The Art of Using a Lofted Club!!

Many of my pupils get very confused when using a lofted club around the greens. The pupil generally has very little belief or trust that they have a club that will help them get the ball airborne.

This will normally produce a swing that is called a scoop or flick, which will mean the club will either hit the ground before the ball or not get underneath and thin/skull the ball a long way past the flag!! Does this sound like you?If it does then this question may prove critical in your understanding of how to play this shot correctly.

Think about when your club makes contact with the ball, can you visualise it............?
Is the clubhead lifting away from the ground or descending toward the ground at impact?

If you are in the vast majority of poor players with a lofted club, you probably feel the club should lift at impact, to help the ball into the air. This will cause unfortunately, very few well struck shots, and poor shots will  include hitting the ground before the ball (if the club is lifting, it has to be lower than the ball before impact, causing heavy shots). Or opposite to that, the thinned or skulled shot across the green.

The club should be descending toward the ground, impacting the ground after the ball. This may be a strange concept for the poorer player, but all shots that you have seen played well with a divot, the club has removed turf after the club has hit the ball. The club should hit the ball first then into the ground. This downward blow makes the ball roll up the clubface creating backspin.

The best practice to do before a shot is to rehearse your shot next to the ball, and using the ball as a marker, try to hit the ground at a point after the ball. This may be difficult if you are not used to it, but keep trying as it is the way to mastering the lofted clubs.(see pic above)