Art of the lay-up

Here's what I see amateurs do: They get out to their drives on a par 5 or long par 4, and see they can't reach the green. Then they grab the 3-wood and whale away. The problem is, the 3-wood is not an easy club to hit, and if you do catch it flush, you wind up with a half-wedge to the green. That's an even harder shot.

Laying up might seem mindless, but you need a plan. You can make both your second and third shots easier with one decision: Lay up with a hybrid or middle iron. Either club is easier to hit than a 3-wood and will leave a fuller shot for your third. Most golfers are better with a full wedge than from 30 to 50 yards.

One exception is when you can get a 3-wood close to the green, where you have a simple chip or pitch. But keep in mind, that means hitting a perfect 3-wood, which is no easy task.

Sit back on sidehill lies

Typical situation here: You've hit your tee shot to the right, onto a sidehill lie with the ball below your feet. Most golfers approach this shot like any other -- then lose their balance and miss the green right.

First off, understand that gravity wants to pull you down the hill. As a result, your swing can get too vertical and prevent the clubface from rotating back to square at impact. To adjust, get into a stable position at address and maintain it as you swing.

Start by putting more weight on your heels. Really squat down in your knees, lowering your rear end. You want to sit into the slope. Spread your feet a little wider, too, but use your normal ball position. The shot will tend to curve to the right, so aim left.

During the swing, make sure you stay in your posture, not letting your weight move onto your toes. If you focus on keeping your knees flexed you'll be less likely to fall forward. On severe slopes, take an extra club and make a three-quarter swing.

How to tame your 3-wood

I see golfers in our schools play these perfect 5- and 7-wood shots, but give them a 3-wood and they can't hit it.

First, they play the ball up in their stance, like a driver, and try to help it in the air. As a result, they top it or skim it along the ground.

Second, they swing too hard. The green is usually out of reach, so they think, The longer I hit this, the better. But those hard swings rarely end well.

For better 3-woods, position the ball a few inches inside your front heel. And then don't be afraid to hit down on it. Ben Hogan used to take a little divot with every fairway wood he hit, and so does Tiger.

When it comes to tempo, think of your 3-wood as any other club: It has a distance maximum, whether yours is 250 yards or 150. Use the same tempo you would for an iron shot don't try to squeeze out that extra 10 yards.

Make sure your 3-wood has enough loft, 15 or 16 degrees. A lot of golfers are carrying 13-degree models, which just scream for you to help them get the ball up. When you hit range balls with your 3-wood, tee it up sometimes. You need to get used to the idea that you can hit down on the ball and get plenty of height on the shot. You need to learn to trust the club's loft.

How To Hit Any Wedge Shot

Hitting wedges the right distance is one of the toughest things for average players. They tend to make a full backswing, no matter how long the shot, and then try to apply the right amount of hit at impact. When you manipulate the swing like that, you'll mis-hit shots and struggle to control distance.

For starters, make sure the lofts on your wedges are evenly spaced, like 48, 52 and 56 degrees. If you have a pitching wedge at 48 and a sand wedge at 58, that gap is too big. You'd have to learn too many partial shots with the pitching wedge.

Once you get your wedge set right, work on three swing lengths: full, three-quarter and half. And that goes for the follow-through, too, not just the backswing. Match your swing on both sides, so your finish is a mirror image of your backswing. This will allow you to swing with an even tempo and produce different distances without any guesswork on the downswing.

Practice this system to learn your distances. Use the yardage markers on the range. With a little work, you'll start wedging it tight.

No More Chunks Out of the Rough

Hitting it fat out of the rough is a product of the backswing. If you make your normal swing, keeping the club low to the ground going back, you'll come down too shallow and catch the grass behind the ball.

To avoid this, make a steeper takeaway, hinging your wrists quicker from the start (below). This sets up a sharp descent back to the ball for clean contact.

It's also a good idea to play a fade from thick grass, because the normal release, with the clubface closing, might cause grass to grab the hosel and shut the face. So open the face slightly at address, aim left, and hold your wrists firm through impact. You'll catch it flush and hit a little fade.

