Time to get your golf nerd on!
In this video, listen and watch Tiger, Rory and Jason Day hit golf shots and talk about short shot strategies.
You will hear terms like covering the ball, staying wide, seeing the launch, hands in back, throwing the club and more.
Rory talks about how he will skip the ball onto the green at Augusta National if the grass is a little wet but has to fly the ball to the green when it’s dry because the grass gets sticky.
All three agree Brett Rumford is one of the best sand trap players. They also all agree that good bunker players release the club and let the clubhead fly in front of your hands. Jason Day likes to take as little sand as possible, Rory likes to envision the launch of the ball and Tiger likes to feel his right hand throwing the club.
When chipping Jason Day uses very little wrist, stays very wide and prefers to feel like he is hitting a little behind the ball. Tiger likes to feel the club in his hands and let his wrists set. He is very right handed with his shots.
Rory likes to set up with the shaft vertical behind the ball. Tiger aims for the hole and Jason and Rory prefer to pick a intermediate spot where their ball is going to land.
A good drinking game would be to take a drink every time you hear one of them say it depends on the lie. You will see how they never decide what kind of shot to hit until they have seen their lie and accessed the multiple variables of the situation. At their level they have done it so many times they process as many as ten or twelve things in only a moment. Lie, green speed, wind direction, firmness of green, into the grain, slope and so on.
My biggest take-aways from the video are two things. 1) Most importantly, they figured out a way they feel works best for them. Even though what they are doing may look similar to each other, they all have very different feels and thoughts. 2) They really focus on how their club head is moving through the shot while striking the ball. Is the club coming in shallow or steep. Are they entering the rough a little behind the ball or are the trying to hit the ball first. Are they putting hook spin on the ball or slice spin.
I hope this video motivates you to work on developing your own personal short game. You can see at their level, they still enjoy learning new shots and strategies. Practice trying to make the ball spin different ways and go high and low. Will it take time to get better? Yes. Enjoy and embrace the journey!