that, we want to use the arms.
We want to get the arms swinging.
You don't want to use a lot of wrist action or a lot of wrist cock in this move,
because if I cock my wrist too abruptly and swing the club down,
it gets stuck in the turf.
So we must keep the club moving.
Now, let's show you how to do this.
You want to flex your knees.
You want to be able to get down to it.
You don't want to stand too tall.
Flex your knees, get your feet a little bit wider than normal.
Still stand a little bit open as well.
Make sure you're aiming a little bit to the left.
Open the face slightly, and then get your arms swinging.
So you want a fairly complete swing.
You don't want too short a swing, and chop at it.
A full swing, and really keep the club moving through to the finish.
I'm aiming to look at the ball just behind it, maybe about an inch or so,
so I can actually get the club entering that point.
You're going to open the blade at all on this, Sean?
Yes, I am.
Just open it very slightly, and I'll make my move.
Well done.
You can see I kept my feet fairly still too.
So get your arms swinging, and keep your balance.
But remember, above all else, keep the club swinging through.
Let's see you do it, please, Bill.
All right.
Where should my weight be on this shot, David?
Fairly even. Fairly even.
That's it. Have a practice stroke first.
Get the arms swinging. There we go.
Very little wrist action here.
Keep the face slightly open, and keep the club swinging through to the finish.
Well, you gave that one a good thump, Bill, and that's a way to get out of this rough.
It's pretty thick.
It certainly is.
Well, there's the pitch shot from the rough.
So we've covered the basic pitch shot, a couple of different distances.
Now you've got the pitch from the rough.
So all these aspects you want to practice, I'm sure you'll find too as you go on
that you can work on a few shots of your own.
Now with the basic technique, at least I know what to go out and work on.
Exactly right.
I've got about a 50-yard shot, and to carry the water and the bunker that I've got in front of me
was probably about 45 yards.
So the pin is tucked very close here, a particularly difficult shot.
Now for most golfers, probably all they need to try to do is get it onto the green
where they have a reasonable length putt.
But if you have a little skill, you can actually work on getting the ball close to the hole.
So let me show you how to do this.
Now fortunately I have a fairly tight lie here, which is good,
because that allows me then to get a bit of spin.
And this is what we're really talking about, spinning the ball,
and it's what I would term a cut shot.
We're actually cutting across the ball slightly to put some side spin on it.
Now, in setting up to it, I set myself a little bit more open than I would normally.
You see, normally I would be standing here.
Okay, this would be square. I would be normally here.
Now for this shot I'm actually standing fairly open here.
So now I can swing the club back on my body line,
which in actual fact will be quite a bit outside the target line, you see.
So it's a case really of making sure that I'm swinging the club across and outside.
Now, I set up to it and weaken my right hand.
I get my right hand a little bit more on top.
That helps to keep the face open, because the big thing in this shot is to make sure
that as I hit it the club face does not close on me.
I want to make sure that my right hand always stays underneath my left hand.
In fact, I feel my right hand really hitting the shot.
So I feel like my right hand is almost facing the sky as I make contact with it.
Now you've got to be pretty aggressive too.
Remember, I'm adding loft to the club by opening the face,
and by swinging outside I'm certainly adding loft.
So I've got to be pretty aggressive when I hit this shot.
I would suggest a sand wedge here.
Okay, keep a little bit more weight on my left side,
still keeping that weight distribution there as with a normal pitch shot.
And also the ball about middle of the stance,
because that will enable me then to actually pick the club up.
Not too bad. It stopped pretty quickly.
So remember, forward, get your weight forward,
open the face, swing along your body line, and be aggressive.
Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, I'm going to do it once again.
Well, we're now in a spot, Bill, that many amateurs hate to get into.
Including me.
Okay, right. So, actually what we're going to do,
we're going to drop a few balls out here.
I hope we don't have to use the whole lot to show you how to do this,
or for you to show me how to do it.
And what I'd like to do is just to see you hit a few for me, Bill.
All right. You've got about a 15 yarder here, 45 feet or so.
Why don't you go ahead and hit two or three shots,
and I can have a look, see what your technique's looking like,
and see what we have to work on.
Well, that's a powerful one. I'd hate to play the next one.
It went a little long, didn't it?
Well, I think we need some work.
I think so.
What are your thoughts on bunker shots?
