(Sometimes it helps to feel as if your left shoulder is pointing toward the ground.) Amateurs often tilt their left shoulder upward, as if they were playing a full shot, which causes the club-head to bot­tom out behind the ball and hit it fat or thin. Place the ball slightly back in your stance and shift your weight to your left side. This will promote a steeper, more descending down­swing and the proper ball-turf contact for a solid shot.

Good chipping  and pitching is all about distance control. If the ball stops within a yard or two of the hole, you can expect to one-putt more. This drill is one of my favorites. Chip one ball about three yards, then pitch your next shot so it lands on top of the first ball and rolls beyond it. Try to land the third ball on top of the second and so on.

The object is to finish with a fairly straight line of evenly spaced balls. This drill improves your hand-eye coordination and teaches you how to incrementally increase the dis­tance you carry—or fly—the ball. It also improves your ability to judge early, which is essential to chipping and pitching as you move farther away from the green.

Low, Running Chip

A back pin location with plenty of green to work with, or a flat run-up to the green. With these shots, I use a less-lofted club (my gap wedge; amateurs might consider using an 8- or 9-iron) because I want to keep the ball low to the ground. Play the ball back in your stance, in line with the big toe on your right foot.

This positions your hands in front of the ball, reducing the club’s loft even more. Keep your left wrist firm and swing the club- head down and through the ball. Make sure you take a big enough back swing to get the ball to the hole.

Short Pitch

This is the shot to hit if you don’t want the ball to run too much and you need. ‘to carry an obstacle. Center the ball between your feet and dis­tribute your weight equally. Your hands should be even with the ball and the shaft perpendicular to the ground.

You don’t want the shaft leaning forward in this shot because that delofts the club, and you need maximum loft. As you swing back and through, try to keep the shaft pointing at your belly. This will encourage you to hit the ball with the club’s full loft, producing a higher shot with less roll

Downhill Floater

This is a tough shot, especially if the green is running away from you and you’re hitting out of the rough. To pop the ball out softly, play it back in your stance with your weight favoring your left side and knees bent.

Using your most-lofted wedge, open the clubface slightly and swing the club-head down the slope past your left foot, keeping the face pointing toward the sky. Allow your knees to give a little and chase the slope with the club as you follow through; otherwise, you’ll hit up on the ball and skull it.

Try Up : For Left Hand Player.

Players often try to add loft to their chips by scooping with their right hand, which results in poor contact. Practice hitting chip shots with your left arm only. With no interference from your right hand, you’ll find it easier to keep your left wrist firm and make solid contact. Feel as if you’re swinging the handle of the club and brush the turf in front of the ball.

by John Updike.

No other writer brings the pain and the pleasure of golf to life as intensely and as exquisitely as John Updike. In this compilation of pub­lished essays and excerpts from his works of fiction, Updike portrays himself and his characters as morose, gloomy and immersed in a futile, maddening pastime (a topic addressed in “Is Life Too Short for Golf?”).

While it has an indisputably male perspective, Golf Dreams is worth reading for the beauty and originality of its language—Updike’s description of making a great shot in “Tips on a Trip” should be read aloud. Our favorite chapter is “Women’s Work,” a fascinating glimpse into a man’s thoughts on watching women compete, origi­nally published in the program for the 1984 U.S. Women’s Open. While other great writers of the 20th century didn’t bother to veil their misogyny, Updike writes of his awe of the players, whom he compares to Amazon warriors “doing authen­tic battle.”

FROM BIRDIES TO BUNKERS by Alice Dye, with Mark Shaw

The first lady of golf course design published her memoir in 2004; nine years after husband Pete’s classic Bury Me in a Pot Bunker. Subtitled “Discover How Golf Can Bring Love, Humor, and Success into Your Life,” Dye’s effort is a delightful compendium of lyrical anecdotes and observations on the game.

She describes her own competitive career, which includes numerous amateur championships and a berth on the 1970 U.S. Curtis Cup team, dishes on friends like Jack Nicklaus, opines on topics from grooves to gambling and, best of all, describes the process of designing courses with Pete, making sure women would enjoy playing them as much as men. The book is pep­pered with photographs: Dye seated atop a bulldozer, with her husband and children, with famous tour players, clearly a woman who enjoys life to the fullest.

GOLFING MEMORIES AND METHODS by Joyce Wethered.

Originally published in 1934, this modest, old- fashioned book is part memoir, part instruction manual and all heart. Wethered, who was born in Surrey England, in 1901, won four British Ladies’ Amateur and five English Ladies’ Championships, and became famous for her beautiful swing.

In a distinctive, upper-crust tone that makes you feel like you’re having tea with the Queen, she describes how she retired at 23 because she found competition so stressful, then returned briefly to compete in the 1929 British Ladies’ Amateur Championship at St Andrews. The book’s high point is her moment-by­moment description of her match against U.S. champion Glenna Collett, in which Wethered pre­vailed, 3 and 1. It’s been said to be one of the most exciting matches ever.

Even the great Bobby Jones remarked, after playing around with Wethered: “I had never played golf with anyone, man or woman, amateur or professional, who made me feel so utterly outclassed.”

There are several advantages to hitting a wood or hybrid from the rough. A wood is lighter, so you can generate more club- head speed—crucial to getting the ball out of the deep grass; it has a wider sole than an iron, which allows the club-head to glide through the grass more easily; and the shallow clubface and lower, deeper center of gravity make it easier to launch the ball into the air.

Try using a wood the next time you find yourself in moderate rough more than a 9-iron distance from the flag. Make sure the front of the green is open and try to land the ball about 20 yards short of the green, chasing it up toward the hole.

Tactic of Long Punch-And-Run

A)     Set up with the ball in the center of your stance and about 60 per­cent of your weight favoring your left side. Choke down two inches on the grip to shorten the club, and stand about an inch closer to the ball than usual to promote a steeper takeaway.

B)      As you swing the club back, set your wrists early so the shaft forms a letter “v” with your left forearm halfway back. Feel as if your right elbow stays close to your body throughout the back- swing. This will put the club on a steeper path.

C)      Hit down on the ball to minimize the amount of grass you catch between the ball and the clubface, and finish low (hands below shoulder-height). Keep your swing smooth and allow the design of the club to do its job: get the ball airborne.