How to Properly Hit a Bump and Run Golf Shot

If your short game is really inconsistent, learning how to hit a bump and run can help you get the ball on the green and moving towards the hole.

Most amateur golfers try to hit high flop shots that require more skill and precision, while hitting a simple bump and run helps to minimize the elements and get the ball on the green.

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Do you constantly struggle getting up and down around the greens? Maybe you’re consistently missing your landing zone, the ball’s rolling out too much, not enough. Well I’m here to tell you today that you may be missing out on the shot that’s going to help you improve the most, and that’s the bump and run; when to use it, why it’s an effective shot, and the technique and the motion that you need to produce this golf shot.

So the first thing we’re going to discuss is when to use the bump and run golf shot, and to define it. So bump and run is basically what it sounds like. We’re going to bump the ball and we want it to roll. So a couple things that need to be in place–and again, you can hit all different sorts of chipping golf shots–but one of the biggest challenges with the golf industry is usually people have about 3 to 4 different wedges, and we have different lofts.

So I’ve got a pitching wedge here. Again, there’s different ways to hit a bump and run; it’s more about golf swing technique. So I have a pitching wedge–you can do this with a 52, you can do this with an 8 iron–but today this is the club we’re going to use. So loft is really important to understand with this golf shot. So if we want the ball to roll really low to the ground, we need to control the loft.

So a couple things we need to understand first with loft. If I’m standing here at address, holding it normally where I would with a full swing, I can add or reduce loft by doing a couple things. I can move my hands forward, which is going to turn and reduce the loft of this pitching wedge. So now instead of a 46, it’s probably going to be about a 40? I could actually put my hands back, which is going to add loft to the club, which is probably going to make it a 54. So that’s one way to add loft.

Another way to add loft is just by the position of my hands. So if I lower my club, that as you can see is actually opening up the face and it’s going to add loft. So a way I can actually reduce loft, is I can upright this shaft and get a little bit closer to it. So as you can see from the camera, I want you to see that it’s actually up on the toe. And that’s relatively what we want for this golf shot.

So think more upright, closer to the ball, toe is up, the heel is off the ground. So loft is really important to understand with this. So when you actually hit this golf shot, a couple of keys to the setup, the setup is key outside of the motion. One thing that we’re going to do is we’re going to have a real narrow base, feet together. We’re going to stand this club upright, and we’re going to get closer to it.

The other thing we’re going to do, the second thing is I want you to feel like your pressure is slightly on your left side. So again, think of a weight scale, both scales on your right and left foot. I’d like for us to feel like we’re right now distributed between 50/50, I want to push down on that weight scale just slightly so it goes up maybe 4 or 5 pounds. So when we do that, again we’re not heavy on our left side, but we have a little bit of pressure there and we’re going to stay there through this entire motion, alright.

We don’t need to hit this ball far; we’re probably travelling 10 yards, so we’re going to have a really simple motion. So after you get your pressure left, the last thing I want you to do with your setup is I want your head–I want your nose and your lead eye–to be slightly in front of the ball. This is going to ensure that you make great contact with the ball and the turf.

So with the actual motion of this, you’re going to feel similar to maybe a putting motion. So with a putting motion, we know that there’s not a lot of wrist. That’s sometimes a misconception when we hit chip shots, that we need to add some wrists. We’re trying to hit this ball low and control it, so again we’re going to feel more of a putting motion back and through, and that’s all in the shoulders.