Well, what I usually try to do is I try to dig my feet in so I don't slip,
and I grip the club, and then I open the face,
play the ball ahead in my stance,
and I pick it up so I can hit down on it and be really aggressive
and take a lot of sand to get the ball out.
All right. Do you try to swing it outside or anything of that nature?
A little bit outside, try to cut across it.
Okay. Well, certainly we can see you've taken a big divot there.
Taking a shallow cut of sand is the answer for consistent bunker play.
Now, the thing is, you see, we have a club here which is designed to do that.
You know, the sand wedge is the modern-day sand wedge
is where the back edge of the club is actually higher than the leading edge.
What this allows us to do, we call that bounce,
what this allows us to do is to actually get the back of the club
making contact with the sand first.
Now, if the back of my hand is the sand, you can imagine as the club comes down,
we're trying to actually use the back of the club
as the first contact point with the sand.
The club will then slide and glide through the sand under the ball,
clipping the sand, removing the sand and the ball together.
What you don't want to do, you see, is get the leading edge coming down
and digging this way because no matter how hard you hit,
you're not going to get much power there because remember,
there's a tremendous amount of resistance down here with the sand
and the club just won't get through.
So you're going to sort of take a tremendous amount of sand
and then instinctively you're going to try to hit closer to the ball there
and then maybe just stand up on it slightly and then blade it over the green.
So what we have to learn to do is to actually use the bounce correctly
and that means we have to learn to keep the face more open during the actual sand shot.
Most players tend to get the face too closed.
Anyway, let's go through this.
Let me show you a few and we'll see if we can get you doing it the right way, shall we?
That sounds good.
Okay, right.
Now, certainly with what you said, there's a grain of truth, pardon the pun,
but the thing is what we have to learn to do is to get the face
but the thing is what we have to learn to do is to understand how we can use the bounce correctly.
Now, first thing we've got to do, as you rightly say, we have to bury our feet in the sand
and we have to get ourselves set slightly open to the target line.
You see, if this is our target line here to the flag like so,
what we want to do is stand open to it, in other words, aiming our body to the left,
probably somewhere in the region of about 30 degrees, something like that, okay?
Not too open, but about 30 degrees here.
So now we bury our feet in, we get the ball fairly far forward, as you said,
so that's certainly what we want to try to do.
And now we're in a position, as we set up to it there,
where we can actually swing the club on the proper path.
Now, one point that you mentioned, that you have to open the face,
well that's absolutely correct, but you do not want to just simply open it
because you see, as you swing back, it'll just naturally close.
What we have to do is to actually open the face first and then grip it.
See, so when we actually swing back, the face still stays open.
So that's very important, that's a different concept, isn't it?
Very different from what I've tried.
You see, so right, always open the face first, in other words,
if the leading edge points up, say, towards 12 o'clock,
we want to have it now pointing somewhere in a region of about 1 o'clock, shall we say.
Good, then you grip it, and then we put the club down.
So now, we're in a position where if we swing the club on our body line,
and you see this is very important to understand,
we swing the club on our body line, we don't try to swing it outside.
I'm already aiming to the left, so we don't have to try to take it outside,
because by doing that, you see, we pick the club up too quickly,
and that makes us come down too steeply.
So although we want the club entering the sound,
we don't want it to come down at such an acute angle that we take this big load of sand.
One of the other big areas that I really work on in bunker play,
apart from getting set up to it correctly and understanding that the face needs to be open,
we must make sure that we have good rhythm.
And we don't want to make the swing too short.
If we make the swing too short, we have to then accelerate it too aggressively.
In actual fact, you see, you want to control your distance
by the acceleration or amount of acceleration through the ball.
See, so the longer the shot, the more acceleration,
and the shorter the shot, the less acceleration.
But you don't want to sort of take it back to here and then accelerate through
because you get no rhythm whatsoever and you jerk the club into the sand.
Okay, here we go, nice and relaxed.
Pretty simple really, ready to have a go?
Sure am.
Okay.
Right, now, first of all, we're just going to have a little look at your technique there.
So just set up to the golf ball.
As we said, we want to, we'll probably aim maybe, you know, just 30 degrees to the left.
That was pretty good in fact in your case there.
So here's our target line, approximately here.
There we go, good.
Right, now, why don't you just hold the ball down a little bit.
Good, right, now, why don't you just hold the club there for me.
And this time, remember I'm going to open the face here, right.
