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I would always have heard it parkers McLachlin, the chef of the short game, was a genius around the greens, but until last winter, I would never prove it in the first hand. Then, I received a five-minute lesson from the man himself who fully transformed the way I approach the shooting with short games.
Was the past December in Cabot Citrus Farms down to Florida, and the brightest minds in the golf instructions were collected for the anniversary goLF Top 100 Teachers Summit. As an editor of the game improvement, my role during this conference is to capture the content with teachers to then go to Golf.com next year. After seeing Parker was attending, I knew I had to film some content with him.
Watch the video below, where I get a short cut lesson from the short game cook itself.
This lesson transformed me my piece
Having a variety of shooting in your bag around the greens is all good and good, but for most recreational players, having a action, a reliable chip is much more important. If you can get truly Good in a simple blow, you will start to get up more and shoot lower results.
So how can you develop this stock blow? I asked a question about Parker, and his answer was not what I expected.
“How I like to see it is that I compare the stroke, the collision and the point-are all in the same family,” he said. “The same family of release.”
Basically, all of these shots share a similar movement. Your trail hand is the predominant hand and you are using your body turn to do most of the work. When building a simple, stock chip, this is an essential basic to keep in mind.
Next, Parker laid four clubs on the ground in front of me: a 5 iron wedge, 7 iron, 9 iron and trench. My goal was to learn how to hit him near Pin with all four of these clubs.
Now, I am not someone who looks at them very often, but under the direction of Parker, I began to understand why the blow is so reliable. All I had to do to hit a predictable blow with each of these clubs was to use the same feelings as I would do with my movement.
“If you practice this workout here,” Parker said, “you will become really good and start to become more comfortable.”
How to generate rotation
Using your big muscles and relying on a firm or run movement may not seem to be conducive to generating rotation, but to my surprise, it actually made it easier than ever before. All required was a simple tweak in my technique.
If you are something like me, when you have to hit a short stroke with many rolls, you use the wrists and hands to generate speed. This technique I have Work for certain shots, but it is completely unnecessary in a stock blow.
After looking at me hitting some shots on the pitch, Parker noted that I was making a large spine with a large hand hinge and then slowing down to control the distance. The technique has worked for me in the past, but it is not the most sustainable way to hit the goal. Instead, he recommended to continue using the fraud technique similar to the hitting.
When hitting these shots, Parker instructed me to use my body as the motor of the movement. Basically, the feeling should be hitting the goal by turning your body instead of shaking your arms and hands. After I started focusing on this feeling for the shooting, I was amazed at how much extra spin produced on my shooting.
“(You have started to give a speed in the right place,” said Parker. “And for a short stroke like this, speed distribution is extremely important to access the rotation.”
Like this, the light bulb left. To generate rotation, all I had to do was get a shorter spine and then really accelerate through the impact area, using my body as an engine to produce speed.
Shortgamechef.comCreated by the PGA Tour Parker McLachlin winner, provides players with a comprehensive source to improve their short game. Through personalized tips, training and expert knowledge, Parker helps players of all levels gain more confidence and a deeper understanding of their short game to reduce their results. You can Browse membership options here.
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