I would bet this title alone will set of a firestorm of responses and arguments, but here goes . . .
I believe the most important shot in golf is the basic 25- to 50-yard pitch shot.
I’m referring to the most basic, unadulterated, nothing-fancy, straightforward pitch shot, executed with anything from a gap/approach wedge of 50 to 52 degrees, or a stronger sand wedge of 53 to 56 degrees. This is a shot that travels up in the air and can be expected to stop reasonably close to where it lands on the green.
The reason I claim this to be the most important shot in golf is this: if you take the time to learn this shot and master it to a reasonable level, it will save you tons of strokes. The bonus is that the awareness you’ll gain of how the club moves through impact will bleed over into the rest of your game.
What’s so wonderful about mastering the basic pitch is that it does not take strength . . . only a commitment to learning how to execute this pretty simple golf shot.
Please understand that I do not for a minute think that I can deliver to you the same level of insight and depth that you can get from any of the great books or videos on the short game. And there is no substitute for one-on-one instruction with a qualified golf professional. But I believe I can give you some basics so that you can move in the right direction with this part of your game.
I will also remind you there are no short cuts; I know of no other way to become a consistent pitcher of the ball than to invest the time to learn a sound technique and make enough repetitions to hone the touch skills that allow you to hit an endless variety of shots of different trajectories, distances and spin rates. As the old saying goes: “If it were easy everyone would do it.” But the reality of this game is that it is mostly short game skills that separate good players from average, and great ones from good. Those greenside magicians we see on TV every week didn’t get there by spending minimal time learning and practicing these shots.
So, with that “disclaimer” set forth I will share my thoughts on the basic elements of good pitching technique.
As with any golf shot, a sound and proper grip and set-up is crucial to hitting great pitch shots consistently. A poor grip will not let your other body parts work as they should, and improper posture and set-up will not allow the club to work back and through impact in the most fundamentally sound way.
Regarding the set-up, your stance should be narrow and open to the target line, with your weight distribution favoring your lead foot and your hands positioned so that they are hanging naturally from your shoulders. I firmly believe that great pitch shots cannot be hit if the hands are too close or too far from your body. The easy way to check this is to release your left hand from the grip, and let your arm hang naturally from your shoulder – then move the club so that the left hand can take its hold with the clubhead soled properly -- that will then determine how far from the ball you should be. To me, that is the ideal position from which to make a good pitch shot, where the leading arm controls the path and pace of the club.
I believe the proper path for good pitch shots has the hands moving straight back along a path that is nearly parallel to the target line . . . then on the through swing the hands move left after impact, staying in front of your body as it rotates through impact and into the follow-through.
From observation and experience, I see recreational golfers making two common mistakes in trying to execute a basic pitch shot.
1) The first of those is that many do not engage their torso enough in the shot; a rotation of the chest and shoulders is tantamount to good pitch shots. Stopping this rotation at impact is a primary cause of chunks and bladed shots.
2) I also observe too many recreational golfers simply getting too quick with this part of the game. The swing is shorter for these shots, and slow and easy will produce more consistent results. A good drill is to explore just how slowly and deliberately you can make this swing and still produce good results. To force your body to get slow, relax your trail/lower hand grip on the club and let the lead arm/hand control the pace of the swing.
Once you learn to execute this basic pitch shot, then you can begin to finetune distance control. I suggest you find a “half swing” length that feels comfortable and repeatable for you. For most, it seems to be where the lead arm is about parallel to the ground. From that position, I like to think of rotating my body core at three different downswing speeds – country road (i.e. 50 mph), neighborhood driving (30 mph) and school zone (15 mph). We’ll leave freeway speed for the driver, and regular highway speed for our fairways, hybrids and irons.
After you internalize what these three speeds feel like for you, it only takes a little time to figure out how far each wedge goes at these three speeds, and then you can further dissect this by gripping down on each wedge to cut those gaps even tighter.
Again, I’m limited by space in this blog, but these ideas will hopefully get you thinking about meaningful practice and implementation. In no way are these few words intended to cover the subject as thoroughly as Pelz, Utley and others have done in series of books and videos.
The more you learn and practice, the better you will get. That’s just the facts
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