Matt Kuchar’s Secrets to Short Game Success

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In this video, I’m joined by my friend and PGA Tour winner Matt Kuchar. With nine PGA Tour victories, Kuchar has seen and mastered every short game situation imaginable.

We dive into his approach around the greens, what has made him one of the most consistent performers on Tour, and the key concepts you can apply right away to your own game.

Let me know in the comments what stood out to you, and don’t forget to subscribe if you want more Tour-level insight on the short game.

Only a short game guru can do that, Susie. Only a short game guru. They call him the short game chef for a reason. Cooch, dude, you finished number one in strokes gained around the green last year. Is there anything that you can kind of attribute that to? Was there a change you made or was is there anything that you can kind of attribute that that strokes gained number two? Uh t tough to I think my short game’s always been been a strength, but number one is clearly an indication of being being really good. And I’d say the thing that I got better at was distance control on on chips, I’d say. Um you know, all around just having the ball kind of cozy up closer to the hole. Um, and even just that the the the very very standard ones, I felt like I had some some unique skills with with the tricky tough ones, but like the the standard chips, just making sure those are kind of within gimme range was something that um was a bit elusive to me and it’s gotten gotten better and this this past year clearly was was was really good. You and I have talked in the past about some of these, you know, I know you had you had read this uh article on one of the oldtime guys. Um, and they were getting that ball rolling, getting getting closer to the hole, right? Yeah. Can you go a little a little into some of that detail? Yeah. There was a guy called uh Paul Renan. His nickname was Little Poison. And he was a guy he would use a you know, whatever the the club was that would just land on the green and roll out. and he used to stand really close to the ball. He used to kind of put his um hands opposing, so a really weak left hand, a really weak uh right hand or I guess um and elbows would go out and he’d just kind of rock his shoulders and and never have any real hinge happen. Um so it’d be very much in control, be a very kind of slowish stroke. Um but never had the ball really just jump off the the the club face. So, that was something I I’d definitely like to have that that control where you never got the ball coming off really hot. Uh, I I would I would hit some that felt like great shots, come out with a lot of spin, but come out low and hot and go too far. And so, kind of took that less less hinge idea and tried to put that into my my technique and um has had the ball come out what I think is a little bit slower and a little bit more consistent. Yeah, I think one of the interesting things is, you know, with with the guys these days, you know, the Victor Havlins, uh, the Matt Wolfs, guys that smash it, right? It’s like they do such a good job of of creating ball speed off the tea and with their irons. How do you then slow it down properly to still maintain spin around the greens? I think what you’re talking about as far as like taking some of the hinge away, you know, we see it with some of the with some of the shots that you’re hitting like with a nine iron where you’re just getting it on the green, running it to the hole like you were saying, a little little poison, right? That’s right. Now, you take you take a little bit of that philosophy and we bring it to let’s say this is about a 25 30 yard shot. A little bit of that philosophy, bringing it here with more of a pitch shot type of a stroke. Now, you’re not necessarily looking to fly this just on the green and let it roll to the hole. You want this one to have a bit more spin. Take me through some of the keys for you to hit that sort of elusive pitch shot that I think a lot of amateurs like really struggle with to hit that little mid-flighted one with a little spin off of a tight lie. My go-to off anything where we’re talking fairway cut, not not in the rough. My go-to is I want a well, I like to think of it as a a wide bottom. I I want if I’m landing an airplane, I want it coming in this way. I don’t want it coming in this way. So, I want the club traveling kind of along the ground as as low kind of on on both sides as possible. I feel like that increases gives me a better margin for error. Uh, if I happen to touch turf before I hit the ball, it’s still going to be acceptable. If I happen to touch turf before I get to the ball this way, that that’s not acceptable. Or if I happen to catch too much ball first this way, it’s it’s the blade over the green. So, I want if I’m a little bit, you know, too low coming in, when I’m really shallow, it’s going to be okay. If I happen to be a little too skinny, it’s still okay. I I want to give myself a little room for error. And so, and that’s how you that’s how you activate the bounce, the back edge of the club, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, I I want the club kind of traveling low. And to me, that’s that’s coming back without much hinge. I’m moving moving the handle. If I just move the head and not the handle, you can’t really keep it low. It comes up. So, I want to move move the handle, but I also have it coming slightly inside. I think that’s you’re able to keep it lower to the ground if you’re going outside even with full extension. It comes up. Yep. Um, so I’m I’m a little bit maybe to to the inward path on the way back, but trying to have very little little hinge. It will. If I do hinge though, I’d rather it hinge kind of rolling open with my right hand as opposed to making the wrist go up and down. Interesting. I’m kind of going to roll roll open if I do anything. Uh, and which adds more loft to the club, which enga engages the bounce a bit more. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And then on the way through, I also want this thing coming around. When I try to go inside to out, it’s it my uh I I tend to hit too early on the ground. I tend to not get any sort of pinch effect. Okay. But if I come back to the inside, I keep that lowownness to the ground better by uh coming back back to the inside if I can. And what do you what do you do? How do you get it to come back to the inside? Is that a feeling with your hands a bit more or a feeling with your body? I I really feel like the club passes the hands. The handle gets gets in front of the hands as early as possible. And um I I want I want the club to be leading. That’s the only way I can’t really keep it uh all that low this way. And I also feel like that’s too much um forward lean putting too much of the leading edge in play and not enough bounce in play. So, one of the one of the commonalities that that I always pay attention to with some of the best pitchers like, you know, Stricker, I know Stricker is one of the ones that you mentioned when we when we talk is that that that angle of attack is super super shallow. And for fairway cut, I’d say from two yards off the green to 50 yards off the green, I’m looking for a pretty shallow angle of attack. Do you change anything once you get past 50? Does it become more like your regular swing? I’d say when it gets past 70 for you. