Brett Rumford Short Game Lessons

Here's a few videos of Brett Rumford, considered by many Tour players as having the best short game on Tour showing how he hits these shots:









I worked on some similar things that Rumford discusses with Kelvin Miyahira at a recent clinic that Kelvin had. Rumford works with James Ridyard (www.jamesridyardgolf.com) who has compiled some massive research on the short game and putting and recently presented his findings for the PGA at the PGA Merchandise show.

For me, short game play the strongest part of my game despite it being the area of the game that I practice the least. My method is/was more of opening the stance, sliding the body forward and trying to get the shaft vertical at impact instead of leaning forward by un-cocking the right wrist. I could control the trajectory well and make good contact and just had a natural feel for distance control.

However, I started to see how my method would cause a lower spin rate. I would take more of a divot instead of 'bruising the grass.' That causes the grass and dirt to get on the club face and reduces the amount of friction that can be used to generate spin. So, those slightly short sided shots could be a problem because I couldn't get enough spin to get the ball to stop. Here's a perfect example of Rumford hitting that shot that I would tend to have some issues with:



Kelvin and I also noticed that my misses with short game shots were usually pulls; likely caused by using too much arms and wrists and shutting the face a bit prematurely due to relying more on timing. Lastly, I could have some issues with tight lies.

I've been practicing Rumford's technique and so far I've been pleasantly surprised. The issue I struggle with is I tend to want to push off the ground and straighten the left knee instead of sustaining the left knee flex at rotating the lower body.

The other issue is that this method does not hit the ball as far as my old method. So, I have to take a longer backswing.

But, I 've found that the contact, trajectory and spin are much better. If I want to spin the ball, I'm no longer cut-spinning and it is more of a straight spin.



3JACK