TIPS FROM BJØRN & LORENZO-VERA
By Thomas Bjorn
As I kid I used to fool around chipping greens, and I learnt different things which I took into my game throughout my professional career.
I always had a wedge in my hands when I was younger and you just learn different things. When I look at my career and see the golf courses I do well on, wedge game is a very big part of it.
Reflecting back at the best weeks I’ve had wedge wise, the couple of wins I had in Switzerland stand out as that’s where you’re at altitude and really need to control your ball flight; it’s so important. Those two wins stand out for me because of that.
What I tend to do when I practice hitting these shots from 100 yards is I get a towel and put it under both of my arms. It gives me something to feel and it helps to keep the arms connected with the body. I push my arms into my chest as I swing it through. That way I feel like my body is always moving. If I stop my body, I lose the towel and my hands will flick at the ball. That’s an inconsistent way to play.
From 100 yards and in, it’s about getting speed in your body and not using your arms and hands so much. Focusing on sternum rotation is key. When I get over the ball, I just swing only with my sternum, that way I can control my ball and also my distances.
Did you know?
Bjørn is a 15-time DP World Tour winner having made 606 appearances on the European-based circuit to date. He’s slowly but surely closing on Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s record of 721.
Will he climb above the Spaniard in the coming years? It’s a tough ask given Bjørn’s exemption ended in 2023, but he has hopes to possibly get there.
“I enjoy being out here, I enjoy being with these young guys but everything comes to an end,” he said. “As much as I will still play a few events here and there, I certainly won’t play a full schedule going forward. They’re just simply too good.”
Explaining how to shape shots is actually sometimes quite difficult for us pros. That’s because we have practiced certain shots, such as a fade, for so long it’s automatic and done on instinct. I think that’s a lesson in itself to any amateur reading this; practice your preferred shot shape repeatedly and stick to it.
However, the only thing I’m really thinking of when hitting a fade is where I’m bringing the shaft through impact. I’m really trying to cut the line and bring it into a fade position. I’m trying to keep my body over it and bring the shaft to the left, this puts slightly less distance on the ball but fades it more.
One drill to try is to put an alignment stick in the ground in front of you down the range, and just try to hit different shapes around the stick. You could even just imagine a tree down the fairway. Hit it out to the right side of the stick, but draw it back, or vica versa with a fade.
Us Tour professionals can hit it both ways, but we all have a preferred shot shape which is determined usually by our swing mechanics. Personally, my preferred shot shape is a fade.
