Distance Control Golf Shots - How to Quickly and Easily Master Distance Control
The closer you are to the green the more accurate you are from a left/right perspective and this becomes less important than distance control.
You are less likely to hit chips and pitch shots wide of the green than you are to leave them short or air mail them over the green.
The closer you are to the green the more you will have to come up with different finesse shots to accommodate the distances and shot requirements.
Hitting full wedges all the time is just not the answer.
The best way to accommodate distance control for most golfers is to have a system in place that allows for precision planning of not just distance but also trajectory, spin, check and roll out of the ball to target.
While you may not have the time or desire to practice as much as the pro's do, you can still use this system to get pretty good control over your distances from within 100 yards, and further out if you are prepared to practice.
The system I am going to describe is nothing new and I didn't invent it but it works very effectively and with some practice you should find that your average shot distance from the hole is never more than 20ft on average.
Start out using your favorite short club, a wedge or 9 iron.
Address the ball and in your minds eye put the ball on a clock face in the 6 o'clock position.
Your head is in the 12 o'clock position.
Now we are going to use your target arm (the arm closest to the target.
Left if you are R/H, make adjustments if you are L/H) as the arm of the clock.
Make a small backswing until your target arm is parallel to the ground and it is now also in the 9 o'clock position on your clock face.
Make some swings and hit some shots from the 9 o'clock position.
Next swing back a little further until your target arm reaches the 10 o'clock position and hit some shots from there.
Finally swing back until your arm reaches the 11 o'clock position and again hit some shots from there.
It is important to really get a nice smooth rhythm going on these shots especially the shorter ones.
Do not try to accelerate too quickly or "Hit" at the ball.
Keep the acceleration smooth and really feel you are just swinging easy with a little acceleration through the ball.
You will also find that your finish is shorter than normal with the 9 o'clock swing having the shortest finish of all.
Again do not try to do anything special with the finish.
Feel that you are flowing through into a position that feels comfortable and finish in a nice balanced hold or pose.
Hold this balanced finish position until the ball lands.
When you feel you are really getting the hang of it and it not only feels smooth and controlled but you are getting the balls for each swing in a reasonably consistent grouping distance wise, pace each swing off.
Take the average for each group and now you have three swings which produce 3 different distances with one club.
Use other clubs to get more distances and also notice the trajectories and how much each shot rolls out.
This drill is very well suited to visualization practice.
Make some swings in front of a mirror or watch some video of yourself making the correct swing distances on the clock face.
When you have a strong internal image of these swings you can sit for fifteen minutes every day internally playing these shots.
This will massively speed up the learning process and you will very quickly start locking them in to your automatic ability to play the required shot withoutthinking.
Especially important for pitch shots is to get a little action and check on the ball.
Also For full shots if you want any back spin to stop the ball like the pro's then one thing you must do is make sure you have sharp, clean grooves on your club face.
Groove sharpeners are readily available to purchase from the internet now and clean sharp grooves will make a big difference in your stopping power on full shots and getting some check and stop on pitches.
You are less likely to hit chips and pitch shots wide of the green than you are to leave them short or air mail them over the green.
The closer you are to the green the more you will have to come up with different finesse shots to accommodate the distances and shot requirements.
Hitting full wedges all the time is just not the answer.
The best way to accommodate distance control for most golfers is to have a system in place that allows for precision planning of not just distance but also trajectory, spin, check and roll out of the ball to target.
While you may not have the time or desire to practice as much as the pro's do, you can still use this system to get pretty good control over your distances from within 100 yards, and further out if you are prepared to practice.
The system I am going to describe is nothing new and I didn't invent it but it works very effectively and with some practice you should find that your average shot distance from the hole is never more than 20ft on average.
Start out using your favorite short club, a wedge or 9 iron.
Address the ball and in your minds eye put the ball on a clock face in the 6 o'clock position.
Your head is in the 12 o'clock position.
Now we are going to use your target arm (the arm closest to the target.
Left if you are R/H, make adjustments if you are L/H) as the arm of the clock.
Make a small backswing until your target arm is parallel to the ground and it is now also in the 9 o'clock position on your clock face.
Make some swings and hit some shots from the 9 o'clock position.
Next swing back a little further until your target arm reaches the 10 o'clock position and hit some shots from there.
Finally swing back until your arm reaches the 11 o'clock position and again hit some shots from there.
It is important to really get a nice smooth rhythm going on these shots especially the shorter ones.
Do not try to accelerate too quickly or "Hit" at the ball.
Keep the acceleration smooth and really feel you are just swinging easy with a little acceleration through the ball.
You will also find that your finish is shorter than normal with the 9 o'clock swing having the shortest finish of all.
Again do not try to do anything special with the finish.
Feel that you are flowing through into a position that feels comfortable and finish in a nice balanced hold or pose.
Hold this balanced finish position until the ball lands.
When you feel you are really getting the hang of it and it not only feels smooth and controlled but you are getting the balls for each swing in a reasonably consistent grouping distance wise, pace each swing off.
Take the average for each group and now you have three swings which produce 3 different distances with one club.
Use other clubs to get more distances and also notice the trajectories and how much each shot rolls out.
This drill is very well suited to visualization practice.
Make some swings in front of a mirror or watch some video of yourself making the correct swing distances on the clock face.
When you have a strong internal image of these swings you can sit for fifteen minutes every day internally playing these shots.
This will massively speed up the learning process and you will very quickly start locking them in to your automatic ability to play the required shot withoutthinking.
Especially important for pitch shots is to get a little action and check on the ball.
Also For full shots if you want any back spin to stop the ball like the pro's then one thing you must do is make sure you have sharp, clean grooves on your club face.
Groove sharpeners are readily available to purchase from the internet now and clean sharp grooves will make a big difference in your stopping power on full shots and getting some check and stop on pitches.