Refashion Your Short Game
Here's a plan for improving your accuracy and creating more scoring opportunities.
August 2008
Back in 2005, my coach, David Whelan, gave me a challenge that seemed simple enough: to chip six balls from just off the green and get each up and down. It was the morning after my first missed cut on the LPGA Tour, and David was insistent that I spend my practice session on chipping and pitching. I told him I'd get all six balls up and down in three attempts or less; instead, I needed 57 attempts, and it took almost three hours.
From that day forward, we put a much greater emphasis on short-game practice. Today, I start each session with the Six-Ball Drill. It might take me 10 minutes -- or all morning -- to complete, but I don't stop until I convert six up-and-downs in a row. To lower your scores right away, spend most of your practice time on pitching, chipping and putting. Need proof? The week after I failed that chipping test, I won my first LPGA Tournament, the Sybase Classic. Here are some of my favorite short-game tips and drills to improve your play inside 60 yards.
Paula's Tips on Pitching
Open Your Stance
Because you need more body rotation in a pitch shot, you need to adjust your stance to allow your chest to turn through the swing. Place your feet closer together, and turn your feet, hips and shoulders so that they point left of the target. Both feet should aim toward a point in front of the ball. If your shoulders are square to the target and your stance is too wide, you'll have a hard time rotating your torso and your hands will take over, leading to a thin or fat shot.
Rotate Your Chest
I don't use a different club for each yardage; I can produce a variety of distances (30, 40, 50 yards) with the same club and same-length swing (e.g., 9 to 3 o'clock) simply by increasing or decreasing the speed with which I rotate my chest through the shot. The farther I want to pitch it, the faster I accelerate my upper body through the ball. Try it -- you'll see you can control distance and also change the trajectory of the ball flight (high and soft or low and running) to fit the shot.
Drill: Swing the Grip
Grip down on the shaft of a mid-iron, your hands about a foot away from the clubhead. Make half swings, working the club's grip end around your left hip in the follow-through. If the handle hits your ribs, you've stopped rotating your upper body and your hands are doing the work, a major cause of scooping. Always feel as if your chest is turning around the left side of your body in the follow-through.
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