Most often when you ask a golfer how to get better at the game they will either tell you about the 42 new golf tips they are trying or just say go get a lesson. Neither of these are a guarantee of getting better at this complex game.

This coalition of amateur sleuths trying to discover that one missing piece of the puzzle and the average traditional teaching pro looking to show you the 10 positions of the golf swing could take a lesson from John Wayne in the movie Hondo. Throw the kid in and give a few instructions that let the kid solve the problem.

This is how you were taught to ride a bike, hit a baseball, throw a frisbee. Yet we get to the golf swing and there are charts and videos and all these positions in space to perfect.

Except that is not what new research into motor learning suggests is the best and fastest way to gain mastery of a skill. Modern motor learning agrees with the Duke.

Let’s look at what other sports do

Traditional golf teaching relies heavily on internal focus and repeating a “perfect” technical model, whereas modern motor learning and other sports utilize external focus, constraints, and representative environments to build adaptable skills.

Here is a direct comparison of how these coaching philosophies differ in instruction style, practice design, and skill execution.

Core Philosophy Comparison

Feature	Traditional Golf Teaching	Modern Motor Learning & Other Sports
Primary Focus	Internal mechanics (e.g., wrist angles, hip turn).	External outcomes (e.g., target, ball flight, environment).
The “Ideal” Swing	Believes in one “perfect” repeatable technical model.	Accepts movement variability; unique to individual anatomy.
Practice Structure	Blocked practice (hitting the same club to the same target).	Random and varied practice (changing clubs, targets, lies).
Environment	Artificial and sterile (flat driving range mats).	Representative and chaotic (playing on the actual course/field).
Coach’s Role	Instructor gives continuous verbal corrections and feedback.	Designer creates constraints so the athlete self-organizes.

Traditional Golf Teaching (The Blocked Mechanical Model)

Traditional golf instruction has long been dominated by a command-style coaching method focused on the mechanics of the body. 

• Internal attentional focus dominates the lesson, forcing players to think about body parts during the swing.
• Blocked practice sessions are used exclusively, such as hitting 50 identical 7-irons to a single flag.
• Decontextualized environments like flat, manicured driving ranges remove the real-world variables of a golf course.
• Low skill transfer often results, meaning players look excellent on the driving range but fall apart on the golf course. 

Modern Motor Learning (The Constraints-Led Approach)

Modern motor learning science is built on ecological dynamics, treating the athlete as a complex, self-organizing system. [3]

• External attentional focus is prioritized, directing the athlete’s mind to the movement’s effect on the environment.
• Differential and random practice forces the brain to solve new movement puzzles on every single repetition.
• Constraints-led coaching manipulates the task, environment, or equipment to force better technique without verbal instructions.
• High skill transfer occurs because the brain learns to adapt to variability rather than trying to fight it.

How Other Sports Are Taught

Other major sports transitioned to modern motor learning principles long before golf, heavily utilizing “game-like” scenarios.

• Soccer and Basketball rely on small-sided games (e.g., 3v3) rather than standing in isolation lines to dribble around cones.
• Baseball and Softball utilize randomized pitching machines that mix speeds and locations to simulate real game reactivity.
• Tennis and Raquet Sports focus on open-loop drills where players must read the spin, bounce, and opponent’s positioning.
• Implicit learning environments are favored, ensuring athletes learn by doing and adapting, rather than by memorizing a textbook checklist. 

Now here are some resources to look into

There is an entire modern movement in golf instruction that completely rejects traditional, position-based coaching in favor of modern motor learning science and reverse chaining (building the swing backward from impact or follow-through). 

Instead of asking you to consciously micromanage your body parts (“turn your hips 45 degrees”), these coaches use a Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) and External Focus cues to let your nervous system naturally self-organize the correct movement pattern.

The leading coaches, academics, and digital programs implementing these principles are categorized below by their methodology.

1. Reverse Chaining Specialists (Building from Impact Backwards)

These instructors specialize in teaching the golf swing in reverse order of execution. By anchoring your brain to the correct sensation of the strike or finish first, your body naturally calculates the necessary backswing and transition to hit that exact destination cleanly. 

• Danny Maude (The Daniel Maude Golf Academy): One of the most popular proponents of motor learning in golf. He heavily utilizes reverse chaining and “feel-based” intent, teaching players to establish a stable post-impact and release position first before extending into a longer backswing. 
• Nick Clearwater & GOLFTEC: Through their “Data Driven” protocols, they heavily promote fixing the swing completely backwards. They emphasize freezing a perfect follow-through and working back to impact to correct deep-seated structural flaws in execution. 
• Alistair Davies: A UK Top 50 Coach who uses a dedicated “Reverse Practice Drill”. His methodology focuses on establishing the correct body matchups at the post-impact zone to automatically free up flow and sequencing earlier in the movement chain. 

2. Constraints-Led & Ecological Dynamics Coaches

These coaches modify your environment or equipment rather than giving you verbal instructions. By placing physical boundaries (like alignment sticks, foam rollers, or specific heavy-bag setups) in your way, your brain organically alters your motor patterns to avoid the constraint without conscious thought. 

