Short game woes and golf fitness!

Quahog217

Hello there, anyone else struggling with their short game? I've been struggling with a year or more now and my confidence is shot! I'm playing off 6 by the way. I've been getting lessons from a top PGA pro and during the lesson there is great improvement but then it disappears when I get to the course. I tense up and flinch and flick my wrists a lot. My question is has anyone here changed there short game from a weakness to a strength in there game? I'm not looking for technical tips a such just a chat about the struggles of improving a poor short game.

My second question is has anyone here gone to a TPI instructor or similar for a golf fitness program? I've need to lose weight and have a weak core so was thinking of killing a birds with one stone. I'm not looking for extra distance or anything, I just think its something worth looking at, my balance and core are weak so I would like to try improve this. I'm living in Waterford, so anyone know of anybody doing golf fitness programs in the south east? I'm willing to travel a bit.

Thanks guys

ShivasIrons

Golf Fitness experts are here

http://www.mytpi.com/experts

If you're having trouble taking it from the practice ground to the course maybe a change in practice is needed, there's pressure on the golf course none in practice, introduce pressure to your practice sessions and see what happens.

Games like par 18 etc are good pressure for practice.

hades

Your short game sounds like mine, i've been focusing on my short game this year and i've had 3 lessons dealing directly with it. But like you mentioned, i seem to stiffen up and and end up blading or fluffing my short game shots most of the time. However, rather than focus on technique with me, my pro has me working on my confidence, breathing and swing speed. My pro mentioned that i have the ability to pull off the shots, as i can do them in practice and in my lessons. So to build up my confidence he just has me hitting all sorts of shots with my 58, it doesn't matter what the result is, once i keep using the 58.

Over the last few weeks i tense up a lot less with that club in my hand, and i'm actually able to use it on the course. And because i've gotten used to using it, my other wedges don't seem as daunting.

I'd also have to agree with what ShivasIrons said, i use the par 18 practice game and i find it great. Its also helped my putting.

Seve OB

I was never a great putter, was ok, but would regularily 3 putt all over the place. Could judge the pace, but my downfall was that I couldn't hit it on the line I wanted.

Few years back I got a new putter. A change in my setup, stance etc and bingo, I was a changed man overnight. Forgetting about the actual changes I made, but the result was comfort. I am now much more comfortable over the ball, always take a good few practice swings to judge the pace. i would say i now average 30 putts per round.

on the flip side, i used to be a pretty decent chipper, then went awful for years. it was obvious. i used to have a long garden. moved house = no practice and 50-60 yarders went to muck! having said that, around the green i have improved a lot lately with a change in club and mental approach to shots.

BigChap1759

John Kelly out of St Margarets is a highly rated TPI coach - give him a call to get a programme

m r c

The tension comes from fear. Fear of missing.Its the exact same thing with the yips in putting. Bernard Langer might have been one of the more famous people who has gotten over the yips, I've read that he had to give himself permission to miss the putt before he struck the ball.

It sounds weird but IMHO for many people this is the key to a better overall short game.

Rippeditup

BigChap1759 wrote: »

John Kelly out of St Margarets is a highly rated TPI coach - give him a call to get a programme

John is great, I have been working with him on my swing a while now..

BoardsMember

I'm the same as you OP. Chipping and half swing pitches are my weakness.

The way I look at it is as follows:

- everyone has a weakness, my weakness is chipping
- I'm going to hit good chips and bad chips in a round
- when I hit a shot that leaves me with a chip, I instantly tell myself that this is a good opportunity to hit a good chip, rather than walking up to it dreading it
- when I hit a bad chip I re-acknowledge the fact that I'm going to hit bad chips in a round

A couple of slightly technical things: when I do a few practice swings I look at the target, and where I want to land the ball, and try to feel the shot; I have started to move from last practice swing to execution pretty quickly to reduce the time for tensing up, this has really helped. If you can stay relaxed on the practice swings and then turn your mind off while you go through the motions of hitting the shot it gives you a great chance.

Lastly, I'd just remind you that you're off a great handicap, so you must be pretty handy. So what if you continue to hit more bad chips? Enjoy the game and accept what it gives you on any given day.

peepee

I had something similar for a while with chipping. I just went with the simplest way to get the ball on the green for a few weeks. So i'd bump and run everything I could. I'd play aggressively over bunkers not caring where the flag was. I was fine again after a few weeks not thinking about it.

