You hit a great drive and find yourself in the middle of the fairway. With a great lie, you manage to just miss the green by a few feet finding yourself off of the fringe. Many people go directly to their bag to grab a high lofted wedge. But is this the best club to try to get the ball close? The sooner we can get the ball on the green and rolling, the less margin of error we have, leading to more up and downs. Here are the basics on the bump and run shot.

This shot requires a club that can range from a six iron to a pitching wedge. Many amateurs try to chip the ball high, resulting in a shot that will not roll out as much. Due to using a lower lofted club, the bump and run shot will have a lot less height on it but will roll out much further. So, let’s get to the setup of the shot. Go ahead and choke down on the club. You need to bring your feet close together and play the ball just off of your back foot.

The type of swing that you will take will resemble a pendulum putting stroke motion with your upper body. A very short swing with a lower lofted club will result in the ball jumping up quickly and returning to the ground to roll out. This type of shot requires there to be some distance between you and the hole. You will not be able to use this type of shot with a hole location that is cut close to your ball.

So remember the setup for this type of shot and practice with an array of different clubs to see how the ball reacts. Practice this and you will find yourself bumping your scores down!

Brett Bennett