Point it up here, make sure the leading edge here is somewhere around about 1 o'clock.
Okay, and then grip it.
See, that's different to what you were doing.
Yes it is.
Okay, you had the face dead square, didn't you?
All right, and then try to open it.
Right, now, right, we're going to aim somewhere, oh, in the region of about,
oh, three inches say back of the ball here, all right.
Just keep nice and relaxed, but keep the flex in your knees, okay.
Very good.
Now as we swing the club back here, you don't have to force the club outside.
I want you to swing the club back pretty much on the line of your body.
So here we go, we swing it back on the line of your body.
The wrist will cock, and you can see here, you can allow the club to swing back to quite a distance.
We don't have to swing it back too short.
And then really, because the face is open, see, much more open,
now we can go ahead and actually learn to release the club.
So as we swing through, look at the face here.
It feels like your right hand is almost coming underneath your left hand.
Put your left elbow just chicken wing slightly.
There we go.
Now you can see where you are there.
See, that's a very different position there.
So once again, let's move the ball out of here, and you can just go ahead
and just try to take a divot, and you want to sense that you're actually going to make contact
with the back of the club there.
So much shallower divot there.
Okay, so go ahead and relax there.
Really feel the weight of the club there, Bill.
Swing it back nice and freely, back and through.
Good, and again.
Good, I like that sound there.
That's the sound.
Good.
Now, as a little drill, let me see you just swing the club with your right hand now.
Hold the club just with your right hand.
Now you see, as you swing it back with your right hand, you'll notice how easily
the club rotates into an open position.
See, when you have both hands on and you're a little bit tight and tense,
the tendency is for the face to go back almost in this fashion, you see?
So just swing it back there, and you just sense the back of the club is going to bounce into the sand.
Very good, and again.
Very good drill this.
That's it, good.
So you do, or you should feel in actual fact your knees working a little bit there.
You want a bit of movement there.
You don't want to just stay flat-footed there.
So just allow your knees just to move.
That's it, good.
Now bounce the back of the club on the sand.
Good.
All right, now the test.
Now remember, this really should be quite an easy shot because it's the only shot in golf
you actually don't have to hit the ball.
All right?
We're actually making contact with the sand, and the ball rides out on the sand.
So remember, a shallow divot.
I don't want you to worry about the flag.
You just hit it onto the green somewhere.
Okay?
Right, let's see if we can get the technique and the form down,
and once you get confidence of getting out and get the right contact,
then we'll start to aim at a target.
Okay.
Okay?
All right, now take your time.
So remember the ball position, fairly far forward.
That's good.
You've got your grip there, and nice and relaxed.
Now remember, try to keep the feeling of the swing.
Keep nice and relaxed.
Feel the weight of the club the whole time.
You want to almost feel like the club's just falling into the sand.
You don't have to help it too much, okay?
Right, and a fairly lengthy swing.
Have some trust in the length of the swing.
Off we go, back and through.
Oh my goodness, that was a little bit different.
That was a lot better, huh?
See how much easier that came out?
You see there was no real force or tension there.
Okay, let's do that once more.
All right, so a little further forward maybe.
That's it, remember.
Say you want your club face aimed just a little right at the flag.
Body just a little to the left.
Keep the arms nice and relaxed.
Swing it back.
That's it, good.
Now you really feel when you swing through,
this is a little test on this next one,
as you bring it down, make sure you're looking at the face.
Okay.
Okay, as you bring it down.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay, bring it down, have a look at it.
Can you look at the face here?
There we go.
Good.
My goodness, see, totally different sound there.
You see you're actually compacting the sand correctly.
That sound we heard there was using the bounce correctly.
Okay, Bill, well I've got the pin set further back here.
We've got about 22 yards there I think.
So what we're going to do now is just change the technique very slightly.
Pretty much I like to think in terms of the acceleration through the ball
to determine the distance that I hit a shot.
I don't like to think in terms of, you know,
just particularly trying to hit harder,
but really keeping the club accelerating all the way through to the finish.
Now, in setting up to it here, once again we just take our normal setup position here.
And I also would advise you to put the ball just a little further back in the stance as well.
Okay, so because what that helps us to do is to actually take the club away
maybe just a little bit lower to start with,
instead of having it further forward where we might tend to take it out
and up a little bit too quickly.
So just a little further back there just gets us slightly shallower on the ball.
