It’s very frustrating when you drop shots around the golf course. After all, that’s the very thing you are trying to avoid and any drop shot, regardless of the situation and your current score, is a bad shot. Sometimes, there is little you can do about it because we are all human and even the top professional golfers make errors on the course. However, there are three specific situations where dropped shots happen but can be avoided and we are going to address them today.
The first is suffering a penalty stroke when using longer clubs and to avoid this you must start hitting the ball straighter. Yes, this is easier said than done but we have a little tip which with practice, will help you to avoid finding the hazards down the side of the fairway. The key, is to swing on an in to out path. To practice this, set up to play a shot with a long iron or hybrid club but place a ball under your left heel. Practice swinging smoothly with the ball under your heel, trying to hit the ball as straight as you can each time. If you find you are losing your balance and even missing the golf ball, this is because your path is not coming from the inside. So, practice this at the driving range or using a golf net at home and keep going until you are keeping your balance and hitting nice, straight shots.
The second instance where you will drop shots is by taking two shots to get on the green from a close position. You must get your ball on the green first time, wherever it happens to land. To do this, you need to have a basic low and high shot you can call upon, which is reliable. The lofted shot is the most difficult to execute, especially when the obstacle is water. A good technique to use for this shot is to hold a club with your left hand, with the shaft hovering at waist height and parallel to the ground. With that club in place, take the club you will use to play the shot in your right hand and make a one-handed swing at the ball, attempting to play a high pitch shot. The key is to play the shot without hitting the shaft of the other club and by practicing it regularly in this manner, you will develop the consistency required to play the shot on the course.
Finally, many players drop shots by three-putting on the green. To avoid this, you must learn what size stroke makes the ball go a specific distance on the green. Practice hitting a putt with the same length backswing and follow-through. Mark where the ball finishes and make another putt, swinging in the same way. Experiment by adding more distance to your backswing and follow-through and making a note of the distance the ball travelled. When on the green and faced with a long putt, you will know how much backswing and follow-through is required, to make the ball travel close to the hole. This will help you avoid the dreaded three-putt and dropped shots on the green.
