Scoring zone - 100 yards and in...

Dial-in to different distances

If you are having trouble consistently judging distances with your approach shots then try this method.

Take a sand iron or 56 degree wedge. Swing so that the club shaft reaches parallel around or just past knee high. Swing through normally. Do this with a number of shots until you are consistently pitching your shots in length. Measure this distance - in my swing this distance is 25 yards.

Repeat the procedure above but this time swing the club back to it just gets vertical on the backswing. This will hit the ball longer than the knee-high parallel shaft shot of around 25 yards. In my case this is 50 yards.

Then repeat this exercise with your 60 degree or lob wedge, your 52 degree or gap wedge and your pitching wedge. You will now have different distances with two swings (parallel and vertical) with different clubs. You can even write these distances down on the golf shaft e.g. on a strip of masking tape or using a permanent marker on the golf shaft. Then all you need to do is judge the roll and work out where to pitch the ball and use one of the two consistent swing lengths with different clubs to achieve the correct distance.

Keep statistics of your short game

It is useful to know where your game is weakest and strongest. You can then practice and improve the weaker areas. Or learn to recognise your limitations and avoid those circumstances or shots when you play.

It is useful to keep statistics of how many fairways or greens you hit in regulation. This means how many fairways you hit with your first shot from the tee (doesn't include provision or 2nd shots) and how many greens you hit with your approach shot (e.g. first shot on a par three, 2nd shot on a par 4 and 3rd shot on a par 5). But it's also useful to know how many up and downs you average when you miss the green. Up and down means when you just miss the green how often do you get down in two shots from just missing the green i.e. a chip and a putt or bunker shot and a putt.

Another good statistic to monitor is how accurate you are with your wedge from within 100 yards down to about 70 yards. A good player will consistently leave themselves a medium or short putt from this range.