Getting Your Shots Airborne

Video Transcript

I have a slightly hanging lie, where the ball is below my feet, yet I have to hit the ball up really high. Now the tendency with this shot because I want to get the ball up in the air, is that we want to help lift the ball or pick the ball up into the air. The more we do that what happens is the club actually hits up on the golf ball, so as the club comes into the ball it actually hits up on it and tops the golf ball, sending it into the ground. I am doing just what we don’t want it to do. To make the ball go up in the air we actually need to have the club moving on a descending motion, where we are hitting down on the ball, which then gives the ball its backspin to help it climb up in the air. Here is a wonderful drill that can help you engrain this feeling. You are going to make a couple of rehearsal swings, to start with, and you go to about nine o’clock on the backswing, and as you start down let go of the club with your trail hand. What that is going to do now is that it is going to force your lead hand to be a little bit more stable and hit down into the turf. So this kind of gives you the feeling of the club moving downward into the turf. What will also happen is that your body will start to move in support of that action, back here and through. You are going to start getting the feeling of a very strong and firm left arm through the ball versus it collapsing and trying to pick the ball up into the air. Hitting down makes the ball go up. Golf is so full of opposites. Let’s take a look at this with a shot. That ball got up very nicely. You can tell from that angle that I did not try to do any lifting of the golf ball and I actually swung down and the ball went up in the air. Give this a shot the next time you have an uphill lie like this; I know you will do a lot better.

Laird Small
Pebble Beach Golf Academy
1700 17-Mile Drive
Pebble Beach, CA 93953
Tel: 831-622-8650

Laird Small is Director of The Pebble Beach Golf Academy and is listed as one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and Golf Digest's #23 instructor in the world.

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