A SHARPER SHORT GAME

HIS 10 COMMANDMENTS

Aformer tour champion, Pete Cowen reinvented himself as one of the most in-demand teaching professionals in the game. His work with Rory, Henrik Stenson and Brooks Koepka has seen him amass well over 250 PGA Tour victories and multiple Majors. Here he presents his 10 short game commandments...

1 Don’t swing to stay in balance, swing in balance. If you watch someone who hits it down the middle all the time, they swing within themselves, finish perfectly in balance, and can hold that position for 20 seconds. Most golfers can’t do that because their mechanics aren’t good enough.

2 The swing is like a spiral movement. If you want to create a little torque in the body, which is where the power comes from, you need to do more than just turn the shoulders. You need to use your lower body and feel like you’re turning a screw with your feet so you can wind up into the backswing. As you swing back, the weight should move like a spiral, from the left foot to the right ankle, left ankle to right shin, left shin to right knee, left knee to right thigh and left thigh to right hip. When you go from left hip to right ab, you can then start to match the positions with the hands. So, when you go from left ab to right chest, your hands are at chest height. When you go from left chest to right shoulder, your hands are at shoulder height. Thinking like this will get the body working properly and create a set of reference points for different lengths of shots. It’s much easier than consciously putting your hands at nine, 10 or 11 o’clock.

3 Save shots by keeping it simple. When I was watching Vijay Singh at the Masters a long time ago, he was right of the green on the 15th and playing a flop to a pin just over the bunker. In the practice round, he was landing it right by the flag, no problem at all. But in the tournament, he chose to chip it to the

back of the green. He didn’t even try the shot, despite having practised it. He knew he could get himself into a lot more trouble by trying something so risky. At worst he was going to make par. A lot of the time it’s about playing the percentages.

4 If you want to play a release chip, use a 7-iron. If you want a slightly flighted chip, use a 9-iron. If you want a high chip, use a lob wedge. But regardless of the club change, stick to a vertical set-up. That’s why a lot of pros stand with their feet close together when they’re chipping, so they can keep the centre of the sternum over the ball a lot easier. The truth is that 90 percent of players would be better playing with their feet together. Why? Because they will turn around a more consistent centre, and so the bottom of the arc will be more consistent as well. Plus, research proves they will only lose 10 percent of their usual distance, which is a trade worth making.

5 There’s a lot of confusion about hinging and cocking, especially when it concerns shorter shots. You cock the wrist up and down, and hinge the wrist back and forward. You need to hinge when you chip, and then use a combination of the two when you’re pitching. If you try to cock the wrists like a hammer when you chip, that’s what throws the club miles out of plane and adds unwanted height. If you keep the shaft more vertical and have a slight hinge, the action almost resembles a brushing motion, and that will get the ball running on the ground a lot quicker.

6 If you’re chipping as opposed to pitching, the goal should always be to get the ball running on the ground, as quickly as you can. When I helped Brooks at the US Open at Pinehurst, we were talking a lot about chipping because there were so many run-offs. I put him in six different spots and said, “If your life depended on it, what shot would you play?” He said, “If my life depended on it, I would putt!” He finished fourth that week and got his Tour card. Martin Kaymer won and he’s not a great chipper. What did he do? He putted most of the time. Everybody thinks that they need to chip when they’re off the green, but the short game is about getting the ball in the hole. Sometimes, we force ourselves to chip and ignore the simplest shot.

7 One of the biggest faults I see is people standing too far away from the ball, and having little control of the butt end of the club. If the butt travels too far back or forward when chipping and pitching, it causes the bottom of the arc to change, which causes inconsistencies. The more you minimise the movement, the better your consistency.

8 Chip with a rescue club to eliminate the fat shot. The thickness of the sole can almost bounce through the grass. Plus, because it’s hard to get underneath the ball on a links course, it’s easy to thin a chip with a wedge. That’s why golfers who suffer from the yips, or play a lot of links golf, could benefit from using a rescue club and playing it like a putt. The little bit of loft on the face will get the ball up and over a patch of grass, and running on the ground a lot quicker.

9 I wouldn’t recommend playing a flop shot unless the lie is near perfect. You need grass underneath the ball, but most people attempt it when the lie is bare. The timing has to be perfect, and a lot of the time people don’t swing back far enough and then decelerate into impact. They’re scared basically, and if you’ve got no confidence, your short game will suffer.

‘SO MUCH OF THE TIME IT’S ABOUT PLAYING THE PERCENTAGES. IT’S ABOUT KNOWING WHEN NOT TO PLAY A SHOT THAT CAN PUT YOU IN TROUBLE’

10 One shot I think people should practise more is the ‘belly wedge’. When the grass is up against the ball, trying to play a normal chip or even a flop shot is almost impossible because there’s usually so much grass between the ball and club that it just doesn’t come out. When you don’t have any control, sometimes you just need to get the ball tumbling forward, even if it doesn’t look pretty. Using your lob wedge and trying to thin it with the leading edge to cut through the grass and hit the back of the ball is far more effective.