Vaughn says that to help better control your shots on short distances pick a body part to match your swing up to. Above, for a short pitch shot, he swings from knee-to-knee.
Photos by Mike Norris

For longer pitch shots Vaughn says the goal is to achieve the same hand position on each side of the swing to develop a consistent and trusted distance.

Distance control from 100 yards in: What’s the secret?

By Steve Vaughn

During my twelve years as a golf instructor, I have found that most golfers have no problem hitting full shots with their golf clubs. When it comes to changing the size of a golfer’s swing for distance control, well, sometimes it feels like it’s easier to split an atom. The following method is one that I use in my personal game and also teach to my students :

1: Every golfer needs to find a club that goes 100 yards with a nice easy full swing. There is no need to come off the ground an pound a 60 degree sand wedge just because they have seen the golf professionals do it on TV. I personally use a Titleist, 54-degree, Vokey Design Spin Milled Wedge.

2: After selecting the right 100-yard club, I teach my students to use body parts as reference points to help them make and even sized backswing and follow through. For example: When I swing my 100 yard wedge’s club head from knee high to knee high it produces a shot of 25 yards. When I swing my hands from hip high to hip high it produces a shot of 50 yards. When I swing my hands from armpit to armpit it produces a shot of 75 yards. The bottom line is that the shortened golf swing is an even pendulum throughout its range of motion, like in a grandfather clock.

3: With the club’s range of motion now even, a very important aspect of the swing is to make sure the club is accelerating through the golf ball. An easy way to explain this is to think about a car’s standard transmission. If during the backswing you’re in second gear, make sure on the way down into the ball the swing moves into third gear.

4: Finally, with these fundamentals, the most important aspect is to practice the touch needed to hit short shots the distance you want. For example: If I need to hit a shot 65 yards, I swing my wedge to my ribs on the way back and to my ribs on the way forward. This feel can’t be taught. I can’t tell you how to hit a shot 57 yards without practicing these shots yourself on the practice range with an even sized, short golf swing. The golf professionals we see on TV are deadly from these distances because they practice these special shots all the time. They want to make sure that if they need to hit a shot 42 yards, they will!

For more help with your short game or any other aspect of your game, please call the Sagamore Learning Center at 781-334-3655. Thanks for your time!

Steve Vaughn is in his 10th year as the the PGA teaching professional at Sagamore Spring GC in Lynnfield.