ball striking vs shot making

a beginner golfer is 100% focused on ball striking; try to put a decent swing together to make contact sending the ball the correct distance straight ahead down range. At some point in the golfer's development and improvement, simply hitting the ball cleanly and correctly does not continue to improve your score. The player needs to translate to shot making; picking a flight, shape and spin to get the best possible result.

I am interested THP'ers thoughts on when and how you made/are making that transition.

JayB said:

a beginner golfer is 100% focused on ball striking; try to put a decent swing together to make contact sending the ball the correct distance straight ahead down range. At some point in the golfer's development and improvement, simply hitting the ball cleanly and correctly does not continue to improve your score. The player needs to translate to shot making; picking a flight, shape and spin to get the best possible result.

I am interested THP'ers thoughts on when and how you made/are making that transition.

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Well before I hurt my ankle playing ball last season, I had beaten 80 a few times and was taking lessons. I was striking the ball the best I have ever had. I asked my instructor about draws and fades, he said I wasn't ready for that yet. I believed him as he's the only instructor I've ever had that actually improved my swing substantially. It wasn't till the end of summer when I was around an 8 handicap (before my injury), when he showed me his method of hitting a fade, and draw. Quite simple really, but if your goal is to hit it straight, and you aren't there yet... you aren't ready imo.

I'm not there yet, and I'm not even particularly close.

You can learn shots anytime. It'll make you a better ball striker

I may be in the minority but I think shot making is fairly overrated with modern equipment. If all you can do is hit the ball straight to a certain distance you are good 95% of the time and should easily be scratch.

Annhl8rX said:

I'm not there yet, and I'm not even particularly close.

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Lol. (Virtual high-five.) My man.

ntanygd760 said:

I may be in the minority but I think shot making is fairly overrated with modern equipment. If all you can do is hit the ball straight to a certain distance you are good 95% of the time and should easily be scratch.

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The problem with that is that you never have a perfect yardage. You never have completely still days. So many factors come into play that require one to have some shots in their bag.

ntanygd760 said:

I may be in the minority but I think shot making is fairly overrated with modern equipment. If all you can do is hit the ball straight to a certain distance you are good 95% of the time and should easily be scratch.

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Strong logic to your kung fu.

Tadashi70 said:

The problem with that is that you never have a perfect yardage. You never have completely still days. So many factors come into play that require one to have some shots in their bag.

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I guess I wasn't including partial yardages in shot making when I said that. That is still needed obv.

Ball striking is king everything else comes from it. IMO in order to be a good shot maker you must be a good ball striker. Those two work hand in hand. IMO more to many people get warped up in hitting it both directions. Outside of Bubba very few players move it both directions and Bubba only does that with his irons. He hits fades almost exclusively of the tee.

IMO if people want to get better they should focus on developing a consistent ball flight. Having a consistent ball flight makes the game so much easier. Being able to eliminate on side of the golf course is key to playing well. It is a freeing feeling to be able to stand on the tee and know the ball is only going to one direction.

The Milk Man said:

It is a freeing feeling to be able to stand on the tee and know the ball is only going to one direction.

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I'll have to take your word on this.

Tadashi70 said:

You can learn shots anytime. It'll make you a better ball striker

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I agree with this. None of us will ever completely 'perfect' our ball striking anyway. Working on shot making skills, or even stumbling into them by accident and then figuring out 'why and how' you made the ball do that, helps us build stronger foundations to better ball striking skills.

Daddio said:

I agree with this. None of us will ever completely 'perfect' our ball striking anyway. Working on shot making skills, or even stumbling into them by accident and then figuring out 'why and how' you made the ball do that, helps us build stronger foundations to our better ball striking skills.

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I learned how to hit shots to recover as a kid. I learned about face angles, aoa and swing path this way.

I like the debate - I brought it up because more and more I find myself looking at a shot and thinking how can I make my miss smaller. Several times in the last couple of rounds I wished I had the low iron to better fight the wind or a controllable fade to get a better angle at the green. My ball striking is far from perfect, but I am starting to look at shot making more and more.

i'm of the opinion that there is one shot shape you should master enough to be a go-to. after that, you can try to hit specific shapes and flights.

i also feel like managing distances perfectly is overrated. if you're in between clubs, most greens are big enough so you can hit them with a full swing and be on the back or front depending which club you choose.

but all this is coming from someone who tries to shape pretty much every shot and attack every pin. i just think the game is more fun that way.


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Once I started working on improving my game I started to learn to hit different shots. I'm working to have a predictable go to shot and will work on hitting other shots as we go along in my coaching program.

