Inside a Shane Lowry Short Game Session | Undercover Lessons | Golf Digest

Take notes from one of the best short games in golf. Watch as Shane Lowry works his way through a short game practice session alongside Travis Fulton, one of Golf Digest’s Best Teachers in Florida. From short chips to flop shots to bunker shots, learn from Lowry as he explains his routine, his technique and his philosophy around the greens.

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[Music] all right Shane so we’re getting to the golf course here for the first time you’ve hit some full swing shots getting over here to the short game is this usually where you start first time you’ve seen the course trying out the grass van chips or where do you go generally depends on the golf course the chip and green what the facilities are like so uh I mean we’re here and like we’ve obviously got uh some balls here and some like you’ve got some straightforward chip shots and they’re kind of if anything they’re the ones that I’m most sloppiest with you know so they’re they’re the ones I almost need to practice more than like your really difficult ones because when I get the difficult ones I I find that I I see them really well and I see them straight away whereas these ones it’s almost like when you have a couple of different options um you know like this this one to this flag do I chip it do I put it do I chip and run it or what would you do normally tournament conditions I mean you guys are playing on great um beautiful courses would you putt this normally or would you no I I I wouldn’t put this one I’d uh like I read first of all I look at the grass and down here we’ve got it’s all Dow grain so you could easily put it because it’s you know the ball’s not going to snag but I was it’s easy to chip off down gra kind of Landing into the ground a little bit if anything I would see this is like a makeable chip shot would be let’s try this walk us through this so I I mean I just kind of look at where I don’t don’t really pick a spot where I’m trying to landed I just kind of I stand there and I take like two practice swings and I just kind of visualize almost visualize hole in the Chip Shot and then I kind of I just go in and I kind of have a look at the hole and I kind of just so when you’re when when you hit these shots and I noticed a lot with with tour players Supple wrist sometimes amateurs they get in here very very very Supple for you yeah I’d be very risky like I I I I’ve got a an early risk especially when I’m chipping you know so I that that’s the way I’ve done it for my whole life and um it works well uh you know I don’t really work on my technique a whole lot I kind of I go around chiping greens and my coach will be with me and and we’ll just kind of we’ll hit all the different shots okay we’ll go around and we’ll hit every shot you need to hit and as long as I’m happy hitting those shots um you know no what club is that right there so this is a 58 that’s a 58 so 58 to that short would it be the same Club to that one little same Club to that one um yeah I I would definitely use the same Club to that one I’ve got a little bit Fringe to to land it to go over so um let’s try that one you know I I’d this one I’d see is more like you know back in the stance a little bit and I just be kind of trying to almost hit a little draw up there kind of get releasing up to the hole sort of so interesting a little bit of a draw yeah I got that one a bit skinny so talk about that a little bit of a draw technique yeah I just find that that uh especially chip sh this it get it gets the ball releasing towards the hole um so I just kind of I’d obviously a a little bit right and I’d square up the club fast and I just feel like I’m trying to hit the ball from the inside and kind of roll it in right to left let’s try that one again go again there we go beautiful oh beautiful how about that back one same club or so that back one like I I only chip with two clubs um I use my love wedge the majority of the time and then the odd time I’ll I’ll chip and run but I only chip and run with a pitch Edge okay I don’t do anything else I find the big thing for me is I find um when I’m chipping if I have too many options like I used to carry four wedges so I’d have a 56 and a 60 and in the odd time I’d chip with my 56 but then I have too many options and I I get like in between shots so I I then I and I wouldn’t e out any of them so I’d end up being a bit sloppy whereas like I practi with my pitch wed and I practice with my L wedge I don’t don’t use anything else so I just find that that gives me you know a bit of uh just more clear what I want to do in my head so this one I just be kind of I mean obviously it’s a lot uphill it’s into the grain at the end um I’d almost be trying to like like just get it running like a put uh so I’d be landing it I just visualize where I’m landing at and I’d be playing of like I’d stand probably a little bit closer to ball and a little bit further back back in my stance and I just kind of there it is and the pitching wedge of course going to run out just a little bit more yeah Chase it up that hill easy putt straight up the hill for savior par so I mean I would encourage amateurs to do this a little bit more than you know obviously I can play this shot with a l wedge and look sometimes I’ll get here and I’ll feel comfortable hitting a lob wedge up there and and I’ll just go and do it and um I I try and play with whatever