Mastering the Short Game

Ask any touring professional where strokes are won and lost, and the answer is rarely the tee box. It is the short game — chips, pitches, bunker shots, and lag putts — that separates a scratch player from a weekend warrior.

The first mistake most amateurs make is reaching for the lob wedge when a bump-and-run will do. A low, rolling chip is a higher-percentage shot nine times out of ten. Take a seven or eight iron, play the ball back in your stance, and let it release toward the hole like a putt that happens to travel through the air.

When you do need height — over a bunker, across a tier — commit to the shot. Accelerate through impact. The fat chip and the thinned skull both come from the same source: deceleration. Pick your landing spot, trust the loft of the club, and keep your hands moving.

Practice the way you play. Drop three balls on different lies, each with a different target, and hit them with different clubs. You are training your eye, not grooving a single swing. On the course, you will never get two shots from the same spot — so why would you practice that way?

Do this for a month and watch your scorecard. The strokes do not come all at once. They come one at a time, on the holes where you used to throw away a shot.