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60-40 yard shots

tpluff

tpluff

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Would like to get some forum help on this as well. I'm having a difficult time with shots between 60 and 40 yards. It's right between my 60* and what I really focus on when I practice chipping. What I end up doing is taking, what I think, are 2 or 3 perfect practice swings. When I address the ball and swing, I tense up and typically leave it 10-15 yards short. I've tried different stances, no glove, and the next move I'm considering is changing my go to club (56*). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
 
What do you want that shot to do? Rollout? Stop quickly? I would practice with both your 60* and 56*. Get some alignment rods and have fun
 
Are you saying your full swing 60* is a 70 yd shot?

Not that that is important to this anyway...

My suggestion is to at least learn how to half shots with wedges. Make sure you really practice these because partial swings are very difficult to do consistently unless you get them ingrained... With half swings, you'll be able to cut the full shot distances on your wedges and one of them will go ~50 yards.
 
Practice, practice, practice... I hit the range and practice 40 60 and 80yd targets. About 60 to 80 balls at a time. Using my 59 and my 55 degree SCOR wedges.

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Practice is what I suggest. I used to try to sweep most of my partial wedge shots but have since went to more of a knock down shot with some spin on it. It has helped with my consistency.
 
tpluff said:
Would like to get some forum help on this as well. I'm having a difficult time with shots between 60 and 40 yards. It's right between my 60* and what I really focus on when I practice chipping. What I end up doing is taking, what I think, are 2 or 3 perfect practice swings. When I address the ball and swing, I tense up and typically leave it 10-15 yards short. I've tried different stances, no glove, and the next move I'm considering is changing my go to club (56*). Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
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Clock drill...

Practice swinging from 7 to 5, 8 to 4, 9 to 3, 10 to 2, etc. This is where your hands would go on a backswing and follow-trough as it pertains to a clock if the ball is at 6. This is the easiest way to dial in distances with 1/2 and 3/4 shots that fall in between your full shots.

And don't try to use your 60* all the time, a 56* or even a PW could be in order depending on the shot. But you need to know exactly how far each club goes at each time on the clock when you hit them. One or two range sessions will give you a lot of confidence on those "tweeners"...
 
Pelz system would solve this problem. Has been working well for me.
 
Like those above me have said: practice, practice, practice. What this will do is ingrain some muscle memory with repetitive shots. To have the ball roll out, move it forward in your stance. If you want it to bite or check up, move it to the back of your stance. Always remember to hit down thru the ball.
 
Like everyone has said is practice. I would also recomend not to leave yourself in that yardage. Play to a number and hit a shot your confident in.
 
Scrap Iron said:
Like everyone has said is practice. I would also recomend not to leave yourself in that yardage. Play to a number and hit a shot your confident in.
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This is great advice. If you are confident feom 100 then just play to 100 then there is no concern with 40-60!
 
The 40-60yard shot is all about touch and feel. There is more than the distance to cover.
Trajectory is key in these shots. This will be determined or aided by the club you choose. Sometimes you need a high soft 50y shot and other times you'll need a mid or low shot that falls shorts and runs up.
I would head to the range and mark off 40,50,60 yard shots. First practice those exact lengths then practice landing in the 40 to get to the 50 and the 50 to get to the 60. These shot will be achieved through half, partial and 3/4 swings. These are determined by your swing speed and swing. Logic would state if you hit your 56* 100 yards full then half would go 50. A common error in this **** is decel at the bottom and chunking the shot or picking up too soon and thinning it. These shots are really arm based shots. You can add a little body as you get better but in the beginning just open yourself up to the target and get a feel for the distances with arm swings. Be aggressive through the hitting zone no decel. Good luck
 