I see um you know when I’m under pressure especially I just if I see the Chip Shot just go ahead and do it look if it doesn’t come off it doesn’t come off but but the majority of time it does thankfully do you ever walk up to the green are you ever going I always would yeah I’d always like I mean I I treat um especially these I treat most chip shots almost like putts you’re kind of trying to read it you know um because uh you want to get it perfect and if you’re out by a couple of feet it can leave you a more difficult put than you know if you’re correct with it so now I’m really curious over here let’s step down in here to the rough you live down here in Southern Florida so you’re used to this type of grass here this this Bermuda but really when you get into this type of grass and your world class player you got to you got to read the LIE right so when you read lies what are what are a couple things that you’re looking at when I when I first came down here to Florida um I I would have struggled a lot with these lies and um cuz I used to chip a lot sort of with an open stance open Club face and I find that if you do that on Bermuda especially into the grain that the club just sticks all the time so I find you really need to get the club moving through the grass so for me I think the best way to do that is almost try and draw your chip chats interesting so um I mean these lies are not too bad but like if you get a bad Li sort of to that flag say I I would kind of I’d open the club face a little bit and I’d have a kind of back in my stance and it almost feel like I’m just hitting it from the inside but really trying and keep that club moving and keep the Loft on it as well you know yeah let’s hit that and the club headit I notice when you do that kind of swings past the rist a little bit right there’s no hang on here yeah you’re kind of you’re releasing it you know you’re letting the club release from sort of here you feel like the club’s just releasing you know and you can really hold the Loft on there yeah and I’ve always noticed with you Shane you have a fair amount of wrist hinge I mean you you get after the wrist hinge in the back swing yeah I I don’t try it just happens naturally and that’s the way I’ve always done it you know and and I think it helps me especially when I’m when I difficult shots flop shots is kind of I can really get the club face open you know I can really open on the way back and uh what do what do you feeling there is that is that something like if you were to set up and hinge it back is there anything particularly in the wrist where you’re you’re recruiting from as far as that hinge no just happens just happens genuinely it just happens the thing I do is I spend so much time doing it and I kind of you know I do corporate outings or play golf with my sponsors or or amateurs and pro AMS and and they ask me about it and I’m like look guys I spend every day doing this for my whole for the last you know since I was 10 or 12 years of age you know for the last 20 years like and I find I think obviously you need to get a good technique and you need to get something that works for you but I think the best thing to improve your short C and spend time at it yeah let’s do another one here same shot there and then we’ll go to that back one keep so like I’m always just trying to like I’m always just trying to feel the shot you know I’m not never really thinking about my technique I’m obviously thinking about like I need to a little draw here but I’m just trying to feel like where I want to land at and I just kind of just trying and keep the K moving let’s go to that back one now anything changed stock stock lie here in the Bermuda you square the face up at all or is it yeah like you’d have to square it up here and like I um I’m kind of talking about it maybe a little bit too much but I I would be talking about like H like a low drawback off like just get it releasing at the hole I think the best way the hole chip shots is get the ball going at the hole I think you have it with like side spinner left or right spinning away from the hole it’s probably not the best way so as well as that like I talk about you do need to keep the club moving I find if I was to aim left and sort of try and cut that a little bit the club kind of digs in the ground and it doesn’t you know the strike becomes inconsistent so if you’re trying to fade it per se like it gets a little stickier and you can’t control the you can’t control the roll as you just can’t control the distance that it goes you know and I just find that he can control the strike on this a lot better if you just kind of aim right kind of get a back in the stance almost like you’re nearly Hood in the face and just kind of now if we were to let me get one down in there now a little bit like if it was a start to kind of get in there where now the grass is is really all around it it’s sitting down lower what changes there in reading that so for me I would have to go I would have to even though like it’s like a long chip and run I’d almost have to try and fly this a lot of the way to the hole okay so I’d have to open the club face a lot and I’d still be trying to like play it with a square kind of shot almost like a draw but I’d be I’d open up the club face and I’d almost put it just a little bit back in my sent and then I just kind of feel like I’m really releasing the club into the ball and getting the club moving and so this has more this