Short Game Blueprint

Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

Short Game Blueprint With

Steve Cowle Golf

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

Table of Contents Introduction.............................................................................3 Chipping..................................................................................6 Pitching ................................................................................. 10 Distance Wedges .................................................................... 12 Bunker Shots ......................................................................... 14 Conclusion ............................................................................. 16

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

Introduction Welcome to The Short Game Blueprint, hopefully after reading this brief book you will have a better understanding of how to improve your scores.

Now the short game is one of the most important parts of the game of golf. Why? Because it's been discovered that 60 to 65% of all golf shots are from inside 100 yards of the hole. Naturally a big part of those statistics comprises of putting (which is not the short game) but the fact is....about 80% of all golf shots golfers lose to par happen within 100 yards of the hole. And the large determining factor of this is how close golfers hit their short game shots.

Yes, that's right....it's generally not how well a person putts that determines whether they save par or not but it's how close they hit there short game shots to the hole.

Let me explain that some more...

When it comes to putting it doesn't matter how good a putter you become because the bottom line is that the closer you hit the ball to the hole the more chance you have of holing the putt. And here are some telling statistics from the best putters in the world... 

PGA Pro's hole putts in the 0 - 5 ft range about 95% of the time.



PGA Pro's hole putts in the 5 - 10 ft range about 55% of the time.

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PGA Pro's hole putts in the 10 - 20 ft range about 25% of the time.

As you'll notice from those stats above....there is a big drop off each time you move further away from the hole. The point is, the further you are away from the hole, the less likely you are to hole a putt. And that doesn't matter how good a putter you become you'll always be around those figures because the greens are not perfect.

So once you get your putting to a good standard the only way you can lower your scores is to get the ball closer to the hole. If you're averaging 30 feet from the hole with a wedge from 75 yards and

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

with practice you get that down to averaging 10 feet from the hole, you WILL score lower.

The bottom line is that with the short game it's very possible to cut a lot of strokes from you scores by working hard and smart on improving this area of your game.

Now before I tell you anything else I first want to explain what the short game is not.

The short game is NOT putting!

Putting is a separate game all by itself as you will see from the putting improvement blueprint.

So with that being said, here's what the short game consists of...    

Chipping Pitching Distance Wedges Bunker shots

And that's the order you should work through to improve your short game.

Now the action of chipping is very close to the putting action.

Conversely, the action used for distance wedges is very close to the full swing action.

That may be one reason why a lot of golfers suffer with the short game. It's a mixture of different aspects of golf. But the short game can definitely be mastered.

Now when you first start working on improving your short game you should focus on consistently landing your ball on the spot you want it to land.

Now you may think that's a strange thing to focus on first so let me explain that some more by telling you the...

3 Things You Need To Have For A Great Short Game 1. You need to have control over the physical swing as that produces the trajectory, velocity and spin rate of each shot.

And all of this determines where your ball lands.

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

2. You need to be able to determine and accurately predict how the lie of the ball is going to affect the shot you're going to play.

3. You need to have a good idea and feel for how the ball is going to react when it lands.

If you look at that list above you'll notice that it doesn't matter how good you can become at number 2 and 3....if you can't consistently hit the ball so it lands on the spot you've chosen for your ball to land then everything else is irrelevant.

So that's why for all four main parts of the short game.... 

Chipping



Pitching



Distance Wedges



Bunker shots

...you need to learn how to hit the ball consistently on the spot you want. And initially when you learn this you should do it from a perfect lie.

Naturally you won't always have a perfect lie on the golf course but that's not the point of learning the short game this way. The point is that if you can't hit the ball the distance you want from a perfect lie then it doesn't matter what the lie is like because you won't be able to hit the ball the distance you want from a bad lie!

So please understand this...

Every other resource I've seen on improving the short game misses the point about only focusing on learning to hit the ball the distance you want. Instead they give you everything needed for a great short game and that leads to very little improvement if any. I believe that is not the best way to improve your short game.

OK, that's an introduction to my philosophy on what is needed to improve your short game. Let's get going…

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

Chipping After putting, chipping is the easiest motion in golf. And the reason for this is because a chip shot has the least moving parts after putting.

You've probably heard a variety of definitions on what constitutes a chip shot....but most of them are wrong. So here is the best definition of what a chip shot is...

Chip Shot Definition...a chip shot is a motion that is very close to the pendulum putting motion as it requires no independent wrist movement.