Tadashi70 said:
The 40-60yard shot is all about touch and feel. There is more than the distance to cover.
Trajectory is key in these shots. This will be determined or aided by the club you choose. Sometimes you need a high soft 50y shot and other times you'll need a mid or low shot that falls shorts and runs up.
I would head to the range and mark off 40,50,60 yard shots. First practice those exact lengths then practice landing in the 40 to get to the 50 and the 50 to get to the 60. These shot will be achieved through half, partial and 3/4 swings. These are determined by your swing speed and swing. Logic would state if you hit your 56* 100 yards full then half would go 50. A common error in this **** is decel at the bottom and chunking the shot or picking up too soon and thinning it. These shots are really arm based shots. You can add a little body as you get better but in the beginning just open yourself up to the target and get a feel for the distances with arm swings. Be aggressive through the hitting zone no decel. Good luck
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Agree completely. I was paired with a guy over the weekend and he would use his bushnell on every shot. Even the ones inside 50 yards. That kinda made me chuckle a little bit. To me, inside 100 yds is all about feel


Tapa Slice
 
As everyone else has said, practice is the key. I used to dread these shots, but now I don't mind them at all. I feel the on-course practice is much more beneficial since you can see how the ball reacts when it hits the green since there are different shots that can get a different result. To me, these are all about controlling the backswing and getting that memory ingrained. The biggest thing is that you have to accelerate through the ball. You can't make a half swing and then make a half effort through the ball, that's when the ball comes up short. You can adjust the distance by adjusting the backswing and grip (choking up), but you still have to have good pace when you hit the ball.
 
For me, that's not a feel distance at all. It's one that I have a specific shot I plan for and I'm usually pretty successful for a hacker. I can hit it on different trajectories if I need to. Just comes with practice.
 
niteowl03 said:
This is great advice. If you are confident feom 100 then just play to 100 then there is no concern with 40-60!
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Thanks for all the positive feedback THPers. I thought about avoiding that distance but that just seems like a temporary bandaid and a cop out. I eventually need to learn the feel for that distance. Today I met with the resident expert at my course and he was helpful enough to observe me hit the range after I discussed some of my problems on the course. He started me off with the clock drill with my most comfortable wedge, 56*. That drill seemed like it takes a lot of time and dedication to successfully implement, so for the sake of time and for an immediate fix he had me do half swings. Almost immediately he diagnosed one of the problems and the solution seems easy and sensible. He suggested that I take half swings with all of my wedges and see what distance I was feeling. Sure enough, my 56* was typically only going about 30-35 yards. He then bumped me up to my 52* and I was consistently hitting nice pitch shots of about 45 yards with little roll out. I then went to my PW and that was going about 55-60 yards with roll out. Now that I have the idea in my head, I just have to get that muscle memory of the half swing and be able to make minute adjustments from there. Only time will tell but I have a feeling I will be shooting a new low score for this year come tomorrow. Thanks to Tom at my course and all of you who gave input in the thread.
 
Interesting topic you raise here............stay tuned to the thread listed below cause I have a funny feeling in the next day or so that someone from Team DOTCOM might have a little interesting thought about this shot!

Team DOTCOM Video Playing Lessons
 
philvedda said:
Agree completely. I was paired with a guy over the weekend and he would use his bushnell on every shot. Even the ones inside 50 yards. That kinda made me chuckle a little bit. To me, inside 100 yds is all about feel


Tapa Slice
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Was his name Buckjob? Since Buck has gone all in on the Pelz system, he uses his range finder on everything. I think in the long run it probably is the easiest system to get consistent results though. Figure out how far each of your half swing, quarter swing and full swing distances go with each of your 2,3 or 4 wedges and then make a chart of those distances. Then walk around the course with your chart and range finder and knock it close.
 
I like using my 56 for this shot and flighting it down and giving it a half swing with a good amount of acceleration through the ball with an abbreviated follow through to give me a lot of spin and better distance control.

