Trouble with Short Game- OK to open the face?

A dewsweeeper writes in who is struggling with their short game and asks the following question:

"Should I open the face on short chips and pitches"

The answer is that it is OK to open up the face in order to get more loft on the club and to help use the bounce of the club to spin the ball properly. However one needs to be cautious to open the face correctly.
Open the face then grip the club.
Make sure you make face or leading edge of the club square to the target then set feet. This will set the club up open but aimed at your target. When you just open the face and have the face aimed right it causes us to manipulate the face with our hands. manipulation or squaring with the hands causes the club the reach the low point to soon and hit poor shots.left

Swing along feet line
Open club exposes bounce be careful when hitting shots off of hard pan this can causes some miss hits.
Remember you need a bigger swing because you have more loft the ball wont go as far.

Lag

A question came in from one a dewsweepers that asks:
All my golf buddies tell me I need more lag? Any tools or training aids to help me?
We need to understand that Lag is created we don’t just do it or

First you have to have a turn to pull club so club is lagging
Mostpeople dont have lag but ratehr throw because there is no pivot or turn to pull the club through. can work on creating lag.

Then you have to learn to educate your hands to not hit and allow club to drag. Educated hands would be learning to hit the ball with a bent right wrist at impact and a flat left wrist at impact.
One training aid we use which could help is the "key" which can be found in the dewsweeper store.

Long Bunker Shots

A dewsweeper recently asked how to hit long 40 and 50 yard bunker shots. They were comfortable with short shots around the green but struggled with the longer bunker shots.

My suggestion in these types of situations is to use your pitching wedge or gap wedge or possibly even a 9 iron and play the shot just as you do for your normal green side bunker shots. The extra club will help the ball come out and carry further as well as allow for it to roll out more. This type of shot should allow you to play much safer higher percentage shots on these longer bunker shots.

Dont Swing Down the Line

I recently taught a junior camp where it surprised me how many kids were taught to swing the club down the line. This misconception about the golf swing led to many other faults to occur.

It is important to remember that the swing is a circle. There are no lines in a circle. The only thing that goes down the line is the golf ball after it is hit. The club only intersects with the target line for a split second after the ball is struck.

The club is moved by the body back around and to the inside on the back swing and the follows the body back around to the inside on the forward swing. Imagine a hula hoop laying on its side at a 45 degree angle that would be the look of the swing.