Backhand golf shots are rare, not to mention awkward. They’re usually used as a last resort, when you can’t take a normal stance due to some obstruction — when your ball is up against a wall, for instance, and the only possible way to hit it is backhanded, with the clubhead turned over and underneath the shaft.
You won’t get points for visual appeal, but if there’s no trouble between you and the green, trying to get the ball airborne may not be your best option.
Here are very simple rules of thumb of what to do when…
Yeah, that doesn’t seem to make sense, but bear with me. Very simple tip if you’re just too tense to make a free-flowing swing.
I don’t do this (at least, not yet), but one of the guys in my last foursome does.
A bunker’s a bunker, whether fairway or greenside, right? Sorry, no.
You don’t try to hit from them the same way. Very common mistake.
A tight lie, as you probably know, is the ball on bare ground or very short grass. If you’re like me, they cause you problems.
Here’s how I try to deal with it:
You’ve probably heard that for better, more consistent chips and pitches, your stroke should have a more downward angle of attack.
You should be hitting down, in other words. Fortunately, this is easy to practice.
What type of ball do you play? Don’t forget to adjust your short game strategy accordingly.
If you’re typical, you spend 80% of your practice time hitting long ball full swing shots. That leaves just a little bit for everything else, particularly the shots 100 yards and in that actually make up 60-65% of all the shots we take in a round.
For most of us, the ball doesn’t go where we think it’s going to go. That’s a given. Hearing complaints from golfers about their unreliable swings that cause all those wayward shots is very, very common.But even more common are the number of players I see who don’t take the effort to aim their shots properly — a quick cursory glance before they rapidly set up to begin their swing is more the typical duffer’s M.O.