Take The Fear Out Of Pitching

I see a lot of average players trying to pitch the ball way up in the air. Then I watch pros at tour events, and they keep the ball down, so they can better control how far it goes. Sure, sometimes you need a high shot, but your standard pitch should be a lower one that releases and rolls.

In these photos, you can see the differences between the low pitch and what a lot of amateurs do. The pros play the ball in the middle to slightly back in their stance and keep the shaft angled forward through impact by shifting left on the downswing. Amateurs play the ball too far forward, then hang back on their right foot and try to scoop the ball. With this much hand action, they often wind up hitting it fat or thin which they live in fear of doing.

Think of it this way: The pros set the loft when they sole the club at address and maintain it throughout the swing. Amateurs try to add loft at impact, which isn't necessary and leads to poor contact. So play the ball back, and keep that shaft forward. Your pitching will improve, and your fear will disappear.

Why You Miss Right

Golfers see their tee shots go right and automatically curse the slice.

Sometimes those are blocked shots caused by swinging too much from the inside. The slice comes from an out-to-in swing, so trying to fix a slice when you're hitting a block is the worst thing you can do.

Solution: To quiet your legs and hips, practice hitting drives from a narrow stance. You'll slide less and turn more.

Here's how to tell the difference: A slice starts left and curves right, and a block flies straight right. Blocks occur when you slide too hard with your lower body on the downswing (above). The club drops behind you and swings too much from the inside. You have too much lateral motion and not enough turn through the shot.

The best drill to promote turn is to take a narrow stance, about a foot wide, and hit drives at 75 percent. With a narrow base, you won't be able to slide much without falling over. You'll make a better turn, and the club will swing straighter down the line, with your arms turning over to square the clubface. You'll beat the block.

For extra distance, swing back extra slow

JACK NICKLAUS: I won the 1970 British Open at St. Andrews in a fierce 18-hole playoff with Doug Sanders. A lot has been written about the par putt Doug missed on 18 the previous day and my birdie putt on the final hole to win. But a key shot in the playoff was my drive that rolled all the way over the green on the par-4 18th. That was a good poke -- 358 yards.

When I want to hit the ball farther, I don't go at it harder. I swing slower. Thinking harder makes you take the club back faster and hit the ball quickly, which can throw you off balance. So I make a conscious effort to swing the club back slowly. I still have the adrenaline going, and I'm probably maintaining the same pace. This gets all the elements of my motion timed so they happen in the proper, natural progression. After a slow backswing and smooth change of direction, I can just let it rip.

Most great players of the past were able to get extra yardage when they really needed it. Because the ball spun more -- and curved more -- these players swung at 80 percent most of the time for control. But they could accelerate when they really wanted to. That's a good way for average golfers to play today.

Notice Jack says he swings the club back, instead of takes it back. What does that mean? He's moving the club back with his hands and arms, not locking up his shoulders. That creates less tension, and it's less likely the shoulders will interfere with a free-flowing downswing. It might not be what you'd instinctively do, but the result is maximum clubhead speed.

If you swing back too quickly, it takes more energy to stop the club and change direction. In practice, try hitting the same distance -- say 125 yards -- with different clubs to get your body and club in sync.

Segment the green to pick a good target

I'm not sure why, but amateur golfers seem to be wired to aim at the flag on middle-and short-iron approaches. Everybody likes to make birdies, but many players don't realize just what kind of risk they're taking when they aim that way.

Tour players see pin positions like the one above and quickly accept that a 30-footer is a good outcome. The flag is sitting at the front of the green, directly behind a deep bunker. For a tour player, hitting a bunker shot isn't a problem, but one from a bunker that deep, to a tight flag, could mean a bogey or worse.

Aiming at the safe green zone is the best play, even with a short iron. You could risk aiming at the yellow -- a slight push might leave you with a decent birdie putt -- but going for the flag doesn't make sense. For every birdie you make, you might record nine "others." It just doesn't add up.

Hands Off Pitch Shots

When you're faced with a 30- or 40-yard pitch, it's easy to forget that the correct technique is a smaller version of the full swing, where the arms and body -- not the hands -- move the club through impact. At shorter distances, the tendency is to slow everything down and use your hands to flick at the ball -- either because it seems like the right way to produce a shorter shot or is a misguided attempt to create backspin.

