The following steps will help you get set up to play this shot, along with a simple exercise to nail it to perfection.

The set-up

• Place the left hand (if right-handed) towards the top of the grip and the right hand below. Left-handed golfers would normally have the right hand on top of the club and the left below. You can hold lower on the grip

• Stand with feet together and create a ‘Y’ shape with the arms and the club as shown

• Hold the club at waist height, horizontal to the ground.

• Bow to the ball, which will be achieved by bending from the waist.

• Create a little flex in your knees, this will allow you to move the body when swinging the club

• Take a small step with each foot so the ball is centred.

The swing

Get a feel for moving the club, this will be bigger than it is when chipping, just as it would be if you were to underarm throw the ball, a longer distance will require your swing to also get bigger

• Explore getting the arms and the club to move past your waist on the backswing

• A visual of creating an ‘L’ shape with the arms and the club shaft can be quite useful

• You’ll notice that you’ll start using your wrists for this to work

• Swing the club back toward the ground making sure to make contact with the ground with the club brushing the mat or grass where the ball would be 

• Keep the club moving forward Finish the movement when the hands reach waist-high on the target side

Bread and butter

The low point is the bottom of the swing where the club changes from a downward direction to an upward direction. This is where we want the club to make contact to the ball. A great way to help with this is to use the ‘bounce angle’.

The bounce angle is the angle between the front and back of the club ‘sole’. We want to use this correctly in order to create more forgiveness as we discover pitching. If the sharper ‘leading edge’ of the club was to make contact with the ground before the ball, it would dig into the ground causing ‘heavy’ contact resulting in large loss of distance. A little like using the knife blade to spread butter across bread, the knife would dig in and tear the bread.

If you can create a low point with the club shaft more vertical, instead of leaning towards the target we can ‘activate’ the bounce as this then becomes the part of the sole that interacts with the ground when you hit the ball. Going back to the bread and butter analogy, the butter is spread across the bread with the flat wide part of the knife thus eliminating digging. This all ensures a larger area for the low point and you gaining confidence in making vital contact to the ground at or even before the ball.

The exercise

Place a golf tee in the ground where the ball would lie. Now swing the club to a length which would be longer than a chip shot. From here you will try and strike the tee in the ground and then finish the swing to a similar length to the backswing.

To control distance, we can shorten the swing for shorter carry distances and lengthen the swing for longer carry distances. We can also adjust the distance and the flight of the ball by simply using different clubs.

Experiment with the clubs such as the 9-iron or sand wedge and explore how the higher lofts need bigger swings and lower shots require smaller swings, you will get good at finding out which provides easier and better contact, get good at those as a base line and then start explore the other options.

Conor Thornton is a member of the PGA Professionals team at Golf Saudi-managed Riyadh Golf Club

The post How to get it right from those tricky spots around the green appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Choose your club depending on length of shot and pin position
By Jack Woods

During any round of golf, it’s a given that technical mistakes are going to cost you shots. But many amateur golfers compound this by losing more shots with rushed decisions. For every shot you face out on the golf course, you should always ask yourself: ‘how do I make getting the desired outcome as straightforward as possible?’. This is especially applicable to the more technically challenging shots, like those from greenside bunkers.

Pictured left on our Academy Par 3 course at Dubai Creek is a greenside sand shot to two flags. It’s automatic for most players to see their ball here and reach for their most lofted wedge without thinking too much more about it. Sure, for the tight short pin, this is unquestionably the right club. You want to pop the ball up high and soft with minimal roll.

But what about the shot of about 20-25 yards to the longer pin? It’s far easier to play it exactly the same way as the short pin, but just drop down to a pitching wedge. You can make the same swing, and take the same amount of sand, plus your margin for error goes up. By minimising your variables, you can give each shot its best chance of success.

Jack Woods is a PGA Teaching Professional at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. For more information, visit dubaigolf.com

Photograph by Kristina Nabieva
Photo Illustrations by Clarkwin Cruz

The post The easiest way to become a better bunker player appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

My keys to sticking your 50 yard shots tight to the flag
By Frank Murray

Our Academy by Olazabal is an amazing place to hone your short game skills, but we had a little fun with this temporary inflatable green during Golf Digest Middle East’s recent visit to Velaa Private Island.

Learning how to control shots of this distance is such a fundamental part of good scoring and I wanted to share a few ideas for good pitching with you. If your game is sharp from 50 yards, you’ll save yourself a ton of pars and set up plenty of birdies, too. Here’s what to focus on during your practice.

At impact, make sure that your hands are ahead of the ball.

The primary way that pitching differs from chipping, other than the length of the swing, is that on a pitch, the downswing is initiated by your lower body. From the backswing position pictured here, which is all you want to swing to for a 50-yard shot, your hips begin moving towards the target, allowing your arms to drop across the chest.

You know that low, controlled ball flight the pros have on their pitch shots? They do that with forward shaft lean at impact, which lowers the loft on the club. Help achieve this by setting up with more weight on your left side, and have your shaft leaning forward at address. You want to feel like your hands are ahead of the ball to achieve optimum impact.

Frank Murray is the Director of Instruction at the Academy by Olazabal on Velaa Private Island in The Maldives. The academy is managed by Troon Golf. For more info, visit velaaprivateisland.com

Photograph by David Bernard

The post Pitching accurately from 50 yards will save you tons of shots appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.