Short game, short game, short game

[Tiger]

Right now all the willy waving seems to have died down a bit I wanted to talk about the area of golf that makes the biggest difference (cue some more willy wavers ): the short game. How do you guys maintain your short game over winter. In the summer my practice evenings were spent at the club either playing nine holes or on our practice hole hitting wedges, pitches, chips, bunker shots and putts. However, now it's the dark months I am resigned to the driving range where you cannot get a real feel for those little shots in particular. So I have two questions:

1. Dodger, bobmac and anyone else who has a tidy short game how do you keep it oiled over the winter if you can only get to the range once a week (f you are lucky) and play once on the weekend?

2. For those like me who struggle within 100 yards, if you could improve ONE element of your short game (100 yard wedge, pitching, chipping, bunkers, putting) this winter, what would it be and what does success look like?

For me it would be my chipping and I would love to get to a place where 7/8 times out of ten I put a chip within three feet

 

[StrangelyBrown]

The 100 yard shot for me. I still pull/fat/thin/push/hook/slice/shank on these shots. No pattern to it really and no one should really be missing greens from that distance.

 

[brendy]

Finding the face of the wedge definitely improves my scoring from 30-70 out.

 

[chris661]

1. Dodger, bobmac and anyone else who has a tidy short game how do you keep it oiled over the winter if you can only get to the range once a week (f you are lucky) and play once on the weekend?

Dodger? You've never seen him then

I have found a cracking place to practice over the winter little chip shots and 40 - 70 yard pitches my back garden stick a stick/umbarella in and away you go.

 

[Aztecs27]

Dodger? You've never seen him then

I have found a cracking place to practice over the winter little chip shots and 40 - 70 yard pitches my back garden stick a stick/umbarella in and away you go.

Big back garden then?!!

 

[Robobum]

I get one game a week on Saturday mornings at about 11, so I go up to hit wedges for an hour before playing.

Hit 20 balls with a PW or 9 iron to warm up. The hit 30 or so balls to a tiny practice green from various distances up to 60 yards. Hit all my wedges to the green, different trajectory and landing areas. Going up & down the grip to see the effect that has too.

Then I'll go down and chip all the ones not on the green and try to hole them.

Repeat the above if I have time.

60yds is a 3/4 lob wedge for me. I don't see the pressing need to practice anything further out then that as the shot technique remains the same.

 

[brendy]

Big back garden then?!!

Chris is a Hobo, he lives in the local park. He has a hole over water and everything!

 

[RichardC]

Got to be chipping for me. I would love to have the confidence over a 10-15 yard chip and think "I'm getting up and down here". It looks easy when everyone else does it!!!

 

[bobmac]

I dont worry too much over the winter.
Bobbly green with frost, footprints and wormcasts dont inspire me to practice my chipping much.
Just keep playing and dont focus on the result too much. Just make sure you're landing the ball where you want to with a good flight/contact.
Then in the spring, get back into it.

 

[chris661]

Big back garden then?!!

Yep

Chris is a Hobo, he lives in the local park. He has a hole over water and everything!

Even hitting two drivers I don't know if I would make it over the river

 

[Jonny]

As Bob says the only thing you can really do over the winter is maintain your strike on your short shots. I also pay attention to maintaining the trajectory of my short shots over the winter. And work a bit on developing additional shots to add to my armoury for the next summer.

 

[chrisd]

Chipping!!! I rarely have to do it - it isn't necessary if you can drive most par 4's !!!


Chris

 

[Tiger]

As always very helpful chaps. Robo I might try that wedging warm up if the practice hole is free and bob & Jonny I'll just concentrate on quality of strike over winter and not worry about the roll.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I'm not really bothering too much with the chipping side of things. Our practice green is usually sodden in winter and so the ball just dies and the areas around the edge are usually a quagmire and so it makes getting a clean strike hard. It's hardly conducive for constructive work so I tend to focus on longer shots between 20-50 yards. I know the ball will bit on landing on wet greens so try and get my distances accurate and throw it far enough up the green to be close to the hole