Often the best golf tips for improving your short game cover essential fundamentals like how to spin the golf ball or how to hit a pitching wedge, but what do we do when faced with a tricky lie or an unlucky break around the green?
That’s where Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Alex Buckner comes in, as he has created a handy short-game problem solving guide that will help you to escape trouble unscathed and save par more often…
Alex Buckner’s Short-Game Problem Solving Guide
Reading a problem is the most undervalued skill around the green. No matter the level of player or your technical skill, if you’re not reading the situation you have to tackle properly, you’re reducing your chances of being able to put it close to the hole.
Being consistent in a variable environment doesn’t equal a consistent outcome – we need to be adaptable. Reading and then adapting appropriately allows problem solving to happen. This is the big separation I see between amateurs and professionals.
1. Ball Sitting Up
Often we treat rough lies all the same, but in reality how the ball sits and the grass around it can really vary, especially when playing abroad (due to different grass types).
When the ball is sitting up, most people read it as a perfect lie and hit as if they were on the fairway. We then all of a sudden hit it high on the face and get the club caught in the rough, which leads to the club slowing down through impact and the ball falling short.
Alex Buckner hitting a chip shot out of thick rough where the ball was previously sitting up
(Image credit: Kevin Murray)
Sitting up in the rough is not the same as the fairway, due to how high the ball is sitting versus where the ground is. We need to match the level of the ball by standing taller and gripping down the club, so we can clip it off the top without the fear of going underneath it.
2. The Nestled Bunker Lie
We’ve all stepped in a bunker and looked at a lie that seems great, but, for some reason, it just doesn’t look right. The chances are it’s slightly nestled into the sand. From a perfect lie, you can take dead aim and fly it next to the flag with some spin. If it’s not sitting perfectly, you might have to change your strategy.
This golf ball is nestled in the bunker sand, but now we know how to escape thanks to Alex’s…
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