Recovery Shots

This month I will help you out with your recovery shots out of the trees.

I often see club golfers trying to pull off miracle shots when all they have to do is play the higher percentage shot. This will cut out the chance of having a those dreaded extra shots on their scorecard that aren’t needed.

Picture one (above) is of me trying to be a hero and play a shot through about 50 trees in order to advance the shot down the fairway further. This is a very silly shot in my opinion as I have more chance of hitting a tree and ending up in a far worse position than I am currently in.

Picture two (below) is the smarter option. Take your medicine and chip out through a wide gap which will enable you to hit your next shot from the fairway. While it might be a difficult pill to swallow, the safety chip is a much higher percentage shot, and will more than likely save you a stroke (or more) and help you avoid a “blowout hole”.

If you need to add some shape to the shot (fade or draw) to help advance it a little bit more down the fairway follow these steps:

Fade

Play the ball towards the middle/back of your stance and have the clubface slightly open and similar to the punch shot in my July article. You need to feel like you are keeping your hands forward and hitting a punch shot. The hands coming in forward of the clubhead that will be left slightly open will help produce that low ball flight out from under the trees and will add a little bit of a slight fade to the shot.

Draw

Play the ball a little more in the middle/forward in the stance and have your clubface slightly closed this time, making a normal swing with the slightly closed clubface– which will help the ball come out a little lower and produce a hook spin on the ball which will help it turn the way you want.

Adding the fade or the draw into your recovery shots will definitely help you get the ball a little bit further down the fairway when we are playing the safer option.

Don’t try and get too cute or daring when hitting the shot and you will definitely see your scores start to improve.

  instruction, recovery shots, tips