By the way flicking your wrists probably isn't the problem. Stalling your right arm is the problem, your wrists then flick. Just keep your right arm moving without fear of the outcome.

GreeBo

ShivasIrons wrote: »

Golf Fitness experts are here

http://www.mytpi.com/experts

If you're having trouble taking it from the practice ground to the course maybe a change in practice is needed, there's pressure on the golf course none in practice, introduce pressure to your practice sessions and see what happens.

Games like par 18 etc are good pressure for practice.

+1
I usually try to finish up my practice with a "game"
Something like get up and down 10 times, 5 chip ins etc.

I was out there until 10:30pm the other night...in the bloody dark....stupid game.
Does make you focus though.

mike12

GreeBo wrote: »

+1
I usually try to finish up my practice with a "game"
Something like get up and down 10 times, 5 chip ins etc.

I was out there until 10:30pm the other night...in the bloody dark....stupid game.
Does make you focus though.

5 chip ins I'd be happy with 5 chip ons.

Seve OB

BoardsMember wrote: »

Lastly, I'd just remind you that you're off a great handicap, so you must be pretty handy. So what if you continue to hit more bad chips? Enjoy the game and accept what it gives you on any given day.

that's a terrible attitude. do you think any tour player worth their salt goes around saying, ah never mind, i'm a pro anyway so it doesn't matter if i duff a few chips!

op is a good player off 6, but he is having trouble with the short game at present. that may mean, he might expect his handicap to go out if it continues, or if he can get his short game on track, well then he can get his handicap down further.

always look to improve and never settle for flaws just because you are good elsewhere.

BoardsMember

stevieob wrote: »

that's a terrible attitude. do you think any tour player worth their salt goes around saying, ah never mind, i'm a pro anyway so it doesn't matter if i duff a few chips!

And the relevance of that statement?

stevieob wrote: »

op is a good player off 6, but he is having trouble with the short game at present. that may mean, he might expect his handicap to go out if it continues, or if he can get his short game on track, well then he can get his handicap down further.

always look to improve and never settle for flaws just because you are good elsewhere.

If you read the OP he says he's been struggling with this for over a year. My guess is that he has enough mechanical stuff going on, and is focusing on it too much. I adopted the above approach and am getting up and down so much more now than I was before. Sometimes improvements are as much about switching your mentality to something that you have become a little obsessed about.

I'd agree with ShivasIrons post above suggesting trying to add pressure to the practice to try to recreate conditions with card in hand, but I also think that he needs to concentrate way less on "how bad a chipper he is". He needs to give himself a break when he is competing.

thegolfer

I would have been very similar over the years, where short game let me down. Decided as you have said to turn it into a strength.

Picked a wedge, ate slept and drank with the thing. It was the only one for pitching. I then played as I practiced, not practiced one way and pitched another. Kept notes of my rounds, writing down all details, but most importantly left out all the bad. Read over the notes now and again, reminding myself of the good and great shots I hit. Slowly my confidence increased and as things went on the handicap dropped, now +2.

Should I miss a green, its simple, just up and down

But you have to develop your confidence and remind yourself that you are a good pitcher, a good golfer. No point in reinforcing the negative online here.

Maybe a change of coach, or no coach. You are off 6, so you can play. My view at times is that one lesson is enough, somewhat fine tuning your swing\game.
When you go to your PGA pro of course you are going to play well, you want to show him that you have improved, to please him. Well what about pleasing yourself ?

The PRO gives you short term confidence at his lessons, you have to develop your own confidence when he's not there.

Change your thinking, in reality there is nothing wrong with your game.

Remember whats the worst thing that can happen? Tense up, duff it, blade it, shank it?

As for fitness, I would say get to a general level of fitness first, join some high intensity classes, work on your legs for the power, work on the diet for weight-loss. You would be very surprised how much of an improvement you could gain form a few hours a week of bootcamp or similar.

I wouldn't bother going to a TPI expert just yet. They will need you to be relatively fit before hand. Get generally fit over the next few months, and in the winter months work hard for next year.

Walking first then running that's the order.

