THE RESEARCH
My new book, Dave Pelz's Damage Control, is not about avoiding trouble; it's about getting out of trouble after you're already in it. Through a recent research project at the Pelz Golf Institute involving thousands of golfers just like you, I've learned the following groundbreaking points:
• Golfers play two to five strokes below their handicaps for most of each round.
• They also have disaster holes mixed in, bringing their total scores back up to handicap level.
THE METHOD
Damage Control works for Tour pros and it will save you strokes, too. I'll stake my reputation on it. If you learn Damage Control you will lower your scores by two to five shots per round! Working with my staff at the Institute, we've developed the fix for disaster scoring — the concept we call Damage Control. Here are the relevant points:
• Disaster holes happen to everyone. It's an unwritten law: "You can't put together a complete 18-hole round without a disaster score or two." You must accept this reality.
• You can limit the damage disaster holes have on your score. The main reason disaster holes get out of control is that you don't always know how to hit trouble shots from weird stances on uneven terrain, with a bush behind your ball or a tree limb in the way of your swing. You try to escape using your normal swing and aiming at a normal target, and end up making a bad situation worse. Damage Control will enable you to escape from trouble without ruining your score.
• You can develop Damage Control in your own backyard. The five skills of Damage Control are:
- Set-up-ology: How to set your body for trouble swings
- Swing Shaping: How to shape swings from trouble lies on difficult terrain
- Hand-Fire Feel: How to use your hands in escape shots
- Red-Flag Touch: Planning for the behavior of trouble shots after they are launched
- Damage Control Mentality: How to use this mental approach to play your entire round without any disaster holes
DAMAGE CONTROL IN ACTION
Damage Control Situation No. 1
How to avoid obstacles and trouble ahead
What should you do when your ball comes to rest behind a large rock, small bush or other obstacle? If your swing from a normal setup would strike the rock, or your ball might hit the rock and end up in water, you're facing a potential disaster score. If by simply aiming left or right you can solve the problem, that's easy. But when changing your aim is not an option, the only answer is to change your setup and swing.
SET-UP-OLOGY
Tilt your spine toward the target
By leaning toward the target, you change your spine angle relative to the ground in the direction of the shot [A, above]. This causes the downswing arc of your clubhead to dig into the ground after impact [B, above], prohibiting a normal follow-through and preventing you from whacking the rock [C, above]. Move the ball position back in your stance, which also helps to limit the follow-through.
SWING SHAPING
Stop your swing short after impact
Cutting short your follow-through is the key to this shot. While this sounds easy, it's difficult to stop your swing when you're trying to hit a ball. To supply power through impact and then stop your hands, your arms and the club almost always require more time and space than you expect. The general guideline for playing the hit-and-stop: Never try a full strength shot if you don't have room for at least half your normal follow-through. Faced with this rock problem, the quickest way to get your club stopped is to bury it in the ground after impact. A warning: Do not try this without going through the proper instruction to develop the skills to pull it off. The risk of wrist injury and a broken or bent shaft is very real.
BACKYARD PRACTICE DRILL
Learn to stop your follow-through
1. Make a few swings and try to stop your follow-through after impact using your hands and arms only. Next, find a small obstacle (such as a backpack) and place your ball 18 inches behind it. (Here I am using a fake rock made of foam.) Start with gentle swings and build up power gradually. See how hard it is to stop?
2. Now lean forward to change the angle of your spine to the ground and move your ball position back in your stance. This will make your club hit the ground and stop after impact. As you begin to swing harder, learn to release the pressure in your grip immediately as you contact the ball. This limits the pounding to your hands and wrists.
3. Hit Damage Control practice balls (P3 ball, almostgolfball.com, $13 per dozen) with different lofted clubs, at different distances from the obstacle to learn how much to lean into each shot and how hard to swing.
OK, that was your Damage Control warm-up. Now here's a tougher situation, using different skills.
