In golf, the saying is that you drive for show and putt for dough. Turns out that we've learned that's not really true, but that saying also leaves out a very important part of golf: the short game.
The best players in the world are able to get themselves out of trouble over and over again, and that's because they have a short-game repertoire and the experience that allows them to assess a lie, a pin and a situation and hit the proper shot that gives them a chance to save a score.
However, every player approaches the short game differently. The go-to shot is different. How they use the sole and bounce, how they position the shaft, how they take the club away -- all of those things can vary from great player to great player. There is one common thing, though, that every player with a great short game does, and they do it on every short-game shot.
Every great short-game player rotates their upper body when they hit a shot.
Why you need to rotate your upper body in short-game shots
It doesn't matter what shot the player is hitting. It can be a bump-and-run, a flop shot, something in between. But the player is going to rotate their body, namely their upper body, to hit that shot.
So many golfers think that short game shots require almost no upper-body movement and are all based on timing and hand-eye coordination. They like to use their hands too much in the shot and try to scoop, or flip, the clubhead under the ball to hit a particular shot -- especially a lofted one. However, that's a big mistake. After all, typically golfers are hitting short-game shots with the most-lofted clubs in their bags, and the clubs do the work of getting the ball in the air -- not the hands. Let the club do the work.
A short-game shot is a specialized variation of a full-swing shot. You might position the ball differently or hold the club differently or change how the clubface sits behind the ball. But the fundamentals remain the same.
The best contact comes from a free and loose swing without tightness, where the upper body rotates around the spinal column (some people like to feel as though the rotation happens under and around their head, which is fine) and the lower body moves just enough to get the club back to the ball. Make sure to keep moving the handle, or grip, of the club ahead of the face through the impact zone, not slowing or stopping that movement until after impact.
No matter how high or low a golfer is trying to hit any particular short-game shot, quality contact is only going to happen with proper rotation that will allow time to get back to the ball, proper speed control to ensure good contact and the confidence that the club is going to do the work.
If a golfer tends to use their hands too much around impact, typically in an effort to "help" the club, the odds of quality contact get much lower. If a golfer doesn't rotate their upper body properly, they have almost no choice but to get handsy, and that's going to lead to inconsistency and frustration.
The best golfers are the ones who take as many variables of their game as possible. By using the bigger muscles in the body for the most delicate shots, a golfer is giving themselves the best chance at success.
