Golf Short Game - Chip And Pitch For Success

I don't think too many golfers would argue with me when I say that hitting a screaming drive down the middle of the fairway is one of the greatest feelings in golf. That wonderfully rare moment when you catch the golf ball absolutely flush in the middle of the head of your driver and it soars away to land 250 to 300 yards away on the short grass - for some people it's the reason why they come back to the golf course week after week. The problem is that we may allow that heady moment to partially obscure our ultimate goal i.e. getting the ball into the hole! Sure, to score well, you probably need to hit a good percentage of fairways, and the further down the fairway the better, but at the end of the day it's the short game that really makes the difference.

The respected golf teachers in the game all agree that the average amateur golfer will significantly lower their handicap if they concentrate on improving their golf short game and some will go so far as to say that this could be by up to one third! Therefore if you're not currently practicing your chipping and pitching with burner 2.0 irons into the green, you need to start now! It may sound really obvious, but one of the things that has really helped me in my short game was a simple piece of advice - from a low-handicap golfing friend - on golf chip shot and pitch shot practice...

Practice with a Purpose

Like many golfers, I used to manage to get to the Driving range once a week and I would work my way through my irons up to my burner 2.0 irons for sale on a bucket of balls. Typically, I would hit 4 or 5 shots with each iron and then the bulk with my driver. After an hour or so, I would go home, thinking that I had helped my game - well, maybe I had a little, but in reality probably not much. Does that scenario sound familiar?

The advice was to change my practicing habits - instead of concentrating on my driving, change the focus to my chipping and pitching with callaway diablo edge irons and give myself targets. I don't mean that you should ignore your driving practice, but focus on where your game needs most help and in my case, (and I suspect that the same goes for many others) that was my pitching.

My friend suggested that I should take a bucket of balls and divide the practice into three parts for three separate target distances, roughly 50, 75 or 100 yards. At a driving range, then these or similar distances will usually be marked out with flags, but on diablo edge irons practice ground, then roughly mark the distances out yourself for shots into the practice green. He said to count how many for each distance that I could chip or pitch roughly within 10-15 yards of the target and to keep a record, week on week.

Well, it worked! It's amazing how at each week of practice you try to improve the number of successful chip shots or pitch shots, and because of that focused practice, you take a new confidence out onto the golf course when you play your next round. This has certainly helped my short game and consequently lowered my scores.