Such a large part of scoring well comes from hitting short-game shots close to the pin. From both personal experience and working with students, I’ve seen how common it is to leave these shots short, making the putt much harder to convert.

Here are some common reasons why this happens and how to improve.

1. Using your most lofted club

It’s easy to assume that the most lofted club should always be used around the green, but this often leads to shots coming up short. The more lofted the club, the larger the swing required to get the ball to the pin. Especially when there is more green to work with or a longer overall distance, consider using a lower-lofted club instead.

2. Inconsistent contact

High, lofted pitch shots require solid technique and confidence. Proper posture and grip play a huge role in making consistent contact.

Because pitch shots often require a larger swing, it’s important to maintain good posture by bending forward from the hips and allowing the arms to hang naturally. This helps deliver the club to the ground properly and promotes center-face contact.

3. Wedges lack enough bounce

Bounce is the rounded sole on a wedge that helps the club glide through the turf rather than dig into it. When the club interacts properly with the ground, you can swing more confidently and strike the ball more consistently.

If a wedge has enough bounce, even slight contact with the turf before the ball can still produce a respectable shot because the club continues to glide instead of digging.

When players occasionally skull a wedge shot because the club digs too much, they often become hesitant to make a full enough swing, which can lead to approach shots consistently coming up short.

4. Pitching when you should be chipping

This may be the simplest adjustment you can make to get the ball all the way to the pin.

When there is more room for roll than required carry, it is usually safer and more efficient to hit a lower-running chip shot instead of a high pitch shot. Because the motion is smaller, even slightly imperfect contact can still produce a very good result.

5. Not using lower-lofted clubs

The smaller the stroke, the smaller the chance for error. Using a lower-lofted club — such as an 8- or 9-iron — can be a smart option when you have plenty of green to work with and a back pin location.

Let the club selection help the ball travel the distance rather than trying to force a larger swing. Lowering your scores can be as simple as calibrating your short game, including both chipping and pitching.

There’s a rock in the middle of a green in Scottsdale. But it’s not a loose impediment. Don’t even think of moving it. You couldn’t if you tried. To call it a rock doesn’t really do it justice. It’s a 30,000-pound boulder, and it didn’t get where it is by accident.

Its placement is key to both strategy and aesthetics at The Six Shooter, a new short course at Scottsdale Country Club, which isn’t a country club in the closed-off sense. It’s open to the public. The “People’s Country Club” is how it bills itself.

It’s hard to be a truly populist club if you don’t have a course that anyone can handle. The Six Shooter is meant to be just that. Its 10-hole routing requires some skill if you want to score, but it sets up in a way that lets you bunt it around.

The architect behind it is Forrest Richardson, a Scottsdale native with a penchant for bucking convention. Among his credits is another local short course at Mountain Shadows, a highly regarded design whose 17th-and-a-half hole plays as a par 2. The Six Shooter has a par 2 as well: the 6th, which calls for a 150-foot putt across a richly contoured green. The other nine holes are all par 3s, ranging from 80 to 150 yards, arranged to allow for either 6- or 10-hole loops.

Both configurations include the 4th hole, which is where you come across the boulder. In golf, many greens have hazards around them. Vanishingly few have hazards in them, the par-3 6th at Riviera, with its center-green bunker, being the most famous example.

Richardson could have put a bunker in his green, too. But, aiming to be different, he opted for a boulder, which involved more work. It’s not just any boulder. It’s a blue one, streaked with veins of chrysocolla, a silicate mineral known to intermingle with copper and produce an almost turquoise hue. “Blue Boulder” is also the name of the hole.

Blue boulders can’t be found just anywhere. This one was pulled from a quarry outside Tucson, trucked north to Scottsdale, and set down in the heart of an 8,000-square-foot punchbowl green. It is striking to look at and, unlike a bunker, impossible to play through — an entertaining obstacle on a course designed to offer pint-size fun.

Scottsdale Country Club has a full-size course as well. It dates to 1953 and was the first course ever built in Scottsdale. Richardson played it as a kid, back when the surrounding desert was still undeveloped. He’s been hired to reimagine that course too, a renovation project slated for 2027.

First things first, though: The Six Shooter. It is scheduled to open April 30. That date is set. The boulder on the 4th green is fixed, too.