• Dr. Noel Rousseau (Explore Movement Golf): A PGA Professional with a PhD in Motor Learning and Coordination. His elite programs combine high-end biomechanical 3D force plates with strict evidence-based instruction to help players build automatic, long-lasting motor patterns. 
• Peter Arnott: An expert who collaborates with top academies to implement a unique “Scaling System”. He teaches coaches how to use exaggerated environmental tasks to force a player’s nervous system to overwrite old, ingrained movement habits rapidly. [11]
• Athletic Motion Golf (AMG): Known for deep 3D motion capture analysis, their instruction focuses heavily on using targeted external constraints to build physical swing sequencing and correct wrist geometry cleanly. 

3. External Focus & Task-Oriented Instructors

Backed by decades of neuroscientific research (championed heavily by Dr. Gabriele Wulf), these coaches direct your attention exclusively to the intended effect of the movement—such as the motion of the club head or brushing a specific blade of grass—rather than the joints of the body.

• Adam Young (The Adam Young Golf Academy): Author of The Practice Manual and a premier expert on motor learning in golf. He designs training regimens that prioritize strike location control and functional matchups over visual aesthetics. 
• Dr. Luke Benoit: The Director of Instruction at Interlachen Country Club, who also holds a PhD in motor learning. He focuses strictly on the science of how swing changes actually stick over time, relying on variable practice setups over repetitive, block-style hitting. 
• Rick Silva (Movement 3 Golf): A GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teacher who translates complex 3D tour biomechanics into simple, external, task-oriented intentions that players can immediately feel.

The point of this article is to give the golfer seeking to get better a plan or roadmap to get better. If you are new to golf and just starting out or an old hack looking for a little magic, this will help.

This is a starting  point to get better. If your new to golf get a basic understanding of grip posture and ball placement. Learn a chip and a pitch and then maybe find a good Hondo coach.

I will be detailing my structured improvement plan in a later article.

And as always, may the fairways be with you…

Golf Scores

For decades, amateur golfers have been fed a steady diet of traditional instruction that prioritizes the short game above all else. The ubiquitous phrase “drive for show, putt for dough” has sent millions of players to the putting green, trying to shave strokes off their scorecards.

However, modern data science has completely upended this narrative. Through the lens of Strokes Gained analytics, pioneer sports researchers like Mark Broadie have revealed that the true driver of amateur golf scores is not a missed ten-foot putt, but rather the catastrophic errors that happen before ever reaching the green surface.

A deep look into score variance research reveals a clear roadmap to lower scores, shifting the focus from highlight-reel artistry to defensive optimization.

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The Anatomy of Score Variance

To understand how to shoot lower scores, one must understand score variance—the statistical measurement of what separates a good round from a bad round, or a 90-shooter from a scratch golfer.

In professional golf, the margins are incredibly thin. Because PGA Tour players are universally elite ball-strikers, their Tee-to-Green performance is highly stable. Consequently, Putting accounts for roughly 30% to 35% of a professional’s score variance. On any given week, the player who gets hot on the greens climbs the leaderboard.

For the amateur golfer, the statistical reality is entirely inverted:

Strokes Gained Phase	Professional Variance	Amateur Variance	The Real-World Impact
Off-the-Tee (OTT)	15% – 17%	35% – 40%	Lost balls, out-of-bounds penalties, and severe distance loss.
Approach Shots (APP)	35% – 40%	25% – 30%	Chunked or topped irons; missing greens into heavy hazards.
Around-the-Green (ARG)	13% – 15%	18% – 22%	Bladed wedges and execution errors that fail to find the green.
Putting (PUTT)	30% – 35%	12% – 15%	Minor performance differences; most amateurs uniformly 3-putt.

As the data demonstrates, 85% of amateur score variance is decided before the ball ever touches the putting surface.

Amateurs do not shoot high scores because they putt poorly; they shoot high scores because they lose balls off the tee, hit iron shots into penalty areas, and compound their mistakes with poor course strategy.

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Key Takeaways from the Data

1. The Driver Dictates Your Score Ceiling
   An amateur cannot build a low-scoring round if they are consistently hitting their third shot from the tee box. Keeping the ball in play off the tee is the single largest factor in lowering amateur handicap levels.
2. Amateurs Uniformly Miss Short
   Data tracking shows that amateur golfers wildly overestimate how far they hit their clubs. They select club lofts based on their absolute best historical strike, causing over 80% of amateur approach shots to finish short of the target.
3. Putting is About Defense, Not Offense
   While a PGA Tour player is trying to make 20-foot birdie putts, an amateur’s primary goal on the green must be the elimination of the 3-putt. Total speed control matters vastly more than finding the perfect geometric line.

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The Four-Step Prescription for Lower Scores

Shaving strokes off your scorecard does not require a complete mechanical overhaul of your swing sequence. Instead, it requires implementing a rigorous, data-driven strategy designed to minimize high-variance mistakes.

1. Off the Tee: Keep it in Play

The absolute baseline of amateur scoring survival is banishing the penalty stroke. Stop reaching for the driver on tight holes where a fairway wood or hybrid guarantees safety.

When you do hit driver, maximize your margins: if there is trouble on the right side of the hole, tee your ball up on the far right edge of the tee box and aim down the left-center of the fairway.

2. Approach Play: Take an Extra Club

Because strike consistency is highly volatile for mid-to-high handicappers, you must account for the “average” strike rather than the “perfect” strike.

