TIPS FROM THE TOUR
Craig Parry, the winner of 24 worldwide tournaments, offers simple solutions to four difficult scoring situations close to the green.

Here's the first tip. See the March 2006 issue of Golf Australia magazine for the rest of this feature.

The 30-metre soft sitting lob

THE SHOT: The ball is lying on the short grass. However, a slight miscue with the lay-up shot has left the ball on the wrong side of the fairway and a bunker lies between the ball and the flag, which is cut tightly behind the trap.

After assessing the shot, I know it is 25 metres to clear the bunker, there is a small downslope off the lip of the bunker and it is 30 metres to the bottom of the cup.

THE SOLUTION: The shot required here is a high lob that will sit soft as quickly as possible after hitting the green. Instead of using great amounts of spin to stop the ball here, height
with a little bit of spin is required.

The ideal club for this shot is a lob wedge because you need height. If you don’t have a lob wedge, use your sand iron for this shot but be aware that if it has more than six to eight degrees bounce on the sole, it may be hard to clip the ball off a tight-cut, hard fairway.

My main thought process for this dificult shot is to keep it smooth and to make a long backswing (pic 1) so that I can get the height required for the shot. If the backswing is short, I will accelerate too hard through impact and the ball will fly lower. A low shot, in this case, may not clear the trap.

To set-up for this shot, make sure to keep the clubface square to the target and grip down two or three centimetres on the club (pic 2).

Always make sure you set-up with an open stance, with the ball positioned in line with your front heel. I like to have my feet and shoulders aimed about 30 degrees left of the target line. This helps me visualise the shot. If I set up square to the
target it would be much harder to ‘see’ the shot.

Visualisation, with any of the shots over the following pages, is paramount for any short shot. You need to have some imagination to help you work out exactly the type of shot you want to play, and where it will land, before you play it. To help
this process, have a few practice swings, so you can feel that the shot will do. Once you have a feel for the shot, commit yourself to the task and hit the ball (pics 3 & 4).

Read the rest of this instructional tip in the march 2006 issue of golf australia.

From the March 2006 issue of Golf Australia magazine