So all we do then is just make the same type of golf swing
and accelerate it all the way through to the finish.
Okay, now you can see pretty much the same technique.
Not really a whole lot different, but really my thought pattern changed
in order to try to accelerate it all the way through.
Go ahead and give it a go.
Okay, put your feet in my big footprints there.
Okay, so remember just a little further back.
Alright, once again, a little bit deep on it.
I want it more shallower.
Alright, and I want a little fuller backswing too, okay?
So make sure you complete the backswing there.
Okay, nice and relaxed there.
Full swing there, accelerate it through all the way to the finish.
Alright, well we're getting closer anyway.
So it's going to take a little bit of practice,
but as you can see pretty much the same swing, a little bit more acceleration.
Well, how about the shorter one now?
That definitely makes me nervous.
Alright, well let's have a look at that one, shall we?
Well, the situation we have right here, Bill,
is that we have about a 30-foot bunker shot.
Half of it is sand and half of it is green,
so we've got 15 foot to cover basically.
So what we have to do, realizing the fact that the green slope's away from us
and it's fairly quick, we've got to sort of plop the ball up fairly high
and get it to stop reasonably quickly.
Really all I do is I set up to it here,
make sure that I have my knee flexed here, very important,
and get myself in a position where as I swing the golf club
I'm still going to make sure that I have a nice lengthy swing.
If I get too short I lose my rhythm,
so I lengthen the swing and control my acceleration once again.
You'll notice here on this shot here how short a follow-through I have.
That means I'm not accelerating the club as much through the ball,
so I really try to control the amount of acceleration that I have.
Okay?
Alright, now you'll notice too as I set up to it,
what I've done here is just set the face a little bit more open here,
and try to get a bit more loft on the face.
Okay, so setting the face just a little bit more open here.
Now let's make a nice smooth swing here, shall we?
Well that sat down nicely.
Good shot.
Think you can do that?
Well I can try.
Show me.
Alright, once again we'll let you have a practice swing here
just to get the feel for it.
And by the way, that's a good point for folks at home to remember,
to feel for your bunker shot.
Actually do it on the verge or on the grass outside of the bunker.
You'll see many players doing that just to get the feeling of their swing.
Okay, obviously you can't do it in the bunker.
Right, now hit the sand for me.
That's it.
Okay.
Okay.
Alright, so nice and relaxed there now.
Right, now visualize the shot still.
Aim in the club, two to three inches behind the ball,
preferably three inches there.
Just let the weight of the club just fall into the sand.
My goodness, Bill.
Better than a teacher.
I tell you, we're going to quit while we're ahead.
I don't think we're going to push our luck too much.
That's great.
Well I bet I know which one you're going to ask me about next, Bill.
The buried lie.
I knew it, I knew it.
Okay, go ahead.
This is always a problem one for many people.
Right, it sort of buries in its own pitch mark there.
And the two ways of playing this, Bill, for most golfers,
it's probably the safer route is to actually close the face
where you make sure you get the club digging in behind the ball
as close to the ball as you can.
But remember, as you do that, the ball will actually run quite a long way.
So you've just got to expect, first of all, to get the ball out on the green.
That's the most important thing.
So at least you have a putt.
So all I do is put the ball back in my stance a little here.
Okay, put a little bit more weight on my left foot here so I'm firmly anchored.
And then I just toe the face in a little bit.
You can see if I hold it straight up like that,
it's actually pointing somewhere towards, or about 11 o'clock, I would say.
Okay, if that was 12, somewhere towards about 11.
Okay, so I simply just really turn it.
This time I just turn, I make sure I turn it.
You know, the normal bunker shot we've said before,
you open it and then grip it.
This time I'm just going to close the face here.
Okay, so I close it, so it just enables me to pick it up
and into the sand very steeply.
Okay, so let's see how we do here.
So I'm just going to pick it up there, let the club fall into the sand.
That was pretty good to leave it short of that pin.
I'll say.
All right, now let me show you the other one now.
Barry, this time I'm going to keep the face open now.
The whole time with both of these shots, you don't want to try to follow through.
Stick the club in the sand and leave it there.
Okay, right, so we have the ball a little back in the stance,
weight forward again, and I make sure my hands are well forward.
You can see I've got the face open and my hands well forward.
Now this enables me to get the club up very steeply
so I can put the club in just behind the ball,
and by keeping the face open,
it'll actually send the ball up a little higher.
