I GET asked a lot about controlling the distance that the ball flies, particularly from inside 100 yards.

Many players will be able to hit a shot with their pitching wedge about 100 yards but then get stuck if they have a smaller distance to travel.

The key thing to do when confronted with a short shot is to think of it as a mini version of the full swing.

To hit the ball a shorter distance, you have to restrict the length of the swing to restrict the distance that the ball goes.

I like to think of an ‘l’ shaped swing when I am trying to take distance off the golf ball. I call this my ‘three-quarter swing’.

I try to swing the pitching wedge so that my lead arm is level to the ground in the back swing and I allow the shaft to point up to the sky with a full wrist hinge.

I then swing my arms back down to the ball, so that my lead arm and club straighten out and swing through to a mirrored position beyond the ball.

I find this restricted swing will produce a shot around 75 per cent of the distance that my regular swing will hit.

To make this technique work, you need to control the rhythm of the swing, try not to accelerate too hard and also maintain the length of the swing to be even either side of the ball.