Blair O'Neal Hits It High

Since the Ryder Cup failed to give me anything I wanted to write about -- I expected the US team to split the foursomes session but you know what happened -- I've decided instead to beautify my site with another of Golf Digest's Sexiest Shots in Golf videos. In this one, Blair O'Neal shows you how to hit it sky high over a tree:

That's simple sufficient to say, but it's going to take a bit of exercise.

1. Take the highest-lofted club that will still let you cover the distance of your shot. This will also be affected by how far you are from the tree. If you're too far away from your target or too close to the tree ahead of you, you won't be able to pull this off.
2. Move the ball a little forward in your stance. This makes you hit it later in the swing, which gets more effective loft on the ball. This is what will take some practice because if you move it too far forward, you may hit the ball fat. You're trying to catch the ball right at the bottom of your swing arc.
3. When you look toward your target, look up in the air over the tree. That will unconsciously help you get more height on the shot.
4. Make a big swing with a high finish. That high finish is really important because it helps you release the club better, giving you more power as well as more loft.

And there you go. Spend a little time practicing this shot and you'll find it can also help you stop the ball faster on hard greens... even if you don't need to fly over a tree.

If for some cause the video did not embed, right here's the original hyperlink.