So a chip shot is not defined by how far the ball flies or rolls, but rather a chip shot is defined by the motion being very close to a pendulum putting action and it requiring no independent wrist movement. So if you are chipping the ball and you break your wrists then you have just hit a pitch...not a chip.

Now for chip and pitch shots I highly recommend you grip the club down the bottom of the grip.

Why? It's simple. Just look at the way you hold a pen. You don't hold it at the top because by doing that you'd have very little control.

Instead you hold it down the bottom of the pen so you have more control.

And with short shots like a chip or a pitch you want full control of the clubhead. You don't need a lot of power, but more control.

Chip-putt Now the first shot I think you should learn is called a chip-putt. And what this involves is setting up to a chip shot as though you are going to putt.

You should use the same grip as you do when you're putting. Here is a close-up of the putting grip I use to chip-putt with.

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

Now it's important when you setup to chip-putt that you...      

align the club directly at where you want your ball to start have some flex in your knees position your hands so they are in front of the ball have your arms relatively straight align your feet, knees, hips, shoulders all parallel to the starting line of your shot 60-65% of your weight is on your left foot

Once you are in a similar position to what I've explained above then you are ready to swing. Now to swing you need to understand that very little should be moving. And I want to go through the parts that should NOT be doing anything as you swing. So here are all the parts that should NOT be doing anything as you're chipputting...      

Feet - Nothing Ankles - Nothing Knees - Nothing Legs - Nothing Hips - Nothing Head - Nothing

All that should be moving to make the golf club move should be your shoulders, arms and wrists.

So to swing you simply have to concentrate on moving your shoulders, arms and wrists and keeping this triangle intact as you're swinging. So there should NOT be any independent action from your hands. They should be dead.

Here is a picture sequence of swinging the club when chip-putting:

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

OK, here are a couple of other things that are VERY important.

1. Your follow-through should always be longer than your backswing.

Why? Because this helps you to naturally accelerate through the ball.

You don't have to try and do it. If you swing through longer than you take the club back you'll naturally accelerate through the ball.

2. At the end of every shot you should hold your finish until the ball has stopped moving. And while you're holding your finish position you need to watch the ball and see the trajectory of the shot, distance traveled etc.

OK, so that's all there is to chip-putting. Just swing your shoulders and arms keeping everything else still, and swing through longer than you did going back and hold your finish.

Chipping Now when you setup for a normal chip shot you should position the ball middle-back of your stance. And your feet should be closer together than for chip-putting. Also, your feet should be turned towards the target by about 25-30 degrees. Here is a picture of the chipping setup needed:

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

Now at address you should still have some knee flex but you should stand taller than you did when chip-putting.

So it's important when you setup to chip that you...       

grip the club near the shaft align the club directly at where you want your ball to start have some flex in your knees position your hands so they are in front of the ball and bowed. have your arms relatively straight align your shoulders parallel to the starting line of your shot 60 - 65% of your weight is on your left foot

Like with the chip-putting action I explained, at setup you'll notice there is a triangle relationship formed by your arms and shoulders.

So when chipping this relationship should stay intact as you're swinging. Also, your swing must be longer on the follow-through than it was on the backswing and you must hold the finish of your swing when you watch the ball flying and finishing.

OK, so that's what you need to work on when chipping let's look now at pitching….

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

Pitching A pitch shot differs from a chip shot in a few major ways. The first is that you SHOULD cock your wrists when swinging. And the second is that your setup is a lot more like you should setup for a long shot.

Also, the characteristics of a pitch shot over a chip shot differ. A pitch shot flies longer and higher than a chip shot. And once it lands the ball normally rolls about the same or slightly shorter than the distance it flew.

But apart from those two things everything else is the same as the chip shot. So let's start by looking at the setup needed for a pitch.

To do this let's start by looking at the golf grip needed.

I believe that with the short game you should have a neutral grip as shown.

And you can check this simply by setting up with your feet together and then looking down on your hands. If you can see two knuckles of your left hand then that's a neutral grip. If you can see 3-4 knuckles that's a strong grip. If you see 1 knuckle or no knuckles then that's a weak grip.

Pitching set-up:     

grip the club with a normal, neutral grip and grip the club down the end of the grip position the ball in the middle of your stance have your feet about 6” apart angle your left foot out about 25-30 degrees and your right foot out by about 10-15 degrees align the club directly at where you want your ball to start Page 10

Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

    

have some flex in your knees position your hands so they are in front of the ball have your arms relatively straight align your shoulders, hips and knees all parallel to the starting line of your shot have about 60% of your weight on your left foot

OK, here is a picture summary of the pitching setup you should have....

