{"id":342998,"date":"2025-12-12T11:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/342998\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:12:09","slug":"i-cant-play-this-basic-golf-shot-and-its-holding-back-my-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/342998\/","title":{"rendered":"I Can’t Play This Basic Golf Shot And It’s Holding Back My Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m slightly dumbfounded with golf at the minute as I am hitting the ball as well as, or even better than, ever, yet my scores are in no way showing that.<\/p>\n

Granted, I feel like I’m playing less and less golf so it’s difficult to expect anything special, but I’ve gone from a 1.7 to 6.0 handicap index<\/a> over the last four years and I still can’t even play to my current number.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So why is that?<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Rust is certainly an aspect. I believe I could shoot lower scores<\/a> if I regularly played two or three times per week and started practising a little more.<\/p>\n

I also pretty much had the full-on putting yips<\/a> a couple of years ago and I have never truly recovered. It bled into my short game and likely the rest of my game, too, knowing that I would struggle to hole any putts from outside of literal gimme<\/a> range.<\/p>\n

But one thing I’ve really noticed recently is my complete lack of ability to get the ball up-and-down from areas I used to, and I think it is the basic chip-and-run shot<\/a> I am missing.<\/p>\n

I bought a 5-wood and started practising putting with it from the fringe and just off the green, and it was remarkable how consistent it was. I managed to putt one up to gimme range on the 1st hole recently after about ten minutes of practice prior to my round.<\/p>\n

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\n

\"A\n<\/p>\n

Is keeping the ball lower to the ground around the greens the answer to lower scores?<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

This sounds very basic, but keeping the ball low around the greens, and without spin, is a shot I need to start making use of more. Especially during the winter when the greens are softer and slower.<\/p>\n

The fairway wood should now be my go-to when a yard-or-so off the green, but from slightly further away it doesn’t work quite as well.<\/p>\n

I recently played in a competition with a 3-handicap and we were both in a similar position on a par 4 <\/a>after two strokes. I only brought my 58 degree wedge and putter with me and hit an average shot to around 12ft, turning what really should have been a par into a bogey.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

He hit a chip-and-run with an 8-iron to tap-in range and walked off with the easiest of pars. It struck me.<\/p>\n

I am usually a hands-forward, high-lofted kind of chipper, where I like to de-loft it, hit the ball hard with a divot and allow for spin.<\/p>\n

This clearly doesn’t work, though, if you look at my scores. I used to be a regular sub-80 shooter, but have been in the mid-80s most of the time lately.<\/p>\n

The amount of times I fail to get the ball up-and-down from basic areas is quite staggering, and with the little golf I now play (once a week at best) it seems silly to constantly try and execute such a high tariff shot.<\/p>\n

Sure, it comes off from time to time but I often hit the shot far too hard or it checks up well short of the pin.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Close\n<\/p>\n

I am going to try and use less loft around the greens<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

It is so much easier to hit an 8-iron chip-and-run consistently than a spinny, de-lofted lob wedge fizzer, so I plan to go back to basics and master the chip-and-run… for the first time ever in my life.<\/p>\n

My golfing New Year’s Resolution is going to be banning myself from using any club that doesn’t have a 5-PW stamped on it around the greens, unless I genuinely have to get the ball airborne over a bunker or thick rough.<\/p>\n

It might not be as fun or produce as many shots that get me excited but I’d sign up for boring golf and lower scores.<\/p>\n

I’ve played the game for 20 years and have never really hit anything but a lob wedge around the greens, but that will be changing in 2026. Mark my words!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’m slightly dumbfounded with golf at the minute as I am hitting the ball as well as, or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-342998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}