Knock-down shot

While watching Paul Casey win the Irish Open, I saw many different golf shots played to negotiate the wind of Carton House.

Casey is one of Bahrain’s favourite golfing sons having won the inaugural Volvo Golf Champions at the Royal Golf Club and later revisiting the kingdom with some of the world’s top sporting legends for a celebrity tournament.

After a difficult couple of years due to injury, Casey became the latest player to qualify for the 2014 tournament, which he won when it was first played here in 2011.

His dramatic eagle at the final hole gave him a 3-shot victory at Carton House, near Dublin, over Robert Rock and Joost Luiten who is in fine form having won just three weeks before in Austria.

“It’s incredibly sweet,” said Casey. “It’s been a while and when that putt went in half of it was relief and half of it was satisfaction.”

There were high shots, bump and run shots, stingers, and lob shots. One shot that was also used was the knock-down shot.

This is a valuable shot to use in windy conditions to keep control of the flight and distance of your shot. The distance for the sake of this tip will be from 140 yards.

Follow these few steps to learn the knock-down shot:
* Choose one to two clubs more than you would use normally from the distance described above. Normally, from 140 yards a 9-iron is my club of choice, but I would choose to use a 7-iron for this shot.
*The ball position will be in the back of the stance. Weight should be on the front foot. Choke down the grip of the club. The intention of this shot is to hit it low and boring through the wind.
* Knowing that a normal 7-iron travels 160 yards with a full swing, an abbreviated swing of 85 per cent will provide the proper distance for this shot. Make a couple of practice swings to feel the distance and begin to visualise the golf shot. The swing is shorter with a low back swing and a shorter and lower follow through.
*Feel your hands, arms and shoulders working as one unit. This will keep the swing under control.
*When the swing begins, make sure that the club head moves away from the ball on the proper swing path. The final position is with your shoulder behind the golf ball at the top of your swing. The downswing is initiated by the lower body rotating back towards the ball first, with the upper body following.

As the club returns to the impact position, the hands must pass the golf ball first, followed by the club head. The follow through should be low to the ground, or a shallow arc, allowing the ball to have a lower trajectory. With the hands passing the ball prior to the club head, the ball has more opportunity to go directly towards your target.

This also works when you are in-between distances and want to control the shot more when you swing away freely.

I am confident that with practice, this will become one of your favorite shots to use in Bahrain’s blustery winds!

Editor’s note: The Volvo Golf Champions will take place in January 2014 - the venue and exact dates will be announced shortly. It had been hoped that Bahrain would host the event again; although tournament insiders now suggest Oman is favourite to stage the season-opener.