has more speed more speed okay you have to play this with more speed cuz if you play this with like not enough speed you’re just going to land it there in front of you okay I can of talk about that wedge how do you got that what how’s that set up for you as far as the Loft bounce configuration yeah so it is a 58 um and a 6° bounce it’s just uh you know standard like 6° 58 Cleveland wedge and I get the guys cuz I you know I find the heads on these are a little bit rounded so I get them to shave like the Leading Edge a little bit um and make it Square I just like the look of the club face when it’s like that I you know it’s funny it just sort of about a year ago I started to like the look of a square um face and I feel like you can do a lot more with it so that’s that’s the setup I have what’s the what’s the most difficult life that when you’re out there I mean what’s happening with the ball grass combination that so if you get a if you get one that really is like you know really down in the Bermuda sort of to this near flag okay it’s probably you know it’s probably one of the more difficult shots because it’s just so I find that the guys that grow up in the Bermuda are way better than me at chipping in Bermuda and because they’re just used to it and I suppose it’s like me when I go back to play Links Golf I’m probably better at it than than other guys but um you know I find it just comes out so inconsistently um but like I said it’s just all about reading the line and trying to pick the best shot to to sort of get it up and down I mean yes you’re looking at hole in a lot of Chip shots but you know a lot of the time you’re trying to just get it up and down as well so same apply here more speed more speed but I a like I get the ball a bit further my up my stance okay and it almost just a like a little bit you know further left because it just this just needs to pop out like it’s kind of you I almost feel like when I take the club back I’ve got like a long lazy back swing I almost feel like I just let the club fall on the ball like it’s it’s the weight of the club as opposed to cuz the thing is if you set up to hit the like flop shot here if you trying hit it and get drivey with your hands at all it’s just going to go 20 ft past so I kind of yeah you can really see that you’re just so Supple with your with your arms and hands you know it’s it’s all it’s it’s a nice Rhythm like it’s kind of you know whereas if I get a bit you know sometimes you’re in a high press pressured situation in a tournament yeah and like you might get a bit nervous or you know and you you grip the club a little bit tighter and you be trying to hit the shot and then you end up like you know and it just comes out a little bit faster so that ball starts to Nestle Down more berua around it you’re actually getting more aggressive more speed you have to yeah and the ball was forward is that right the ball was forward for that one because you just like if if you get the ball back there you know it’s just going to come out a little bit too hot you know all right I got to take you over here now let’s come over here it’s always fun to to watch you guys hit golf balls but I really enjoy watching you around the green yeah because this is where I mean your your guys’ skill is is just through roof well it’s the one thing I find with the PGA Tour most guys have great short games most guys are good Putters yeah yeah you don’t get away with being average out here like it’s kind of anybody you enjoy watching like from around the greens um I mean i’ I’ve learned I’ve been lucky enough that I can learn from poric a lot like it’s kind of he’s to me like he’s still one of the best Chippers in the world like he’s unbelievable um you know I get pure enjoyment I watch watching Phil do do his thing like and it’s funny the way he goes about it um I think he goes about it a little bit different than other people but that’s what I like I’m I’m my own individual and that’s why I like that I think that’s what you need to be as a player yeah you get your own DNA right your own DNA and your swing and then just kind of how you go about and you know that’s the great thing about the great thing about golf is like everybody’s different and there’s no one way to do things that’s the best thing about the game I think you know and if you find a way to do it and do it well yourself you can be successful you know now we’ve got a little more distance here we’re back here 20 25 yards take me to that back left flag got some green to work with here yeah what are we going to do here so I would have walked up obviously to have a look at this it’s kind of it’s down right to left you know the grain is kind of right to left um so I’d be just trying to pick a spot where I’m trying to landed and I would I I’d read it like a p when I gone up there so I’m trying to land it on that left hand palm tree and just kind of release it down to the hole um sort of land a a little bit on the green to be hon if any this is like this should be a straightforward enough shop because it’s one of those where if I hit a little bit too hard it lands further and a bit softer whereas if I hit a little bit too easy it gets the down slope and goes down to the holes okay I’m after building myself up now so you still trying to draw this or is it no I’m because it’s a lot right to left I almost trying to hold it into the slope got it so like it’s trying to explain what I’m doing it’s kind of it’s sort