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How to sharpen up your short game

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Martin Laird | 13:09 UK time, Friday, 26 March 2010

In this blog I thought I'd give you some insight into how my game comes together and pass on a couple of tips that might help you cut a few shots off your next round.

Ball-striking has always been the best part of my game and, during my time on Tour, I've always been high up in the total driving and ball-striking categories.

I'm currently in the top five in both.

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I think my biggest strength, though, is that I'm very comfortable under pressure.

I was surprised at how well I closed out , given it was my first time playing in the final group with a great chance to win.

To play well and win in a play-off has given me a lot more confidence going forward.

For some reason, I never have to practise with my driver.

That's always been the case and I seem to drive it pretty well every week. I don't know why but it's the one thing that comes most naturally to me.

We very rarely go after our driver 100% and when you're on a launch monitor, it shows that the difference in distance is minimal when you do and accuracy is definitely affected.

The most common mistake I see with club golfers when I play pro-ams is that they nearly always try to hit the ball too hard. I know everyone wants to hit it as far as they can but if you make solid contact with the ball swinging at 75% it's going to go as far, if not further than at 100%.

I guarantee it'll be straighter as well.

My biggest weakness is consistency with my short game. I can have weeks where I chip and putt great and then weeks where I lose a few shots because of it.

The one thing that I'd love to add to my game is a lot more consistency around the greens.

I'm definitely improving but still have work to do to be as consistent as the top players in the world and be up there at the top of the leaderboard on a weekly basis.

Golf tournaments are really won from 100 yards in, and it's no coincidence that the best players in the world all have very solid short games.

The biggest mistake I see with short game, particularly here in the US, is amateurs automatically reaching for their LW when they miss a green.

More than half of shots around the green would be easier and more consistent if they used a club with a lot less loft and got the ball rolling, instead of trying to fly it to the flag.

A good way to choose which club is to try to always land the ball in the first two or three yards of the green and choose a club that will make it all the way to the pin.

I'm definitely a "feel" player and don't like to get too technical with my swing. My coach and I try to keep it as simple as possible and like to talk about feelings in the swing as opposed to positions.

I'm also a player that struggles when I have technical thoughts going through my head during a round; I do much better when I think of feelings.

I rarely tape my swing and break it down frame by frame. My coach does that every few weeks just to check things but I don't even look at it a lot of the time.

Some guys get too caught up in having a perfect-looking swing rather than having one that they can repeat and, therefore, trust more often.

That's something I made the mistake of doing in the past.

Once I'm done on the course I'm pretty good at leaving and forgetting about my round.

I like to get away from the game and I'm not someone that watches a lot of golf on TV.

If there was a problem, I tend to go straight to the range or putting green to sort it out after I've played.

This way, I can leave the course confident that I've sorted it out before I turn up the next day.

Finally, it wasn't a big surprise that . It's a setting where's he's clearly comfortable so a great place for him to get back into competition.

It will definitely be tough not playing in a tournament for more than four months and then having Augusta National to contend with.

It doesn't matter how many rounds you play at home or how much you practise, you'll have some tournament rust that will need to be shaken off quickly.

Add this to the intense scrutiny that Tiger is going to be under and it will be a big ask for him to play great.

In saying that, if there's anyone that can do it it's Tiger, as he's done plenty of things before that have amazed us.

To be honest, I haven't heard any players talking about Tiger's return.

We're all just ready to have him back playing on the PGA Tour and glad and excited that he's coming back.

You always want the best player in the world playing in as many events as possible.

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