PLAY CONTROLLED
GREENSIDE LOBS
CARL SUNESON: PGA EUROPEAN TOUR
| NAME: | CARL SUNESON |
| BORN: | LAS PALMAS, GRAN CANARIA, SPAIN |
| DOB: | 22/07/1967 |
| TURNED PRO: | 1990 |
| CAREER WINS: | OPEN DE ST OMER, 2007 |
I find the best way to control clubface loft is through the angles in your body and spine. If you straighten up through the shot, the face closes; get too crouchy or underneath the ball and the face opens. Keep your set-up angles right through the swing and maintaining clubface loft becomes a lot easier. Let me show you how.
Delicate greenside lob shots are all about controlling distance - and controlling distance is all about maintaining the loft on the clubface. If your action rolls the face closed at impact, the ball will shoot too far; if it adds loft to the face at impact, the ball pops up high and weak.
ADDRESS
Set your angles
I set my angles for the entire movement at set-up. My shoulders are pretty much above my flexed knees, and my back is nice and straight; there's no stooping here. It may only be a short swing, but posture is still important. If I can preserve these angles through the motion, I can keep the loft on the face constant.
The other thing I do at set-up is open the face. This weakens it, meaning it will send the ball less far. I like this; it allows me to be more aggressive, and when you're under pressure it's easier the play a shot firmly. The loft I set at address is the one I'm looking to present to the ball at impact. I'll aim a touch left to allow for the open face.
BACKSWING
Keep the wrists quiet
Another way to sabotage that address clubface loft is by excessive wrist movement. I like to keep mine fairly quiet, allowing just enough to add feel to the motion. Notice how my glove badge is facing away from me at this stage, showing the face has rotated to a good square positon - this happens a lot more naturally when you keep those address body angles - and that remains my focus here.
Through the ball: let the club do the work
As I start the downswing I like to feel that the club is doing the work and that my body stays still. For this shot you want the club to accelerate through the ball while your body stays passive. This is the easy way both to preserve those set-up body angles and to apply the correct clubface loft to the ball. Look how similar this impact position is to my set-up - exactly what I'm after.
FINISH
Let the club release
This action, where accelerating arms swing past a passive body, causes the clubface to release; see here how the angle in the back of my right wrist has disappeared and the clubhead has even overtaken the ball. That's fine, and a good sign there's no stiffness or tension in your hands and wrists. This little release simply adds a little finesse to your action.
Keep the angles right to the end
The ball is well on its way now, but I haven't straightened up to watch the shot; if you let that happen, sooner or later it will come too early and affect impact. Feel you retain those set-up angles at least until the ball has landed. It will allow you to think of this motion as simply as opening and closing a door - with your set-up posture acting as the pivot.