
Want to experience some short-game cheer? Then it’s time to forget the old-fashioned
‘ball back, hands forward, weight forward’ mantra
that leads – inevitably – to a one-dimensional
(i.e. low & skiddy) type of shot. In its place, let me
show you how tour players approach one of golf’s
critical scoring shots with a neutral technique that
allows for a terrific variety of scoring shots
By Jonathan Yarwood
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No need to exaggerate
the adjustments at the
set up; with your body
nicely open to the target
you simply let your
arms hang, placing the
hands in the middle of
the body, while your
sternum is marginally
ahead of the ball
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No need to exaggerate
the adjustments at the
set up; with your body
nicely open to the target
you simply let your
arms hang, placing the
hands in the middle of
the body, while your
sternum is marginally
ahead of the ball
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Keep stomach and club
moving, turning, together
This is a favourite drill that will quickly get
you in tune with the way the club works
in tandem with your body. You can do
this at home in front of a mirror – just 5
minutes a day once or twice a week will
improve your general motion.

(L) Feed the
clubshaft up
through
your hands
until the
butt-end of
the grip
rests in your
naval
(C) Keep the butt-end in
place as you then work
on turning your body
centre, working arms
and club together
(R) Keep that
relationship
intact as you
rotate all the
way through
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Swinging with the left hand only is
another good exercise (below), and to
reinforce the sensation of rotation you
are looking for, place your right hand on
your naval and feel the turning motion as
you move arm, club and body in tandem,
Focus on accelerating the shaft of the
club down and through impact; as you
do so, the club is always with you, never
getting away from you.

(L) Gripping well down the
shaft with your left hand,
place your right hand on
your belly to raise your
awareness as to exactly
where you want to feel
the rotation that controls
and paces your stroke
(R) Club maintains its
relationship with your
belly all the way to
the finish
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Fingertip feel,
forearm finesse
Most right-handed players get their feel
from the right hand, so swinging with the
right hand only is a great way of feeling
the weight of the clubhead and using
that ‘feel’ to accelerate the shaft on the
way down and through. Steady your
upper arm with the left hand and clip
balls; hinge your wrist gently on the
way back to get that sense of ‘lag’
as you change direction, and
then try to get the clubhead
to
catch up
with the
right hand as you release it through the
ball. Get a sense of that ‘fingertrip feel’.
This is what all of the tour players do. It’s
a priceless tip that will open up a whole
new world of variety in the shots you are
able to play around the green.

Softness and
fluidity in the arm
gives you a great
sense of fingertip
feel
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To recap, the basic premise here is that from
a more neutral set-up position you are looking
to blend the motion of body, arms and hands
to get some real swing in the clubhead. Make
that your goal in 2012; get away from the old fashioned
‘ball back, hands forward, weight
forward’ cliche, and develop a technique that
allows for some artistry around the green.
The core shot should feature a neutral set
up, shoulders, feet, knees and hips a slightly
open to the target line, hands in the middle of
the body. Check that your sternum is marginally
ahead of the ball. Standing quite close to
the ball, you want to feel that your triceps and
ribs are nicely ‘connected’. To set the wheels
in motion, the ‘engine’ of your movement is a
gentle rotation of the hips, stomach and abs,
while the wrists hingeing and unhinge to add
speed to the shaft. A good feeling on the way
down is that you are trying to get the clubhead
to catch up (so, if anything, it bottoms out just
after the ball, not ahead of it.

The ‘engine’ of the stroke is
provided by the gentle rotation
of the hips, belly and shoulders– the arms move in unison.
A nice sense of ‘play’ in
the wrists gets some speed in
the shaft through the ball
Neutral motion sees the
butt-end of the club always
point back in the general
direction of your body. Your relationship
with the club is
maintained all the
way to the finish –
natural loft on the
clubface is preserved
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(L) Old school: with ball back and
the hands pushed forward,
there is too much shaft ‘lean,
club is seriously de-lofted.
(CL) Too much emphasis on playing
the shot with the hands; this
severe angle in the right wrist typifies
a ‘closed-down’ stroke
(CR) This driving forwards of the
hands is typical of the golfer
who ball driven forwards
(R) Detachment of arms and club is clear at the finish
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Once you have this all working you can
conjure up different shots by simply adjusting
ball position and face angle. Try playing the
ball back opposite your right toe with the face
square-to-closed for a lower runner, or forward with the face wide open for a
higher and softer shot that stops quickly.
Note that in both of these positions (right)
the set up remains relatively neutral – the
hands remain relatively centred and there is
not excessive shaft lean. This is important as it
allows for the feel and flow in the right hand as
you work on repetition and control. You need
to be able to hit the same landing spot over
and over with a variety of different spins.
This tour-pro technique will get you closer to
the action, your arms and ribs ‘connected’ for a
compact stroke while that subtle wrist action is
all it takes to add that acceleration of the head
through the ball as it catches up. Pure joy.
Reproduced with kind permission of Golf International Magazine

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