It is 85 yards to a tucked pin. Water short. Bunker left. You pull the wedge that "should" get there, take a confident swing, and watch the ball come up three yards short. Splash. Or buried in the bunker face. Now you are scrambling for bogey from a spot you never should have been in.
Almost every golfer under-clubs on short approaches. The number on the rangefinder says 85, so you hit the 85-yard club. But the 85-yard club only works if you catch it perfect. Anything less than perfect comes up short, and short is where all the trouble lives.
The smart play is boring, and it works. Club up 10 to 15 yards and aim past the pin. On that 85-yard shot with water short, hit the club that carries 95 to 100 and aim at the back of the green. Now your miss has somewhere to go. A little thin still carries the trouble. A little heavy still gets on. And here is the part most golfers miss: missing long almost always leaves an easier putt than missing short into a hazard. Long is a 25-footer for par. Short is a penalty stroke.
Practice it with the Club Up and Commit drill. On the range or the course, pick a target with imaginary trouble in front, water or a bunker. Take one club more than you normally would and aim 10 to 15 yards past your target. Hit 8 to 10 balls and focus on one thing: swinging smooth and committing to the longer club. This is not about hitting it hard. It is about trusting the extra club.
The mistake I see most: golfers club up, then get scared of flying the green, so they decelerate and guide it. A steered 9-iron goes nowhere and usually finds the exact trouble you were avoiding. If you take more club, you still make a full, committed, smooth swing. The club does the work. You just let it.
When there is trouble short of the pin, club up and play past it. It is one of the simplest ways to protect your score, and it costs you nothing.
The video walkthrough of this drill is in the Pro Vault with 220 more, a dollar a month at coachellapro.com. Or come see me for a lesson and we will build your course management plan together.