Mark Broadie: How to Survive The 'No Man's Land' From 60 to 100 Yards Out

Back in the 1980s, I took lessons from a public course pro down in Oklahoma. He taught his students to develop quarter- and half swings for all their clubs 7i up to SW (no lobs back then).

It worked find for a couple of seasons, but then I hit some years when I couldn't play much, and lost the touch.

Me too. This is crucial skill, imo.

The way I figured it out is by dropping balls at 50 and 75 yards on a hole with a flat fairway. Then, figure out how far "up the clock face" I need to take my back swing to hit the shot. For instance: 9 o'clock with my 50 degree is 50 yds. Need 60 yds? Go to 10 o'clock. It really is so much easier when you don't need to guess.

What's that saying "If you look up to see how good your shot was, you'll be disappointed?" I did that last night.... It's always a heartbreaker to crush a drive and be so close to the green just to screw up the short shot.

Now I realize that there are many factors in deciding shots from this range (60 - 100), like bunkers, water, elevated green or whatever else should come to mind. I'm old, old school, which means that I was brought up on public course greens that measured 5 if we were lucky and wouldn't hold a grenade. The only way we could overcome these conditions or should we say lack of, was to play bump and run. Needless to say, that play has followed with me and has served well even in today's better conditioned courses. Now I should state that the B&R; has limited distance factors. From 70 to 100 yds, I'm going to hit a SW or even a 60, if the lie permits. If it doesn't, then I can still attempt a B&R; with a much more successful outcome than a bad wedge.The nice thing about playing the B&R; is that it doesn't take very much practice time to get a fairly decent feel for it, as opposed to attempting to fly shots into the green from varied lies. A B&R; really doesn't care what the lie is, the approach to moving the ball is the same, just decide on what club you want to use, put it back in your stance and hit slightly down on it. Now granted, if you have to hit over something, then it's a carry shot, but if the green is open in front of you, give it a try. Just might change your approach to these shots and if it's not for you, that's fine, just be careful of that bladed 60 or that fat 56.