How to Develop a Better ‘Feel’ Around the Greens

As a golfer, you know that this game has a lingo all its own.

When you are first getting started in golf, it can be a little intimidating to learn all of the various words and phrases that golfers toss around on the links. Over time, you’ll gradually pick most of this up, and you’ll think nothing of it before long.

One of the words that is used frequently in golf circles is “feel.”

In a golf sense, feel means the ability to control the distance of your shots. While it can apply to just about any type of shot on the course, most of the time golfers will be talking about the short game when talking about feel.

If you have good feel on and around the greens, you are a big step ahead of most of the competition.

Unfortunately, many golfers seem to believe that feel is something you either have or you don’t. If you happened to be born with good feel, you are lucky – if not, you are in trouble.

Of course, this is not the case.

You can develop your feel on the golf course, just like you can develop all of the other parts of your game.

Sure, some golfers might naturally have a better feel than others, but all golfers can stand to improve.

With this article, we want to provide some quick tips on how you can improve your feel around the greens. It might be tempting to spend all of your practice time hitting drivers on the range but trust us when we say that the work you do around the greens is going to be far more beneficial.

It Starts with Technique

You might think that feel exists outside of the realm of technique, since it is all about your ability to know how hard to swing the club. But here’s the thing – you can’t have good feel if you have faulty technique.

If your technique is lousy, you won’t be able to strike the ball cleanly on a consistent basis. And if you aren’t making clean contact, you won’t know how far the ball is going to go.

So, your first step toward improved feel should be to work on your technique.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy chips to the green during day four of…

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy chips to the green during day four of The Open Championship 2018 at Carnoustie Golf Links, Angus. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

You need to have solid chipping technique in place if you are going to establish good feel which can help you deal with even the most difficult short game shots.

Some of the key technical points to consider include balance, a stable head position, and getting your hands in front of the ball at impact.

You don’t need to do anything fancy with your technique, but you do need to have the basics in place.

Hit Plenty of Shots

Okay – so this one might be a bit obvious.

If you are going to develop great feel around the greens, guess what? You need to hit a lot of shots from around the greens.

As mentioned earlier, it is easy to fall in love with hitting drivers on the range. Sure, that might be fun, but its benefit to your game is limited.

Spend a significant amount of your practice time working on short game shots and your feel will naturally improve along the way.

Break Each Shot into Two Parts

One of the problems that average golfers run into from a feel perspective is they don’t actually know where they are aiming when hitting a short game shot.

Sure, the hole is the final destination, but you certainly can’t land the ball right there – it will bounce and roll beyond the cup. So, your target for the swing is actually the point on the green where you want the ball to land.

Satoshi Kodaira of Japan chips out of the rough on the first hole…

Satoshi Kodaira of Japan chips out of the rough on the first hole during the final round of the 147th Open Championship at Carnoustie Golf Club on July 22, 2018 in Carnoustie, Scotland. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Pick a landing spot and focus your efforts only on the first stage of the chip shot. Once the ball lands, the bounce and roll will hopefully take it the rest of the way.

Getting Back on the Horse

You’d probably like to play golf all the time. However, real life gets in the way, and you may wind up going long stretches without playing any golf at all. This can make it hard to maintain good feel for your shots.

When you know that you are going to get back out and play a round of golf for the first time in a while, make your short game the top priority. Hit plenty of putts and chips to work on finding your feel as quickly as possible.

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan hits a chip shot during the first round of…

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan hits a chip shot during the first round of the 147th Open Championship at Carnoustie Golf Club on July 19, 2018 in Carnoustie, Scotland. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

For most golfers, the full swing actually comes back much quicker than the short game. Since you will be rusty, keep things simple and focus on easy chip shots – like bump-and-runs – rather than tougher ones like flop shots.

A Great Feel Drill

To work specifically on your chipping feel during an upcoming practice session, try this drill:

Using five golf balls, chip to a flat practice green while using one of the holes as a target. Chip the first ball up toward the hole, leaving it intentionally short by a few feet. Then, with the next four balls, try to chip each shot between the first ball and the hole itself.

Succeeding at this drill will require that you are able to hit the ball the same distance over and over again. It’s going to be harder than you might think to make it through this drill, so be patient and watch how you progress over time.

Knowing that you have good feel in the short game can be a huge boost to your confidence. With the ability to get up and down on a regular basis from around the greens, you can be more aggressive with your approach shots – and hopefully set up more birdie putts.

No matter what level of player you happen to be, working toward improved feel is a worthy goal.