Recovery Shot

WEBVTT

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All right, golfers, let's talk about your recovery shot.

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This is one of the most important golf shots for learning how to score, how to

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recover

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from a wild tee shot being in the trees.

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Can I still make par?

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That's when a lot of golfers tend to throw it away and make doubles and triples

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and good

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golfers find a way to get it close to the green and save par with their wedge

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and putting.

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So in general, the recovery shot is more of kind of a low punch shot.

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So the basic process here is we're going to have the ball slightly back,

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typically.

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We're going to choke up on the club to avoid hitting it fat, typically.

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We're going to try to get our shoulders a little bit more level, that's almost

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always,

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and we're going to tend to close the face partly because we moved the ball back

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and

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partly because usually on the shot we're trying to get it to launch low to stay

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on your trees.

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The club choice, you can do this with either a wedge or a short iron or a long

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iron.

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We'll talk through kind of the decision making a little bit later here, but in

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general you

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want to get it down there either to a comfortable yardage or as close as

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possible mitigating

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the risk.

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So the times when you would want to be careful is you don't want to use a wedge

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if you have

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to keep it under a tree, and you wouldn't necessarily want to use a long iron

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if you

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were punching onto a down slope and it was going to run into water.

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So somewhere in there is a spectrum of you want to focus on landing versus roll

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.

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So if we're looking at the goals of this shot, you want to build a trajectory

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buffer.

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What I mean is if you're trying to hit it over a tree, you want to make sure

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you'll clear

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it by a lot or as much as you can, the less buffer, the more risk.

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Or if we're trying to keep it under a tree, we don't want to just barely miss

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it, we

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want to keep it fairly low.

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The major goal here, contact wise, that I see a lot of amateur struggle with is

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I want

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to make sure that I avoid the chunk shot.

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I want to make sure that I avoid hitting the ground first.

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That's part of the reason why we moved ballback, choked up, shoulders level,

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and even weighed

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a little bit more left, which I didn't have written there.

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That is all designed to help me avoid the chunk shot.

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And then when planning it and picking the club, I want to factor in the landing

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zone

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versus roll.

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So as we've seen when talking through this scenario, over here on the left,

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there's

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the golf ball, and we've got a few different options.

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Now what you can't see here is this is a slope and then it runs down.

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So if I was to hit like a five iron and carry it to the front there, it would

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run all the

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way through and I would be blocked out.

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Now this one, I have a very little window, this is on a slight up slope.

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So because of that up slope, I'd be really likely to hit those trees and drop

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down and

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have to hit another punch shot.

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So the safe play would be hitting something like a wedge just to the fairway

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and letting

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it roll down to the middle.

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It would leave me a clear shot somewhere in my 120 to 100 yard zone.

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Over here on the right, we have a golf ball.

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We have the same low shots, but we have one option here of going a little bit

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higher.

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So now this one, I'm not as worried because it's going to run into an up slope.

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So I could probably hit something lower like a six, seven iron into the zone

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and kind of

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run it safely in like a 40, 50 yard shot.

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Going directly at the hole would be tough because I think if I was to hit it

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far enough

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to get all the way to the pin, it would probably catch those branches.

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And going back out this way is actually more, there's more low hanging limbs.

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It lands on more of a down slope and it leaves me further away.

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So that's like more conservative than I need to be and actually harder than the

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one that's

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a little bit more aggressive.

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Now last one, depending on my speed, I do have an upper window.

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And if I can hit high and with a little bit of draw, I might be able to get it

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just short

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of that bunker on the front, right part of the green and be able to leave

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myself a putt.

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So again, that's kind of the process as far as choosing the shot.

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Now we'll go through a little example of what these shots look like.

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All right, golfers, let's take a look at the scenario.

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So I've got distance to the pin of about 160.

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The slope is on a little bit of an up slope, which would help me get it over

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this tree.

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If I don't think I can get it over that tree and hit it there, then I probably

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want to

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air on more that simple low shot.

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Now I have to factor in the slope and the landing area as well as the roll.

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So if I was going to go on more of this low shot through here, I'm on a little

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bit of

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an up slope, but I probably only have to hit this maybe 40 yards in the air.

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So a pretty easy shot.

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I could either do a six or a seven iron, depending on the lie, we'll just take

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kind

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of this first one here.

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Now I'm going to choke way up because the ball is above my feet kind of coming

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out of

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the rough.

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So really, this is where that rule of never hit the first tree comes into play.

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I mostly want to make sure that I'm not going to make contact with that branch,

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and all

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I have to do is kind of punch it over the hill and then let it roll kind of

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like that.

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And that's easily going to get out there.

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I can now see it rolling.

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I probably left myself 40, 50 yards.

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I could have hit that harder and probably gotten 30 yards away, but just wanted

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to see like

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the overall process.

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It was read the slot, read the lie in the slope, choke up, lean forward,

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shoulders a little

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bit more level.

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In fact, now as we're talking through it, let's just do it one more time.

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I gave myself a good lie.

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So now I'm going to choke up, play the ball a little bit more back, lean a

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little bit

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more left with the slope.

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And then I'm choked up not just because I'm trying to hit low, but because the

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ball is

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above my feet.

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You might not be able to see it too well from the camera.

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So here we go.

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Just kind of low, punch it, and that's going to end up pretty close to next to

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that other

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ball.

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Yeah.

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So they're within 10 feet of each other.

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But the other option, I said I was about 160 yards to the pin, which isn't in

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the hole

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right now.

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But if I had decent lie, so I will bias this one, if the ball was sitting down,

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I might

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be a little bit uncomfortable trying to go up over this tree.