Instead, make sure you turn your body through the ball -- less aggressively than you would for a full-wedge shot but still a real turn -- and the clubhead moves through with the hips and shoulders, not ahead of them (right). You should feel as if your hands are passive and aren't contributing to the power of the shot. You regulate distance by the length of your swing and speed of your rotation.

With this technique, the consistency and quality of your impact will improve, and you'll be able to predict your landing spot and roll-out distance with much more accuracy.

Hitting Out Of A Fairway Bunker

1.
TAKE AN EXTRA CLUB
The common miss from fairway sand is fat, and that comes from driving the legs on the downswing. The driving action lowers your center of gravity, which works great from the grass but in the softer sand often leads to hitting behind the ball. To quiet that forward leg drive, swing a little easier with a longer club. If there's a high lip, make sure you have enough loft to clear it, but if the lip is low, club up and swing easy.

2.
STAND TALL AT ADDRESS
Hold your chin up to set your spine angle a little more vertical. Taller posture promotes an around-the-body swing and a more level strike, so you can pick the ball without digging. Resist the urge to dive down into impact, as golfers often do to try to help the ball out of the sand.

3.
DON'T BREAK THE GLASS
Imagine your ball is sitting on a pane of glass: You want to clip it off without smashing the glass. Feel as if you stay tall all the way through the shot. Remember, hitting the ball thin out of a fairway bunker is a good thing, and too thin is usually better than any kind of fat.

Rule No. 1: Position The Ball

With the driver, most golfers play the ball too far forward and stand too far away from it. This might feel powerful, but it sets some bad things in motion. The forward ball position shifts the shoulders open to the target, which leads to an out-to-in swing and usually a slice. Standing too far from the ball pulls the upper body downward, leading to a compensating stand-up move through impact, another common cause of the slice.

Here's how to make sure your ball position is correct. Tee it up in line with the logo on your shirt, or just inside your left heel. (For shorter clubs, the ball should stay in line with the logo, but the stance should be narrower, making the ball more centered relative to the body.) As for distance from the ball, the butt of the grip at address should be about six inches from your body. Check this by setting up and then taking your right hand off the grip, moving it about a foot to your right. You shouldn't feel like you have to reach to put it back on the club.

Playing the ball in the correct place takes no athletic ability, it's just remembering to monitor it. Get it right, and your driving will improve immediately.

Chipping With A Fairway Metal

1. Shorten the Shaft
From just off the green, I like to chip with a fairway metal, like a 3- or 4-wood. Why not just use a putter? Because a putter has only 4 or 5 degrees of loft, but a fairway metal has 15 or 20. The extra loft will pop the ball up just enough to let you carry it on -- a big plus for judging distance. The difficulty with the fairway-metal chip is, you have a long club but only a short distance to go. So grip down a few inches, even to the end of the rubber, to control the club for better touch.

2. Make a Putting Stroke
You don't want body movement during the swing, so start with your weight on your front foot, where it needs to be at impact. Everything else is like you're hitting a long putt. Stand tall, and even consider using your putting grip. The swing is just like a long putting stroke: Arms and shoulders, back and through. Don't try to hinge your wrists, but keep them soft enough to react to the motion. If your hands and arms stay relaxed, you can make a smooth stroke.

3. Keep the Clubhead Low
Feel as if you're making a level strike. Keep the clubhead low to the ground through impact, trusting the loft on the club to lift the ball. Remember, you're trying to get the ball only an inch or so off the ground. The hardest thing about this shot is gauging distance. Practice it to learn how hot the ball comes off the club.

Get Down In Three

The reality is, tour players get up and down only about 50 percent of the time from greenside bunkers, and they have great technique, practice all the time and play courses in perfect condition.

I point that out not to discourage you, but to get you to look at the big picture when you're faced with a tough sand shot. If you're aiming at the flag and aren't sure if you can carry the lip, or you have a weird stance, you're already fighting the odds. You need to think about the easiest way to get up and down in three, so do a little math. For most players, it means getting out of the bunker successfully -- in any direction -- then taking two putts. Don't be afraid to turn away from the hole and give yourself a lower lip, flatter stance or more green to hit to. You'll have a much better average outcome -- and better chance to hole your next shot -- if you're safely on the green instead of hitting again from the bunker after you crashed one off the lip.