Quahog217

thegolfer wrote: »

I would have been very similar over the years, where short game let me down. Decided as you have said to turn it into a strength.

Picked a wedge, ate slept and drank with the thing. It was the only one for pitching. I then played as I practiced, not practiced one way and pitched another. Kept notes of my rounds, writing down all details, but most importantly left out all the bad. Read over the notes now and again, reminding myself of the good and great shots I hit. Slowly my confidence increased and as things went on the handicap dropped, now +2.

Should I miss a green, its simple, just up and down

But you have to develop your confidence and remind yourself that you are a good pitcher, a good golfer. No point in reinforcing the negative online here.

Maybe a change of coach, or no coach. You are off 6, so you can play. My view at times is that one lesson is enough, somewhat fine tuning your swing\game.
When you go to your PGA pro of course you are going to play well, you want to show him that you have improved, to please him. Well what about pleasing yourself ?

The PRO gives you short term confidence at his lessons, you have to develop your own confidence when he's not there.

Change your thinking, in reality there is nothing wrong with your game.

Remember whats the worst thing that can happen? Tense up, duff it, blade it, shank it?

As for fitness, I would say get to a general level of fitness first, join some high intensity classes, work on your legs for the power, work on the diet for weight-loss. You would be very surprised how much of an improvement you could gain form a few hours a week of bootcamp or similar.

I wouldn't bother going to a TPI expert just yet. They will need you to be relatively fit before hand. Get generally fit over the next few months, and in the winter months work hard for next year.

Walking first then running that's the order.

Thanks for all the replies guys, some great stuff there. I know its 100% a mental block because I can pitch and chip very well in my lessons. I just need to slowly build up my confidence. Played a club matchplay this morning, won the match on the 18 th, still duffed a fee chips and still shot two over! Im not a great ball striker, my main strenght is that my bad shots are usually half decent strikes. Ive kept some records lately and short game is costing me an average of 2.5 shots per round so when I sort it out hopefully I will be heading for category 1 ;-)

Montgolfier

Read somewhere online about feeling tense and tight over a shot, the best thing to do is laugh. Apparently it realeses a hormone that loosens the muscles.

GreeBo

go out some evening when its quiet or if you have a shortgame practice area and just try stuff....you'll be amazed at how good you can get within a half hour or pressure free practice.
I went from duffing them tonight to floppingmy 9 over my golf bag onto the green from 10m...the more of this you do the less of a big thing it becomes...you start to forget about technique and just try to achieve the result you want...just like most other sports!

TheDoc

short game was always my achilles heel. Spent a lot of time on it last year trying different techniques, watching other players in the club who were good and then applying it and seeing which suits best.

In terms of putting, I'm happy where I'm at now. I just did some simple drills I found on youtube to keep my putter head on a good line at impact, and following through to get a good roll. I'm managing pace well, the odd bad putt is down to my bad reads. But I couldn't be happiern with my putting. But it took a good few months work of repition.

My chipping has always been shocking. It improved dramatically towards the end of last season and I factor it as how I got cut from 10-7 in a weekend. Stupidly I tried something new this year, but I've thankfully reverted back and this weekend things felt a lot better.

Towards the start of last year was working ona technique that at a high level, is nearly "cutting" accross the ball on impact. I shortened my back swing, increased my acceleration through impact and just a gentle cut across. Found myself judging distance a lot better and finally having control over check, something I've been trying for a good 7 years now.

For shots I want to send in low, I stack my weight a bit more forward and do a more chopping/digging down style motion.

I'd played a few rounds with an old pitch n putt champion, and stupidly got roped into his technique. It's a really awkward looking technique that fires the ball out low and fast with a lot of spin. Just didn't feel right at all

A major factor was also getitng new wedges. Posted here last year about my Cleveland purchases and the great help and service I got from Halpenny and they havnt let me down, massive improvement. I was using some Seve wedges that just had no bite, getting these Cleveland wedges has made a world of difference.

snaphook

A note on fitness.

Buy a heart rate monitor (doesn't have to be an expensive one).

Subtract your age from 180.

When exercising using the monitor, try not to go over this number.
Powerwalking is good for this. If you run, you'll be shocked at how slow you need to go to stay under the number.

You'll develop your aerobic capacity and get fitter without risking injury or stressing out your body.