The typical tour pro hits about 12 to 13 greens per round on average.  In spite of missing at least five greens per round on average, they will still shoot under par most of the time.

The big reason for that is they have unbelievable short games, i.e., the ability to make par when they miss a green.

Most amateur golfers have terrible short games, which is why they can’t break 80, 90 or 100, depending on their ball striking skills.

Mastering the short game requires two things…

  • Skill development
  • Knowing how to play each situation

In this article I lay out a step-by-step process for building a solid short game.

Carry distance control

The first skill you need to develop is carry distance control.

With this step, you only pay attention to how far you hit the ball in the air for different types of shots.

For example, set yourself up ten feet off the practice green on fairway length grass.

Pick a spot about ten feet onto the green and focus on landing the ball on that spot with your sand wedge.

You should ideally be able to land the ball within about one foot of that spot every time.

Once you are able to do that, then you can work on the flighting of the shot, i.e., the trajectory.

A higher shot will land more softly, while a lower trajectory shot will run out further.

Work on various shots around the green with different clubs and learn to control both carry distance and trajectory.

When you are able to control the trajectory and landing spot, you are well on your way to mastering the short game.

Total distance control

With this type of practice, you are only focused on distance control.

Set yourself up off the green for a typical chip shot with an 8-iron.

Target an area at the edge of the opposite side of the practice green at least 50 feet away from where you are setting up.

Your goal here is hit shots that roll to within 2 or 3 feet of the edge of the green and never roll off the green.

When you are able to do that, then place a couple of tees about six feet apart, and two feet off of the edge of the green.

Now try to hit the shots between those two tees and within two feet of the edge of the green.

Now you are mastering distance control and direction control.

Decisions around the green

Where many golfers also trip up is poor club selection around the green.

It is always easier to control distance when you get the ball rolling sooner.

The further you try to carry the ball in the air, the harder the shot.

Here are the basic options you have around the green…

Option 1 – Putting

When possible, use your putter for the reason mentioned above… distance and direction control are easiest when you get the ball rolling right away.

Option 2 – Chipping

master the short game

A younger me chipping

This is the second easiest type of shot around the green because you are only trying to fly the ball a short distance, sometimes less than a couple of feet.

The chipping technique is similar to putting except that the setup must be slightly adjusted to hit the ball solidly on the club face.

The purpose of the chipping setup adjustments is to create a steeper angle of approach that moves the bottom of the swing forward to hit the ball solidly.

Check out my chipping set up to the right.  You can see that I have more weight on my front foot and the hands are slightly ahead of the ball.

Option 3 – Pitch shot

This is the most difficult of the three techniques around the green because this shot gets the ball airborne with back spin.

By definition, the pitch is a lofted shot used mostly to fly the ball near the target and stop quickly when it hits the green.

For most golfers, this is the most difficult shot to hit, mainly because they feel the need to try and help the ball get in the air.

As a result, they will often hit shots fat or thin.

A lofted club such as a sand wedge is designed to get the ball in the air quickly, so there is no need to try and help the ball get into the air.

Poor decisions lead to bad shots

One of the biggest mistakes most amateur golfers make is wrong shot selection around the green.

When faced with no obstacle in front of them for a shot where the pin is in the back of the green, and they are just short of the green, I often see golfers try to hit a pitch shot, when either a putt or chip shot is the right play.

Because they’ve never developed good distance control with most of their short game shots, this leads to long putts for par and bogey.

Bunker shots

The green side bunker shot is the most intimidating shot around the green for most golfers simply because they have learned the proper technique.

Similar to pitch shots, they will often try to help the ball out of the bunker with a scooping type of technique that often leads to fat or thin shots.

Or they often dig into the sand from an angle that is too steep and the ball barely moves.

The sand wedge is designed to get the ball out of the bunker even with just a normal swing.

The first goal for many golfers is simply to just get the ball on the green.

Once they are able to do that, they can learn better distance and direction control with considerable practice.

Final thoughts – how to master the short game

With each of the primary short game shots you need to learn technique.  Since the technique for each shot is a bit different, that is beyond the scope of this article.

While I will get into describing proper technique down the road, there are plenty of videos on Youtube to browse.

For general short game technique, check out the series that Brad Faxon did with the Golf Channel years ago.

For bunker play, I’ve always loved Ernie Els’ technique.

Once you are able to learn a bit about technique, you want to master carry distance, and then total distance control.

After that, it’s just a matter of proper club selection around the greens.

Short game mastery is part of the Samurai Golfer Training Program, so be sure to check it out!