As a default rule, take one extra club (e.g., hit a 7-iron instead of an 8-iron) and swing smoothly. This simple adjustment ensures that your sub-optimal strikes still carry far enough to reach the front edge of the green.

3. Course Strategy: Aim for the Fat of the Green

Stop hunting pins. Flagsticks tucked near green-side bunkers, water hazards, or severe drop-offs are trap leaves designed to punish marginal misses.

Always aim for the geometric center of the green surface. This gives you a massive cushion to the left or right if your swing execution is slightly offline.

4. Around the Green: Use the Bump-and-Run

When you do miss the green, leave your high-lofted lob wedges in the bag. High-lofted chips require precise low-point contact; a fraction of an inch off results in a chunked shot that stays in the rough or a bladed shot that flies over the green.

Instead, get the ball rolling on the ground as quickly as possible. Grab a lower-lofted club like a 9-iron or a gap wedge, play it slightly back in your stance, and execute a simple, low-risk stroke modeled after your putting motion.

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Conclusion: The Mathematical Blueprint

By shifting your mindset away from low-probability hero shots and embracing a defensive, margin-optimized game plan, you systematically strip away the big numbers that ruin a round. Play the percentages, manage your leaves, and let the data do the heavy lifting on your scorecard

And as it ever was, may the fairways be with you.

Part 2: Moving From Basics to the Hybrid Short Game Matrix

(part 1 what the flop)

Mastering the four basics—the Bump and Run, the Low Spinner, the Pitch, and the Standard Bunker Shot—gives you a baseline strategy for 80% of your greenside shots.

But what about the other 20%?

Golf courses rarely hand out perfect lies. Eventually, you will pull a drive into thick, juicy rough, or push an iron into a bare dirt waste area. If you try to force a standard, “dead-hand” pitch shot from rock-hard dirt, you will blade it into the next county. If you try a gentle, shallow glide from deep bluegrass, the grass will wrap around the hosel and twist the face shut.

To survive these extreme scenarios without blowing up your scorecard, you need to graduate from basic shots to a Hybrid Short Game Matrix.

A hybrid short game treats your wedges like an elite toolbox. Instead of trying to use one universal swing, you blend the mechanics of three distinct coaching philosophies—Parker McLachlin (The Short Game Chef), Joe Mayo, and Stan Utley—and deploy them based strictly on your lie.

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By altering your mechanical engine while keeping your stance narrow and simple, you can handle any extreme lie on the course:

                           THE HYBRID SHORT GAME MATRIX

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Shot 1: The “Fairway Glide” (Powered by The Short Game Chef)

When you are sitting on a clean fairway or a tightly mown fringe, your primary goal is maximum safety and forgiveness. You want a stroke that can miss by an inch and still get the ball close.

THE GLIDE SETUP:

[ Ball ] -> Dead Center

[ Hands ] -> Slight Forward Press

[ Weight ] -> 50/50 Balanced

• The Mechanics: Borrowed from Parker McLachlin, this shot relies on torso rotation while keeping the hands completely quiet. Take the club back wide and low, feeling like you are sliding it into a “catcher’s mitt.” On the downswing, let your ribcage turn through the shot.
• The Hybrid Advantage: Because your hands are passive and your stance is balanced, the club travels parallel to the ground for a long time. The wedge’s built-in bounce acts like a water ski, skimming across the grass. If you hit slightly behind the ball, the club glides instead of digging.
• Tour Reference: Steve Stricker and Matt Kuchar. They use this wide, passive-hand body turn to effortlessly roll balls across standard fairway lies.

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Shot 2: The “Hardpan Pinch” (Powered by Joe Mayo)

You find your ball on a bare dirt lie, a tight winter fairway, or packed waste area. There is zero grass under the ball. If you try to use the bounce here, the club will skid off the hard ground and skull the ball over the green. You need a ball-first strike.

THE PINCH SETUP:

[ Ball ] -> Back (Inside Trail Heel)

[ Hands ] -> Extreme Shaft Lean

[ Weight ] -> 80% Lead Side

• The Mechanics: Borrowed from Joe Mayo, this shot eliminates the ground variable. Lock 80% of your weight onto your lead foot and lean the shaft aggressively forward. Instead of rotating your hips, tilt your lead shoulder straight down on the backswing and straight up on the downswing. Set the angle in your trailing wrist and hold it completely locked through the strike.
• The Hybrid Advantage: This creates a steep, -8° to -10° angle of attack. The leading edge drives straight into the back of the ball before it ever touches the ground. The ball squirts out ultra-low, bites the green on the second bounce, and checks up violently.
• Tour Reference: Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa. They prefer the mathematical consistency of hitting the ball cleanly before making turf contact.

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Shot 3: The “Rough Explosion” (Powered by Stan Utley)

Your ball is sitting in deep, heavy rough short of the green. A wide body turn will get tangled in the grass, and a steep locked-wrist pinch will simply bury the clubhead. You need immediate acceleration and loft to pop the ball up and out.

