MID- IRONS/ APPROACH SHOTS Blu Tack face and grip drill

9You can practise this at home to improve your awareness of how the clubface is affected by the way you hold the club. Attach a pencil to the centre of your clubface with Blu Tack, as shown.

At address, the pencil should cover the alignment stick. From here, you’ll get an understanding of where your clubface is during the backswing and whether you tend to open it (pencil up), close it (pencil down) or keep it fairly neutral (pencil straight).

A strong grip with lots of knuckles showing on the top hand will encourage more of a closed clubface when you take the club back; a weak grip will see the pencil pointing more towards the sky. Work on presenting the club back to target without any twisting or manipulation.

Many club golfers get diagnosed with a swing that’s too fast, when it’s really the order in which they change direction that needs correcting. We want to get a feel for the rotation of the body, almost setting the club at the top and then having a smooth change of direction.

Take your set-up and feel that you rotate your shoulders 90˚, so your left shoulder is pointing down towards the ball. Then set the arms and wrists, so they take the club to the top of the swing. Finally, you want a smooth rotation of the lower body, with the lead hip and leg starting to rotate. Avoid making a little turn and a big, jerky snatch from the top. Get used to this feeling and the three distinct checkpoints and you’ll notice a better sequence of movements in your downswing.

Think about how an aeroplane lands. This is what you need your club to do to chip well – a shallow bruising of the turf. Too steep with your wedge and you’ll lose friction between clubface and ball. The sole should glide through contact so you maximise friction on the ball, adding spin and control. Rather than digging down, I like to see the forearms and body rotation keeping the movement nice and shallow. Lay an alignment stick or similar down, propped up at a shallow angle as here, and try to replicate that angle into the ball.