The thing we should all strive for as we try and improve our scoring capabilities is to keep things simple. It’s too easy to over-complicate the golf swing, course management and all the facets of this demanding game.
First part of the puzzle is to keep the ball in play.
Then it gets real interesting and that’s where the short game takes over. Too often you’ll see amateurs trying to use all sorts of wedges around the greens and rarely do they log the hours of practice needed to be a master with those clubs.
There’s probably a club in your bag that is begging to be used around the greens — that hybrid.
The hybrid is probably the most versatile club you can put in your bag. Sure they’re easier to hit from fairways and rough, but they can make so many chips turn out well for you if you practice with them.
One of the strangest sites last week at the memorial was Phil Mickelson Putting From 76 Yards Off Of A Green:
It didn’t turn out that well, Phil failed to get the ball on the putting surface. No one’s going to second-guess Mickelson when it comes to the short game, but for the rest of us, a hybrid might hard worked pretty well there.
In fact, a hybrid works well from fringes, from higher grass around greens, from 10-20 yards or more short of green if a simple run-up shot is required.
Here’s a quick lesson from Tour player Josh Teater on how to use your hybrid from an iffy lie around the greens: click on this link: Hitting Hybrid from around greens:
You don’t need a fluffy lie either. If you have more than a foot of fringe in front of you, you might want to reconsider using your putter and reach for the hybrid.
But a word of caution. Those hybrids have a lot of spring on the face, much more than any putter. In other words, the ball comes off hot, which is fine when you’re 20 yards short of a green. But you need to put in some practice time with the hybrid to get used to the “hot-face” effect.
Put in some time and you’ll be reaching for your hybrid more often than not.
