Category
Chipping, pitching, bunker play and putting — where most strokes are won and lost.
Short putts, from about three to six feet, are where many rounds are won and lost. Professionals hole most of them; club golfers often miss one or two a round, and every miss costs a full shot. The…
Every course has different greens, and the same greens change with the weather and the time of day. A putt that rolls perfectly on your home course can race six feet past on slick tournament greens…
A standard splash shot from a good lie in a greenside bunker is very learnable. The trouble starts when the ball plugs in the face, sits on a downslope, rests in wet, compacted sand or is 40 yards…
You stand over a three-foot putt. You have holed thousands like it. And then, just as you start the stroke, your hands twitch, the putter jerks and the ball misses the hole by a foot. If that sounds…
The lob shot is golf's most spectacular short-game shot: the ball pops almost straight up, floats over a bunker and drops softly beside the flag. Played well, it can save a shot from an impossible…
You have missed the green by a few yards. The ball is sitting on the fringe or in light rough, and the flag is 30 feet away. Do you putt, chip or pitch? It sounds like a small decision, but it…
You can have a perfect putting stroke and still miss most of your putts if you read the green wrongly. Every putt is a combination of two decisions — line and speed — and both depend on understanding…
Chipping is the fastest way to lower your scores. Every golfer misses greens — even skilled players miss several a round, and most club golfers miss far more. Each time you do, a good chip can turn a…
Few shots cause as much anxiety as the bunker shot. Many golfers would rather be almost anywhere than in the sand — and that fear often creates exactly the mistakes they dread: leaving the ball in…
Wedges are the scoring clubs. From around 30 to 120 yards, good wedge play turns approach shots into birdie chances and saves par after a wayward drive. Poor wedge play — balls flying over the green…
Putting accounts for a large share of the strokes in a typical round — often well over a third. Yet most golfers spend almost all of their practice time on the range. If you regularly three-putt, the…
Putting is the great equaliser in golf. It requires no strength, no athletic swing and no expensive equipment, yet it accounts for a huge share of every golfer's score — often 30 to 40 strokes in a…