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But the up slope, out of the rough, I might, it looks like I could get a little

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bit of

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a flyer, I'm probably going to be able to take maybe half a club less.

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It also feels like maybe there's a little bit of wind supporting.

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So I'm going to take a 9 iron, which would be normally like my 145 150 plus.

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I'm going to swing, I'm going to try and hit high draw and I should be able to

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get this.

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I'm taking the 9 because I don't think I could clear that with an 8.

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I could check it kind of like this looks like I'm going to have to add a little

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bit of extra

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loft in order to clear the tree.

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And by leaning back, I just feel like the 8, I might catch the top of that tree

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.

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So I'd air on clearing the tree and then secondly air on trying to get it up

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around the green.

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So I'm going to play the ball.

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On this case, because of the slope, I'm actually going to play the ball just

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maybe a ball forward.

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But I'm still going to shift my weight forward so that I'm getting the bottom

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of the swing

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ahead of the golf ball.

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I'm not going to hit up onto this golf ball or anything like that, but I am

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going to shift

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the ball just slightly forward.

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We're going to aim more for a little bit more tilt with our upper body, still

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choking up.

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See if we can pull this off.

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So it cleared the tree, it's going pretty much at the bunker, and perfect.

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I'm not sure if you can see, but it ended up on the fringe just off to the

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right of

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the green.

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I'm going to be able to make a little bit more aggressive approach.

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If I'm reading the feedback afterward, it didn't draw quite as much because I

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was holding

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the face open to try to get the height.

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There's a little wind going that way.

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It was going to be hard for me to get the draw even though I had the slope for

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it because

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I wore a phrase pulling it into that tree and dropping it down so I erred on

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the side.

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As a result, I got 50 feet but can putt from the fringe, I'd be really happy

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with that

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recovery shot.

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Again, if I can't pull that off, then the simple one was low punch recovery

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factoring

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in the slope, but still using the punch recovery technique to keep it under the

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trees.

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Here we have the second scenario, again, just looking at a safe punch shot.

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I could potentially try and hit a really low shot through that gap there, but

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the slope

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is going this way.

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If I even just hit it at the height of the golf ball, if I had no loft, it's

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still going

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to catch those trees because the hill is dropping away from me.

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I basically would have to hit it at negative loft and the risk there at that

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speed, I might

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leave myself a 50/60 yard shot.

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There's no added benefit to take on that risk as opposed to trying to hit it

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out here where

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I might leave myself a 120 yard shot.

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Now oftentimes I see my students grab their 5 iron in this scenario because

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that's what

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they've often practiced hitting their punch shot with.

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The problem is I've got about 100 yards to the end of the fairway and if it

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gets through

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there, I'm going to be blocked out.

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So I forgot about 60 yards to the front of the fairway.

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I want to carry it at least 60, but not run it past 100.

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If I hit the 5 iron, if I hit it good, it's probably going to run through the

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fairway.

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We'll do it just to see how it would look, but I don't think that's the right

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play.

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I think the right play is either something where I hit it about 60, 70 yards

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and landed

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on the downslope or something where I take a full swing, but it goes less than

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that,

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so like a wedge.

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Now the number one thing, whenever you're playing out of wood chips, tan bark,

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pine

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needles, fairway bunkers, we want to avoid the fat shot because if I do the fat

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shot,

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what ends up happening is it absorbs so much energy that now I still have

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basically the

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same scenario.

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So I just threw away a stroke.

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So the number one thing is I'm going to try to avoid that fat shot.

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To do that, I'm going to choke up, lean a little bit left so my shoulders are

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more level.

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Maybe play the ball back, maybe hands forward, and I'm going to commit to

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staying there.

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A lot of people set up in a good position, but then what they do is as they

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swing, they

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fall backward and the swing bottoms out, chunks ends up going there.

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So again, I don't think 5 iron is the right play here, but potentially if I

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land it in

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the rough in it one hops, let's just see.

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So there's no way that's going to stop.

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So it even flew far enough to lean in the up slope, but no chance, that's going

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to bounce

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coming out of here.

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Now I'm blocked out and I don't have a really good third shot.

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So then I basically have two different strategies.

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I mentioned the tan bark can kind of play like a bunker shot.

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Well, there are two options for this 80, 90 yard bunker shot.

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If the ball is sitting down, let's say it's sitting down like that, I'm going

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to have

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a hard time catching it clean, I'm going to take an eight iron and play it

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almost like

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a green side bunker explosion to try to hit it.

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And I'm probably going to take on a little less risk.

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So I'm still leaning forward and I'm going to hit that more like an explosion

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shot and

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it just got past the corner.

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It wasn't perfect by any stretch, but it was mission accomplished.

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I'm in the fairway and I'm past the corner.

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So I have a clear shot.

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If I have a decent lie, then the shot that probably makes the most sense would

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be like

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a distance wedge that's going to go somewhere in the 80 yard zone.

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00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:38.240
So I can hit it into the fairway and it's just going to stop there.

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00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:45.600
So distance wedge.

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Just kind of like that.

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A little throwy get down, perfect.

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So that lands right in the middle, stopped enough, now I'd have a clear shot.

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So we want to think through these recovery shots as much as we would a regular

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shot.

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Don't just rush to grab your punch club, I want you to think through what do I

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need

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to do in the air?

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What's it going to do when it lands?

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Enter into your zones.

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So if the decision was to get from, maybe if going down here got me to 100, but

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laying

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up here was only 200, I might actually take that risk.

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But for gaining, for getting to 50 yards compared to 120, I don't think it's

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worth

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it.

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Think through your recovery shots, they will save you big strokes in the long

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run.