LOWER YOUR SCORE - WITH BETTER GREEN READING

Compared to the full swing there has been little written about the short game and also many golfers avoid working on this area of there game. A putt is probably looked at as the simplest shot form played in golf, but the most important shot form when lowering your score. Not every golfer has the talent or the physical capability to make repeatable putt stroke like a tour professional. As every golfer has the possibility to improve there short game and through this save a hand full of shots.

1. Putting
Green Reading
The most commonly talked about thing when reading greens is that its just down to experience and time to learn to judge the breaks and slopes on the greens. This is not entirely true there is a method and a easier way to read a putts. So here are our two wonderful tips

Find the Zero Break Line.

As seen here in the we are looking for the zero break line, this is the line that has no break also its the only line on a slope that you can putt straight upwards or downwards. The line stretches out across the hole about one meter radius from the hole, this line will help identify the position where the ball will begin to roll. Generally by every pin position on a green you can find the fall line, as the Greenkeeper should find a area on the green that has a slight consistent planer break (a flat surface that maybe on a angle) one meter radius of the hole. When you think of hole 1 at your home club there you will most probably find usually 3 to 5 allocated pin position areas on every green dependent on the size of the green. So when you have found the fall line the following points are highlighted:

-You will know in which direction the ball will break.

-You will find out where the easiest putt to play is (under the hole up hill)

Every top tour pro and there caddies will receive from the tournament officials a green plan card that competitors can note down where the Zero break lines are around all likely pin positions on all greens. As this information can become useful when playing into greens as the pros can position the ball in the best possible position around the hole. So you yourself can make a note of the pin positions and zero break lines in you course plan book!!

The spider effect

From the "spider effect" that maybe seen above. All putts on the one side of the circle break from left to right and on the other side of the hole putts naturally break from right to left. through this knowledge a clear decision can be made whether the putt is to break one way or another when a difficult putt lies near to the fall line. So by knowing how the putt falls and breaks in the last meter will give you a better understanding in how the ball enters the hole. By putting this method into practice this will fore sure help reduce putts and improve your score. 

🚨 UNDERSTANDING YOU’RE IMPACT CAN AFFECT BIG CHANGES IN BALL FLIGHT💪🤔

Understanding Impact is about Controlling the Club face angle, which indicates 80% of the ball's initial direction.

Impact location on the Club face indicates Ball Speed, Launch Angle and Spin with face contact offering maximum efficiency.

Heel shots often cause Fades, while Toe hits produce Drawers due to the "Gear affect".

Low impact increases Backspin and reduces Launch Trajectory, while High impact reduces Backspin but increases Launch Trajectory. Consistent centre impact indicates better control and distance.

Bunker Play

The fundamentals

Set up to the ball square with your left foot turned out. The ball should be positioned inside the left heel with the ball position line running through your left breast and ear (seen in photo 1), a line drawn from the middle of your sternum should be positioined 1 inch behind the ball. This allows the bodyweight to be slightly left in the set up. The shaft of your club should be vertical to allow the bounce to do its job through impact. The knees are pressed towards the target to encourage leg work through the shot. To allow a high soft landing shot try out the butterfly grip (left hand should be in a strong position on the club, you should see at least three knuckles on the back of your left hand. The right hand is placed in a weak postion on the club, the V between your right fore finger and thumb should point towards your left ear).

During the backswing the club should flow and have good tempo, the club face rotates slightly open by its own acord due to the butterfly grip to promote that high soft flight. 

During your swing the body rotates back and, evenly more important, through!! during the forward swing, so that the club can return square at impact, while the feet and legs work with the body rotation through to the end of the swing.

Improve pitching and chipping without technique (The 3 Rs)

 Here are 3 strategy tips to save more shots around the green, now the time has come to go out and practise on fine tuning your short game. Be careful before investing time in improving your technique it is important to do the following first.

The first key is to understand the tactical and strategy side of the game first throughout your short game, as there is the chance to save many shots through this theme. Not knowing or understanding this will make the learning process in improving technique more difficult. Here I will show you 3 tactical and strategic tips that will dramatically improve your wedge game. 

Read

Assess the situation

We often see players looking at the target after they have addressed the ball, which obviously makes sense. But this is one of the main problems why players make poor decisions around the green Compared with the photos shown here, from the ball to the flag is a difficult high pitch shot to produce. But when we assess the situation more clearly there is actually a lot of room to work with resulting into a simple pitch shot to play.

Rehearse 

Wedge strategy 

The golden rule here is to land the ball as early as possible on the green due to having a target that is closer to you is easier to hit than a target further away 

Only golfers that have extremely good ball contact should allow the ball to fly further. Through good ball contact the ball will spin and roll out less towards the flag. 

When selecting the correct club it is important to access break and roll direction to locate the exact landing zone 

Now to the hole you must mentally prepare on rehearsing and concentrate on the right boreflight and length which is advantageous to playing the correct shot 

React 

The LIE of the ball 

Tour players use the 70% rule. This is where you should only attempt the shot to play when you are sure you can reproduce the shot 7 out of 10 times.

One important decision factor is the LIE of the ball. Here you can finally decide which shot is possible. Depending on how the ball lies, you can attempt a flop, lob or pitch shot or even by a bad lie be prepared to accept the consequences of the shot going beyond the flag.

There are 4 different lies that you may come across 

Bare  lie, no Lobshot possible try using a high lofted club with little bounce 

 

Good lie, A lob and pitch shot is possible only when you reproduce it 7 times out of 10.

 

Ball in deep grass, a lob shot is difficult to play. Try using a lofted club with a higher bounce 

Ball sitting up in rough, a lob shot is unwise in case you get too much underneath it and end up dropping it too short so try using a wedge with less lofted face.