Tadashi70 said:

You can learn shots anytime. It'll make you a better ball striker

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I think the reason my instructor didn't want to show me draw/fade at the start was due to me having a major swing change. I probably had enough to think about.

Like you said; you get to a point where making solid contact isn't enough, and you need to score to improve. So you go from a good ball striker to a good shot maker when you start aiming for the good miss, or shaping the ball to land in a way that it rolls out the way you want it to. You also know enough on par 5's mostly, to lay up to the right distance. I can crunch a 4 wood and leave myself 45 yards and a flip wedge, or I can lay up to 100 yards and have a full sand wedge in to a precise number.

When you get sick of 30 footers and missing greens to the short side that you start thinking a little deeper into where to attack a hole and where not to hit the ball. I'm focusing on the best place to miss the ball, versus the target. If there is water down the left side of a hole, then I am probably going to make sure that even if I miss the shot that it will still end up on the right side of the fairway or green. I'd rather take a bogey having missed the water, versus walking off with double bogey after going for it and getting wet.

Another way to approach this is your warm up and range time. I have a Tuesday evening scramble that I've gone to for 3 years now. The first year I came to it I would head to the range and bang a bunch of drivers in warming up. Then I'd scratch my head after our group sucked that night because I couldn't hit a half wedge close, or make a putt.

Last year I focused more on an overall range warm up, hitting some wedges, mid irons and then fairway woods/drivers. Notice I didn't say any putting.

This year I head right to the putting green with an alignment tool and spend a good 20-30 minutes hitting 10 footers at a hole until I make 3 in a row both uphill, sidehill and downhill to the same target. Then I grab my lob wedge, sand wedge and 6 iron and hit those on the range. I spend 10-15 minutes hitting half lob wedges and then hit another 5-10 minutes of straight sand wedges, and then some 6 irons.

I started working the game backwards, because my driver has never been the issue. I hit fairways without a problem. But scoring in a scramble is all about hitting that wedge close and then making the putt.

What's interesting to me is that with my new approach on Tuesday nights I went from never winning the first year, to winning a couple of times last year, to winning 4 times so far this year. And there have been several weeks where I've carried a week foresome purely by myself. What I mean in that regard is that we were playing my ball every time. I'd hit a couple of wedges to within a foot, and then I'd drain a couple of putts outside of 10 feet for birdie on my own.

I truly believe that anyone can become good in a scramble if they focus on their short game and putting. The groups that win every week are making putts, but they are usually putts within 10 feet or less. That wedge game is SOOOO important and the most underrated part of learning how to score and go really low.

I don't know why it bugs me so much that people think they get the ball closer from 100 yards than 45 yards but it does. And if you are the 1 in 20 people that might be true for spend a few hours on the range and fix it.

I started hitting shots from the time I started golfing. Wasn't anything else to do at range I learned to golf at. However, took about 5 years before I was comfortable on course using my shots for a better score. It took that long because I didn't play much. The season I played 30+ rounds in a year I was good to go from there on, went from high teens to single digit cap just from golfing more.

My game goes downhill playing 3 rounds or less a week. As soon as I go a month of playing 4+ a week my game gets really good compared to not playing that much.

ntanygd760 said:

I don't know why it bugs me so much that people think they get the ball closer from 100 yards than 45 yards but it does. And if you are the 1 in 20 people that might be true for spend a few hours on the range and fix it.

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It's the difference between a full wedge shot, versus a half wedge. Most amateur golfers I know can't hit that half wedge consistently good and usually chunk it or blade it. But you are absolutely correct that the more you practice a shot the better you'll get at it. My example above was purely hypothetical honestly, as I am as comfortable over a 45 yard shot as I am over a 100 yard shot, but it's taken many years of endless hours of half wedge practice to get good at it. Most amateurs can't or won't put in the time to master that shot.

ntanygd760 said:

I don't know why it bugs me so much that people think they get the ball closer from 100 yards than 45 yards but it does. And if you are the 1 in 20 people that might be true for spend a few hours on the range and fix it.

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while I agree - closer is better, I play with some guys that if you put them short of a full swing club they are pretty lost when it comes to hitting greens and leaving reasonable length putts. You are correct; nothing a little practice time can't solve.

I'd like to just get GIRs right now.

I spend so much time in the damn trees that I learned how to punch, hack, flight down, flight up, hook, slice LONG before I learned how to hit a ball high and straight. I don't think I'll ever be at the point with my ball striking ability where I could say "Ok, now that that's mastered it's time to start the real show!".

I think with modern equipment giving the ability to fly high and land soft throughout the bag the necessity of shot-making is reduced but not eliminated.