Short Game Secrets: Get Up and Down More Often

Two years ago I played a round with a senior club member named Dave. Dave is 68 years old, hits his driver about 210, and shoots even par. I watched this man chip in twice, get up and down from a bunker plugged under the lip, and save par from spots I would’ve been happy to make bogey from.

After the round I asked him his secret. He looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “I practice my short game more than my long game. Everyone else does it backwards.”

Dave was right. And I was everyone else.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Your Short Game

Here’s something I had to accept about my own game: I was practicing the wrong things in the wrong proportions.

I’d spend 80% of my practice time on the range hitting full shots. Drivers, irons, looking pretty. Then I’d wonder why I couldn’t chip it close when it mattered.

The average mid-handicapper hits maybe 8-10 greens in regulation. That means 8-10 times per round, your score depends entirely on your short game. And most of us are absolutely brutal at it.

I used to have this cycle: miss a green, chunk a chip, hack it onto the green, two-putt for double. Four or five of those per round and suddenly you’re shooting 88 wondering what the hell happened.

Secret #1: Use the Least-Lofted Club Possible

This single idea transformed my chipping. I used to grab my 56-degree for everything around the green. Tight lie? 56. Uphill chip? 56. 30-yard run to the pin with no obstacles? You guessed it—56.

That’s insane. A higher-lofted club is harder to hit consistently. More loft means more spin variability, more sensitivity to contact, and more ways to screw it up.

My new hierarchy:

• Can I putt it? Even from the fringe or slightly off the green, a putter is the most reliable option.
• Can I bump it with an 8-iron? If there’s green to work with and nothing in the way, the bump-and-run is your best friend.
• Do I need a pitching wedge? For slightly higher chips that need to carry a bit and release.
• Do I actually need a lob wedge? Only when there’s a bunker between you and the pin, or you’re short-sided with no green to work with.

I went from hitting my lob wedge 60% of the time to about 15% of the time. My up-and-down percentage jumped from 25% to over 40% in a month.

Secret #2: The Bump-and-Run Is a Cheat Code

Seriously. If you learn one shot around the greens, make it the bump-and-run with an 8 or 9 iron.

Here’s the technique:

• Ball back in your stance, slightly toward your right foot
• Hands ahead of the ball at address and at impact
• Weight favoring your front foot (60/40)
• Make a putting stroke. That’s it. A putting stroke with an 8-iron.

The ball pops up a foot or two, lands on the green, and rolls like a putt. It’s almost impossible to chunk because you’re de-lofting the club and using less wrist action.

I hit this shot probably 10-15 times per round now. From the fringe, from tight lies, from 20 yards out when the pin is in the back. It’s boring and it works every time.

A buddy once chirped me for hitting an 8-iron from 10 yards off the green. “That’s a grandpa shot.” Sure is, man. A grandpa shot that finished 3 feet from the pin while his lob wedge skulled across the green into a bunker.

Secret #3: Bunker Play Is Simpler Than You Think

Bunkers terrified me for years. I’d get in a greenside bunker and my heart rate would spike. Then I learned one technique and suddenly bunkers became no big deal.

Here’s the entire technique:

1. Open the clubface before you grip the club (important—open the face, THEN grip it)
2. Aim your body left of the target
3. Hit the sand 2 inches behind the ball
4. Swing through. Don’t quit on it.

That’s it. The club never touches the ball. The sand lifts the ball out. The mistake everyone makes is decelerating through impact because they’re scared of hitting it too far. Commit to the swing. The sand provides the cushion.

I practiced this for one hour—seriously, one hour—and went from a bunker phobic to getting out of the sand every time. Getting up and down from bunkers came a few weeks later, but just getting out consistently was a game-changer.

The trick Dave taught me: draw a line in the practice bunker, then hit shots along the line. Don’t even use a ball at first. Just get used to entering the sand at a consistent point. When you add the ball, place it 2 inches in front of the line.

Secret #4: Distance Control Matters More Than Direction

This was a revelation. On chips and pitches, most of us focus on hitting the ball at the flag. But the majority of missed up-and-downs are because of distance, not direction.

Think about it: if your chip is on the right line but 15 feet past the pin, you’ve got a tough two-putt. If it’s slightly off-line but the right distance, you’ve got a 4-footer.

I started practicing distance control exclusively. I’d pick a spot on the green and try to land 10 balls within a 3-foot circle. Not caring about where the ball finished—just where it landed.

Once you control your landing spot, you control the shot. Different clubs, different trajectories, same landing spot practice. It changed everything about my feel around the greens.

Secret #5: Have a Pre-Shot Routine (and Actually Use It)

My short game was wildly inconsistent until I developed a routine. Not because the routine was magic, but because it slowed me down.

Here’s what I do before every chip and pitch:

1. Assess the lie (sitting up, tight, buried—this determines club choice)
2. Pick a landing spot (not the hole—where I want the ball to land)
3. One practice swing feeling the contact I want
4. Set up and go

Takes about 15 seconds. Before I had this routine, I’d walk up to a chip, barely look at it, and just hack at it. Sometimes it was great, sometimes it was horrifying, and I had no idea why.

The routine isn’t about superstition or rituals. It’s about forcing yourself to actually think about the shot instead of just reacting.

Secret #6: Practice from Bad Lies

This is the one nobody does. Everyone practices chips from perfect lies on perfect grass. Then they get on the course and their ball is sitting in a divot, or on a bare patch, or in thick rough, and they have no idea what to do.

Spend half your short game practice from garbage lies. Tight lies, downhill lies, balls sitting down in rough. These are the shots you’ll face on the course, and they’re the shots that separate the golfers who get up and down from the ones who don’t.

I specifically practice from the worst spots around my practice green. The patchy areas. The places where the grass is thin. The uphill and downhill slopes. When I face these shots on the course now, they’re familiar instead of terrifying.

The 70/30 Rule

Here’s my practice split now: 70% short game, 30% full swing. Completely flipped from what I used to do.

On a typical practice session, I’ll hit a small bucket of balls on the range to warm up and check my feels, then spend the rest of my time chipping, pitching, and putting.

My buddies think I’m crazy. They’re out there ripping drivers while I’m hitting bump-and-runs. But here’s the thing: my handicap has dropped 6 strokes in the last two years, and my driver hasn’t gotten any better. My short game just stopped costing me strokes.

Dave was right all along. The old man playing grandpa shots and getting up and down from everywhere—that’s the goal. That’s how you score.

Practice your short game more than your long game. Use less loft than you think you need. Master the bump-and-run. Get comfortable in bunkers.

It’s not complicated. It’s just that nobody wants to do it because it’s not as fun as hitting drivers. Fair enough. But if you want to actually get better? Start from 50 yards in.