THE EXPLOSION SETUP:

[ Ball ] -> Middle to Slightly Forward

[ Hands ] -> Neutral (Centered near belly button)

[ Weight ] -> 60% Lead Side

• The Mechanics: Borrowed from Stan Utley, this shot reintroduces active, soft hands. Set up with a neutral shaft (no forward press). Allow your wrists to hinge quickly and early on the backswing. Through impact, allow your trailing hand to actively release under the ball like a natural “handshake” rotation.
• The Hybrid Advantage: Hinging and releasing the wrists provides a massive injection of clubhead speed over a tiny distance. The clubhead slides under the ball, using the active release to slice through heavy grass stems without getting stuck, launching the ball high and soft.
• Tour Reference: Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia. These players rely on rapid, hyper-athletic hand releases to escape nasty greenside rough.

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Shot 4: The “Sand Splash” (Powered by Stan Utley & Joe Mayo’s Physics)

Greenside bunkers strike fear into amateurs because they try to “scoop” the ball out. In reality, the club should never actually touch the golf ball. Bunker play requires a unique blend of Utley’s release and Mayo’s understanding of entry-point physics: you must throw the bounce of the club aggressively into the sand behind the ball.

THE SPLASH SETUP:

[ Ball ] -> Forward (Inside Lead Heel)

[ Hands ] -> Slightly Behind the Ball

[ Face ]  -> Open Aggressively (Pointing skyward)

[ Stance ]-> Wide (Shoulder-width) with 70% Weight Left

• The Mechanics: Turn your highest-lofted wedge open before placing your hands on the grip, exposing the full underbelly of the bounce. Stand wide, dig your feet in for stability, and keep your weight strictly on your lead side. Swing back using an immediate Utley-style wrist hinge. On the downswing, do not slide or press forward. Instead, intentionally “cast” or slap the back of the wedge into the sand two inches behind the ball.
• The Hybrid Advantage: Opening the face and releasing the wrists aggressively maximizes the wedge’s bounce. The club head thumps into the sand and immediately skims back upward rather than digging to China. The wave of exploding sand is what lifts the ball softly out of the hazard.
• The Fried Egg Adjustment: If your ball is plugged (“fried egg”), the hybrid strategy pivots. Move the ball to the center of your stance, close the clubface square, use Joe Mayo’s vertical shoulder tilt to get steep, and gouge the leading edge into the sand right behind the ball. The ball will come out low and rolling with zero spin.
• Tour Reference: Phil Mickelson and Seve Ballesteros. Master bunker players utilize maximum wrist snap to slap the sand, letting the explosion do all the heavy lifting.

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Master the Hybrid Strategy: Real-World Scenarios

A hybrid short game is as much about decision-making as it is about mechanics. When you walk up to your ball, run through this quick checklist:

1. Assess the Lie First: Is it turf, bare ground, or sand?
   • Turf: Clean lie = Fairway Glide. Thick rough = Rough Explosion.
   • Bare Ground: Hardpan/Dirt = Hardpan Pinch.
   • Sand: Soft/Normal = Sand Splash. Plugged lie = Fried Egg Gouge.
2. Match the Flight to the Green: Do you have plenty of green to work with? Use the low-flying Hardpan Pinch or mid-launching Fairway Glide and let it roll like a putt. Short-sided over a bunker or stuck in a hazard? Pull out the Rough Explosion or Sand Splash to launch it high.
3. Commit to the Engine: Once you choose your shot, stick to its physical engine. Do not mix active wrists into a 50/50 balanced fairway setup, or you will chunk it.

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By adding these four advanced lies to your repertoire, you complete your short game arsenal. You no longer need to fear the wildcard of a bad lie—you simply change the tool, trust the physics, and watch your scores drop.

As always, may the fairways be with you.

Where have all the good flops gone…

The modern tour short game is dominated by wedge bounce and body rotation over wrists and arms. The bump and run over the mega flop. 

This shift is due to many factors such as course conditions ,statistical analysis, and limited practice time.

The super tight conditions on tour venues leave zero room for error, and the statistical analysis points to less risk paying dividends.

It turns out that a pro only gets 10 percent of score variance from short game shots. So spending the bulk of your practice on the chipping green, like many pros used to preach, just does not make sense.

For the weekend golfers the short game is the ultimate wildcard, dictating up to 50% of the scoring gap between a high handicap and a low handicap.

To understand the raw mathematical impact, look at how scrambling percentages (getting up-and-down for par) drop off a cliff as handicap increases: 

Golfer Tier	Average Greens Hit (GIR)	Scrambling %	Missed Greens per Round	Short Game Strokes Lost
PGA Tour Pro	12 / 18	60% – 65%	6	~2.2
Scratch (0) Amateur	11 / 18	50%	7	~3.5
10-Handicap	7 / 18	30%	11	~7.7
20-Handicap	4 / 18	10%	14	~12.6

Much like tour pros we have limited time to practice so it makes sense to adopt the same strategy of simple repeatable shots to save par. These shots take less time to get good at and to maintain the skill, and will have a much higher impact on your score.

The Modern Short Game Basics

1. The Modern Tour “Bump and Run”

The Formula: Treat it like a putt, get the ball rolling immediately.

• The Club: Modern pros rarely use a traditional 7-iron. Instead, they choose a Pitching Wedge or Gap Wedge (48° to 52°). This provides a touch more predictable friction on premium, fast Tour greens.
  • Narrow, open stance with the feet very close together.
  • Ball position is back—lined up with the inside of the trailing foot.
  • Weight is heavily favored forward (roughly 65-70% on the lead leg).
  • Handle raised high, lifting the heel of the club off the ground. This reduces the surface area of the club interacting with the grass, virtually eliminating the chance of a chunk.
• The Motion: This is entirely an extension of the putting stroke. The wrists are completely locked and quiet. The player uses a simple chest-and-shoulder rock to “click” the ball, launching it low over the fringe and letting it roll out like a putt.