Okay, so normally it'll help it to stop just a little bit quicker.
So let's try that one.
So here we go, weight forward, hands forward,
pick the club up, and no attempt to have a long follow through.
Even better.
Well done.
They're tough, but a little bit of practice, you can get them out as well.
Yeah, you don't always get the nice level lie
where you can just hit a perfect shot.
You get all these little tricky ones you have to work on.
So all right, there we go.
Our ball happened to finish here, okay, on the upslope.
There we go.
So fortunately the pin's fairly close here.
It makes it a little bit more difficult when the pin's further away.
But the big thing with slopes, Bill,
is to make sure that you try to set yourself parallel to it.
In other words, in this situation, obviously I'm going uphill,
so what I want to do is try to set my body in such a way
that my shoulders, I feel, are parallel to that slope.
I'm actually going to now have the ball further forward in my stance
than I would normally, so almost right off my left heel here,
and I instinctively try to bury my right foot deeper into the sand.
That actually helps me to tilt down a little bit more here, you see.
So I get my right side really low, because what I'm trying to do
is actually swing the club away fairly low, and then swing up the slope.
So I'm really trying to use the contour here.
So let's see how we do here.
I choke down on it, I set up to it here.
Got the face pretty open too.
See, the worst thing we can do is to have the face too square
and lean into the bank and actually hit into it this way.
So I set myself up parallel to the slope here,
swing down the slope, and then just swing up with a nice smooth motion.
So you see not a great deal of divot there,
just simply swinging up the slope and the ball pops out every time.
Well, that's great.
Let me just reach for my 8 iron here,
which is not normally used out of a bunker,
but on this occasion I definitely think it will help.
Okay, stay there.
Right, now, really just playing the same way, opening the face.
Remember, you see, when you're setting back in this fashion here,
you actually add so much more loft to the club.
So in actual fact, if you've got to go further,
a sandwich might not travel that far.
So use an 8 iron and use the same principles here.
Just swing up and down the slope.
Just like that.
That's great.
Would you mind showing me one from a slightly buried lie?
It seems that whenever I hit a ball into the bank,
it sits like that rather than cleanly.
Come on, Bill, make it a good one.
Knock it in there like that, shall we?
Right, well, this is normally what happens if you're under club,
especially if the pin's tucked close and you're going for the pin.
You tend to, say, bury in the bank there if the sand is soft.
That's a pretty mean shot, this one.
So the big thing is really,
this time you want to sort of set yourself into the slope more
because we want the club going in, don't we?
All right, now, as much force as we can impart into the sand, the better.
So I'm going to show you a little technique here
that doesn't look graceful but normally gets the ball out.
So you want to close the face a little bit.
You can see I've actually closed the face a little here.
Now I'm in a position where as I pick the club up here,
I'm actually going to try to hit it and fall backwards
because that will allow me to impart a lot more speed.
So let's see how we do here.
Great shot.
And that's the way to do it.
Well, we've changed location here slightly, Bill,
and this is a tough one for sure.
It's a difficult shot because the ball's going to come out low
because you see going downhill, it delofts the club.
So that's the problem. It's going to come out low.
Now we've got a few yards, about six yards of bunker to carry.
We've got to go over a little hill to a downhill lie
with water behind the green. So not too tough.
So the thing is, as with the uphill lie,
we've got to make sure we set ourselves parallel to the slope.
Okay, so we get, try to feel that your left leg in actual fact
is shorter than your right, so you bury your left foot in a little bit more.
Bend your left knee a little too.
So that helps to get you a little more slanted here.
And this enables you then to swing the club up the slope,
and then the big key is to keep swinging down the slope.
Whatever you do, don't pull out of the shot
or don't attempt to have a long follow through.
So you want to pick the club up and swing down the slope.
So the other thing I'm going to do, I'm going to aim well left here too
because I want to pick the club up there
and feel like I'm going to be cutting it a little bit more.
So I'm actually taking it outside just a little bit more than I would normally.
Alright, so let's have a go at this one.
Well, that's about as good as I could have done from there, Bill.
It's a tough shot, but with a little bit of practice
and setting up to it correctly, anybody can hit it.
Well, David, one of the things that's always been a mystery to me
is how to play the long bunker shot.
Well, I'll tell you, Bill, even for the best players in the world,
the long bunker shot is sometimes the most problematical.
