Tales From The Bunker

I firmly believe in not giving anyone  golf lessons as I am far from qualified. It is also not great for a marriage but that is for another blog.

Becky has been playing golf for four years. She has had some success in all phases of the game except for chipping. Once she is on the green she can putt well but it is painful watching her trying to get on the green or roll over the green. It got to the point where it was producing anxiety for her and taking away her enjoyment of the game. So I broke my no golf lesson rule and tried to help her.

We first tried the classic technique of setting up with the majority of the weight on the front foot. The ball played towards the back of the stance and the heads ahead of the ball. The key to success is maintaining the angle of the left wrist.  However Becky consistently tried to flip the ball up with her left wrist.  We tried various aids including taping a comb to the back of her left wrist but nothing seemed to stop her from the “flip”. I threatened to put her wrist in a cast but she failed to find that funny.

We next tried to chip putt. Placing the shaft near vertical, which places the club slightly on its toe, and using her putting stroke also did not work out. She felt that by putting the club on its toe the available hitting area on the face of the club decreased and left her too small of a margin for error. Her efforts proved her to be correct.

Finally we decided that since she has a consistent putting stroke we needed to find a way to make it work for her. Starting with a seven iron, she soled it naturally in the middle of her stance; weight evenly distributed like her putting stance, choked down slightly on the club and simply used her putting stroke. The ball came out cleanly with the appropriate amount of loft. Most importantly it was repeatable. She tried the eight iron, nine iron and pitching wedge and settled on the seven and the wedge as the easiest to handle.  Currently she is using the distance formula for the seven iron of 30% air and 70% roll. The wedge is 60/40. As her works more on her chipping her guesstimates will also improve.

This technique will not get her on the LPGA but it has taken out the frustration and anxiety she felt and has helped her regain the joy of the greatest game of all…Golf    

Tom

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