7 TIPS FOR APPROACH SHOTS

A reflection after playing The Short Course at Mountain Shadows which and the 7 tips for approach shots from pros.

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So on my golf drills and tips series I got a request by Jeremy to cover approach shots and since I just played a par three course I have a lot of experience that’s very much on my mind right now about approach shots from what I know and from what I forgot about and

Didn’t do well today so I’m going to reflect over what I did and then what I learned from today and then as well as research I’ve done after round especially to um to just teach myself what I should have done better um so research on what the pros are doing

Currently for approach shots as well some good habits um and then tips along the way so an approach shot is going to be your green and regulation shot it’s typically your second or third shot if it’s a par four it’s going to be your second shot because you’re approaching

The green and your goal is to be on the Green in regulation to tput and make your par and move on it’s fun to go on the PGA tour and the LPGA tours website to read the stats of Greening regulation by their athletes really impressive stuff High numbers obviously so let’s

Dive into what they do to make sure they’re on the grein and putting in regulation the first thing is they know their yardages now Pro shots can be anywhere from 200 yards out as well depending on how long the hole is and for pros they typically have 200 yards

Into the pen still um because they’re playing such long distances but they’re still on the green with that 200 yard shot but sometimes I have approach shots that are about 100 yard shots or 80 yard shots and today in the part three course I specifically learned my lesson about

Distances because I had a lot of holes that the te- box was set up at 80 yards out I have a 56 and I could not hit that as a full swing it would fly the green so I was have in between a half swing or

A quarter swing with my 56 degree I didn’t do my homework and figuring out how far back I should take my club in order to know how far I wanted that wedge to go so first thing is to know your yardages know your wedges and especially those shorter distances

Because if you hit a bomb drive and you’re 100 yards out but you don’t know what club to use you can really mess up the hole and the score for the hole because you just didn’t have the yardage right or know how far back to take that

Wedge a lot of times Pros don’t use their wedges for their full capacity they only take half Swings with their wedges because there’s really no need for them to try to take a full swing at their wedge so the first tip on approach shots is know your distances the second

Tip is to warm up because if you know your distances but you come to the course without stretching or without warming up at all and you don’t hit any shots on the Range then your body’s going to take a few holes to get adjusted to around and swinging and

Those yardages could be off because your body feels tight so I recommend going to the range before your tea time if you have time for it and practicing those distances that you typically see as your approach sh on the course the ranges are typically marked out with yardage

Markers and how far you can hit but also I recommend bringing your Rangefinder and finding specific targets that are more in lined with what you’ll be seeing out on the course so we have an knowing your yardages as the first one second tip is going to be get warm warmed up so

Stretch and feel like your swing feels really smooth for those shots that are for your approach distances and then the third is going to be your pre-shot routine and underneath the pre-shot routine there’s actually quite a few little checkpoints to keep in mind as tips as you’re hitting those approach

Shots so the first one’s going to be to notice your environment and assess your surroundings what is the wind doing where is your ball sitting so what’s the LIE of the ball is the ball in the grass or is it sitting up on top of the grass

Because if it’s on top of the grass and you can hit the ball first you’re going to have solid distances but if it’s in the grass you might want to Club up knowing that the grass is going to get between your ball and the club so it’s

Not going to go as far also notice are there any bunkers around the green or water hazards that you need to keep an eye out for are you on a hill because if you’re on a hill that will affect the way that you aim your Club so the first

Step of your pre- shot routine should be just assessing the surroundings stand up to your ball see what’s happening and what you need to take in consideration before your shot once you’ve assessed your surroundings you’re going to pick a spot on the grain that you want your

Ball to land this does not mean the hole we rarely want to pin seek when you’re playing golf pros actually hardly ever aim for the hole or the pin because they know the grin is undulated it’s not a flat surface the ball’s going to be

Rolling towards the pen so even if it is a super flat surface they’re not aiming at the cup because then the ball is going to roll past the cup we want the ball to land before the cup and roll into the hole so taking that into consideration you want to take a good

Look at the Grain and which way it’s breaking if you can see it from how far you are out typically on approach shots you can see the undulation of the green but a lot of courses offer yardage books which have a map of the green on each

Hole and that’s really helpful as well so at Mountain Shadows where I played today the yardage book had the map of the green and it had where the brakes were in the green which really helped me assess where I wanted to aim to have the ball land and then roll closer to the