Damage Control Situation No. 2
Escaping from watery lies
When half of your ball is sitting above the water level, it's feasible to hit it out and save the penalty stroke you'd have to take for dropping it. Granted, you may get a little wet in the process, but that's a small price to pay for saving strokes. Here's how to play from the H2O.
SET-UP-OLOGY
Take the path of least resistance
Hitting a shot from water requires a setup to battle the resistance that the water exacts on your club. First, make sure you grip the club at full length to maximize power. Next, close the clubface slightly at address — the club will be better able to cut through the water. Finally, stand close to the ball in a slight crouch, which creates an upright swing plane.
HAND-FIRE FEEL
Power the club though impact
With your feet in muck, moving your lower body is more difficult. So make a full body and shoulder turn for maximum power on the downswing. Grip the club tightly (about a 9 on a scale of 10) and power your swing to a full finish.
RED-FLAG TOUCH
Water shots have absolutely no backspin, so expect your ball to run farther than normal.
BACKYARD PRACTICE DRILL
Practice from a tray
The best way to get comfortable with this shot is to internalize the setup and swing feelings in your backyard practice, hitting from varying depths of water. It's like learning to ride a bicycle: Once you experience the feel of success, you'll never forget it. Use a tray filled with water and practice hitting balls out.
Now that you've mastered the water, you're ready for the woods.
Damage Control Situation No. 3
A field-goal opportunity to a runaway green
Turn the magazine counterclockwise 90 degrees to get the best view of your stance and ball position. Turn the photo upright for your view of the target. The gap between the trees — like the uprights in football — gives you a chance, but the shot plays downhill to a green sloping left and away from you. The pin is back-right, and two elements of this problem you can't see from your vantage point are a slope down to a pond behind the green and a large tree trunk 3 feet behind your ball (you can see its shadow in the corner).
If you hit a shot between the trees pin-high, the ball will roll at least 30 feet left of the hole, leading to a probable bogey. You also have zero margin for an error long (because of the water). Play left of the trees and you'll end up in the sand, with a difficult downhill shot to the pin toward water. Playing right of the trees will leave a 140-foot chip with a right-to-left break of 20 feet. What should you do?
There are two ways to play this shot...
TOUR PLAYER SHOT
Set your body and swing to aim at the left tree, open your clubface to aim between the trees, and hit a cut shot that curves to the right and fights the slope.
EVERYDAY PLAYER SHOT
Play left of the trees and short of the green. You won't make par, but a bogey is a good bet and eliminates the possibility of a disaster into the water behind the green.
SET-UP-OLOGY
Lean forward
The tree behind your ball doesn't leave enough room for a normal backswing no matter where you aim. Lean forward, grip down on the shaft and play the ball back in your stance to gain a little more room.
SWING SHAPING
Shorten your backswing radius
If your backswing still won't fit, cock your wrists at address before swinging back. An early wrist cock shortens your backswing radius dramatically. Your downswing radius is always compact, and will fit easily inside the tree behind you.
BACKYARD PRACTICE DRILL
Launch direction and in-flight curve
Practice curving your Damage Control ball around a tree in your backyard to learn how much shots curve depending on how much you open the clubface.
• I hope these excerpts from my book Dave Pelz's Damage Control will help you learn how to escape from trouble and avoid disaster scores.
YOU CAN HAVE DAMAGE CONTROL IN YOUR GAME BY...
1. Hitting shots in your backyard with practice balls to internalize the three fundamentals of set-up-ology, swing shaping and hand-fire feel.
2. Playing a practice round on a course to develop red-flag touch and learn the relevance of escape-shot patterns.
3. Refining the Damage Control mentality to play complete 18-hole rounds without any disaster holes.
• Research says Damage Control is the best way to knock strokes off your handicap without taking years to totally change your swing. I hope you'll give it a try. Better scoring to you!
For more information on Dave Pelz's Scoring Game Schools, clinics and learning aids, visit pelzgolf.com or call 888-DAVE-PELZ.