Improve Your Accuracy

If your mind is cluttered with swing thoughts and you're struggling to hit the ball straight, try this drill to help you square the clubface at impact.

Put two short-iron shafts on the ground on either side of a ball parallel to your target line and about six to eight inches apart. You can tee the ball to make the drill less daunting, but make sure the shafts extend toward the target to create a channel for your club to travel through.

Now swing the club so it moves from inside the target line at the start of the alley, goes down the channel, and then moves back inside the target line at the exit.

This drill not only improves your clubpath, but in squaring the clubface it educates your hands, forearms and body to move toward the target as you swing down and through.

How To Shake The Shanks

What is it about the shank that makes golfers run and hide? Two things: First, they don't know what causes it; second, where there's one shank there tends to be another (I'll explain why).

Solution: Put an object, like a headcover, just outside the ball to learn to swing down from the inside.

Because the ball darts right, most golfers think an open clubface causes the shank. But shanks usually come from an excessively closed face. The player swings out to in with the face closing hard -- both actions push the hosel closer to the ball (top). If the hosel catches the ball, it's shank city.

What do most golfers do to prevent the shank? They try to close the face with the right hand through impact. This only makes the path more out to in and the face more closed -- increasing the chances of another shank.

Try this drill. Place a headcover just outside the ball, and practice hitting wedges. If you're making a shank swing (out to in, face closed), you'll hit the headcover. To miss it, you'll swing from the inside with the face more open. That's how to beat the shanks

Pitching Uphill

An upslope lie has the effect of making your left side longer, which can tip you back and lead to poor contact. To compensate, drop your left foot away from the target line and bend your left knee more.

Opening your stance like this pre-sets your turn through the ball. You'll need the help, because the upslope makes it tough to rotate toward the target.

Why do you want a body turn at all? Because you need power to pitch uphill. The slope adds loft, so you tend to leave the ball short. But I still like a sand wedge here, especially in heavy grass.

Another benefit of setting up open is that it promotes an out-to-in swing, which is steeper and gets the clubhead through the grass and under the ball.

Stay Steady On Short Putts

You've probably been told to keep your head still on short putts, and that's good advice.

Here's another way to stabilize your body so the putterface remains square through impact: Put pressure on the instep of your front foot before you begin the stroke. This allows your shoulders, arms and hands to work on a consistent track.

If your weight moves back toward your front heel on the downstroke, your whole body is twisting open, causing the putterface to close. This common problem is often a product of turning to see where the ball is going.

Concentrate on keeping weight on your front instep throughout, and you'll have a stable base to make more three- and four-footers.

Grip down on short irons

Think of your 8-iron, 9-iron and pitching wedge as pure accuracy clubs. If you want to hit the ball close consistently with these short irons, grip down about an inch. In most situations, you don't want your short irons to fly too high and balloon -- typically a result of overswinging and trying to hit them too hard. This makes it difficult to control their carry distance, particularly in windy conditions.

Gripping down not only helps you make a compact swing, it allows you to better control the trajectory -- you want your short irons to pierce the air. Be sure you can see a piece of the butt end of the grip (right), and focus on swinging through smoothly.

The best way to ensure a smooth start

I found this to be one of the best tips and does work if you practice it upon your approach to every shot.

Tension at address, especially in the arms and shoulders, can kill a golf swing before it gets going. If you're not relaxed standing over the ball, you leave yourself susceptible to a host of problems. Look at all the great players as they set up: They stay in continuous motion all the way up to the start of the swing -- looking at the target, waggling the club, shifting their feet. All meant to relieve tension.

Another simple way to stay loose over the ball is to hover the clubhead just off the ground (above, right). Hovering the club promotes a free-flowing movement away from the ball and sets the stage for a smooth, rhythmic backswing. In many instances, when players rest the clubhead on the ground for any length of time, they freeze over the ball, which encourages muscle tension to creep in.

By hovering the clubhead you'll begin to feel the weight of the head. This will help you to start back at a nice, controlled pace. It worked for greats like Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Nick Faldo, and it will work for you, too.