Follow Lefty’s tips to fix your shredding.
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Welcome to Play Smarta regular GOLF.com game improvement column that will help you become a smarter and better golfer.
So you want to improve your short game? Excellent! Having a reliable set of tools from 50 yards and up is essential if you want to take your game to the next level. All you have to do now is learn the right technique and practice it.
If you go to a professional event, you will see the best players who adhere to this principle with confidence. Sure, hitting bombs on the range is fun, but to become one of the best, dialing in the scoring clubs is a must.
Having an elite short game is not only about proper technique, but also requires a great deal of imagination and creativity. And when it comes to those two attributes, there may be no one better in the history of the game than Phil Mickelson.
With a wedge in his hands, Lefty is a wizard. Put him anywhere on the field within 100 yards and there’s a good chance he can get the ball up and down. When it comes to the short game, there is no one in the game like Mickelson.
If you’re hoping to improve your short game, listening to Lefty is a good place to start. And on today’s episode of Play Smart, we turn to Mickelson as he explains some of his own the secrets of success in short games.
Mickelson’s short game secrets
There are a few things to do when it comes to sharding, and they all come into play during setup.
- You need to keep your weight forward. This helps keep the leading edge down and helps make firm contact.
- Your hands should be in front of the club head. If you get your hands behind the clubhead, it exposes the leading edge and results in chipping and chipping.
- You have to use your ball position to hit different trajectories. Put it forward in position to kick it up and back in position to kick it down.
All three of these setup tips come from Lefty himself and when applied correctly will produce the right contact around the greens. In the video above, Mickelson also highlights another important foundation for solid chipping, and it comes in the form of shoulder turn.
“Just like in the full swing, if you don’t turn your shoulders, you’re not able to drive the club forward in a good way,” Mickelson says. “The same is true in shredding.”
When you don’t pivot properly, and instead only use your arms and hands, it creates a steep angle of attack and it becomes difficult to find the bottom of the swing arc. And when you struggle to find a stable low point, it’s hard to make consistent consistent contact.
