DISTANCE CONTROL WITH YOUR MOST LOFTED CLUBS
Bring these four elements into your short irons to improve your ability to meter power and distance
1. Harness swing length
The concept of matching backswing and throughswing lengths to control power is not new. Yet it remains one area that separates elite golfers from club players. The Tour pro routinely practises swinging back to a measurable length – let’s say hands at chin height – and then forward to the corresponding throughswing length. This promotes a regular and repeatable creation of speed through the stroke, just as a pendulum reaches the same swing speed every time. When you apply this concept to three dierent swing lengths – short, mid and long – and use it with three dierent wedges, you can create a spread of nine stock distances that cover most approaches to short par-4s. It’s simple and eective … and it’s time you brought it into your game.
2. Target stability
Many club players associate a solid lower body with the creation of resistance and power; but it’s just as important on feel approaches, where you must swing from a stable base to generate the precise strike you need ...
1. Get a grip
Adopt your regular pitching stance. Take your lead hand o the handle and grab the trouser fabric at the front of your trail leg thigh. Pull it forward.
2. Rock solid
Make a trail arm-only backswing from here. Keep pulling with your gloved hand and your trail leg will pretty much hold its position, supporting your backswing and limiting excessive motion. This gives you the stability you need to make crisp, consistent contact. Use this exercise to get a feel for a quieter lower half, before repeating the feel with your regular, two-armed swing.
3. Keep the chest turning to control face loft
When it comes to controlling flight and distance, clubface control is vital. Your upper body has a key role to play here ...
1. Chest rotates: Face stays square When your chest and hips contribute to the strike by turning through, your hands and arms become more passive; they start to respond to the rotating torso. This calms clubface rotation, allowing the face to remain square to the swing path. That helps you deliver the club’s true loft to the ball, which means regular, controlled distance.
2. Chest stalls: Clubface rolls
As soon as your hips and chest stop rotating, you are left with no option but to leave the strike to your hands and arms. They can respond by holding the clubface open (adding loft) or more often rolling it closed, shutting and strengthening the face. Either way, your control of distance and line will suer.
3. Train chest rotation: Twin-arm throw
If you are having trouble getting your chest to turn through, practise throwing a football or equivalent from your golfing posture. Stand side-on to your target – a friend or even a wall – and throw the ball across yourself using both arms.
Torso twist
To throw with any accuracy, you will have to turn your chest to face your target. This precisely mirrors the rotation you need during the golf swing, and especially in the pitching action where there is less rotational momentum to help you turn through. Throw the ball 20 times before repeating the motion over a pitch shot.
4. EQUIPMENT: MIND THE GAPS
Whether you use three or four wedges is up to you; but whatever your decison, work with a PGAqualified expert to ensure your loft gaps deliver a sensible spread of power. Note that this should start with the pitching wedge, whose loft is rarely printed on the sole. Establish this before setting up your wedges. Because my PW is 46º, lofts of 50º, 54º and 58º give me my best coverage of distance from 125 to 65 yards – all the lengths I need for attacking short par-4s.