Visual Golfing - the practice of employing visual cues to adapt one's Golf shot.
Golf is a game where you need to know when to take your chances and when to take your medicine. More often than not for average golfers, your best bet is to take your medicine. Let me explain more clearly what I mean by taking your medicine in this context.
At every hole in your round of Golf, let's say you were given two options:
1) high probability of scoring a par or bogie
2) very slight probability of scoring a birdie but with a highly likely double bogie or worse.
As an average golfer what should your choice be ? Very likely option 1. A mostly par round with couple of bogies would be an awesome round!
If you recall in my earlier post 10 Golf Practice Ideas to lower your score , I had mentioned A 2 inch putt is counted as 1 shot and a 200 yard drive also counts as 1 shot. Let's say you have a lie in the rough around-the-green. If you chose to not focus on holing out your chip but rather aim to get it on the green, close to the hole, you stand a better chance of making the shot you need and set yourself up for a 1 putt. If you try to pull off the fancy chip-in and in the process make a mistake that leads to a double bogie or worse.
The hole is a distraction and a trap - hit the shot that reduces the risk and sets us up for a good next shot. Don't try to be a hero by trying to hole out every shot. Instead spend your energy on observing these closely:
How is the grass around the ball ? First cut, second cut ? Is it deep, shallow, bushy, dry, sandy, mulch ?
Is the ball sitting on top of thick grass or plugged into the thick grass ?
Is the ball sitting on bare ground with grass around it ?
Is the ball on the green but right up against the rough ?
Is the lie uphill, flat, downhill ?
How far is the hole ?
How much green do you have between you and the hole ?
Do you have cart paths or other impediments ?
Observe closely - what is around your ball. This should highly influence how you approach your chip.
Here are some visual golfing tips how on to approach your chip, based on your lie:
Ball lying on a low to moderate (less than half inch grass) rough
In a vast majority of cases, for average golfers, using a putter in such a situation is going to yield a respectable result. You will be able to get a clean shot and hit it on preferred line much more easily than with other choice of clubs.
If there is tuft of grass behind the ball, then the putter might not be the best choice. Instead use a pitching wedge or a 9-iron. Since the ball is not plugged into the grass, all you want is a clean contact with the ball, with the club face neutral (not open, not closed), and most importantly with the heal and toe fully level to the ground. Keeping the club level will ensure the ball gets a little loft but travels completely straight. To further ensure that the shot is straight, I go to the extent of having a straight swing path. It feels a tad awkward, but when you see the result, you won't do it any other way.
Ball sitting on top of thick rough
If you are in the rough, and the ball is sitting on top, that's really not bad at all. You got lucky.
For average golfers getting the club under the ball consistently is hard. However most golfers can take a pitching wedge and get the ball to jump a couple of feet and roll.
Here are few things to visualize:
Do you have room for the ball to get on the green and roll for some distance to get to the hole?
Do you have very little green to the hole?
In case of 1) it is much easier to try a neutral straight-swing-path chip since you have room for the ball to roll. It need to stop at first or second bounce. This shot does not require you to get perfectly underneath the ball. However, do try few practice swings such that you will just swipe the grass deep enough to get under the ball. You should not need to go too deep into the grass since the ball is lying on top. Going too deep could cause your club to get stuck in the grass completely messing up your shot.
In case of 2) you need to get under the ball to pop it up by more than a couple of feet the air. That will prevent too much of a roll after ball lands on the green. For this type of a shot, you need to use a wedge or open up your club face of a pitching wedge or 9-iron. This shot requires one to visualize the interaction between your club and the ball. When the club gets under the ball, it will pop up the ball, but your swing path and club face will determine 2 things
a) The line of your shot .. the precise direction in which the ball gets launched
b) The amount of sideways spin on the ball
The line of your swing from the point of contact to few inches after that will determine a) and how much your club face is open will determine b). The speed of your swing will also affect b) but that's the element you need to adjust based on how far the hole is.
So what Visual Golf will tell you is that if you have a lot of b) , for right-handed golfers the ball is spinning clock-wise and it will bounce and go left-to-right. For left-handed golfers it's the opposite. So if you open your club face to get more pop, expect the ball to turn more after the bounce.
Based on your expected amount of ball spin, change your swing path more to the left (for right-handed golfers) or more the right (for left-handed golfers). That is sure to help your ball stop closer to the hole.
Ball plugged into thick rough
Coming soon ...
Ball on green but with rough right behind it
Coming soon ...
Ball on mulch
Coming soon ...
Ball on bare soft dirt, packed dirt, hard surface like concrete
Coming soon ...
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