So from a position like I've shown you above you're ready to pitch.

And to do this you must understand that unlike a chip shot, your hands start cocking as soon as you take the club away from the ball.

Your hands should NOT be holding the club firm. As your backswing starts you should start to cock the wrists gradually.

The length of swing is dictated by how long the shot is, have a look at the sequences shown. I like to swing a similar length back and through because it’s easy to remember and also very easy to check if things go astray.

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

It’s best to practice with one length of swing first and note down the distance the ball flies through the air. This is as long as I swing for my pitch shots, to hit the ball further requires a different shot.

So let's now look at distance wedges‌

Distance Wedges A distance wedge shot is a shot between 40 and 100 yards. So naturally to hit the ball longer than a pitch shot you have to turn your body further and swing further.

And for a distance wedge shot you should setup as you did for a pitch shot BUT you should have your feet a fraction wider.

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

From this setup position you simply need to swing back so your left arm is parallel with the ground like this:

And then swing through to a finish when almost all of the weight should be on your left foot and the club should be parallel with the ground like this:

So that's the stock standard distance wedge shot that you should master first. Once you've practiced that swing work out your Page 13

Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

yardages with all of your wedges (I personally use 4). You can then experiment with different length swings to produce a variety of distances and trajectories. But the important thing is that you master hitting the ball the distance you want with this first distance wedge swing I've just shown you.

Time for the dreaded bunkers‌

Bunker Shots Now the actual swing needed to hit the average bunker shot is no different than the swing needed to hit a distance wedge shot. The only difference needed to successfully play the average bunker shot is with the setup. You need to change your setup so that instead of hitting the ball first, you hit the sand first.

The first big change in the setup is that the ball should be positioned just inside your left heel. Next you need to align all of your body to the left of your final target.

Finally, you need to open the clubface and grip the club. The clubface should be pointing at the flag or to the right of the flag.

There are no set rules on how much you open up the clubface because all sand is different. You have to experiment with how much you open up your stance and how open you have the clubface.

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

Just understand that for the standard bunker shot you should not alter your distance wedge swing at all. The setup is what makes the necessary changes to help you hit great bunker shots.

Having said that, you must make sure that when you swing you do so along the alignment that you've setup, which is open. Don't manipulate your swing to swing towards the target. You MUST swing along your open bodyline.

By doing this the ball will fly to the left of the pin and then on landing spin to the right and roll a little bit.

Now once you've mastered the standard bunker shot you then simply need to make your swing either longer or shorter to alter the distance of your bunker shots. You don't need to try anything fancy, just swing either longer or shorter and the ball will fly the appropriate distance.

Impact is the most important aspect of successful bunker play. For all greenside bunkers I aim to hit 2� behind the ball, a great drill to do in the practice bunker is to draw a circle in the sand and aim to take that amount of sand as shown:

Once you've mastered hitting chips, pitch shots, distance wedges and bunker shots the distances you want from perfect lies, you're ready to start learning about the differences in lies and green conditions that will help you to choose the right club and shot for the situation you're faced with.

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Short Game Blueprint with Steve Cowle Golf

But understand this‌that knowledge would be next to useless if you can't hit just a standard short game shot the distance you want.

Now here is a rough generalisation as far as the lie is concerned.

The worse the lie the more descending blow you need to hit the shot effectively. In doing this the club gets de-lofted, so if you're using a sand wedge but the ball is in a bad lie, it may come out like a 9 iron would.

Naturally, this will mean the ball will also run further than normal.

Now when you choose where to land your ball you should always try and land your ball on the green. It's much, much more predictable than landing your ball on the fringe.

Also, the other main consideration you have to make when playing a shot is the green condition. For example, if you're playing a golf course with hard and fast greens then obviously the ball is going to run much further than a golf course with slow and wet greens.

So when selecting a shot to hit you need to assess your lie and the green conditions closely. A lot of this comes down to practicing, experimenting and getting experience from different lies.

Conclusion This is the end of the Short Game Blueprint. I've shared a lot of information with you on what you should do to have a great short game. Now the matter turns to doing it.

And if you tried to do this by yourself you'd probably be very confused as to how you should cultivate a great short game. But here's great news! I've taken that problem away for you, because I have created a complete step-by-step practice plan that outlines exactly what you need to practice to have a great short game.

There's no ifs, buts or maybes. If you follow the instructions in that plan you will improve your short game and slash strokes from your scores. Keep an eye out on my website for this information or sign up to receive regular updates at... www.stevecowlegolf.co.uk

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