Why choke down on a golf club

However, you want to shave off some of the distance. So, you move your hands a little bit lower on the grip, which will now give you yards. This is better than using your 8-iron and hitting as hard as you can.

By keeping your hands slightly up, you hit a full swing, which produces quite the backspin. Now, if you are planning to hit with a short iron and from a tight fairway line then choke down in your club an inch.

If the space is tighter then go down a few more inches and you will lower the spin rate more. While the speed on the ball will be low, with the lower spin rate, your ball will fly through the air. When you choke down on the club by half-inch or an inch, your shot into the green has precision. You can also start with the tee shot by choking down to gain more time to develop a strategy. As mentioned earlier, the primary purpose of choking down is to reduce the distance.

They affect the distance but if you choke down on bigger iron, you will achieve the same results. One of the best things about choking down is that if you are good at measuring distance and know the exact feet between you and your goal, you can hit the ball with less backspin and more acceleration. In the case where distance is not an issue, you can still use choking for precision and control. For a long fairway where you want to keep the ball in a particular spot, you can choke down.

During windy weather, to make sure that you hit right, keep the ball flight lower. By lowering the flight, your ball will fly with precision and without any backspin.

Usually, a ball in flight wavers and you are praying that it lands right. The good news is that your ball will land exactly where you want it to. In order to move your ball out of this difficult space, make sure that your clubface stays square.

If the grass is higher, this might be a little more challenging. In fact, if you simply hit some balls while working through the step by step process below, you should quickly become comfortable with this technique. Hit several wedge shots by going through this step by step process. Once you feel like you have the hang of it, start to hit some longer clubs and test your skills. It will likely take more time to learn how to hit your longer clubs while choking up, but the effort will be worth it in the end.

After spending plenty of time working on this process up front, you can then make it a regular part of your practice routine during each visit to the course. Hit at least a few choked up shots during every range visit to keep your skills sharp in this area.

When to Choke Up on the Club. There is a lot to like about choking up on the club. For one thing, it doesn't take very long to learn. After working though the steps above, you could be comfortable hitting choked up shots on the course within the next round or two that you play. Very few skills in golf can be learned and applied that quickly, but since choking up doesn't change very much of your actual swing technique, you can start reaping the benefits almost immediately.

Another great thing about choking up is simply the long list of applications that this method has out on the course.

You might be surprised to learn how many different times during an average round that choking up will be a smart choice. In fact, after a short period of time, you will probably be wondering how you ever played golf without knowing how to choke up on the club.

Following is a partial list of the various situations that call for choking up on the club —. The four examples above are just some of the opportunities you will have on the course to use your newfound skill of choking up on the club.

Don't be afraid to experiment with shots as you make your way through a round — you just might find a great chance to choke up that wasn't mentioned on this list. Compared to some of the other techniques you can try on the golf course, hitting the ball while choking up on the club is pretty simple.

However, you may run into some problems along the way, especially at first. If the shots you are hitting with a choked up grip aren't meeting your expectations, the troubleshooting points below may be able to help. Choking up on the club is a skill that every golfer should have available. In addition to helping you hit accurate shots and make solid contact, this style of golf shot is also useful in a wide range of situations.

With slow, smooth practice swings, you will notice the extra accuracy and control you get. You will improve faster. No problem with that. If it works, go for it. But always remember to keep the swing smooth and silky.

He is regarded as one of the greatest players in golfing history and he has some clear thoughts on choking down. It also makes it difficult to hit the ball high enough for all situations. But the worst thing is, it gets you into the habit of hitting every shot with percent effort: Instead of hitting a smooth 7-iron with a normal grip, the player who chokes down tends to shorten the 7-iron and hammer the hell out of it.

I like the idea of gripping down on chips and pitches, because it can give you more control, but avoid doing it with anything longer than a 9-iron. So, there you go, thoughts from a master golfer. I guess it comes down to trying different shots and see how it affects your game.

To keep the ball trajectory low, the pros will place the ball in the middle of their stance and keep their weight on their left side while punching down on the ball. Amateur golfers can try this. Drop down 2 lofts, 9-iron to 7-iron, 8-iron to 6-iron, and choke down on the club so that your lower index finger is just touching the shaft.