Short Game Resurrection

I finally had my long awaited chipping lesson today with my regular teaching professional Grant Sayer at Maidenhead Golf Club on their excellent short game area. Grant has spent time with some of the worlds top coaches including David Leadbetter and Denis Pugh, which has allowed him to gain a great insight into the swing, and the ability to play the game. He's been my teacher for just over two years and has changed my swing from an ugly upright thing, to a more rounded and repeatable action which has seen me drop my handicap from 20 to 11 with the odd medal and stableford win along the way.

Grant Sayer - Saviour of my game!

His mission today was simple: Get me to chip again without hitting a dirty fat chunk in front of me or scuttling it through the back of the green. We spoke about my perception of the problem and he watched me hit a few to a flag about 8-10 feet on the green. Inevitably I holed out with my second effort but then went through the full repetoire of fats and thins.

The good news was that it wasn't actually that much of a technical issue and was more a problem with address and alignment. Basically my shoulders were tilted front to back (left higher than the right) and although I was aligned square to the target I wasn't really giving myself room to move through after impact. Grant took me to a downhill lie and got me to address a ball and feel the way I lent into the slope. He then got me to repeat that feeling on flat ground so basically my shoulder line was on a much more level keel. We narrowed the stance a touch and opened the hips feet and shoulder line. With the more neutral set up I was able to make a much shallower swing and clear through after hitting it.

He did however have one more trick up his sleeve. He got me to address the ball with the toe pointing into the ground and the heel of the club slightly raised so the hands were much higher at address. He moved me in closer to the ball and asked me to swing. The feeling was similar to putting and was equally as good as  the shots I'd been producing. The rationale behind this set up was to make it impossible (well harder anyway - I can muck up any shot given time) to hit it heavy. He asked me to try both and decide what felt better. I've opted for the toe down approach as I feel it'll give me that extra margin for error once I put the new short game into practice out on the course and in competitive play.

I went out this afternoon to the putting green at Royal Ascot in a biting wind to work on it. What a revelation. It has simplified the whole technique and made it much easier to focus on just my landing area. I just need to make sure I rotate through after impact and don't let the arms work faster than my body. Within a very short space of time I was holing out from about 10 feet and then went to a different hole very close to the edge of the green. It  was these fiddly ones where you only have to get it moving forward and landing on the green that were a killer when you lacked confidence. With a 52 degree wedge and my trusty pitching wedge it was easy to do and I even holed a couple of these. Just to prove it was no fluke I even chipped to a hole at the far end of the putting green. It was at least 20 yards with a slope about three quarters of the way to the hole. Out of twenty balls I got thirteen within eight feet and of these eight were within the "magic" three foot circle. Not great but a solid foundation on which to work.

I've got a half day of annual leave on Wednesday and so I can see another hour or so working on it alongside my putting stroke although I have to say I'm tempted to slide out and play nine holes. I'm hitting well and can be confident now that if I miss a green we have a fighting chance to save par. I guess we'll have to see what the boys and girls at the Met Office say first.

My short game is rising like a phoenix from the flames. Single figures is up and running. Thanks Grant!