You know, here for instance, we've got about 20 yards of bunker to overcome,
and we've got 20 yards of green.
So, say, a 40-yard shot here, and it's a very difficult shot
because it's somewhere between a pitch and a full bunker shot.
So that's why it's a tricky one.
Now, there is one way I feel that you could actually learn to play this.
It takes a little bit of practice, a little bit of skill,
but it's worth pursuing.
Now, what you do is you just take a 9-iron,
and you try to play it the same way that you would your normal sandwich.
In other words, you open the face, and certainly there's no real bounce
on the bottom of a 9-iron,
but what we are able to do by opening the face is create a little bounce,
and that's all we need.
So let's see how we do, shall we?
Okay, so I'll set up to it here.
Get the ball maybe just a little back in the stance
like I would for any long bunker shot.
Play it in a way that, you know,
I've got my hands set slightly ahead of the club.
Now, big thing is rhythm. I don't want to jerk it,
because if I jerk it, I'm going to stick the club in the sand,
and it's not going to get any sort of distance at all on it.
So let's see how we do. Just try to make a nice smooth swing here.
And off we go.
Pretty good there, Bill.
Great shot, David.
Well, you see, even though we have tough shots,
make them a challenge.
You know, practice on these things,
because if you practice them the right way,
you can get good at them as well,
and this is what the tall players do.
They save pass from impossible positions.
Well, that was impressive.
I've got one more shot I'd like to ask you to hit, though.
Okay.
Well, David, how am I going to play this one?
That's a toughie.
I think I've got a clap for that one. Just hang on.
You sure you do?
Tree's right in the way with me in the pin.
See, there's more than one way to get yourself out from a bad life,
so it just takes practice.
Well, I'm either going to have to practice with this or with that.
Here's a little shot that faces us occasionally.
It's a little bit of a challenge, but it's a good one.
It's a good one.
It's a good one.
Here's a little shot that faces us occasionally.
We've just got a few feet of bunker and a few feet of green,
and so it's a case, really, of hitting a very soft shot.
So I would suggest you better players out there try this little technique.
It can sometimes prove very valuable.
What you do is you flex your knees, get your feet a little wider,
get a slightly wider base.
Flex your knees and have the ball further back in your stance
than you would normally.
We're also going to be standing a little further away from the ball
because that allows us to lower our hands,
and as you can see, my hands are pretty much opposite the ball.
They'll be slightly ahead of it,
but we don't want to get them too far forward.
Now, the key being by lowering my hands and standing further away,
I actually open the face a little bit more.
Now, what I want to attempt to do here is to get very shallow on the ball.
I don't want to get steep with a deep divot.
So setting myself here, I have a nice rhythmical swing here,
and just try to slide the leading edge under the ball.
See, that comes out so softly,
and although we haven't got very far to go,
it's a particularly tricky shot, so work on that one.
Stand further away, hands lower, cock your wrists slightly here,
not a very long swing, and just slide the club under the ball.
Hello, David.
Hello, Bill. How's it going?
It's going very well.
What are you up to here?
Well, I'm practicing the drill that we went over when we did pitching,
and I've thrown some towels out there at different distances
and trying to gauge some feel with this club as I vary my swing.
Good. Well, I'm impressed, and this is what it's going to take,
some hard work, really practicing on all the different things that we've worked on.
We've gone over putting and chipping and pitching and bunker play,
and all those departments of the short game you've really got to work on,
because to get good at it, it has to become instinctive,
and the only way it becomes instinctive and you have that feel
is just through practice.
Most people, unfortunately, never spend the time,
so what I would like you to do, I don't want you to neglect your long game, obviously,
but I would like you to spend at least 50% of your practice time,
whatever it is, on your short game, on these four areas.
How does that sound to you?
That sounds great.
I would like the viewers at home to sort of look at the tape in its entirety
and then work on each section. That's the best way to do it.
You know, there's a lot here, and you can't get it all down at once.
There's lots of little tips. Every time you replay the video,
I'm sure you'll pick up different things.
But your short games come on great.
Anyway, I'd like to thank Lake Nona, first of all, for their beautiful facility.
I think we've had a great time here, beautiful weather,
and I'd like to thank you too, Bill.
And let's keep working on it, shall we?
Well, David, it's been a pleasure to be with you. Thanks for the help.
OK, go ahead. We're going to watch you finish off here.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.