Fixing Your Golf Swing Now

Partial Shots and Developing That Magic Touch

Another great tip from Ben Poston at www.trianglecustomclubs.com

One of the great myths in golf is that a player is born with great touch
and that it cannot be developed.

: Image by Ben Goodwyn via Flickr

I don’t believe this and neither should you!

So when it comes to partial shots and the steep learning curve to getting
better at them, no good player has become a decent partial shooter without
LOTS of practice and learning.

The Partial Shot Learning Steps

The trajectory on any partial shot, whether it be the three-quarter wedge
shot, the half wedge, or other – is determined by three things:

1) Force of the blow.
2) Position of the ball in your set-up.
3) Angle of the clubface at address.

The reason why you want to control the trajectory of the shot could be
anything from wanting to keep the ball low into the wind or low because
you would like it to land into an upslope on a green and take a hop forward.

You might want to hit the ball high when the hole is sitting on a downslope.

In such a situation, a high shot represents you the best opportunity of
getting the ball near the hole. The more precise you get with yardage control,
the more apparent the situations will become where you’ll want to tweak
the trajectory of the shot.

The longer your swing and the faster your club is moving, the higher the
ball is going to fly. You can make swings of equal lengths but with different
speeds by adjusting the tempo at which you swing. A slightly more upbeat tempo
will produce more clubhead speed.

An extreme example of this can be seen in the fabulous flop shots played by
Phil Mickelson when on Tour. He makes a long swing but with a slow tempo,
thereby adding “soft” height to the shot.

The second trajectory control factor is ball position.

This is straightforward: The more forward you put the ball in your stance,
the higher and softer it will fly. Move it back in your stance to produce
lower, crisper shots.

The clubface element of trajectory is set at address. An open clubface produces
a higher, softer shot that won’t run very much. A closed clubface produces
lower shots that run more.

Keep your body “quiet”, then “active”. When you play a pitch shot, you’re
going to have a certain amount of body turn. The longer the shot, the more
your hips and shoulders must turn. The way of thinking of your turn during
these partial shots is to think about a “quiet” turn away from the ball, and
an “active” turn through the ball.