of middle of my stance I the club face open and I’m just kind of trying to just hit like a little pitch sure mhm see I probably pitched that a little bit shorter than I would have liked but it still worked out very well how often you hit in these shots say tournament week how often you going to practice this particular shot going into Thursday’s round you know tournament it depends tournament week I I always like to think especially you know I I’ve made the effort of moving down here to Florida my family and you know my wife’s been great at doing you know she’s supporting me 100% And I get to do all my practice now on weeks off whereas when you live in Ireland you don’t get to practice these shots because you just you just don’t have the conditions or the facilities like we’ve got great facilities but you only get to use them during the summer and you know I get to do all this on my weeks off so I might not practice a whole lot tournament week but I know I’m ready to play them when it comes to the tournament all right we’re going to go three consecutive shots here okay same flag and you go as low as you can and still play the shot and then a little higher second one and then a little higher in the third Okay cool so I’m just trying to hit a low one Yep this might be the more difficult one yeah it is so this is I just play it back in my stance but I have the clo face a little bit open and I just popped a little bit yeah that’s perfect is it kind of fun to fit it in there I mean that’s not the shot you would play but is it kind of fun to just try to yeah yeah hit different I like that’s myself my coach would you know he’ll come down here and we do some practice and he’ll have a booket of balls and he’ll walk around the green and go here hit that shot hit that shot and and it’s all different shots and I find that’s the way to practice the best you see the best Chippers in the world that’s the way they practice whereas you see the bad chippers they practice to go over to like one area put a bucket of balls down and hit the same shot for you know so I I think variety is a big thing when it comes to practicing let’s elevate it now a little bit medium trajectory so medium so this will be sort of middle to like open my stance it obviously pitch it a little bit further beautiful that probably fits the eye a little bit more that that that’s probably the perfect shot for this really well done now we’re going to go top shelf probably not the play but if we were to have some fun hit this shot nice and high yeah so obviously I’d put it forward in my stance a little bit and uh I’d open the club face a lot but I actually about a year ago I wasn’t chipping great or especially the soft shots and uh I used to I found I was gripping the club and then I was opening the face and then I i’ find my grip would be too strong and I drive it a lot so I like to be coming out a little bit too hot so I just got into like a routine of opening the club face with my right hand and then put my left hand on the grip sort of so the CL face is like Way open and then from there it’s just kind of way upstairs look at that pretty good great shot now I notic as we’ve been working through these shuts not a lot of shaft Lan you know you’re not leaning the shaft that forward at all even on the lowend yeah yeah yeah like you’re I suppose you’re trying to use the bounce of the clobe like and it’s it’s difficult because if you sometimes when you feel like you’re using the boun you end up throwing the club a little bit too much so it’s kind of mhm there’s a bit of a there’s no harm in chipping with chaflan sometimes depending on the lies and the circumstances but yeah more often not you’re trying to deliver the club like with the shaft sort of kind of almost like fairly square into the ball you know so that that gets the bounce working perfect when you get to Ireland you get to Europe do you have to lean the shaft more forward because of the grass over there or is it about the same do you find yourself making any adjustments that way yeah like you’re probably chipping with a little bit less Loft all the time so like even though I use the same CL I be trying to use less Loft on it so I would be like sort of you kind of would be maybe trying to like H like lower shots and you know that that always kind of varies so yeah you probably will be a little bit so you had to learn kind of the the uh the ball in the air game over here in the states a little bit more versus growing up in Ireland is that yeah so it’s funny though if you talk to my coach and I’ve known him since I was 17 and you know he used to he used to drive himself mad he was mine uh when I was playing amateur golf for Ireland he was our coach and be trying to get me to play pitch and runs and I’d be just walking around with my lob wedge like that’s all I want to use like and I would be trying to spin it and that’s the way I chipped and you know eventually he realized and I realized that’s the best way for me to do it because um I practice it a lot so you know and I feel like I’m good at and I’m confident doing it so and you have great Rhythm and you’re you’re so fluid in these shots I mean it’s the timing of it is is incredible let’s get one more here let’s go let’s just go that short one here oh um would you go way up top like that last shot shot here to that front right pin the one on the right or just the the short one here just past the bunker yeah yeah you’d have to go way up