2. When the Bump and Run Won’t Work: The “Low Spinner”

To hit a low-launch spinner with the lowest variance of outcomes, you must use a mid-lofted wedge (50° to 54° gap or sand wedge) rather than a lob wedge. Using less loft naturally keeps the trajectory low without requiring a steep, risky angle of attack or heavy shaft lean. This “low variance” method relies on a stable, chest-driven release that eliminates the skull or chunk shots caused by over-active wrists.

• Club Choice: Use a 50° to 54° wedge with moderate bounce (10° to 12°).
• Ball Position: Place the ball exactly one ball-width back of center.
• Stance Width: Keep your feet very narrow, about one clubhead width apart.
• Weight Distribution: Shift 60% of your pressure onto your lead foot and keep it locked there.
• Shaft Lean: Lean the grip slightly forward, pointing just inside your lead thigh.
• Dead-Hand Takeaway: Take the club back using only your torso turn, keeping wrist hinge to an absolute minimum.
• Shallow Entry: Return the club to the ball on a wide, shallow arc. Do not dig or create a deep divot.
• Body Rotation: Let your chest rotate toward the target through impact. If your chest stops turning, your hands will flick, increasing outcome variance.
• The “Low-to-Low” Finish: Finish with the clubhead below your waist and the clubface still pointing skyward. Do not let the clubhead cross or flip past your hands.

3. The Modern Tour Pitch Shot

• Ball Position: Placed perfectly in the center of the stance (or merely one ball width forward of center).
• The Shaft: The club shaft is completely vertical and neutral at address. The hands sit directly over the ball, not pressed forward toward the target. This keeps the club’s natural loft and exposes the bounce on the bottom of the wedge.
• Stance & Weight: Feet are narrow and slightly open to the target line, but the weight is split evenly (50/50) or just slightly favored on the lead side (55/45).
• Early Wrist Hinge: The wrists hinge naturally and early in the takeaway. This creates a vertical angle of approach without having to lift the arms rigidly.
• Chest Rotation: The chest rotates open away from the ball. The backswing length is used strictly to control the distance of the shot, while the tempo remains smooth and constant.
• Gliding, Not Digging: The goal is to let the flat, curved bottom of the wedge (the bounce) slap or “thump” the grass underneath the ball. Because the bounce is exposed, the club will slide right through the grass rather than digging into the dirt.
• The “Skidding” Margin for Error: Because the club glides instead of digs, a modern pro can actually hit the ground two inches behind the golf ball and the shot will still turn out nearly perfect.
• Chest Leads the Finish: While the hands release the club head, the body never stops turning. The chest rotates forcefully toward the target, finishing with the belt buckle facing the hole and the club face pointing up toward the sky (never rolled over).

4. The Modern Tour Bunker Shot

The Formula: Stand square, trust the club’s built-in bounce, and release the hands.

The modern tour pitch shot technique simplifies bunker play by abandoning the traditional “open stance, swing hard left” method. Instead, top players like Matt Fitzpatrick and Shane Lowry treat a greenside bunker shot exactly like a standard fairway pitch shot. This provides a square setup, predictable straight backspin, and better distance control.

1. Match Your Setup to a Standard Pitch

• Square Stance: Align feet, hips, and shoulders completely square or parallel to the target line.
• Ball Position: Place the ball slightly forward of center, aligning generally with your lead heel.
• Weight Distribution: Lean 60% of your body weight onto your lead side and lock it there. Do not shift back during the swing.
• Clubface Option: Open the clubface slightly to expose the wedge’s bounce, but keep the club handle pointing neutrally at your sternum.

2. Execute a Shallow, Connected Swing

• Chest Rotation: Initiate the backswing by turning your shoulders and chest. Keep your triceps feeling relatively connected to your torso.
• The “V to Y” Motion: Allow your wrists to hinge naturally into a “V” shape on the backswing, and turn all the way through into a “Y” shape with your arms and shaft on the follow-through.
• Shallow Entry Point: Simply aim to let the sole of the wedge thump the sand 1 to 2 inches behind the golf ball. Because you are swinging square, the club will enter shallowly and glide right under the ball.
• Push the Sand: Focus on the idea of using the clubface to push a small cushion of sand onto the green. The sand is what lifts the ball out, not a scooping motion with your hands.
• Tall Follow-Through: Commit to a full chest turn that finishes with your belt buckle facing the target. Stand up tall in the finish to prevent your hands from flipping or getting stuck.

The beauty of these four shots is that the mechanics are very similar, so getting good at one helps you with the other ones.

These shots will cover the majority of short game challenges on the course, learn them and your scores will go down.

As always, may the fairways be with you.

What is your C game? Recently while listening to Jon Sherman talk about managing expectations. He pointed out that most of the time on the course you have your B game or at worst your C game, and you have to adjust to make the best of it. 

So what does that look like? 

It’s 10 out of 10 golf. Its shots you can hit every time with a good result. It’s efficiently moving the ball closer to the hole.

