Tiger tips: to score your best, learn how to finesse your pitch shots

Golf Digest, August, 2003 by Tiger Woods, Pete McDaniel

Feel

I often get credit for being able to roast it off the tee, but the long ball can only take you so far in this game. In fact, I owe a lot of my success to a pretty sound short game. Believe me, top players realize the importance of perfecting those little scoring shots. That's where we really put in the sweat.

I work so hard on finesse shots because that's how you develop feel, which is simply the ability to instinctively hit the ball with the proper force for the required distance. In golf, instinct has to be learned.

Feel is very important in pitching because there are so many variables involved in the shot--lie, distance, contour and speed of the green. The one constant, however, for all good pitchers is the ability to determine the proper landing area so the ball feeds to the hole. Show me a player who flies a pitch into the hole and I'll show you a player who got super lucky.

Work on developing feel and pitching to a specific area. The payoff will be more birdies, par saves and the occasional hole-out, where luck is less a factor than skill.

Feel

Find your target, trust your touch

Part of my preshot routine for pitches is to walk off the distance from the ball to the landing area. That determines the length of my backswing and trajectory of the shot. While walking off the distance I also check the green's grain and get a feel for its contour, not only visually but with my feet. (I do this quickly so I don't hold up play.)

After I form a mental picture of the landing area, the rest is execution. A simple pitch is nothing more than a mini version of the full swing. I let the club (a 56- or 60-degree wedge) do the work. That means picking the club up steeply on my backswing into a natural wrist cock and allowing the clubhead to slide under the ball through impact.

Tiger Talk

My pre-round routine

I go through the same warm-up routine before every round. I usually practice my putting, then go to the driving range. I always start by hitting short shots with my sand wedge to loosen up, then work through my irons and woods. The last shot I hit is with the club I'll use on the first tee, usually a driver or 3-wood.

Then, I'll practice my chipping and hit a few bunker shots. After that, I head back to the putting green, where I'll putt for another 10 or 15 minutes until it's time to tee off.

My putting green

I recently installed a synthetic putting green in my backyard. It's a great way to practice and stay sharp, and the ball rolls very true. I measured it with a Stimpmeter, and the ball rolls about 14 on downhill putts and 11 uphill.

I thought about installing lights for night putting, but decided against it for one reason: bugs! They're huge here in Florida. So, I'll do my practicing during the daylight hours and use the carpet indoors at night.

Annika's pressure cooker

At Colonial, I thought Annika Soremstam drove the ball well, hit the ball well and managed her game well. She just didn't make the putts. We've all been there. It just happened to occur in that one tournament. She should get to play four or five PGA Tour events. I called to congratulate her.

I think the Colonial sponsor is very happy about its choice in exemptions. Ultimately it's a business out here. Every tournament, every sponsor, is trying to make money. Their return is going to be pretty good.