Image Up Advertising & Design

18 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | MAY 2021 | By Brian Garlington, PGA, Director of Golf One of the easiest ways to lower your golf scores is to improve your short game. A combination of good technique, proper shot selection, and structured practice can add up quickly. Sometimes, however, life gets in the way, and it's hard to find the time to take a lesson or practice as much as you might like. Here are some shortcuts and ways to improve your technique right away. 1. Putt like a Pro Keeping your lower body still when putting will make it much more likely to roll the ball on the line as well as be more consistent controlling the distance. Next time you are watching golf on television, notice how the Tour Pros keep their lower body stationary when putting. You can improve your chances of staying still by turning your toes in much like Arnold Palmer used to do. This will force you to keep your lower body still as it limits your ability to move and turn. You can use this for a drill, but many times, drills can work just as well when used over the span of your round. 2. Stroke, Hold, Look A good habit when putting is to complete your stroke, hold the finish, and THEN turn your eyes to see the ball rolling. This goes back to being still over your putting stroke to eliminate unnecessary and unwanted movement that can make it difficult to control distance and direction. Make sure you complete your stroke, hold your finish and once the ball is well away from you, then turn to see it either go in, or roll close to the pin on a longer putt. 3. Putting from the Rough? You've heard the cliché that golf is a game of inches. One of the more frustrating examples of that is when your ball rolls just past the pin, off the edge of the green and settles into the rough. While it can be very tricky to hit a soft chip or pitch you are just a couple of feet into the rough, you can putt instead. To do this, make one very important setup change: place a ton of weight on your forward foot and drop your forward shoulder to match. This extreme shoulder tilt toward the target will change the angle that the putter head approaches the ball. Rather than a shallow, sweeping stroke, this stance will help the putter glance down the back of the ball, which makes it much easier to have direct contact between the ball and the putter face. This extreme contact angle will cause the ball to "jump" a bit, which typically clears the longer grass and then when the ball lands onto the green it will start to roll normally. 4. Choke Down on Short Shots Those particularly short chips and pitches can often be a big challenge when it comes to getting your distance control right. Here is a wonderful opportunity to use physics: shorten the lever, and less power will be delivered. The lower you hold on the club the shorter your golf ball will travel. It's as simple as that! 5. Heel Up for Chips When you are hitting your basic chip shot, grip lower on the handle, narrow your stance and slightly lean your weight, club shaft and upper body forward toward the target. Many golfers will incorrectly fall back and try to lift the golf ball. This can cause you to hit the ground before the ball or even top it, but in either case contact will suffer. A great "trick" to avoid this is to get all set up and then pick up your back heel and keep it up throughout your stroke. This will help to avoid any tendency to fall back and try to lift the golf ball, helping to produce solid ball and turf contact. While this may be used as a drill, if you find it makes a big difference in contact, you may want to consider adding it to your on-course play. 6. Bounce vs. Dig When you are hitting a pitch shot with your lob, sand or gap wedge, the bottom is rounded on purpose. It's called bounce. This design characteristic is built to allow your club to glide across the grass and not dig. The good news is when you set the club properly on the bottom, where it doesn't dig, there's no reason to be hesitant about letting it hit the ground. This is what will help you to hit high, soft, pitch shots that land like butterflies with sore feet. 7. Limit Your Risk One of the quickest ways to improve your score and your short game is to limit your risk by choosing the least risky shot when possible. And if you have ever taken a short game lesson or clinic from me, you have heard me explain my three rules on when to putt, chip, or pitch the ball. Your priority order for short game: 1. Putt whenever you can. 2. Chip when you can't putt. 3. Pitch only when you have to. Simply understanding that order and sticking to it when you play will limit your risk and allow subtle misses to not show up on your scorecard. You might be surprised to know that better players know to limit their risk and choose the shot they can execute the highest percentage of the time, even if they're proficient in all areas of their short game. While having time to practice and take lessons is nice and will pay off on the course, having little "tricks" to help you to make better decisions and understand fundamentals can help you to see results right away. Good Golfing! 7 Short Game Tips to Instantly Lower Your Scores

• Cover