Tip #49 - Low Shots

When you need to keep the ball down, under a tree limb or into a headwind, it pays to know how to hit a low shot.

Make a controlled three-quarter swing with a low finish to keep the ball low.

Let's say you're 150 yards from the green and you need to keep it low. You'd like to hit it about the length of a 6-iron with the trajectory of a driver. But since the 6-iron has about 25 degrees more loft than the driver, you need to make some adjustments.

As with the curving shots, most of the adjustments are done at address. The first thing I do is widen my stance by about an inch. This lowers my center of gravity and sets me up for a flatter swing with a more driving type of impact.

Since this lowering brings my hands closer to the ball, I grip down a half inch or so on the club. This adjustment will also help me to keep my swing under control. And since I want as little loft as possible, I position the ball several inches in back of its normal place in my stance. This will keep my hands and body out in front of the ball on the downswing and will in effect take some of the loft off the club.

My final change is in my alignment. When I flatten my swing, I have a tendency to draw the ball to the left, so I compensate by aiming both the clubface and my body a couple of degrees to the right.

Since you want a horizontal attack on the ball, it's important to take the club back that way -- low and long. This is the only swing where I don't take the club back to parallel. When I'm hitting a low shot, my hands don't go much farther than shoulder height. On the downswing, I drive through hard with the hands, keeping the club low through the extension, so that the ball will stay low as well.

One of the keys on the low shot is staying in front of the ball at impact. It follows therefore that when you want to hit a high shot, you should make adjustments that will allow you to stay in back of the ball.

The first thing I do is position the ball about a half inch forward of its usual spot in my stance. I then widen my stance a half inch.

Together these changes put my center of gravity about an inch to the right of where it is for a normal shot. I'm an inch more in back of the ball. This also gives me the feeling that I'm down and under the ball, and that I'll be catching it on the upswing.

- Greg Norman