All too often we spend all our time practicing the perfect move or the sick flop shot when we should just be grinding on contact, aim, and keeping the ball on the ground.

The Drive:

On the range play a game of fairway finder. For every drive that would hit a fairway and was the shot shape you intended, you get 2 points. For every missed fairway or missed shot shape you lose 5 points. How many shots does it take you to get to 10?  

The approach:

For approach shots if you have been collecting data work on the yardage you suck at, if not you can pick anything between 100 and 150 yards, because these are the most common distances you will face on the course.

The game here is the target. Pick a yardage and a target. The scoring is the same as the fairway game, 2 points for a hit -5 points for a miss or a hit with the wrong shot shape. How many shots do you need to get to 10?

The pitch:

These are just your 30 to 50 yard shots. Pick a target and judge your score on hitting the target and the flight you wanted, ie a low flighted 50 yard shot or a high flighted 30 yard shot. Whatever you feel more confident in to score well. 2 points for a hit -5 points for a miss 

The chip:

This is simple, practice 50 percent of the time on low running shots. Work with your putter, hybrid/fairway wood or irons that let you get the ball on the green and roll to the target. The rest of your time work on getting over something like a trap and hitting the green.

The sand shot:

Simple, get out of the trap by any means necessary.

Five shots, five greens. Depending on the sand conditions and the height of the bunker lip this could be any club between a  60 degree wedge to a putter. This game is just 5 out of 5. Anything that does not get on the green – start over.

The putt:

This is simple too. 25 foot lag putt and 7 feet and in short putts. You get points for anything that drops in or is 10 percent of the distance from the cup, except 3 footers you just gotta make those.

The point of all this C game practice is to find the setup, shot shape, and club in each situation that you can lean on when your A game has left the building.

So next time when your A game is on vacation let your C game get you through the round

And as always may the fairways be with you!

Chicken little ran screaming…the ball is too long, the ball is too long, golf will never be the same.

The USGA  has decided that distance is ruining this once great game. This drum beat has been getting louder and louder for the last 25 years. Ever since Tiger woods made Augusta National look like the prettiest muni track in the world and full on trucked the field.

The response to this once in a generation talent was to lengthen the Master track by 500 yards. The Goat looked at what they had done to challenge his talent, and proceeded to go back to back wins, that he didn’t threepeat was seen as a victory. 

See the reason that length alone did not faze Tiger has to do with his all around game. Dude was the best ball striker of maybe any generation and his putting and short game were not bad either.

What the extra length did do, is give the longer hitters an advantage. Since professional golf is not a long drive contest, just ask Kyle Berkshire, that long drive has to be followed up by an elite approach and putt. Maybe a chip or sand shot too. 

The retort from the long ball haters is “ but there are so many more players driving it 300 yards or more” yes, well given the modern PGA course length of, on average, 7300 yards you would have to average 300 yards to be competitive. Crank the distance back to 6900 yards and neck the fairway at 300 yards and watch all the short hitters (280 yards) start roaring to the top of leader boards.

The irony of all of this, is that in stretching the golf courses the people that scream that distance is killing the game are the ones sending the signal to players that they need distance to compete.

The same people that are telling the average golfer to move up a tee or two because they don’t hit it far enough, seem unaware that making pros compete on longer courses means the longer players have an advantage.

So let’s forget about all this making the courses longer and blame all the distance on technology, yeah that’s the ticket. Let’s forget we made it nearly impossible for a 280 player to win or be competitive, let’s just roll the ball back. Brilliant!

Further lets forget that the average club golfer has improved distance off the tee by only 20 – 25 yards since 1990. So while the USGA talks about the ball rollback being a “nothing burger”  that 5 yards is a 20% reduction of what you and I have gained over the years.

The pga tour average has improved by roughly double the amateur gain during the same period. Same technology, yet twice the distance. Could it be that the biggest variable is the athlete? Could it be that by offering larger and larger prize pools and longer and longer courses to compete on, the tours have brought better and faster athletes into the game and now the USGA wants the merry go round to stop so they can bring us all back to a simpler time of ballata and persimmon, of blades and plaid pants.

Bryson Dechambeu seems to think that the fundamental question of what is the desired endstate has to be answered. As in do we want to grow the game of golf or do we want to make the game look more like it did in whatever period the governing bodies are trying to achieve, because you can’t do both, these are mutually exclusive goals. 

The USGA and those that support these efforts to pull distance out of the game mistake nostalgia for stewardship of the game. The truth is that courses are faster, longer, and prize purses are life changing. In response better and faster athletes are rushing in. 

The ball didn’t do that. The driver didn’t do that. Equipment is not what’s changing the game. 

The game is still about the lowest score regardless of technology or athleticism. Statistics have changed the game as much or more. Strokes gained have put drivers in the hands of golfers more often. Strokes gained and Decade have stressed that one shot shape is more consistent than hitting it both ways. Are we going to outlaw these things too? Because you would have to roll back knowledge as well if you want golf to look as it once did.

So my open question to the USGA is simple, do you want nostalgia or a growing thriving game?

I know what my answer is.

May the fairways be with you!

Every golfer has a goal when setting up a bag of clubs. Sometimes it’s a professional getting ready for a tournament and sometimes it’s a 25 handicap looking to break 90. 

