Short Game on Pin High Press

How to Warm Up Before a Round: A Practical Pre-Round Routine

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There is a recognisable rhythm to most amateur rounds. The first three holes are a kind of low-grade emergency, a stretch of double-bogeys and missed three-footers and pulled drives during which the player gradually figures out, in real time and at the cost of several strokes, what their swing is doing today. By the fourth hole the body has loosened up and the brain has caught on. The score by then is usually beyond saving. The opening stretch has done what it always does, which is to take the ambitions of the round and quietly shorten them by a couple of strokes.

How to Read Greens: A Practical Guide for the Rest of Us

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Watch any professional golfer crouch behind a putt on television and you could be forgiven for thinking that green reading is a kind of divination — a gift bestowed upon the talented few and forever withheld from the rest of us. It is not. Green reading is a skill, and like most skills in golf it responds to a framework, a bit of practice, and a willingness to look at the ground with slightly more attention than most of us currently give it.

The Bump and Run: Golf's Most Underrated Short Game Shot

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There is a shot in golf that the best players in the world use constantly and that the average amateur almost never considers. It does not require a lob wedge. It does not require a perfect lie. It does not require nerve, or backspin, or any of the things that make short game shots look good on television and go wrong on Saturday mornings. It is the bump and run, and if you are not playing it at least a few times a round, you are making the game harder than it needs to be.

Lag Putting on Fast Greens: Why Pace Always Beats Line

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The amateurs I play with spend almost all of their pre-putt routine staring at the line. They squat behind the ball, they walk to the low side, they hold a finger up to the slope, and then they stand over a forty-foot putt and roll it nine feet past. The line was probably fine. The problem was always the pace, and the pace got about three seconds of attention.

Playing From Pine Straw: A Practical Guide to Golf's Trickiest Lie

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Watch enough Masters coverage and you will eventually see a Tour player standing on a bed of brown needles, head tilted, hands on hips, having a long quiet conversation with a caddie. Pine straw is one of the most common lies at Augusta and at any course cut through stands of mature pines, and it is also one of the most consistently misjudged lies in the recreational game. It looks soft. It plays anything but. The good news is that pine straw is not actually that hard to play from once you understand what it is doing to your club, your stance, and your contact. Here is how to think about it.

Three Short-Game Drills That Hold Up Under Pressure

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Watch a club competition closely and you’ll notice something. The shots that decide the day are almost never 250-yard drives. They’re 30-yard pitches, awkward chips from collars, and bunker splashes you’d hit perfectly nine times out of ten on the practice green. The problem is that the tenth one always seems to show up on the 17th hole when there’s a card to be signed.

The 2026 Wedge Buyer's Guide: Grinds, Bounce, and What Actually Matters

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Wedges are the easiest clubs to buy badly. They look broadly the same on the rack, the technology stories are far less glamorous than the latest 10-gram driver weight, and most players grab whatever loft they think they need and walk to the till. Then they wonder why they keep skulling pitches over the green.

Five Ways to Actually Lower Your Scores This Spring

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Spring is here, the courses are opening up, and you’ve told yourself that this is the year you finally break 90. Or 80. Or whatever number has been taunting you from the other side of the scorecard.

The good news: meaningful improvement is absolutely achievable. The bad news: it probably won’t come from watching slow-motion swing videos at midnight. Real improvement requires a shift in how and where you spend your practice time. Here are five things that will actually make a difference.