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Um, but up up until that point, it’s it’s it’s fairly similar, just a bigger version. So, let’s get back to like we’re hitting this 30 yard shot. Do are on that back swing. Are you feeling body is is is pivoting a bit more. Don’t I don’t have much thought other than uh that that shallow. Yeah. And I know for for some people I’m sure that would help. Uh for me, I I think much more club head. I’m more focused on what what this is. So, keeping that club head on the lower side on the back swing and then feeling it like that club head passes on the way through. Yes. Love that. All right. Let me see. Let me see. Let me see you hit a couple. And just so the the people at home can kind of enjoy this. Now, I’ve done really well there going slightly off a ups slope. I’ve not I’ve hit ground, but I’ve not taken a divot. And this this is easy into an ups slope. I think an ups slope’s really tricky and that most people come in with, you know, a slight bit of angle. And when they come in with a slight bit of angle, they’re going to go just under the surface. Now, if you tip that surface up and you still have that angle, you really you really dive under. So, an ups slope is always a challenge uh even for me to to make really good contact and not not stick the leading edge in. Now, this is this is probably like a, you know, five, six, 7% slope. If you got to where it’s, you know, 15% of a slope, are you leaning a bit more into the hill and trying to make sure you hit ball first? No, exactly the opposite. I lean against it. I take less loft. I’ll go down to a gap wedge or a pitching wedge and try to, you know, I I don’t want when you get that angle that again is is that plain landing this way. Y I I want to take that out. But I’ll lean. You’ll lean with it, but take a pitching wedge to go. Yeah. Much less lofted. I love that. Yeah, that’s a great I think that’s that’s something that’s really unique you cuz basically that pitching wedge is now with that loft becoming your 60°. Yeah, exactly. And so you you’re doing everything you can to to maximize uh good turf interaction, right? That’s sort of the philosophy. Yeah, man. I love that. That that that last shot right there, if we didn’t get it on camera, ended up about this far away from the hole. had a beautiful, beautiful flight to it. Um, and so he’s landing this about 20 yards. It’s it’s rolling out about maybe three three or four steps. Yeah. Nice mid-flight sort of trajectory. And I’d say one of the things that that I would that I that I see quite a bit with with the amters that I help is the path. The path for the amters tends to get too far outside. And the thing, one of the commonalities I noticed with a lot of great players, you know, the Patrick Reeds, great pitchers of the ball. Patrick Reed, Kevin Naw, Stricker, these guys are all arcing to the inside. Yourself as well, always arcs to the inside with a a pitch shot off of a tight lie. To me, that’s that’s something that that gets forgotten about. Most people think, “Oh, I just need to keep it on my hands or outside of my hands cuz I want to, you know, soften it back.” Yeah. Hit ball first. all all worried about getting ball first and feel like they’re going to get turf first if they come back inside. That’s where I try to get the club to then go back to the inside on the through swing so that it is going to pinch ball first. But again, I want this as as the most easy and low. Yeah. Yeah. Um I can get. What’s your what’s your if you try to change trajectories, what what is a key if you wanted to go a fraction higher? Higher as ball gets more forward in my stance. More forward in the stance. Same type of same type of release in motion. Exactly. I may have a slightly bigger back swing, slightly slower uh uh swing, but um ball will just get more forward with a bigger slower swing. Will you show me one real quick? Just a a higher. Still we’re still going about 20. Man, that’s unbelievable how good that is. So now that ball actually, you know, landed two yards further, right? And actually stopped two yards quicker than the previous one. It was probably what, six feet higher than the others, 7 ft higher. Still no divot, which I’ I’d think is a sign of a a good strike. You know, I’ve I’ve certainly made a good bit of turf interaction, but if you’re using the balance correctly, you can bang this thing into the ground and and not take a divot. Uh, so I I I think I you can kind of tell a good wedger in my mind if you look at his practice area and it’s not all chewed up. I totally agree. I think that’s the first giveaway. If a guy’s warming up and he hits a bunch of 20, 30, 40 yard shots and he’s got a bunch of divot there. You, you know, the guy’s either really talented with his hands to get away with that or he’s just not a great wedge. Not very consistent with it. Not very consistent. Yeah. Yeah. I think that the one of the interesting things to take away from is is how you have managed to become number one in strokes gained around the green and your philosophies um are basically managing your turf interaction, managing your your low point, your turf interaction. Actually, you’re not that concerned with your low point. It’s it’s really like you’re like if I hit the if I hit the ground before the ball, it’s okay because you’ve done other things really well to then have that miss still be in that 4ft circle. It’s a very shallow attack angle I’m looking for. Um and you’re you’re right. That gives me that margin for error. I don’t have to be perfect. And you’ve done you’ve created that shallow attack angle with less hinge and with a path that’s from the inside. Correct. And so I I think, you know, I mean, all this stuff is stuff that you guys have heard me preach uh on this website for for, you know, years. This is what I’ve been preaching. It’s cool to hear you say it and and that’s one of the things that has that you’ve keyed in on off of a fairway lie from 5 yards to 70 yards off the green, really chasing that shallow attack angle. It’s helped you manage your distance control, which is what we talked about why you’ve gotten so good is that you’ve managed your distance control so well. Um, it’s fun to watch, man. Thanks for thanks for sharing some secrets. This is incredible stuff. I’m I got goosebumps cuz this is the stuff that, you know, that I’ve been I’ve been preaching for a while now and it’s it’s it’s neat to hear it verbalized from the guy who literally led the PGA tour and strokes gain around the green last year. So, Cooch, you’re the man. Love it. Thanks, brother. Thank you. Thanks for checking out the videos. If you want more great content to help lower your scores, check out shortgamechef.com. All my best information lives there. [Music]