I’m setting up my bag this year to break 80. As a 15 handicap I need to find 6 to 10 strokes. To make this a reality I will focus on one goal, no doubles or worse

Let’s start with what every golf bag needs, a driver or default tee club, a putter, and a sand wedge. 

• Driver; Cobra. OPTIM X
  • Kal’i blue 60 stiff
  • Standard length
  • Holsel set to A1
• Putter Cobra
  • The 3DP™ TOUR AGERA RS
• Ping 159 54 Degree
  • E grind

Next a well gapped bag needs to cover an average range of approach shots with between 10 – 13 yard gaps. My average drive is 237 yards so my approach shots should fall between 105 and 175 yards. So we add pitching wedge through 6i and 5 hybrid. 

• 5 Irons; Ping
  • Ping i240 PW – 6i
  • Standard loft
  • Nippon Modous3 115 stiff
  • Standard length 
  • Standard lie
• hybrid; Ping
  • Ping 430 
  • Ping chrome tour stiff
  • Loft 24.5
  • Hosel set to big minus

Now add a 200+ yard club for long par 3’s and we are done with basic bag setup. 

• 5 wood; Cobra OPTIM X 5 wood
  • 18 degree
  • Kal’i blue 60 stiff
  • Hosel set to A1

So now that we have the 10 clubs all bags need we can focus on the strategy picks.

Tiger Tee Strategy – The layup

Most doubles or worse can be traced back to the tee shot. Every good golf course design puts hazards or big trouble in your way at least once per round. These holes force you to hit the layup drive because the hazards and or penalty zones will kill your round. Enter the mini driver. It’s a little shorter than the big dog but has a tighter dispersion.

• Mini Driver; Cobra OPTIM Mini
  • Kal’i blue 60 stiff
  • Standard length
  • Hosel set to A1

No 3 putts 

Almost all 3 putts can be traced back to speed control. For golfers of all skill levels the percentage of made putts falls off a cliff after 10 feet. So consistent speed control with the putter is key. My putter this year is a Cobra 3DP Tour AGERA RS. I picked this model for a combination of high moi and the DLT (Descending Loft Technology) face which gives a consistent launch every time.

No double chips.

Chipping technique and skill is most of the solution, but having wedges in multiple grinds, lofts, and bounce will give the skilled player options to get the ball on the green the first time.

Statistically speaking, Not all dispersion patterns are the same. From your driver to your short irons the biggest deviation from target is left to right. Once you get to 100 yards or less it’s north and south that matters most.

So slotting a 50 degree gap wedge between the pitching wedge and 54 degree sand wedge is an obvious choice. Now add a 58 degree lob wedge and we have nice 4-5 degree gaps from 6i to lob – a pretty standard setup.

• Ping 159 50 degree
  • Black dot
• Ping 159 58 degree
  • Black dot
    • T grind

Of course we just have one problem, that leaves an open slot in the bag.

I chose to go with a 62 degree lob wedge over a hybrid or fairway wood at the top. Although most players favor the tighter gap at the top of the bag, either choice will be in play maybe once or twice a round unless your having a really bad day. So an extra get out of jail club is what we are going with – we shall see if the strategy pays off this season.

• Titleist Vokey sm9 62 degree
  • M grind

I am a golf club junkie, a tinkerer, an addict of the promise of new tech. But this means my golf game never has a solid footing to improve. So I will be focusing on swing and golf technique to move my index down for the next 12 months. Wow, that feels long when I write it down. 

Cheers, and may the fairways be with you.

Recently Strolan and I had a throw-down on speed in golf (here) It’s a fun conversation and all, but one of the aspects of the debate that gets overshadowed is that golf is a recreational sport, yet all of the rules are focused and bent towards the 1 percent that cash a check on the sport.

To put this in better perspective, this would be like the Department of Transportation deciding to adopt the rules of NASCAR or Formula One racing for all road going cars.This is of course absurd, although might make your commute more interesting.

Golf is run as if we are all in racing cars and as such we should all adhere to the same rules. We are not. I guarantee you, all race cars. I’m a Toyota Tercel at best. This begs the question: do the people running the show actually know what the business of golf is – I think not. 

The business of golf is the recreational play of the game which comprises 99 percent of the game and includes course management, Equipment manufacture, and instruction/coaching. The tours are entertainment/marketing. No other sport treats its main customer with more disdain.

To illustrate this point let me entertain you with this scenario. The PGA and all other tours collectively decide to stop – no more tour golf. Now how many of you would respond to this by cancelling your next tee time or stop playing golf altogether? Any one? Any one? Bueller? Of course no one would just say “what’s the point of the game if I can’t watch incredibly gifted athletes play it” We would all solder on. 

Now if the inverse were true, that all recreational golfers just gave up the game all at once in some grand collective action, well then, there would not be a tour. Full stop. There is no tour without recreational golfers.

So now that we have established that the recreational golfer is the most important stakeholder what do we do?

Well for starters I suggest going to the equipment guys and ask what they could do outside of the box the current rules put them in. Then maybe survey mens and womens groups on where they are suffering in their play. Essentially get some data so that we can bend the rules and regulations towards the majority of golfers. Less frustration with the game will mean more growth for the game. Which I thought was the whole point.