top here okay so I’m I’m going to give myself a good lie here because this is a hard shot yep but this will be a shot that like you know you’re playing on tour uh you’re probably you need to realize no not to be doing anything silly I would always say to my caddy here you know uh we’d be here and youd have a very difficult Chip Shot I’d say to him right let’s not you know nothing Sil here 10 ft and try and hold a putt and that’s kind of the way I look at it whereas you know if you end up trying to be a bit too aggressive with this leaveing in the bunker leave it short and then you end up making double I always find you can come back from Bogies on tour whereas doubles are just so hard to uh doubles hurt doubles hurt an awful lot like two chips you know where you have to leave in the bunker that kind of stuff so I’ve be looking at this and i’ be trying to stay very aggressive to it but I I’d also be fairly confident I could hit it close Okay um so I again again I’ll actually for this one it’s a bit different than the other flop shot I hit I’ll probably I’ll widen my stance a little bit okay and I get down a little bit lower almost like a bunker shot nearly I open the club face there and then I just swing hard to be honest it’s kind of and just a lot of practice is what allows you to hit that type of shot that was pretty good yeah that was sweet all right let’s go the bunker here yeah you were saying that was kind of a bunker technique that one so you would take that technique and do more of a stock bunker shot would you say yeah okay yeah throw one down right there and let’s go let’s go to that back right one first a little bit of green to work with Okay yeah similar stuff yeah so I’d be I wouldn’t play with too I’d open the club face a little bit I get kind of ball sort of middle of my stance and I I always try and keep my way on my left side in the bunkers because you know I find if if you get back in your right side you end up like you know just catching them a little bit heavy or thin and it’s just a bit inconsistent so if if I get my weight on my left side oh sort of the same Rhythm and fluidity as we’ve been seeing on the other shots I noticed are you square or a little close yeah probably be a little bit closer Square to close um you know I think I think the best way to play them is probably that like I find if I get too open I end up I I drop the club a little bit on the inside and it get that gets me too shallow so if I go if I go two clothes like sort of if I am I feel like I can come over the top and really deliver the club well you know okay so I got two clothes here and I can kind of yeah you can still hit that shot how about this one here tough shot front left here yeah just have to kind of nudge it over and let it feed down the hill even a slight down here lie you’ve got here is as well yeah this is not that easy now like but I I’d always uh first of all I’d always give myself a good lie in The Bu I’m practicing but I uh you know I just trying to for this one I’m trying to get as low as I can obviously weits on my left side as well and I’m just trying to get his lot like squatting down really low and just kind of open the club face a lot there it is land a bit too farble you make that putt though yeah you’re just like you leave it below the hole so a lot of your short game really I mean setups are changing but your Technique I mean as far as what you do in your full swing I mean it’s just it’s all the same stuff over I I’m a full believer and a firm believer and even with my my long game that if I get my setup correct I’m going to hit good shots and that’s that’s the big thing and I think the biggest thing I see when amateur golfers is you know their setup is not good so it’s hard to hit a good shot and it kind of makes sense too like you’re in your full swing you’re it’s a fluid it’s a rhythmic type of Swing it’s not a short compact motion but it’s a it’s a it’s a fluid swing and a lot of that you can see it over here just transfers and just I think as you see it a little bit higher maybe than than most versus than down that would that makes sense as far as yeah true yeah I do see it like that but like like and it’s set up as in like really simple things alignment ball position posture grip it’s kind of it’s it’s very simple it actually you know what it sounds too simple but that’s the way I play the game and that’s the way I’ve always done it all I got to give you one more going to make this one really tough right we got to go there let’s go back left what are you going to do with this one so for this one obviously you get a few plug lies but you’re really I mean when we’re playing on tour you’re really trying to not compound the error so you’re trying to be a bit clever with what you do but I for a plug Li I kind of square up the club face and i’ play like a I get into my set of like a normal bunker shop but just square up the club face and I feel like I’m chopping down on the back of it with the heel so I’m trying to get the heel right in there and then I feel like if I get the heal in there the club kind of will open a little bit hopefully and the ball will come out somewhat uh soft so I’m just kind of trying to feel here it is beautiful that was all right you’d be pretty happy with that one you got all the shots yeah maybe that’s part of the reason why you won the Open Championship hey congratulations all your success thanks for your time today that thank you cheers [Music]