Tips On: Short Golf Game Faults And How To Fix It

Golf Monthly

In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by tour coach Liam James to offer some simple guidance on how to escape bunkers and chip it closer!

Transcript

00:00One of the fastest ways to improve your game this year might well be to concentrate on the

00:10short game. Now we've teamed up with Ping and we're here at the London Club to offer you some

00:14really helpful pointers about how to improve starting, Liam, with bunker play. Now I guess

00:20the issue that a lot of people will have is that they either are in danger of thinning the ball

00:24into the face or fatting it and leaving it in the bunker so how do you get more consistent with the

00:28amount of sand you take? Yes so the most inconsistent thing that you see in the bunker really is

00:32obviously where the club is striking the ground so as you've just mentioned there some players

00:37trying to help the golf ball out of the bunker hitting the hitting the sand in the wrong place

00:41and then obviously that fearful thin that goes through the back of the green but we've got a

00:45simple drill for you here basically that just enables you to obviously make sure that when

00:50you're practicing back home and you're practicing in the bunker you are entering the sand in the

00:54right place every time so it's just a simple line here in the sand and there's a couple of basic

00:59things that we're going to do in your setup just to enable you to ensure that we're going to hit

01:03that ground in the right place. Okay so tell us about that setup then what do you need to do

01:08to make sure that you're in the right place? So again just a little common thing that we start to

01:12see quite a bit of is that you know when a player's set up here obviously the first thing that we

01:18generally see is the golf ball gets a little bit too far back in their stance so this line that I've got here on

01:22the ground I'm just going to make sure that that's just inside my left heel in the setup and then

01:28obviously when I've got now into my address position I'm just going to place a little bit more of my

01:32weight onto my left side so I've got about 70 to 80 percent of my weight on this left side now and as

01:38I'm just having a few practice swings all I'm going to ensure is that I'm just going to strike that line

01:43in the same place every single time. I guess the temptation Liam for people when they're hitting a

01:51bunker shot but any sort of chip shot is to kind of lean back on it a bit feel like you're helping

01:55the ball up in the air it can feel like the most natural thing to do but actually that can hurt you

01:59absolutely and that's where you've just got to trust the fact that you've got plenty of loft in

02:03your hands in the first place I mean we've got 56 degrees of loft here so there's no need for me to

02:08try and add any more loft at any given point but there's just a little bit of a trust thing in

02:11there to make sure that you you set up in the right place first of all but 80 percent of this really is

02:16an easy setup if we get that right the rest of it is a lot more straightforward. Okay Liam so talk

02:21us to the drill. Okay so basic drill obviously I've drawn the line in the sand here so all that

02:26we're going to do really when we set ourselves up in the practice now two or three practice swings

02:30before we go ahead and hit the ball and I'm just going to make sure that this golf ball is just

02:34positioned inside of my left foot here okay and now I'm going to place around 70 percent of my weight

02:39onto that front side as I mentioned and I'm just going to have a few practice swings making sure

02:44that I'm hitting the sand in the right place okay the big thing to watch out for when you're doing

02:50this is obviously making sure we're not seeing the club enter the sand too far behind that line

02:55because that will refer to what we spoke about so shall I give it a go? Give it a go yeah let's see

03:01okay so plenty of loft on the golf in a dress there ball's just inside my left foot I've got a little bit

03:06of weight on that left side perfect and then off we go lovely and if you can do that then you should be

03:13able to kind of eradicate some of those really poor shots that might be costing you in the bunker

03:18okay so we're moving on to chipping now and Liam I guess for whatever level of golfer you are

03:24getting consistently the distance right is the key isn't it so how do you how do you go about

03:30training that how can you practice for that absolutely so I mean there's there's first of

03:34all a couple of things that you can do just generally basics in your setup that offer you a

03:38little bit more control kind of when you're hitting a chip shot so often we see a lot of amateurs hitting

03:44golf shots with their hands right at the top of the grip here now the clubs actually it's heaviest

03:49when you're holding all the way up here so to gain yourself a little bit more control and again help

03:54you gauge the distance a little bit better the first thing to do is just grip down the golf club a

03:59little bit so you can see my hands are almost covering the golf pride there on that grip so

04:02right now the second thing that I've got set out here for when you're practicing is there's

04:08just a towel on the green there so that's my ideal landing area for this shot so to refer that to your

04:14distance control all that we're going to do now is just have a few different practice swings and the

04:19only thing that I'm trying to do here is is just have a relevant practice swing of how hard I'm trying

04:24to hit that often we see a lot of golfers have very irrelevant practice swings where they might be

04:29swinging back too far or they're not even have a practice swing at all yes so you're really trying

04:33to gain a feel for distance just by looking at the towel and then feeling the left side swing so just

04:39eyes on the towel a few different practice swings there just keeping my eyes on there and just trying

04:44to gauge if I'm taking that golf club far enough back in order to land it where I want and when you're

04:49out of golf course then are you trying to how much attention are you paying to your landing spot when

04:53you're on the golf course is that just as important there 100 identifying that landing area first of all

04:59is a really important part and often something a lot of golfers don't do so it's worth just taking

05:03a little look having a little walk around before you hit the chip shot and just trying to identify

05:08yourself an area where you'd like to land the golf ball in order for it to release back down to the

05:12pin okay let's give it a go okay so I'm going to make sure that as I mentioned my I'm just covering

05:18that the logo on the bottom of my grip there I'm going to have two or three practice swings just

05:23keeping my eye on that landing area just trying to replicate the swing that I need I'm going to get in

05:29there and give it a hit very good it's these sorts of drills that if you can use them it stops you

05:38getting too technical stops you thinking too much but should help improve your feel and that could

05:43make a big difference to your scores

05:52you

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