Now you may be wondering about the Tours. Because if we make the game easier through technology/equipment won’t that mean a 300 yard 8 iron? No, because as Strolan pointed out in our podcast, local rules allow for any of the tech to be excluded as the tours see fit Or as the new CEO of the PGA said, “Making a rule book that is adjusted by the competition committee on an ongoing basis, much like the NFL, is a possibility” and I think they should, as it would give the USGA and other governing bodies in golf the room to focus on the other 99 percent, AKA you and me.

So in conclusion,I will leave you with this small example. If you have a rangefinder with slope (it can calculate the distance change for elevation) it can be used in most competitions because there is a visible off switch for the feature.You cannot use a rangefinder in competition at all on the PGA tour. So how is that different then having hotter drivers or other equipment that is marked in this way, and let the tours decide what makes sense for them? 

But then again what do I know, i’m just the holyduffer. As always may the fairways be with you!

The winter of our discontent is finally over…

The new CEO of the PGA is a veteran of the most popular sport in America, the NFL. This could not have happened at a better time. As the sports entertainment product called PGA golf needs help. 

The obvious stuff is the lackluster fedex cup and events that fail as spectator sports. Then there is the woeful marketing and engagement with and to fans. It is telling that most Youtube golf is more interesting than all but 5 or 6 events on the tour. 

While these problems have long pledged theTour, they are relatively benign compared to the extinction level tandem of player speed and expanding forgiveness of equipment.

As I write this there is a reel on Instagram of Kyle Berkshire hitting  a 330 yard 1 iron and a 249 yard 9 iron at Paynes Valley golf club. While Kyle can peak at 157mph club speed with the driver, he averages 145mph. The only thing that Mr.Berkshre lacks is an elite short game. So golf is safe for now.

That combination of speed and short game skill is going to happen. In fact right now if you are a college athlete with a 330 yard average drive and just average short game skill, coaches don’t need you, because everyone on the team is cranking it out there. In the next 5 years the tour is going to have an avalanche of speed that no ball rollback can fix.

At the same time as swing speed is exploding, so is the ability of manufacturers to make the distance penalty for off center hits go away – compounding the problem. This of course is the only path left for innovation and by extension sales for these companies. By capping driver speed though C.O.R (Coefficient of Restitution) which essentially multiplies club head speed into ball speed, The USGA (United States Golf Association) has left the equipment industry only one out – making the entire club face a sweet spot. The new distance claims are for average distance, because AI is making the center strike, and therefore skill, unnecessary.

The problem at the edge of tomorrow is that every year players get faster and better in all sports, and equipment manufacturers need something to sell. These two juggernauts are destroying the most important part of golf – skill. This flattening of the importance of skill is what all current efforts of distance mitigation are really about. It’s what the groove rule change was about as well.

So how do we protect and increase the test of skill in elite golf?

First, we restrict the expansion of the club head sweet spot. This will at the very least slow the onslaught of player speed as it will matter more to have a dead center strike. 

Second, we must bite the bullet on bifurcation of equipment. As we will illustrate below, this will allow more finite control of the distance on tour, and let golf club innovation transform the average player’s game.This will also allow us to  bring in shorter venues like Marrion, by using local rules to set the COR for the event specifically.

Of course you may be asking “ Why don’t we just roll it back for everybody?”. Well because if we were to do so, that the math would look something like this

Let’s assume that the high end of speed is 145mph and the low end is 135mph. That would give us an average of 140mph. This would mean (140mph x 1.50-COR = 210mph ball speed) 210mph x 1.8 = 378 yard drive. These are all maximized numbers.

Now to bring the distance back to just around today’s numbers (the average drive on the PGA Tour is 302 yards) we would need to roll the driver back to as COR of 1.2. The average driver swing speed for the male amateur is 95mph. So, without bifurcation, this would make the average drive  (95mph x 1.2 =114mph x 1.8 = 205 yards) 205 yards. Compared to 256 yards with the current 1.5 COR.

If we assume that a less extreme speed shift happens at say 125mph – 135mph (130mph average) we get to a COR of 1.3 so that would translate to 222 yards for the am player.. This is of course the result of a perfect strike which is much less likely for the average player.

Even if the average miraculously stays at what the upper end of the tour is now (125mph) that still gets us to a COR of 1.35 which gives our average player a drive of 230 yards on a perfect strike

So I think it’s clear that restricting both levels of players is not going to work. Now what would uncorking the driver for the amateur player look like.

If the driver were to increase to 1.6 COR that would mean that the average drive would go from 256 yards to 273 yards (95mph x 1.6 = 152mph x 1.8) almost 20 more yards, I think I could sell that! If manufacturers could bump up the COR to 1.65 that would give the average golfer a 282 yard drive! 

Golf is a hard game. Making it harder for non professional players is just ludicrous. Allowing the advent of 3D capture, force plates, and advanced biomechanics to steamroll courses is just as batshit crazy. We can’t let the term “hitting it on the screws” be made obsolete by super computers either. This leaves us with only one option – bifurcation of equipment. 

This will make sense for the Pings and Titleist of the world; they can  increase the sweet spot speed or COR for the amateur ranks and have something to sell – more distance. The PGA will have control over how speed effects the game and classic venues become viable again. You could even let the higher COR equipment out on the Champions tour to add some sizzle to that tour as well.

There you have it, the holyduffer’s take on the state of golf. Thanks for listening, and we will see you down the fairway.

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