Peter Boyce and Ronnie Decker
Q. I am having trouble keeping my hands soft and relaxed on the little chips beside the green. Is there a fix for my hard, jerky swings?
A. Try using the reverse overlapping grip with the left forefinger running down the side of the grip. This grip is normally used in putting but it does work quite well in this situation. Tour Pro Justin Rose uses it all the time with great success.
Q. My driver has left me. I am quite happy with my iron play and short game but the tee shot leaves me in places that I have no chance at making par.
A. Go to the practice tee and see how short you can hit your driver. Learn to hit it 75 yards in the air and straight. Once that shot is perfected, increase it to 100, then 125 etc. You will start to feel what motion and positions allow you to return the clubface to the ball squarely. Once that is established, graduate to the big swing but keep your tempo. The fact that the rest of your game is pretty good, it tells us that tempo is lacking in the tee shot.
Q. I have a 30 handicap and am thinking about adding a club to my bag. Should I add a hybrid or a 60 degree wedge?
A. A hybrid for sure! The hybrid will help much more often in a round of golf. Unless you are an experienced player, the 60 degree wedge has to be swung so hard for such short distances; it is very hard to judge. The hybrid, whether it is an 18, 22 or 26 degree, will replace a longer iron and is easier to hit out of long rough. It also is valuable when punching a shot from under a tree back out to the fairway as it won’t dig in resulting in a fat shot. Chipping from the edge of the fringe of the green is another shot that it can be used for. Remember what Seve Ballesteros said: “When I need 60 degrees, I just open up my sand wedge a little.
Q. I was driving a power cart the other day and inadvertently ran over my ball. My playing partners suggested that in competition I would suffer a penalty. My argument is that it was purely an accident. Who is right?
A. Unfortunately for you, your friends are right. You would incur a one stroke penalty and would have to replace your ball in a lie as close as possible to the original lie. That means if the ball was pushed down into an embedded-type lie, you would lift and place the ball as close as possible to where it was before you ran over it and would have to re-create the original lie. Now, if you were searching for the ball in a hazard or casual water, there is no penalty. To add another twist, if you weren’t driving the cart but your clubs were on it, there would be no penalty incurred. Moral of the ruling: Don’t drive the cart.