DAVID Around the green
Steal this short game clinic (then book one if you want eyes on you)
Drivers get the Instagram. Scores get written around the green. If you only have forty minutes before work, do not pound a large bucket. Do this clinic. I run a longer version on grass with students; the bones are the same whether you are in Nairobi or on a hotel putting green.
Block 1 — putting that is about speed
Start with lag putts from 8, 12, then 20 paces. Your only job is to leave the next one inside a putter-length. Line is a rumour until speed exists. Then knock in a circle of one-metre putts. Miss three in a row? Slow down the routine, not the stroke.
Read putts from behind the ball and from the low side. Grain in East African greens can look “slow” until it is downhill and suddenly it is not. If you only read from behind, you will miss the one that breaks away from the mountains.
Block 2 — the chip that is almost a putt
Ball a shade back, weight left (for a right-hander), hands ahead, quiet wrists. 8-iron or 9-iron if you have lots of green; wedge if you do not. Pick a landing spot the size of a towel, not a hole. Count how often you hit the towel. That number matters more than holing out in practice.
Dirty grooves are why your “check” becomes a flyer. Wipe the face. It is not fussy. It is physics.
Block 3 — pitches that need air
When a bunker or collar sits between you and the pin, you cannot run an 8-iron. Open the stance a little, let the wrists hinge naturally, and accelerate through. Deceleration is the chunk. People search “how to stop chunking chips” — they are usually quitting on the strike.
The landing spot is the target. The hole is just gossip after that.
How I run it when you pay for a clinic
We film nothing unless you ask. We use the clubs already in your bag. We spend extra time on the shot you face most — for Nairobi parkland that is often a tight lie around kikuyu collars, not fluffy resort Bermuda. I will not teach you a flop shot until you can hit a boring chip fat-side of the pin ten times in a row.
Book a short game clinic if you want this with live feedback. Bring a wedge, a mid-iron, a putter, and the humility to start close to the green.