Pen once I figured out where I wanted the ball to land I chose my target so the target might not have been on the graen because in a lot of cases today I didn’t have a chance to see the exact target but I knew the line I wanted the

Ball to travel on and how close I wanted the ball to land to the hole um that also decides how high up I need to hit the ball in the air because if I had a lot of grain to work with before getting to the pin then I can obviously hit the

Ball a little bit lower trajectory and then let it um roll out towards the cup but if I had the pen in the front of the green then I need to tee up the ball a little higher if I had the chance to te it up of course on approach shots you’re

Not teeing it up so you just have to think about clubbing up a little bit maybe opening the face Tad making sure you get under it so that way the ball can actually have um a lot of Loft to it and then the The Descent angle is going

To be more steep so it doesn’t roll out as much so once I had that line picked out and that spot on the green I wanted the ball to land then I need to choose my aim point and today my aim point was actually in the sky a lot of times or on

A tree Behind the Green because I couldn’t see the exact location on the green I personally like to pick a tiny Target that’s just beyond the green or in the sky that’s in a stationary spot so a tree or Mountaintop was really helpful in Arizona um and I like that

Because I like to visualize the ball flying towards that Target in the sky it just helps me visualize the ball actually getting off the ground and into the air that way I’m not accidentally lifting up and then thinking about the ball like you know rolling on the ground

Towards the pen don’t want that I want to aim and see the ball fly in the sky so that leads us to our next Point visualization so once you know what club you’re using the distance once you have a good idea of where you want the ball

To land then you can actually execute your shot in your mind first so visualize how you want the ball to fly through the air exactly what it’s going to do and then visualize it rolling into the hole so once you visualized your shot you can actually now execute it

Confidently because you feel good about all the information you’ve taken in to consideration you’ve planned for your shot you know where you want it to end and what you want it to look like so now all you have to do is trust it and execute it which leads us to our last

Point is your practice swing and the practice swing is really just to feel the shot get the nerves out before stepping up to the ball and actually hitting the ball so recommend doing a practice swing first to feel that and for me today my practice swing was

Really just that feel of how far back I wanted to take my club because for the wedges I was using I didn’t need to take a full swing but I need needed to practice how far back I was going to take it so then that way I didn’t

Overshoot on my yardage and my last point for approach shots is the positive mindset when executing the shot there can be a lot of things we take into consideration and then fixate on those thoughts instead of what we want the ball to do so on the golf course for me

Today I allowed my putting to get in the way of my my Approach shots or my t- shots for today U because I was thinking about previous shots and how I needed to make up for that three put I just had and so I had to get this really close so

I don’t had to worry about my putting and those slots were really a detriment to me today and that negativity I can even watch my my shots back on YouTube and I can see where I was just not very positive if I made a par I was like oh I

Needed that I had to do that anyways it wasn’t a celebration um and then for each hole in each shot it’s really even if it’s a good one or bad one you just got to leave it where it’s at move on to the next shot move on to the next hole

Um and then focus on what’s really in front of you which is what I love about golf it makes you stay in the moment um to do well the pros know their mental game is super important and staying present in what’s uh the execution of

That one shot that’s in front of you is a really good skill to really hone in on and then apply it to all areas of life so in summary for approach shots we want to do your homework make sure that you’re prepared for the shot by knowing

The distances that you can hit your wedges your irons your woods and not just a full swing but also like a half swing or a knock down down shot as well next is to assess your surroundings so take a look around to see what hazards are there and what you should do if

You’re on a hill and what you should do if there’s wind all those things that might affect the ball flight you want to take that into consideration before you go on to your next point which is choosing your aim spot um and lining up correctly so that’s typically not aiming

At the pen but it’s aiming for the ball to roll into the cup or spin next to the pen um but plan out your shot and then trust it so positive mindset visualizing that shot first doing your practice swing to get the nerves out and to

Really feel it and then executing it if you have questions on approach shots please put them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them if not I’ll research what the pros are doing so then that way um I can answer it correctly and as I’ve said I’m

Studying the game as well so I’m reflecting on on my game I’m sharing my experience with you through other videos where I play and I reflect on each shot as I hit the the shot so you can see it in real time action to what I’m learning

Um I apply it to the course and then I have a whole series going on right now of drills and tips that apply to the golf game so if you have any requests please make sure you comment them on one of those videos so I can see it and then

Make a video for you thank you for watching and have a great day