How To Hit a Lob Shot

The lob shot.  It’s a great shot to have when you’ve missed the green. There’s something between you and the pin; often that’s a bunker. You need to get the ball up and down quickly. And when the ball hits the green, it stops quickly. It doesn’t run away from you.

Now, to get the ball up in the air, you’re going to need more loft at impact, and the easiest way to achieve that is opening the club face before you take your grip.

So now that we’ve got more loft in the club, we can take our setup. Because the club face is a little bit open, the ball will want to start a little bit to the right side of where you’re aiming. So you’ll need to align your body slightly to the left to compensate for that. I want you take a fairly normal width stance with some weight to your left foot and the ball position a little bit to the left.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is leaning, putting too much weight on their right foot trying to get the ball in the air. But you’ll hit the ground first.  You’ll hit a heavy shot, or if the club bounces, you might hit the ball clean, then you’re in big trouble. The ball goes over the back of the green.

So keep some weight to the left, insuring that the bottom of your swing will be underneath the ball.  But now in your swing, because you’ve got a lot more loft, you’ll need to make a bigger swing, with some more speed than you would for this length of shot normally. You’ll need to have some trust and commitment.

And during the swing, the way I’m playing it, I’m using a little bit more wrist than normal. A little more wrist cocking in the back swing, and then I’ll release the club, trying to keep the loft in the club.  I won’t release the club by shutting the club down. I’m releasing the club, trying to keep some loft in the club. That will insure the ball is going up with not much forward momentum. Let’s give it a try.