Welcome to Shaving Strokes, a GOLF.com series where the game’s brightest minds share their tips to help you, well, shave strokes! Today, GOLF Top 100 Teacher to Watch Parker McLachlin shares a drill to help you around the greens.
Developing a solid short game is one of the best ways to lower your scores. Not only will you have more trust in yourself standing over those high-pressure shots, but you’ll also have more confidence on your approaches knowing that if you miss the green, your stellar wedge game will help you avoid a double — or worse.
If you’re hoping to clean up your short game this season, a great place to start is with your setup, more specifically your stance. Many amateurs are taught to set their weight forward and keep it forward when hitting shorter touch shots, but short-game whiz Parker McLachlin says this might actually be holding your wedge game back.
“The tendency that I see most people make when that pressure is in their front foot, is to push off of that lead foot,” McLachlin says. “Where does that pressure go? To the back foot. Then all of a sudden you chunk it.”
Instead, McLachlin says that you’re actually better off making a natural pressure shift and not restricting yourself as you hit the shot, as demonstrated by Lydia Ko in the clip below.
“Even on these pitch shots, the pressure should still go into the trail foot so it gives you the ability to push off and get your center of mass on top of the ball or in front of it,” McLachlin says.
Think of it as a smaller version of the pressure shift you make in your full swing. Try making a few practice swings as you feel your pressure shift slightly from your front foot to the lead side of your trail foot. McLachlin says you can use a toe tap drill to ensure you’ve got it down.
Try this toe tap drill for perfect pressure
Set up to a ball with your feet fairly close together. Then, take the club back. Once you reach the top of your backswing, stop. Lift your lead toe and do a little toe tap. Then, go. Hit the shot as normal and you should notice that your contact improves.
“That [tap] gives you the awareness that you haven’t stacked all that pressure forward,” McLachlin says.
Once you master the toe tap drill, you’ll find that it has many benefits. McLachlin says it’s not only a go-to for perfecting pressure shift around the greens, but that he’s also found it to cure chipping yips and other short-game problems.
“It kind of frees your mind up a bit,” McLachlin says, “If you’re really struggling with transferring your weight, or getting in your own way mentally, it’s a nice way to take your mind off of hitting the ball.”
