No Caddie Corner this week — instead, a full short-game clinic. Golfers Unite’s Emily Nowak — a former PGA professional and short-game specialist — walks through the scoring shots that actually lower your handicap: dialing in your chipping, controlling putting speed to kill the 3-putt, and the strategy that saves amateurs the most shots. All you need to follow along is a wedge and a putter.
Here’s what went down on Episode 25.
▶️ Watch the full episode:
https://youtu.be/1yssiH7t9tY
Chipping: Ball Position, Weight & the Triangle
Last week Emily made the case that smarter course management is the fastest way to break 80 and 90 — this week she gets into the mechanics. Chipping starts with one idea: ball position controls trajectory. Play it back in your stance for a low, spinny runner; center for a medium flight; forward for a high, soft landing — all with a single wedge.
Then the fundamentals that make contact repeatable: keep 75–80% of your weight forward through the whole swing (that stops the swaying that leads to thin shots), choke down two to three inches, and hold a light grip — “like a baby bird.” Emily’s big body-mechanics key is the triangle: keep your arms and chest connected and turn them as one piece, rather than flipping your wrists. Match your follow-through to your backswing, pick the right bounce for the turf you’re playing, and groove your feel with drills like the ladder drill or landing the ball in a bucket or headcover instead of obsessing over the hole.
▶️ Watch just this segment:
https://youtu.be/z4kAUcJjg7I
Putting: Speed Over Line & How to Stop 3-Putting
Emily’s rule for putting is simple: speed over line. Most 3-putts come from poor speed on the first putt, not a misread. She lays out a repeatable pre-shot routine — mark and clean the ball, then read the green from multiple angles — and drills to groove your distance, like pacing off putts and keeping the stroke “between your feet.”
Then execution: exhale through the stroke, and use the “one-second rule” — keep your head down for a full second after impact so you don’t pull it by peeking. To beat the 3-putt, treat a two-foot radius around the hole as a make and be mindful of which side is the safe miss. And a fun one for your handicap: actually hole out the gimmes — you’ll get better under the little pressures that matter.
▶️ Watch just this segment:
https://youtu.be/zTlI-w69ZME
Short-Game Strategy: Where Amateurs Actually Save Shots
The short game is the single most effective place for amateurs to lower scores — and it’s the most practice-friendly, needing only a wedge and a putter. Emily’s case for smarter practice and shot selection: bring just the clubs you’ll actually use, lean on a 56-degree wedge (a 60 demands precise contact most amateurs haven’t built yet), and always pick the lowest-risk shot — putt from off the green when you can, bump-and-run next, and save the high, lofted shot for when a bunker or long grass is truly in the way.
Emily also shares her story: a former PGA professional who taught short game at the Desert Willow academy in Palm Desert, and who now runs the Fairway Fem Club to make the game more welcoming.
▶️ Watch just this segment:
https://youtu.be/D3hqhWNO2LQ
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