Pendulum Mastery Drill: 2 Yard Approach

How to do it: ■ Use zero force and swing using only the weight of the head.
Target users: ■ People who are not good at approaching ■ People who use too much force
Effect: ■You can feel the weight of the head. ■You can feel the sensation of hitting the ball by letting the club do the work.

This is a wedge approach shot, but I’m hitting a distance of 2 yards. It’s important to swing with just the weight of the club head. Because it’s a short distance, if you try to hit it with your hands, the ball will fly too far and the hitting point will be unstable.

Relax your hands and swing with the weight of the club head

The purpose of this drill is to develop the feel of using the weight of the club head to hit the ball.

For those who usually hit the ball with the strength of their hands and arms, hitting this short 2-yard shot may seem more difficult than hitting a long distance. The swing range is about the outside of the thigh (7 to 5 o’clock). If you add your own strength here, the ball will fly too far, so you need to hit it completely with the weight of the club head.

It feels more like “dropping” the club head rather than “hitting” it.

Therefore, you need to feel the weight of the club head, and to do that, you need to relax your hands. If you tense your hands, you are more likely to make mistakes such as duffing or topping the ball on your approach. If you can leave it to the club and hit the ball, you will make much fewer mistakes over short distances.

POINT: If you hold the club in the opposite direction and swing it, you will feel the weight of the head more.

To hold the club in the opposite direction and swing while feeling the weight of the grip, you need to put almost no force into your hands. If you tend to put too much force into your hands, this drill will help you understand the correct way to use force.