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philvedda said:
Agree completely. I was paired with a guy over the weekend and he would use his bushnell on every shot. Even the ones inside 50 yards. That kinda made me chuckle a little bit. To me, inside 100 yds is all about feel


Tapa Slice
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He may just be dialed in for his 30, 40, 50 and 60 yard shots and needs to know those distances. How well did he play those shots?

tapping and talking from Tapatalk
 
DawgDaddy said:
He may just be dialed in for his 30, 40, 50 and 60 yard shots and needs to know those distances. How well did he play those shots?

tapping and talking from Tapatalk
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He was inconsistent at best. And his putting was iffy too. His game lacked touch in general


Tapa Slice
 
I always felt that hitting a full shot with a high loft like a 60* was way less accurate than taking a half swing with a sand or gap wedge. When I worked on my wedges last year I got pretty good hitting both a one hop and stop with my 56* and a runner with my 50*. But this takes practice to keep sharp as I have lost my touch this year and it is hurting my game. Put the time in working on these shots and it will pay dividends.
 
Tadashi mentioned this in his post, but I wanted to stress it more. The biggest issue I see day after day playing with others is they decelerate on the shorter shots (not a full club distance). Once you choose a swing length for the shot distance based on either feel or a tested system, the key is making sure you commit to accelerate the clubhead through impact. Always accelerate whether its a 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or full swing, you really have to commit to complete the swing all the way. This prevents the fat shot, skull, or other mishit that comes when trying to decelerate mid swing.
 
Different people have different methods. Some like an analytical system like the Dave Pelz 3x4 approach. I'm more in the Shawn Clement "you are a gravity expert" camp. Your mind knows how hard you have to swing to hit the ball that distance. However, the important thing is to build a solid swing which is repeatable. If you have lots of bad habits in your swing, it's nearly impossible to get consistent distances, regardless of what method you choose. For example, if flipping is your swing flaw, you'll hit some shots thin, and other shots flush. The two shots might vary in distance by 20 yards. Get rid of the flip though, and the margin of error goes down dramatically.
 
After 30 years of playing, I recently went to a different short yardage method after watching Gary Player on a Golf Channel segment explain his bunker and short yardage methods
Before the change I was a very little wrist cock player on short yardages, now it's almost all wrist cock and it is definitely a better method
It took 2 to 4 weeks of playing almost everyday to get used to it, but my bunker and short yardage play was never better.
Basically, most of the weight is on the front side of stance (left side for RH players)
You choke down and usually play the ball towards the middle of stance with an open face
If you have the usual wedges (P, GW, SW) you should easily hit a SW around 50 yards with a half swing to your waist with a big wrist cock
The key is having the weight on the front side and then just merely synching your hips to turn on the downswing, the result is a very crisply struck ball the will fly close to 40/45 yards with 5/10 yards of rollout
If you put the ball in the front of the stance, you will hit a high shot that stops pretty quickly
So then it's just practicing with your 3 wedges to see what you hit them with the same exact shot, and the shot will be on a die to the pin with this method and you will get a lot of confidence quickly in never chunking the ball as many do with a weight transfer and or little wrist cock, the heavy emphasis of weight on the front foot and the wrist cock with the firing of the hips to the target develops a consistent descending crisp blow on these short wedges, so now 50/60/70 I use the same swing and 3 clubs P/G/Sw
I also do the same thing with a swing slightly past the waist level, not quite 3/4 and get a nice 70/80/90 yard ratio
Likewise for short pitches, a knee high shot, not quite to the waist will result in 25/35/45 yard ratios
Once you can fly the ball at pins from these distances and usually end up within 15 feet, you can make a lot of birdies on shorter par 4's, and longer par 5's that you can't reach by having these shots
Plus if you hit a shot sideways and have one of these short distance shots, you can often get a save by having these yardages consistently in your bag
I wish I saw Player explaining his method 30 years ago, but, later is better than never having learned this type of short yardage shot
The most amazing thing about player is in the sand, he almost never hits a Sw, he's just trying to clear the lip and then run out to the hole, so in the sand he's often using a 9i or 8i to just get over the lip of the trap and then run out on the green, which is something that the pros rarely do, it's almost all Sw and trying to figure out how much sand to take in the same swing
 
Nice first post 1player. I usually try to hit the shot that I KNOW i can pull off from those odd distances. Usually go with a GW in the 50 to 60 range keep my wieght forward and keep it flighted low.
 
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