You hit the ball and it pitches the green and rolls off despite putting for a birdie and almost guaranteed par. You start to wonder how you can best save par for the hole.
Hitting a ball higher in the
air can be very beneficial. When you are close to the green, you will want your short irons and wedges to get great loft to have the ball land softly on the green. When you are playing from the fairway or light rough and there is an
obstacle in front of you, you will want to get the ball high enough to get over it. When you are driving off the tee with the wind from behind, you want to take advantage of the tail wind to drive it extra few yards.
Here are few pointers to hit the ball higher:
1. Play the ball more left in your stance when you are hitting a driver off the tee or one of your fairway woods. Instead of playing the ball midway
between your front and back legs, play it two ball lengths closer to your front leg. It will create a steeper angle of attack and the ball will fly higher.
2. Play your irons one ball length more forward in your stance than normal. Turn your front foot at a bit of an angle
to get excellent hip rotation
leading to impact. This will
allow you to get the ball up in the air quickly.
3. Take your pitching wedge when you are less than 110 yards from the hole and you want the ball to fly high and land softly on the green. The pitching wedge has a loft angle of 45 to 49 degrees and will get the ball high in the air quickly. This is the ideal club to use when you have to fly your shot over a tree or over a hazard.
4. Use your gap wedge when you are 70 to 90 yards from the hole if you want a high
shot that will land softly. A gap wedge has a loft angle between 49 and 54 degrees and will get the ball up in the air quickly.
5. Make sure to bend your knees slightly when you get the ball up in the air. Standing straight will create less of
an upward angle at impact. A slight knee bend is all that is needed to change that angle.
Game of golf is all about scoring and players have to produce variety of different strokes to keep playing good. Hitting the ball high will certainly help you score better but do not execute this shot when you have a head wind shot.
(The author is a golf
instructor and golf director
at Gokarna Forest Golf
Resort & Spa, Kathmandu.
He can be contacted
at prodeepak@hotmail.com)