Congratulations to Kenny Perry today, who won the Memorial Tournament for the 3 times in his life, matching Tiger Woods’ record, the only other person to have won 3 times.

Continue reading ‘Kenny Perry Swing Analysis’

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Well, today I hit the ball great again and here’s my swing thought for the day:

1. Watch your weight shift during your backswing.  Make sure it doesn’t transfer more than 75% to your right foot.  My fault has been that I’d transfer more than 75%, thus causing me to sway.

2. On the downswing and follow-through, make sure to keep your head down.  This caused to fix 90% of my problems simply by keeping my head down.

3. Rhythm,rhythm, and rhythm.  Without rhythm, you are not swinging the golf club.  You need rhythm for all kinds of shots including short pitch shots and putting.

Well, that was about it and I did hit lots of great short pitch shot from about 10-30 yards.

Here’s some key thoughts on hitting great 10-30 yard short pitch shots.

1. Rhythm - try to focus on your rhythm, this will automatically help you hit that pitch shot nice and crip while accelerating through the ball.

2. Soft hands - Keep your hands ultra-soft, like noodles hanging, and make sure to keep them soft during the whole pitch shot.  Let your hands be wristy, don’t be stiff.  Great soft pitch shot come from soft hands and wrist action.

3. Try to hit the pitch shot so you can hear the crisp sound of the ball wacking the middle of the clubface.

4. Setup to the ball square or slightly open.  A lot of players open the stance too much, that will only help you cut across the ball and not as much pure backspin, which is what you want.

5. A small pitch shot is basically a miniture version of your full swing.  Feel, feel, and practice.

You can also try opening up your clubface 30 degrees but with a square stance.  This will put a lot of spin on the ball and give you that “hop and drop” effect even on really short shots.

Advanced Golf: For even more “hop and drop” effect, you can even feel like “trapping” the ball with your upper body on the downswing.  Doing this makes the pitch shot go slightly lower yet spin like crazy if you catch it super clean.

Now, these are for pitch shots from 10 to 50 yards.  Those are the best shots to practice.

Find a quiet empty green with just 3 Titleist Pro-V golf balls and move around every 3 balls.  Don’t bang 100 balls from the same spot, that is the worst way to practice small pitch shots.

Make sure to pratice with the ball you play with.  3 balls is enough.

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Well, I was just browsing through Youtube today and found this great video of Adam Scott’s knockdown shot.

If you fast foward to the last part where Butch Harmon is standing, that’s how you should hit a knockdown shot.

Really try to play over and over to hear the crisp sound of the ball being hit.  If you listen very carefully, he made almost no divot on the knockdown shot and only the ball.  When you hit the knockdown shot correctly, you should be able to hear the “knock” sound.  It’s the sound that’s made when you “almost” hit it a little thin.

Next time you go on the range, try to see if you can make that “thud” or “knock” sound, that is the secret to great knockdown shots with minimal backspin and drop and hop action.

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There has been a lot of discussions on the internet about how to play the knockdown shot. I did go over it in brief detail couple months ago but here it is again.

A knockdown shot is nothing but a mini version of your full swing.

There are variety of knockdown shots too. Depending on what kind of lie you have and what kind of results you are trying to achieve, there’s about a hundred ways to play the shot.

But for 99% of golfers and 99% of situations, you play the knockdown shot for the following reasons:

1. You are between clubs. Let’s say you hit your 5-iron 185 yards and you hit your 6-iron 150 yards. You got a 160 yard shot, you can hit a knockdown shot here.

2. It’s windy. Whether that wind is against/with you or a cross-wind, by hitting a knockdown shot, you can keep the flight of the golf ball 20-40% lower than your normal shots and not get affected by the wind. That means you don’t have to worry about how the wind will affect the shot as much.

3. You need to hit it lower than usual to avoid high hanging trees and also put lots of backspin. If you hit a knockdown shot, usually you will get a lower ball flight and get a nice hop and stop action on the ball.

Again, here’s the simplest and the most effective way to hit the knockdown shot that I personally learned from Butch Harmon:

1. Put the ball near center or slightly forward of center of your stance.

2. Swing easy, anywhere between 1/2 to 3/4 swing.

3. On the downswing, feel like you are “trapping” the ball with your body. Now, this “feeling” might take a lot of practice to achieve.

4. Try to contact the ball first, not the turf. Better yet, don’t hit the turf at all. Hitting the turf only makes the ball lose backspin. If you look at Tiger in practice (not in competition), you will see him take zero turf on every one of his ‘good’ knockdowns. If you are awed by tour pros hitting really low sand wedges and they ‘hop and drop’, this is how they do it.

This may be the most important in knockdowns since the less you hit the ground (or take a divot), the more ‘hop and drop’ backspin you will get PLUS your ball will fly a lot lower since you are not hitting down on the ball. The only way to achieve this is to really hit the ball from 0 degree angle, meaning you don’t want to hit down or up on the ball.

Now this method is great since you will be able to use your knockdowns “everywhere” once you get good.

I tend to favor it even if it’s not windy and I don’t need to hit it under a tree since you don’t have to do a full swing and stay in control of your ball flight.

Look at Tiger and he’s doing that.

Next time, I will take a video to show you exactly what I mean. These days, I don’t have much time for golf practice. I hope that changes soon and maybe I will have to try out for PGA again soon.

backspin, ball flight, Butch Harmon, downswing, full swing, golf-ball, golfers, knockdown, mini version, sand wedges, tiger, trees, turf backspin, ball flight, Butch Harmon, downswing, full swing, golf-ball, golfers, knockdown, mini version, sand wedges, tiger, trees, turf

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This is probably my favorite arsenal in my bag. You’ve probably seen Tiger on the practice tee showing off this shot too.

It’s a low-bullet slice shot. It’s great for hitting around the trees. The ball will take off very fast at about 90mph and then curve quickly at the end to the right.

Here’s how to hit it:

1. Get a 2 or 3 iron.

2. Open your stance about 30 degrees to the left. (The amount you open depends on how much curve you want on the ball. This must be acquired by practice and feel.)

3. Open your clubface about 30 degrees to the right. (same as above)

4. Put the ball in the center or back of your stance. (This depends on how low you want the ball to start. But don’t put the ball too far back, otherwise you will end up hitting down on the ball and put too much backspin which will make it go up.)

5. Rhythm is everything. Swing nice and easy about 3/4 or 1/2 swing. (A knock-down shot basically…)

P.S. You don’t have to hit down on the ball. Actually you want to sweep the ball like a Driver or a 3 Wood. The reason is again that you don’t want to hit down on the ball. That will cause extra backspin which will make your ball flight rise and beats the whole purpose of trying to hit a “low-bullet” slice shot.

You can practice this shot by trying to hit at driving range poles, yard markers, etc…etc…

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